AUGUSTO ESQUIVEL
Works and Biography
Augusto Esquivel appropriates thousands of tiny buttons to create idiosyncratic, sculptural art forms that range from old master paintings to objects of popular culture. Esquivel decided to make buttons the objects of his affection and artwork, and take them beyond the mundane into new aesthetic realms and give them a new role and context.
Augusto Esquivel, Monalisa, 2023, Shank and Sewing Buttons, Mono Filament and Acrylic, 51W x 75H x 3D In.
BUTTON, BUTTON, WHO HAS MY BUTTON?
by Carol Damien, Florida International University FIU
A button is a small roundish object that we all take for granted. It has been around for generations, comes in all kinds of materials from the most luxurious jeweled to beautiful shell and pearl to the most mundane and utilitarian. Buttons made from seashell were used in the Indus Valley Civilization thousands of years ago, and may have been more ornamental than practical. Functional buttons with buttonholes for clothes appeared in the 13th century in Germany and soon became widespread, and industrially manufactured. Before zippers, buttons fastened every part of a garment; elegant rows of tiny buttons are used on wedding gowns; sleeves and collars have buttons; shirts and pants have buttons, even hats and shoes have buttons. Their use and variety have no limits. It is just surprising that this ubiquitous little object has not found its way into an artist’s repertoire (beyond the occasional button added to a collage or assemblage) before Augusto Esquivel decided to make them the objects of his affection and artwork, and take them beyond the mundane into new aesthetic realms and give them a new role and context.
Undoubtedly, Esquivel has some affinity for compulsive orderliness and collecting. He has collected thousands of buttons and arranged, strung, and reconfigured them in remarkable ways, yet they never lose their identification as buttons. He makes us consider the button in a new way – buttons are round, colorful, have little holes for sewing, can be suspended, and take on a completely new character strung for his works and installations. His fascination with buttons began with his grandmother’s sewing box, where he saw them small and insignificant, but also precious and unique when they become part of something else. The button has allowed him to bring order out of their disarray – imagine piles of buttons waiting to be organized and strung. Each little thing becomes part of a whole, which he compares to atoms in a molecule and the reordering of chaos. This modular approach to the creation of his artwork informs everything he makes, but the added element of the string and the effect of suspension is what gives the work its uniqueness as the buttons become suspended, moving through space and constantly changing due to the effects of air and light and how they play with his careful arrangements meticulously ordered out of buttons. They force us to reconsider that tiny little object for its formal and symbolic qualities, so important to a discussion of art. A button is a circle, the perfect shape. A button is also far less serious – a button is fun. - Carol Damian
by Carol Damien, Florida International University FIU
A button is a small roundish object that we all take for granted. It has been around for generations, comes in all kinds of materials from the most luxurious jeweled to beautiful shell and pearl to the most mundane and utilitarian. Buttons made from seashell were used in the Indus Valley Civilization thousands of years ago, and may have been more ornamental than practical. Functional buttons with buttonholes for clothes appeared in the 13th century in Germany and soon became widespread, and industrially manufactured. Before zippers, buttons fastened every part of a garment; elegant rows of tiny buttons are used on wedding gowns; sleeves and collars have buttons; shirts and pants have buttons, even hats and shoes have buttons. Their use and variety have no limits. It is just surprising that this ubiquitous little object has not found its way into an artist’s repertoire (beyond the occasional button added to a collage or assemblage) before Augusto Esquivel decided to make them the objects of his affection and artwork, and take them beyond the mundane into new aesthetic realms and give them a new role and context.
Undoubtedly, Esquivel has some affinity for compulsive orderliness and collecting. He has collected thousands of buttons and arranged, strung, and reconfigured them in remarkable ways, yet they never lose their identification as buttons. He makes us consider the button in a new way – buttons are round, colorful, have little holes for sewing, can be suspended, and take on a completely new character strung for his works and installations. His fascination with buttons began with his grandmother’s sewing box, where he saw them small and insignificant, but also precious and unique when they become part of something else. The button has allowed him to bring order out of their disarray – imagine piles of buttons waiting to be organized and strung. Each little thing becomes part of a whole, which he compares to atoms in a molecule and the reordering of chaos. This modular approach to the creation of his artwork informs everything he makes, but the added element of the string and the effect of suspension is what gives the work its uniqueness as the buttons become suspended, moving through space and constantly changing due to the effects of air and light and how they play with his careful arrangements meticulously ordered out of buttons. They force us to reconsider that tiny little object for its formal and symbolic qualities, so important to a discussion of art. A button is a circle, the perfect shape. A button is also far less serious – a button is fun. - Carol Damian
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"My work invites you to a non linear journey of pixelation, obsessive compulsive disorder and color. The goal is to know and understand my identity as perceived from within. I draw inspiration from the silent, patient and under appreciated common objects of our daily life. These objects represent my sense of self and my search for a place of belonging. My grandmother’s sewing box conjures the most magical buttons filled with unconditional love. I repeatedly thread thousands of these buttons using clear monofilament, to “web” three dimensional objects into life." Augusto Esquivel |
AUGUSTO ESQUIVEL
By Denise Gerson , Former Associate Director, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Upon first encounter, the work of Augusto Esquivel (b. Argentina, 1976; lives and works in Miami) usually evokes giddy reaction to his cheeky use of thousands of buttons, in creations that range from iconic paintings, like Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” to the stuff of popular cultural, think pianos and toilets. Much has been written about the button throughout history, both as a practical device used to secure garments, as well as for its ability to embellish myriad surfaces. However, Esquivel veers in another direction altogether, for his work is not informed by either function or decoration.
