LAURA, 2023

Following major presentations at Venice Biennale and New Museum, Gabriel Chaile has made this exclusive limited edition print to coincide with Usos y costumbres, his ambitious large-scale installation at Studio Voltaire, the first–ever institutional exhibition of his work in the UK. Chaile’s practice draws on the histories of his homeland in northwestern Argentina, as well as archaeological and ethnographic ceramic artefacts from the region. The artist describes his work as investigating a “genealogy of form”, uncovering and affirming remains of the past. His works poetically embody ancestral knowledge and Indigenous beliefs erased and suppressed by colonialism and its ongoing legacies. Integral to the exhibition, Chaile made a large-scale sculpture occupying the central space. Like many of his sculptures, the forms take on anthropomorphic traits and are often portraits of family and friends. This work is a portrait of his friend and collaborator, Laura Ojeda Bär. The print is based on an initial drawing of the sculpture.