NEW YORK.- Americas Society will present Pedro Reyes - ad usum: To Be Used, on view from February 28 to May 5, 2007. The opening reception will follow a dialogue among Pedro Reyes (artist), José Falconi (guest curator) and Doris Sommer (Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University).

The first solo show of Mexican artist Pedro Reyes in the east coast, the exhibition ad usum: To Be Used features pieces that are only completed when activated or used in a certain context, many of them casting hope onto intractable social situations. ad usum showcases the research Reyes conducted in collaboration with the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard on the disputed notion of the “utility” of art objects and processes.

The show comprises objects from Reyes’ celebrated architectural and group therapy past projects, as well as new works. Each of the pieces included present formal qualities that result or trigger particular political responses on the viewer. Stretching functionalism to its limits, politics in Reyes’ work is not a theme, but rather an inherent function of the intriguing shapes that he gives to his pieces.

This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and is a selection from the show presented at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University until January 2007.