Lost & found gardens,
Monica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver 2022

Mónica Reyes Gallery is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Santiago, Chile based artist Sebastian Maquieira in North America.
Sebastian Maquieira started working with found antique maps around 2018 using silk screening in order to emphasize his own pictorial vocabulary. From here, Sebastian expanded on his process by working with old antique books, dictionaries and encyclopedias. The exhibition “Lost and Found Gardens” comprises the use of these found materials that Maquieira then re-contextualizes, giving new meaning through multiple associations that are based on visual images and syntaxis.
 
Engrossed and fascinated with the knowledge and finesse that is comprised in these illustrations and identifying himself with the artists who created them, Sebastian began to collect those drawings, bringing them together, adding his own symbols in order to recreate a new place or a landscape. Each work contains a category of illustrations, such as nature, animals or human interventions. The marks added in colour represent the opposite of the encyclopedic emblems, creating a tension, a dialogue about the relationship between human intervention and nature; however, leaving the interpretation of the symbols in the works open to re-interpretation.
 
“Those drawings contained in old books come from a world that took place a long time ago and now seem like an obsolete way of sharing knowledge” says Maquieira. In a way the symbols in the works are lost and rediscovered by the reader. “Lost and Found Gardens” encourage us to return to a space of contemplation: Taking a step back at times when you are unsure about where you are going and looking back to bring a new clarity.
 
Beside his work with antique maps and books his practice is also based around objects, like the umbrella made out of a book. Those object-based works are more like a question: Is the knowledge presented in the book some kind of shelter, a refuge? The umbrella then becomes a metaphor.