Blum & Poe is pleased to announce the first solo US-exhibition of Mexican artist Enrique Metinides.

Metinides’ work is dedicated to capturing the moments leading up to and following disastrous events. His photographs include tragic images of car accidents, suicides, explosions, accidental electrocutions, train derailments, murders, and plane crashes.  The works are imbued with a cinematic quality, yet they force us to confront our mortality and reconcile the uncertainty with which we face each day.

At first glance the photographs may be photojournalistic, but on closer inspection it is clear that he has a deep compassion for the human condition.  For several years Metinides’ pictures were seen on the cover of the daily Mexican newspaper La Prensa, as he worked intimately with the local rescue workers and became a crucial figure in defining the genre of journalism nota roja.  Later his artistic composition and examination of spectatorship began to be recognized and exhibited at art galleries in Mexico and Europe.  Though his images can be shocking in their brutality, Metinides wishes to immortalize his subjects, not letting us forget that these were real people and not merely headlines.  Metinides acknowledges the capricious nature of life and does not seek the reasons for why these events occur.  Instead he surrenders, and the viewer discovers through his lens that art can be found in the most unfathomable situations.

In 2005 Metinides had a solo-exhibition at Club fotografico de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.  In 2004 he had a one-person exhibition at the Kunsthale, Rotterdam entitled, “Glorious Accident” and participated in group exhibitions at the Center for Cotemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium; Casa de America, Madrid, Spain; and Central de Arte Guadalajara World Trade Center, Guadalajara, Mexico.  In 2003 he had a solo-exhibition curated by Kate Bush at the Photographer’s Gallery, London.  Metinides stopped making professional photographs in 1993 when he left the newspaper.  Recently his attention has turned from photography to video and television, where he has been recording live accidents and cataloguing these disasters in a growing personal archive not intended for public viewing.  Metinides lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico.

The exhibition has been organized in a generous collaboration with Kurimanzutto, Mexico.