Ronny Quevedo: Ulama, Ule, Olé

ULAMA, ULE, OLÉ, an exhibition of works by Ronny Quevedo which de-construct the spaces in which sports are played. 

This series of works depicts playing fields and sport arenas devoid of players and fans, in order to consider these specialized spaces as territories, in which actions are limited by precise measurements, guidelines and rules. Quevedo notes: “As a consensual space for play, I consider the movements and actions within these environments as a metaphor for an insistence on survival and constant adaptation.”

Quevedo composes his works using unorthodox materials, ranging from the banal (shoe polish, candy wrappers, potato chip bags, photocopies) to the sublime (gold leaf). Contact papers simulate the wood grain veneers of basketball courts, a field of hexagons repeats a soccer ball into infinity. The density of shoe polish becomes a surrogate for printer’s ink. The aerial vantage points in many of the pieces suggest the dispassionate viewpoint of a cartographer.

Quevedo’s previous works are rich with vernacular material, popular culture artifacts extracted from their original contexts, and invited into a dialogue with history.

Ronny Quevedo, born in Ecuador and based in The Bronx, NY, is currently a resident at the Core Residency Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He received his MFA from the Yale School of Art and BFA from The Cooper Union. He has participated in residencies at the Lower East Side Printshop (New York), The Bronx Museum of the Arts and Aljira Contemporary Art Center (Newark). He has exhibited at the Islip Art Museum (New York); El Museo del Barrio; The Bronx River Art Center; Saltworks Gallery (Atlanta); and The Bronx Museum of the Arts.