David Lamelas – 5pm, September 19, Carpenter Center
Posted on September 13, 2017 by School of Art
Born in Buenos Aires in 1946, David Lamelas studied at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Fine Arts Academy) in Buenos Aires. He became a leader of the emerging vanguard art movement that arose from the Instituto Torcuato di Tella, winning its Jury Special Award Prize in 1966. In 1967, Lamelas represented Argentina in the IX Bienal de São Paulo, taking home the Sculpture Prize for his installation Dos espacios modificados (Two Modified Spaces, 1967). Di Tella director Jorge Romero Brest recommended Lamelas for the prestigious art program at Saint Martin’s School of Art, London in 1968, where the young artist studied with Anthony Caro.
Lamelas was included in the important 1968 group exhibition of Latin American art, Beyond Geometry: An Extension of Visual-Artistic Language in Our Time, curated by Brest and co-organized by the Center for Inter-American Relations in New York. In 1969, he participated in landmark exhibitions of conceptualism in Düsseldorf, Prospect 68 and 69, and Konception/Conception. In 1970, his film, Time as Activity (Düsseldorf) (1969) was included in Information, curated by Kynaston McShine at the Museum of Modern Art.