m.simons is proud to present MOLD, the first solo exhibition of Ciro Duclos (Amsterdam, NL, 1991) with the gallery.
Throughout a rich body of work, Amsterdam-based artist Ciro Duclos often combines raw materials from urban structures with an ethereal aesthetics. As Duclos’ practice leans heavily on the materiality of his works, the artist’s approach is not unlike that of Minimal Art, but where Minimalism settled on the notion that what you see is what you see, Duclos brings everyday structures into the realm of art with a sensibility towards the fact that even raw steel, concrete, glass, or polyurethane generate specific meaning in the eyes of their spectators.
The work of Ciro Duclos is often informed both by his everyday environment and that of his ancestors. As the son of a Dutch mother and Peruvian father he steeps his works in history both culturally and materially. While previous series of works, such as his Frontera installations of uprooted fences, emerge from working with found materials, the sculptural works Duclos presents in MOLD breathe a more earthly atmosphere. Layer upon layer, pure matter gives way to structures that can both be read as the architectural foundations of urban cityscapes, while they simultaneously appear as the result of geological explorations into the uncertain division between nature and culture. Both archeology and natural history, but also a contemporary interpretation of painting with materials itself, MOLD presents an intricate process of spatial and sculptural making.
Much like the title of this exhibition speaks to a double meaning of creation and decay, MOLD perhaps shows the ultimate quality of Duclos’ oeuvre. Between what is new and ancient, the sculptural works are as strongly rooted as they are uprooted; as if taken directly from earth while also revealing that same planet as the abundant source that has so much to give.
Ciro Duclos (1991) lives and works in Amsterdam, where he also co-founded the artist collective INDEBT Studios. Graduated from the Royal Academy of Art at The Hague in 2015, Duclos rapidly expended his practice into a wide-ranging body of works. Following a Young Talent stipend from the Mondriaan Fonds in 2019, Duclos presented work from his Frontera series at Prospects & Concepts, at Art Rotterdam 2020, while revealing an entirely new series of sculptures in the solo exhibition I Heard Corn was Purple Once at Art Chapel, Amsterdam.
text by Menno Vuister
