Abstraction At Work

Conceived by artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz in 2009, Abstraction at Work is both an art object series and an ongoing entity dedicated to rethinking abstraction’s functions through projects ranging from temporary installations to participatory and curatorial experiments. It infiltrates territories, disregarding categorical limits as she self-defines her areas of operation. Always in the process of becoming and under construction, like a democracy, or a developing country, Abstraction at Work likes to bring street and painterly situations together in awkward moments that bring ontological questions of the painterly work of art to the surface.

Abstraction’s etymology from late Latin, abstrahere, is to separate, to draw away. In its uncompounded root form, trahere has a wider set of meanings, including to take on, assume, acquire. It means to draw together, bring together, draw along, to attract, to allure. To manufacture. To ponder, consider. It also refers to time, as in: to protract, to draw out, drag out, linger through, extend, prolong, lengthen, delay. Abstraction at Work brings these dimensions at the root of abstraction into work.