Locust Projects is pleased to present Sub-Tropical Social Sculptures, Salvadorian artist Simón Vega’s debut Miami exhibition. During a series of residencies in Miami in 2012 and 2014, Vega developed a series of social/sculptural experiments that, in his words, “reflect how people from very different geographical and social circumstances organically come together socially, in a way that is unique to Miami.” Vega’s project revolves around six simply constructed, human-scaled wooden structures designed to activate social interaction: Discussional Funk-tional Benches, Sun-Siege Tower, Smoothie Station and Buzz Grenade Mini-Bars. The sculptures are open-ended, transmutable and mobile. Vega organizes happenings around the sculptures, at which point the structures become a tropical and color-injected version of Joseph Beuys' "social sculpture" concept, both in the gallery and around the city, mixing the aesthetic and social experiences to create sculptural objects that are both functional and non functional: furniture, social platforms and aesthetic, contemplative objects. The happenings foreground aspects of the artmaking process that are seldom on view: friendship, collaboration, sharing, spontaneity, humor, and the spirit of the city. 

Simón Vega creates drawings, ephemeral sculptures and installations inspired in the informal, self made architecture and vendor carts found in the streets and marginal zones of El Salvador and Central America. These works, assembled with wood, cardboard, plastic and found materials often parody famous Modernist and mythological buildings and cities, surveillance systems as well as high-tech robots and satellites developed by NASA and the Soviet Space Program during the Cold War, creating an ironic and humorous fusion between first and third world, while commenting on the effects of that conflict in today’s Central America.

ABOUT SIMON VEGA
Born in San Salvador, El Salvador in 1972, Simon Vega graduated in Fine Arts at the University of Veracruz in Mexico in 2000 and received a Master´s degree in Contemporary Arts from the Complutense University in Madrid in 2006. 
He has exhibited his work extensively in Europe, the United States and Latin America, including the 55th Venice Biennial in Italy, the IX Havana Biennial, in Cuba, the Museo del Barrio's "The S-Files" show in New York in 2011, the Bronx River Art Center in 2008, as well as at the Hilger BROT Kunsthalle in Vienna, Austria (2010 & 2012). He currently lives in La Libertad, El Salvador.

Recent press for Sub-Tropical Social Sculptures:CBS Local News Miami Art Zine, Miami New Times, Paper Magazine

Locust Projects’ exhibitions and programming are made possible with the support from: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Cowles Charitable Trust; The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; Funding Arts Network; Galt & Skye Mikesell; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant.