Edgardo Giménez: the Argentine pop artist exhibited at MALBA

"There will be None Like Him" is the solo exhibition of Argentine artist Edgardo Giménez at MALBA. He is
one of the pioneers of pop art in the country, who revolutionized with his works full of color and humor
that criticized the social scenario of the 60s and 70s. The exhibition brings together more than 70 works
that invite visitors to learn about his history through six installations.

Edgardo Giménez is considered a multifaceted artist and one of the most talented in Argentina. In this
way, MALBA seeks to revive the most colorful and sensitive side of the painter, sculptor, graphic designer,
set designer, image, and character creator. Throughout the rooms, the works are correlated and divided
by artistic periods.

Upon entering the exhibition, located on the second floor of MALBA, you can read one of his most iconic
phrases: "The great tragedy is to live without humor". For Gimenez, laughing is a cathartic act and
parody is "a mode of criticism that disregards social mandates, undermines prejudices and ventures to
tear down masks". This little legend defines the totality of the artist's spirit.

The exhibition functions as an anthological film where each scene reflects Giménez's theme, style, and
obsessions. Different scenographies of his films were reconstructed to frame objects, paintings,
sculptures, and architecture in scenographic installations. We can find structures of animals surrounded
by rainbows, jungles, a giant egg, perspectives, intervened period furniture, and mirrors that multiply the
unreality of the images and objects taken from the colorful and humorous fantasy of the artist.

The exhibition opens with the life-size hyperrealistic sculpture of Divine, the stage name of the actor and
singer Harris Glenn Milstead (1945-1988) who played a drag queen in the film Pink Flamingos (1972), by
his childhood friend John Waters. Divine became an LGBT+ icon. Dressed in angry red, the character is
shown pointing a revolver, as in the original movie poster. This is the least naïve work in the show
(because of the ironic invitation), and in some ways, it could be thought of as an overt homage or
perhaps, directly, as a manifesto.

The exhibition continues with more walkable installations and is completed with a playlist as a
soundtrack, selected by the artist, plus a catalog (double edition, in Spanish and English), which expands
the exhibition and shows many pieces related to graphic design, extensive research and, among others,
an essay by María José Herrera.