Through his Instagram, Francisco Moreno recalls a moment in early 2017 when he had doubts on whether he would embark on his large-scale Chapel knowing full well what a demanding project it would be. Last week, Erin Cluley Gallery announced the Dallas Museum of Art’s acquisition of Chapel, the large-scale painting installation which was initially shown at Erin Cluley Gallery in Moreno’s solo exhibition The Chapel and Accompanying Works in April 2018.
Moreno’s Chapel engages the past while making a new mark using an iconic structure as the foundation for his large-scale painting project. Inside the Chapel, imagery is painted from a collapsed archive that draws on a range of works significant to the history and practice of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other cultural producers. The imagery is painted in a collage-type manner, integrating processes that cross cultural borders and recognize Moreno’s transnational heritage as a Mexican-born American citizen. Influenced by ideas of the Baroque aesthetic, Chapel creates an experience of temporality marked by the themes of novelty, variety, and multiplicity.
“Moreno’s Chapel is indicative of the goals of the DMA’s collection and programming plans: to promote innovative contemporary art that engages with the past, where it can be seen in the context of our rich encyclopedic collection,” says Anna Katherine Brodbeck, the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. “Indeed, many touchstones for Moreno’s immersive and singular vision—Baroque, Meso-American and modern art—can be seen throughout the museum.”
Chapel is Moreno’s second large-scale painting installation. In 2015, his WCD Project was curated into the Dallas Symphony’s first annual Soluna Festival. The large-scale painting and car performance installation debuted alongside internationally renowned artists including Pipilotti Riist and Alex Prager.
The acquisition was made possible through funding from the TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, the Charron and Peter Denker Contemporary Texas Art Fund, Elisabeth Karpidas, Charles Dee Mitchell, Tammy Cotton Hartnett, Travis Vandergriff, Joyce Goss, Harper and Jim Kennington, and Karen and John Reoch.
“We are so proud to include this ambitious installation by a Dallas-based artist in our collection and look forward to putting it on view to be enjoyed by our audiences in the near future,” Brodbeck shares.