Talks between father and son inspire these 60 collages by Carlos David, attempting -at the time- to bring back his father, Carlos Díaz-Sosa, from the depths of his dementia -through conversation. Punctuating the routine and rituals of visits to his father’s home, these collages could be seen as fragments of one experience -as they have been created from a single piece of wood, cut into segments or arranged from segments to form one piece, like a puzzle. Or perhaps they symbolize one second of a minute of one hour each day; pointing to the loss of time and the ephemerality associated with Alzheimer’s. These collages are a unique and intimate tale of moments shared, retold, and remembered by father and son.
During the late 50’s, Carlos Díaz-Sosa was a journalist living in Paris who met and interviewed key figures such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Albert Camus, Gabriel García Márquez, Pablo Neruda, and many now influential Venezuelan artists, such as Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Soto, who were living in Paris at the time. The collages in this exhibition are records of those stories. Presenting clues at times encrypted and other times apparent- the material here assembled displays Díaz-Sosa’s interests as an avid collector who faithfully recorded his travels and experiences of the world.
Born in Caracas, Carlos David now lives and works in Paris and London. He has exhibited internationally for over twenty years, producing political and satirical paintings borrowed from the language of graphic novels and popular culture. Referencing philosophy and black humor, his works are a sardonic blend of political commentary and film noir. Carlos David graduated from Chelsea School of Art in 1984 and Winchester School of Art in 1994. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, Venezuela.