As a child, Esquivel was drawn to the mysterious charms of hundreds of buttons in his grandmother’s sewing box. When he later embarked upon an artistic career, he was unable to resist adopting the fasteners as his medium of artistic choice, beckoned by what he perceived as their transformative and expressive potential. Each of Esquivel’s works is initiated with a digital photographic image, enlarged until pixilated, that the artist creates himself, pins on a wall, and against which the buttons are individually strung on monofilament and suspended from an acrylic supportive device. Progressing button by button, Esquivel’s focus is the single unit, rather than the visual whole, although the enlarged pixilated image hovers, ghost-like, behind the scrim, silently guiding his color choices. Upon completion, the photo is destroyed. This technique of deconstructing artistic subject matter into tiny color units that lack individual coherence, in order to achieve a visually coherent whole, references the working methods of other artists, including Seurat and Chuck Close. Meticulously transforming zillions of tiny buttons into rational forms is mentally challenging and physically rigorous work. Not surprisingly, Esquivel acknowledges his obsessive-compulsive nature and the urge to create order out of chaos, qualities of personality that are key to his artistic practice.
Beyond the initial delight of first encountering Esquivel’s work and the curiosity its fabrication arouses, one is also able to engage with it from both iconographic and emotional points of view. While the obsessive aspect of Esquivel’s art immediately draws the viewer in, further consideration yields a deeper appreciation of the artistic marriage of 21st technology with the material aspects of traditional art-making. Regarding the diversity of the artist’s iconographic choices, one only need consider the huge white polar bear with her cub on her back, flayed flat, like a skin rug, imagery, which for some, might trigger profound notions of wildlife loss, or perhaps, universal notions of maternity. Alternatively, seemingly banal objects with their POP art implications, like his gold toilet, a riff on Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture, address the artist’s stated interest in “the common objects of [his] daily life,” which metaphorically represent Esquivel’s “sense of self” and “search for a place of belonging.” Finally, Esquivel’s exploration of art historical imagery is informed and inspired by the sheer beauty, color, and majesty of Old Master paintings that Esquivel seeks to assimilate into his own oeuvre through highly individualized artistic endeavor.
Ultimately, Augusto Esquivel’s work resists classification. While it may be said to embrace the curatorially descriptive elements of color, mass, volume, and materiality, conventional terms fail to convey that in Esquivel’s hands, tiny objects of traditional insignificance have been miraculously transformed into, I paraphrase Keats here, things of beauty and perhaps joys forever.
By Denise Gerson , Former Associate Director, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Upon first encounter, the work of Augusto Esquivel (b. Argentina, 1976; lives and works in Miami) usually evokes giddy reaction to his cheeky use of thousands of buttons, in creations that range from iconic paintings, like Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” to the stuff of popular cultural, think pianos and toilets. Much has been written about the button throughout history, both as a practical device used to secure garments, as well as for its ability to embellish myriad surfaces. However, Esquivel veers in another direction altogether, for his work is not informed by either function or decoration.
As a child, Esquivel was drawn to the mysterious charms of hundreds of buttons in his grandmother’s sewing box. When he later embarked upon an artistic career, he was unable to resist adopting the fasteners as his medium of artistic choice, beckoned by what he perceived as their transformative and expressive potential. Each of Esquivel’s works is initiated with a digital photographic image, enlarged until pixilated, that the artist creates himself, pins on a wall, and against which the buttons are individually strung on monofilament and suspended from an acrylic supportive device. Progressing button by button, Esquivel’s focus is the single unit, rather than the visual whole, although the enlarged pixilated image hovers, ghost-like, behind the scrim, silently guiding his color choices. Upon completion, the photo is destroyed. This technique of deconstructing artistic subject matter into tiny color units that lack individual coherence, in order to achieve a visually coherent whole, references the working methods of other artists, including Seurat and Chuck Close. Meticulously transforming zillions of tiny buttons into rational forms is mentally challenging and physically rigorous work. Not surprisingly, Esquivel acknowledges his obsessive-compulsive nature and the urge to create order out of chaos, qualities of personality that are key to his artistic practice.
