Borinquen Gallo, Be(e) Sanctuary [detail], 2017, debris netting, yellow plastic bags, live plants and caution tape.
Borinquen Gallo, With Us It's Personal, 2017, debris netting, plastic bags, plastic tablecloths.
Borinquen Gallo, Deadly Poppy Field, 2016, debris netting, red plastic bags and caution tape.
Borinquen Gallo, ForceFlex, 2012, black garbage bags and cable wires.
Borinquen Gallo, Green Unplugged, 2017, debris netting, green plastic bags, caution tape and ethernet cables.
Borinquen Gallo, Heaven Wheels Above You (c), 2016, cast architectural details, found automobile rims, Bondo auto-filler.
Borinquen Gallo, Heaven Wheels Above You (d), 2016, cast architectural details, found automobile rims, Bondo auto-filler.
Before opening wide, like a jungle orchid
For a love-struck bee, then goes liquid,
Paint-in-water, and then gauze wafting out and off,
Before, finally, the night tide, luminescent
And vague, swirls in, and on and on…
Tracy K. Smith-
(My God, Its Full of Stars (2011
Burning in Water is pleased to present Borinquen Gallo: Like a Jungle Orchid for a Lovestruck Bee. The exhibition features a series of sculptures and a large-scale, immersive installation fashioned from intricately reconstituted street materials, such as yellow and red “caution” tape, construction tarps, garbage bags, discarded hub-caps and debris netting.
Born in Rome to a Puerto Rican mother and an Italian father, Gallo subsequently spent her formative years living in the Bronx, where she continues to reside and maintains her studio. She trained as a painter, but later gravitated towards the use of unorthodox materials reflective of her local environs. Despite their genesis in humble, disposable materials, Gallo’s totemic sculptures entail soaring, flourishing gestures reminiscent of the classical art and architectural influences to which she was broadly exposed as a child. The works also yield a sense of meditative contemplation and a yearning toward transcendence.
