Josée Bienvenu gallery is pleased to present by disappointment only, Marco Maggi’s fifth solo exhibition in New York. “The title refers to the sign that hangs on the door of some select galleries…by appointment only and to my conviction that none of us would have made an appointment to visit our planet at this time. We are the involuntary witnesses to the first global disappointment. We all feel a bit offside at the start of the 21st century, the only hope available is un-ambitious and slow: hypo-hope.” (Marco Maggi, October 2007)

A concept travels slowly on several surfaces to reveal the many versions generated by the same reality when manipulated differently. Marco Maggi is known for his slow methodology, which has the obsessive qualities of a prolonged, painstaking dig. Browsing in the aisles of Home Depot, Shoprite or Staples, he faithfully chooses generic formats and materials – standard letter size paper, plastic slide mounts, slide carousels, rolls of aluminum foil, clay board, metal rulers and Macintosh apples. The surface of these materials is then examined with surgical precision and excised for evidence. Composed of linear patterns that suggest circuit boards, aerial views of impossible cities, genetic engineering or nervous systems, Marco Maggi’s drawings and sculptures encode the world. He creates a thesaurus of the infinitesimal and the undecipherable.

The exhibition includes fifteen new works. In Fast Viewer, three pencil drawings in four frames-escaping fast from one to the other-demonstrate the mathematical dangers of speed. “Understanding less is my profession. It requires rigorous training. When we don’t understand, we doubt, and reduce the speed of our decision-making, we become subtle and cautious. When accompanied by faith and its certainties, we become capable of making radical and dangerous decisions. In art and cars, speed is tragic.” (Marco Maggi)

Global Myopia is a mosaic made of ceramic panels: 35 pages drawn in pencil to be read without the minor hope to be informed. Victims of the first global semiotic indigestion, we are condemned to know more and more and understand less and less, Blind Slides is a 60 inch square composed of 820 drawings on aluminum foil in slide mounts. The 820 35 mm monitors in Braille confirm the close relationship between the visual arts and blindness. In a society of dysfunctional information, when reality becomes illegible, the visual arts become invisible. PreColumbian & PreClintonian is a 48-inch wide abstract landscape drawn with silverpoint on aluminum foil.

The exhibition also inaugurates three new sculptures. Plexi Tower is a transparent box incised with an X-Acto knife on a base of white marble. In Blind Carrousel, 80 drawings on aluminum foil in slide mounts inhabit the obsolete Kodak device. Only the first slide is visible: all of the information is there but it is impossible to access. Camnitzer Cube (Self Contained Infinite) is made of 27 Plexiglas cubes containing cuts on fifty thousand sheets of paper. Reminiscent of a blank Rubik’s Cube, the Camnitzer Cube evokes infinity of permutations and the possibility of a portable infinite.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Marco Maggi lives and works in New Paltz, New York. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America since 1998. Recent exhibitions include: Poetics of the Handmade, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2007); Doubtful Strait, TEOR/éTica Foundation, San José and Alajuela, Costa Rica (2006); Gyroscope, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2006); Drawing from the Modern 1975-2005, Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Fifth Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2004); The San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico (2004); VIII Havana Biennial, Cuba (2003); 25th Sao Paulo Biennial (2002). His video Micro & Soft on Macintosh Apple is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and a print commissioned by The Drawing Center, New York to benefit its programs and exhibitions is currently on view at the museum. His work is included in public and private collections such as: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Daros Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; Patricia Phelps De Cisneros Collection, New York; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC. Diego Costa Peuser will publish a monograph on the artist next year.