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Carmen Argote — Live/Work
Carmen Argote

Live/Work

2016

A large-scale mixed media work composed of paper and metal screen, Live/Work stages an inquiry into the porous boundaries between domestic life and labor. Created in 2016, the piece draws on Carmen Argote's sustained engagement with architecture, memory, and the residue of inhabited spaces, materials chosen to evoke both fragility and structural permanence simultaneously. The metal screen introduces an industrial vocabulary while the paper layers carry an intimacy associated with handmade process, and together they generate a productive tension between the built environment and the body that moves through it. Argote's practice consistently returns to questions of how spaces are claimed, marked, and remembered, particularly in relation to immigrant and working-class experience. Live/Work extends this investigation by literalizing the title's conceptual weight, collapsing the separation between productive space and personal space into a single visual field. The work reflects a broader moment in contemporary art when artists were rigorously reexamining how architecture encodes social conditions, making this piece a resonant document of both its cultural moment and Argote's evolving language. Currently held within the collection of the Denver Art Museum, this signed work represents a strong institutional endorsement of Argote's significance within contemporary mixed media practice. For collectors drawn to conceptually rigorous works that also carry genuine material presence, Live/Work offers a rare combination of intellectual depth and tactile immediacy. As Argote's reputation has continued to grow through major exhibitions and critical recognition, works from this period hold particular importance within the arc of her career.

Medium
Mixed media, paper, and metal screen.
Signed
Yes

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About this work

Carmen Argote, Live/Work, 2016

A large-scale mixed media work composed of paper and metal screen, Live/Work stages an inquiry into the porous boundaries between domestic life and labor. Created in 2016, the piece draws on Carmen Argote's sustained engagement with architecture, memory, and the residue of inhabited spaces, materials chosen to evoke both fragility and structural permanence simultaneously. The metal screen introduces an industrial vocabulary while the paper layers carry an intimacy associated with handmade process, and together they generate a productive tension between the built environment and the body that moves through it. Argote's practice consistently returns to questions of how spaces are claimed, marked, and remembered, particularly in relation to immigrant and working-class experience. Live/Work extends this investigation by literalizing the title's conceptual weight, collapsing the separation between productive space and personal space into a single visual field. The work reflects a broader moment in contemporary art when artists were rigorously reexamining how architecture encodes social conditions, making this piece a resonant document of both its cultural moment and Argote's evolving language. Currently held within the collection of the Denver Art Museum, this signed work represents a strong institutional endorsement of Argote's significance within contemporary mixed media practice. For collectors drawn to conceptually rigorous works that also carry genuine material presence, Live/Work offers a rare combination of intellectual depth and tactile immediacy. As Argote's reputation has continued to grow through major exhibitions and critical recognition, works from this period hold particular importance within the arc of her career.

Medium
Mixed media, paper, and metal screen.
Year
2016
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Denver Art Museum

Related themes

Mohn Art Collective

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