Santa Monica, California
Christopher Grimes Gallery
“Well 34°01’03”N–118°29’12”W,” the title of Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s recent exhibition, represents the coordinates of the Grimes Gallery’s location in Santa Monica, introducing a multi-part work that required consideration of the geographical, social, economic, and political dimensions of water. The installation itself was titled P’oe 34°01’03”N—118°29’12”W. P’oe means “gift” in Tewa, the indigenous language of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico; the numbers indicate the coordinates of a well dug there in 2014. P’oe was clinical in its stark minimality. Three walls bore gleaming rows of stainless steel commercial shelves holding clear glass gallon jugs filled with water taken from an aquifer directly under the Santa Clara Pueblo and trucked to the gallery. On the floor in front of the west wall, as if in a tasting room at a winery, was a square stainless steel table with a shelf bearing jugs and numerous glass tumblers.…see the entire review in the print version of March’s Sculpture magazine.
