"Surveillance of the Gods" (2023)
Presented by JO-HS
 

JO-HS is delighted to present Floria González & Sandra Leal: Vigilancia de los dioses / Surveillance of the gods in collaboration with Projet Moné. Featuring new paintings by Floria and Sandra, Surveillance of the gods is one node in a three-story exhibition of new work by 12 artists at Projet Moné's pop-up space in Condesa for Mexico City’s Art Week, 2024.

 

Intellectual and artistic collaboration has been a tenet of Floria and Sandra's friendship since they met through the music scene in Mexico City in 2003. Within a month, the pair started to work together making photographs for fashion and music publications. This spirit of creative collaboration persisted as both Sandra and Floria developed their painting practices. While Floria paints impressionistic scenes that blend imaginations of the past and future, Sandra works primarily in abstraction. Despite these distinct orientations, the artists continue to share ideas, themes, color palettes, and formal concerns. Sandra and Floria have shared studio space in Mexico City and New York, most recently in the lead up to Floria's debut solo debut solo show in New York in the fall of 2023, and in preparation for Surveillance of the gods.

 

While Sandra and Floria have developed their practices in conversation with one another for decades, Surveillance of the gods is the first time their work has been exhibited together. The artists were inspired to conceptualize Surveillance of the gods by the recent slate of major exhibitions examining how personal relationships between artists and their oeuvres shape the trajectory of an artist's career and their place in art history. The show invites viewers to recognize affinities between the works, whether formal, energetic, conceptual, or all of the above.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

 

Floria Gonzalez 

Using fiction as her primary tool, Floria employs photography to portray alternate realities of the psyche, creating an infinite universe of characters and scenarios. Through various mediums, including photography, video, installation, performance, and painting, she maintains a constant dialogue between fantasy and imagination, evoking a multitude of shapes that reconstruct our own identity through memories and experiences. Her work has been exhibited in cities such as New York, Milan, Los Angeles, Miami, Berlin, and London, as well as emerging art markets like Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

 

Sandra Leal
Born in Monterrey Nuevo León, Mexico, Sandra earned her Bachelor's degree in Plastic and Visual Arts from the University of Monterrey between 1998 and 2002. She furthered her studies at the London Institute (CSM) and pursued a postgraduate degree in Visual Communication at the London University of the Arts (LCC). Driven by the transformative power derived from contemplation and visualization, Sandra's artistic expression revolves around manipulating light and darkness on canvas or paper. She intricately layers and alters lines, oscillating between depths and surfaces. Embracing the fusion of painting, drawing, and writing, she prioritizes the spatial and organizational impact of light over the apparent distinctions between mediums.