Vicente Grondona

Who is Vicente Grondona?

Vicente Grondona is an Argentinian artist born during the post-dictatorship period.

The Argentinian artist trained at the School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredon between 1996–2001, where he specialized in sculpture. He is best known for his charcoal carvings including his iconic kiss series, one of which was purchased by Peruvian fashion photographer Mario Testino. He also creates charcoal drawings on silk and cotton of gigantic visages, whose dense ornamentation resembles the sophistication and elegance of French painter Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard.

Grondona's artistic production draws attention not only to past masters, but also to contemporary issues that lie at the core of our current society. Post-colonial ideologies can be perceived on one of his most striking sculptures, Human Library, previously exhibited in Paris and Argentina. Human Library consists of a bookshelf made out of charcoal from the Chaco Province, north of Argentina. The Argentinian art critic, Claudio Iglesias, argues the way in which Vicente's bookshelf stands as a synonym for colonisation, establishing an awkward relation between binary oppositions. The coloniser, represented by books on English literature such as Mary Shelley's gothic novel, Frankenstein, become a display of humanist knowledge where ideas of romance, nature and horror are contrasted to the portrait of the noble savage. This collection of memories and experiences reveals how the acquisition and accumulation of knowledge and goods depended directly on the exploitation of the primitive. The colonised is symbolically represented by charcoal, highlighting the vulnerability of non-western countries including the material constraints experienced by contemporary artists in Latin American cities like Buenos Aires. It is worth mentioning that the work of Grondona also points out to an ecological disaster taking place in areas such as the Amazon where deforestation has become an environmental issue that threatens the ecological balance of our planet and requires serious consideration by political organizations. By using quebracho, a tree species that grows in the Gran Chaco region of South America Vicente manages to raise cultural a social awareness to this problem.