Geoff Winningham: 101 Chiripadas

March 23 - April 27,2024

From koelsch gallery: "koelsch gallery is pleased to present our latest exhibition Geoff Winningham: 101 Chiripadas, debuting Saturday, March 23rd, 2024. Winningham translates the real world and its insatiable desire for creation into what he presents as a collection of chiripadas, "unplanned but surprisingly successful collaborations". In a series of photographs captured between 1998 and 2024, he collaborates with an unwitting string of both the animate and inanimate. Whispering scratches, shouts of sprayed paint, cast shadows, meandering figures, and civil structures unify in the capture of social rhythm and cultural constellation. In a showcase like never before, Winningham reveals that beauty is as present as ever, merely awaiting to be found. "I once met a man from New Mexico, and he told me how—with no prior experience and modest ambition—he had started his own vineyard. When his first harvest of grapes was judged to be superb and his first batch of wine exceeded all expectations, one of his Mexican field workers joyfully declared, 'Dios mio, señor, es una chiripada!' Chiripada? The fledgling vintner fell in love with the word on the spot, naming his winery for it, even before he understood the meaning. When I heard his story, I latched onto the word myself. I loved the sound of it, as well as the meaning, which I have found to be more nuanced and elusive than I first understood. Chiripada, I have discovered, does not appear in any Spanish dictionary. Nor have I found a single Spanish speaker with a college degree who has heard the word. Chiripada, it turns out, is a slang expression, originating and used strictly among Mexican carpenters, stone masons, and other trades workers. I have asked Mexican and New Mexican workers of various trades if they know the word, and I have found that most often they do. However, their understanding of the meaning of the word varies, depending on their trade, their age, and perhaps their imagination. Based on my three decades of persistent research into the meaning of this inspiring word—and for the encouragement of all artists and would-be artists—I offer the following: Over a career of nearly six decades, Winningham has continuously embraced a variety of styles and subject matter. From professional wrestling and demolition derbies to Mexican fiestas and the vernacular architecture of Arkansas, he has produced a diverse body of work free from any obligation. Despite their varying composition, his photographs remain deeply rooted in a shared sensibility. With time, Winningham has graduated into a much simpler, yet ample visual arrangement. What may appear as mindless objectivity or easily overlooked is intentionally captured and well-authored. Scenes of humanity and the engagement of everyday life bubble up through the cracks and crevices of spray-painted pavement, depreciated structures, and ongoing passersby. Unbeknownst to each other, uncharted graffiti artists, wild poster advertisements, and weather-induced textural elements partake in a serendipitous collaboration with Winningham himself, who photographs the fleeting discovery. His wisdom of artistic sensibility enables him to recognize, capture, and transform everyday, ordinary moments of our lives into something beautiful. We as the audience are left with a greater appreciation for life. When asked about a pivotal point in his artistic pursuit, Winningham recalled a conversation between himself and the late Gerry O'Grady, both an English professor and mentor of his. "In my senior year of college, he asked me, 'What are you going to do when you graduate?' And I said, 'Well, I'll probably go to law school. My father went to law school, my brother went to law school, my uncle, and so on. I've already applied to Vanderbilt and got in. So, I suspect that's what I'll do.' And he said, 'Why?' And I said, 'Why not?' He said, 'Well, is that what you want to do?' And before I could answer he said, 'You love photography. Why don't you do that?' And I said, "Well, what good would that do anybody?" And he said, ‘It would give people pleasure. Including yourself.’ As a twenty-two-year-old guy, the idea that my life might be about finding, creating, and giving pleasure — somehow that remark has stuck with me all these years. It touched me very deeply." Geoff Winningham serves as a fundamental figure in the expansion and sustainment of Houston's visual arts community. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Rice University and a master’s degree in Photography from IIT Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois. Upon graduating in 1968, he returned to Houston to pursue a career in photography, documentary filmmaking, and journalism. He joined Rice University's art department in 1969 and continues to teach there today, holding the Lynette S. Autrey Chair in Humanities. He has received two fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous commissions. He has published fourteen books and completed three documentary films. His book Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico (2010) won both the Ron Tyler Prize from the Texas State Historical Association and the J. B. Jackson Award from the Foundation for Landscape Studies. His photographs belong in permanent collections across the United States, including but not limited to New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego; and the Wittliff Collections. His work has been published in numerous anthologies, including 20th Century Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, Courthouse, Faces: A History of the Portrait in Photography, and Masters of the Camera. Today, he continues to direct the Pozos Art Project, Inc., teaching photography and art to children in Mineral de Pozos, Mexico, and Houston."

Artist talk: April 27, 2024 | 4-5 pm

koelsch gallery 1020 Peden Street
Houston, TX 77006
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