MATEO LÓPEZ: FROM A STANDING POSITION
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
Casey Kaplan is pleased to present From a Standing Position, a project by Mateo López, in the gallery’s private viewing space to coincide with the debut of Time again, a new performance by choreographer Lee Serle in collaboration with the artist, commissioned by The Trisha Brown Dance Company and staged at the Joyce Theater from April 29 - May 4, 2025.
These new and reimagined early works trace the circular path of personal and universal timelines, recording moments of intervention, spontaneity, and chance encounters over the last ten years of the artist’s sculptural and drawing practice. In physical interactions with the viewer, the works are repositioned, reworn, and remixed, inviting us to cycle through possibilities beyond a singular fixed state and see through to alternative versions of an uncertain present.
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Mateo López
Hevea, 2023
Wood carving, vinyl paint, river pearls, leather straps
Without stand: 23 x 5.5 x 8” / 58.4 x 14 x 20.3cm
With stand: 25 x 5.5 x 8” / 63.5 x 14 x 20.3cm
Like maps of these parallel worlds, eight new collages incorporate rotating three-dimensional elements, arrow-tipped line segments, and pages from a thrifted Greek geometry book, with each work punctuated by a short directive like “repeat,” “undo,” or “circle back.” These phrases were plucked from conversations between López and Serle while collaborating on Time again, while their exchange of birdwatching pictures — trophies of a chance encounter — inform the works’ colors. To make the dancers’ costumes, the collages were digitally scanned and printed on fabric, creating wearable iterations that shapeshift onto the human figure, compelling straight lines to meander and flatness to fold.
López explores modular construction with another new work, Italics (2025), where five interlocking parallelograms create a manifold of patterns with coral red triangles, simultaneously recalling the repetitions of Minimalism and the explosive paper targets of Tejo, the national sport of the artist’s native Colombia. Elsewhere in earlier works like Caja de Pinturas (Feather Gray) (2019-21), López restates a treasure box of paints from childhood in the language of Donald Judd, while in Frases de cajon (Drawer) (2018), he represents the empty linguistic space of oft-repeated clichés. Hopscotching through López’s oeuvre, the non-deterministic spirit of the works persists into the past, present, and future.
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Mateo López
Frases de cajon (Drawer), 2018
Wood, paper, metal knob
Pedestal: powder coated iron (Variable) 18 x 16.5 - 23.5 x 5.5 - 8” / 45.7 x 41.9 - 59.6 x 13.9 - 20.3cm
Pedestal: 35.75 x 5.5 x 16.5” / 90.8 x 14 x 41.9cm
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Seth, 2022
Giclée on cotton
11.75 x 9.13” / 29.85 x 23.2cm Framed: 12.5 x 9.88” / 30.48 x 25.1cm
Edition 1 of 1 + 2 AP
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Mateo López
Windel, 2022
Giclée on cotton
11.75 x 9.13” / 29.85 x 23.2cm
Framed: 12.5 x 9.88” / 30.48 x 25.1cm
Edition 1 of 1 + 2 AP
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Staccato (On the Tip of My Tongue), 2021
Wood trestle, cardboard, graphite, red pencil, vinyl paint, metal rods
76.39 x 27.56 x 35.43” / 194 x 70 x 90cm
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Circle back, 2025
Cardboard, cut paper, found paper, color pencil, gouache, metal grommets
14.25 x 10.25” / 35.9 x 25.7cm
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Mateo López
A different approach, 2025
Cardboard, cut paper, found paper, color pencil, gouache, metal grommets
14.25 x 10.25” / 35.9 x 25.7cm
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Mateo López
From a standing position, 2025
Cardboard, cut paper, found paper, color pencil, gouache, metal grommets
14.25 x 10.25” / 35.9 x 25.7cm
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Mateo López
Undo, 2025
Cardboard, cut paper, found paper, color pencil, gouache, metal grommets 1
4.25 x 10.25” / 35.9 x 25.7cm
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Break forward with left foot, 2016
Oak, screws
Dimensions variable
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Mateo López
Ines, 2022
Giclée on cotton
11.75 x 9.13” / 29.85 x 23.2cm
Framed: 12.5 x 9.88” / 30.48 x 25.1cm
Edition 1 of 1 + 2 AP
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Mateo López
Soft composition (Composición blanda), 2025
Wood box, cotton, handmade fabric filled with rice, corn, lentils, beans, peas
20 x 17 x 4” / 53 x 43 x 10cm
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Caja de Pinturas (Feather Gray), 2019-21
Wood, cardboard, bookbinding cloth, vinyl paint
27.56 x 24.41 x 7.48” / 70 x 62 x 19cm
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Installation view: Mateo López: From a Standing Position, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Mateo López
Flor, 2018
Cardboard, linen, acrylic paint, glass spheres
31.5 x 31.5 x 10.5” / 80 x 80 x 26.67cm
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Mateo López
Triadic (Head, heart, hand), 2018
Powder-coated steel, metal bolts
19.75 x 21 x 21” / 50.1 x 53.3 x 53.3cm
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Mateo López
Triadic (Head, heart, hand), 2018
(detail)
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Mateo López
Italics, 2025
Wood, vinyl paint, wax
Variable dimensions in five parts
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Mateo López
Italics, 2025
(alternate view & detail)
