In the late 1960s Venezuela-born Eugenio Espinoza began producing grid paintings, which are now among the earliest examples of conceptual art in Venezuela. A student of Gego, Espinoza reacted against kinetic art and geometric abstraction, as the Venezuelan state had appropriated these styles as symbols of the country’s modernity and wealth. His grid paintings were used in performances and exhibited in unorthodox manners intended as an affront to the prevalent modernist aesthetic. Espinoza’s landmark work, Impenetrable (1972), which resides in the Tate’s permanent collection, is a grid painting suspended from the ceiling. It inhibits viewers from entering the room where it is displayed. Since relocating from Venezuela to Florida, Espinoza has continued to deploy minimalist techniques to question how art objects are exhibited and used.