Beyond the initial delight of first encountering Esquivel’s work and the curiosity its fabrication arouses, one is also able to engage with it from both iconographic and emotional points of view. While the obsessive aspect of Esquivel’s art immediately draws the viewer in, further consideration yields a deeper appreciation of the artistic marriage of 21st technology with the material aspects of traditional art-making. Regarding the diversity of the artist’s iconographic choices, one only need consider the huge white polar bear with her cub on her back, flayed flat, like a skin rug, imagery, which for some, might trigger profound notions of wildlife loss, or perhaps, universal notions of maternity. Alternatively, seemingly banal objects with their POP art implications, like his gold toilet, a riff on Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture, address the artist’s stated interest in “the common objects of [his] daily life,” which metaphorically represent Esquivel’s “sense of self” and “search for a place of belonging.” Finally, Esquivel’s exploration of art historical imagery is informed and inspired by the sheer beauty, color, and majesty of Old Master paintings that Esquivel seeks to assimilate into his own oeuvre through highly individualized artistic endeavor.
Ultimately, Augusto Esquivel’s work resists classification. While it may be said to embrace the curatorially descriptive elements of color, mass, volume, and materiality, conventional terms fail to convey that in Esquivel’s hands, tiny objects of traditional insignificance have been miraculously transformed into, I paraphrase Keats here, things of beauty and perhaps joys forever.
Education
1999 - 2001 Special Effects and Artistic Make up, FX Primera Escuela Argentina de Efectos Especiales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1997- 1999 Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, CIEVYC (Centro de Investigación Y Experimentación en Video y Cine, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Workshops
2005 Sculpting in Metal, Art Center, Miami, Florida.
Exhibitions
2022 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2021 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2020 Art Palm Beach, The Directed Art Modern
2019 Art Context, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2019 Scope Miami Beach, The Directed Art Modern
2019 Pinta Miami, Ignacio Irazoqui Gallery
2019 Market Art+Design, The Directed Art Modern
2019 All That Glisters Is Not Gold, Laundromat Art Space
2019 The Palette Project, Lowes Art Museum
2019 "Bear/Bare With Me": Altered States, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery
2018 "Homo Faber. Poetics Of Daily Life. Recovered Paths. Weaved Nature." Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens
2018 Rocking Chair Sessions 1-50 exhibit, Bakehouse Art Complex
2018 "It’s Hot Miami", Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2018 Art Boca Raton, Irazoqui Gallery
2018 “Fragile Nature”, Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens
2017 Art Miami, “Fragile Ecologies II”, Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2017 Art Aspen, Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2017 Multiple Shapes of Air, The Bakehouse Art Complex
2017 Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary, Luz Art Space
2016 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2016 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Art Context, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Never Upon a Time, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2013 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 ArtBo, Bogota, Colombia, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2011 Melange, Now Contemporary Gallery
2011 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery
2010 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2010 ArtBo, Bogota, Colombia, Now Contemporary Gallery
1999 - 2001 Special Effects and Artistic Make up, FX Primera Escuela Argentina de Efectos Especiales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1997- 1999 Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, CIEVYC (Centro de Investigación Y Experimentación en Video y Cine, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Workshops
2005 Sculpting in Metal, Art Center, Miami, Florida.
Exhibitions
2022 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2021 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2020 Art Palm Beach, The Directed Art Modern
2019 Art Context, Aldo Castillo Gallery
2019 Scope Miami Beach, The Directed Art Modern
2019 Pinta Miami, Ignacio Irazoqui Gallery
2019 Market Art+Design, The Directed Art Modern
2019 All That Glisters Is Not Gold, Laundromat Art Space
2019 The Palette Project, Lowes Art Museum
2019 "Bear/Bare With Me": Altered States, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery
2018 "Homo Faber. Poetics Of Daily Life. Recovered Paths. Weaved Nature." Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens
2018 Rocking Chair Sessions 1-50 exhibit, Bakehouse Art Complex
2018 "It’s Hot Miami", Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2018 Art Boca Raton, Irazoqui Gallery
2018 “Fragile Nature”, Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens
2017 Art Miami, “Fragile Ecologies II”, Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2017 Art Aspen, Bernice Stainbaum Gallery
2017 Multiple Shapes of Air, The Bakehouse Art Complex
2017 Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary, Luz Art Space
2016 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2016 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery
2015 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Art Context, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Never Upon a Time, Now Contemporary Gallery
2014 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2013 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 ArtBo, Bogota, Colombia, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery
2012 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery
2011 Melange, Now Contemporary Gallery
2011 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery
2010 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery
2010 ArtBo, Bogota, Colombia, Now Contemporary Gallery
