Eduardo Sarabia Four Minutes of Darkness

Four Minutes of Darkness, Eduardo Sarabia’s inaugural solo exhibition at OMR, unfolds as a cartography of the artist’s intricate visual language and marks the second in a trilogy of exhibitions dedicated to the total eclipse of the sun. 

Evoking the opacity and shade cast by a solar eclipse, the exhibition explores the power of imagination and the desire to project the future. Through an architectural structure reminiscent of a chapel, the artist expresses his fascination with ancestral, alchemical, and mystical knowledge. A stained glass ceiling casts soft light as the main protagonist, illuminating a fountain emerging from darkness and awakening various characters. The fountain, with “fuente” meaning both “fountain” and “source” in Spanish, pays homage to the wellsprings of inspiration and the information we draw from. 

A surrounding garden stems from the artist’s deeply personal language such as references inspired by his childhood: his grandfather’s treasure hunt tales, reflected in images of coins or diamonds, an intergenerational love for baseball,  as well as a profound interest in Mexico’s endemic species. Alongside the traditional evocation of the sacred ceiba in the imagination of Sarabia, elements such as sea and vegetation, earth and universe, light and darkness, microstories and the crow – a newfound symbol of power – all interweave in this exhibition. They are encompassed by a site-specific mural of green vines, a recurring element in the artist’s vocabulary. In the Los Angeles neighborhood where Sarabia grew up, residents painted scenes of vines, flowers, and branches on their house facades to prevent the tagging with graffiti.

The upper floor of the gallery is dedicated to his best-known works: his ceramic pieces. Resembling Mexican talavera with their white and cobalt blue colors, these vases depict the triggers of illegal microeconomies that have affected the country. Throughout his practice, the artist draws connections between the history of Mexico and his personal narrative, marking the country not only as the land of his cultural heritage but as his chosen home.

For his exhibition, the artist has constructed a small temple – a portal that incites the viewer to visit his creative universe. Four Minutes of Darkness is the invitation to cross a threshold where Eduardo Sarabia’s imagination converges in a dimension that for a moment distances us from our own and illuminates wisdom, honor, and will.

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Four Minutes of Darkness is the second of three exhibitions by Eduardo Sarabia dedicated to the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, visible in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, his family’s place of origin: Prologue at Maureen Paley, London (2023), Four Minutes of Darkness at OMR (on view until April 13, 2024) and Viaje hacia el eclipse at the Museo de Arte de Mazatlán (opening on April 7, 2024).

Eduardo Sarabia’s trilogy of exhibitions culminates in a broader project unfolding in different contexts in Mazatlán that was orchestrated by OMR. In preparation for the opening of Viaje hacia el eclipse, significant renovations have been made to the Museo de Arte de Mazatlán’s two main galleries: the Antonio López Sáenz gallery as well as the Roberto Pérez Rubio gallery. This achievement was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Grupo Venados, the Sinaloa Institute of Culture, the Museo de Arte de Mazatlán, and OMR, aiming to reclaim this cultural space for the communities of Sinaloa.

On April 8, 2024, the total eclipse of the sun will turn day into night for four minutes. Passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada, it will be the last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States until 2044. As part of this multi-faceted project, the actual eclipse event, fully visible in Mazatlán, can be experienced during a public viewing at the stadium of the Los Venados.