Undoubtedly there is always rush for doing the review of an exhibition, being one of the first publications about the show and the artist. It has to fit perfectly before the finissage for doing the corresponding links. But it may be that this rush does not allow digesting well, or maybe yes, but it can happen that it is left in the way, catapulted by other several reviews given at the same time; and no, let’s say it can not be done before.

So, let’s continue with some ideas. “Obras no recientes” (Not recent works) is an exhibition that DOES NOT bring the latest production of the Chilean artist, nor does it have a curatorship. It attends simply to the motivation of being able to exhibit works with some years already (from 8 to 2 years backwards) and not giving up to the rhythm and pressure of the artistic apparatus of always having to show the latest, and please be avant-garde. It is true that is not necessary that the newest is perceived as avant-garde, advanced and exciting; there are certain works that given their reflection and form can be docilely displayed today.

So when Nicolás and I met in the gallery, I found quite plastic and figurative artworks, but what can put most our attention, is that if we think they are “not recent works”, they bring us problems and political, social or economic situations, that could easily appear in any timeline of social networks, or in any website or news agency. And it is not that Nicolás Grum is with a pin on each conflict of the world that happens for suggesting that he is a messiah who brings us aestheticized messages for our better understanding, but the coincidence has been that Grum has been for different reasons in the cities and countries that facts and conflicts have taken place.

This is why we can see a Statue of Liberty (or the head of it) in bronze and dipped in synthetic special grease, “State of Liberty”, and the same miniature version of it, submerged in a beer bottle accompanied by the certificate and check of the brewing company in compensation for the inconvenience when he reported the finding of the figurine in one of its products. Or dioramas based on his research on oil in United States history during a residency in Cleveland. “R.V.” (Recreational Vehicle) or “Oil Pump” that recreate in miniature different landscapes or faces of the oil industry and the lives of the citizens inserted in it, either geographically or because they are workers of one of these companies. This form does to us perceive this reality distantly as something peculiar and almost folk, but is this same distance that maliciously brings this pseudo crisis and reality.

“No More” in wax and wood, is almost a shout of protest that accompanies all the situations exposed, or “Do not Forgive” in cardboard, wood and wax. This same dissolution or apparent melting of the artwork / idea we see in the piece “Reform”, a replica of a bronze weapon whose mouth of fire is fused, with which the Chilean artist reveals the armed doctrine of the Americans where democracy would refer to the fact that everyone has the right to own and bear arms and not the right to stay safe and be in a calm society.

Other pieces were produced during a residency in Bolivia, and of course, others made in Chile. But leaving aside the context where each of the works have been made, there are certain common indicators to all of them, where the quoting to the world of children toys or things made by kids, appears iteratedly to awaken our curiosity and get closer to them and surprise with situations, that as well as the children, many times we do not pay attention for being that. Works that put in front of us distant realities that vanish and melt for not fixing in a better way our gaze and thinking.