CARLOS SALAZAR-LERMONT

Vanitas Vanitatum

April 4-June 21, 2025

Bruno David Gallery presents Vanitas Vanitatum. A video-work by multi-disciplinary Chicago-based artist Carlos Salazar-Lermont. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Vanitas Vanitatum presents a split-screen composition. On the left side, surgical and carpentry tools such as a saw and a hammer are shown, which Salazar-Lermont uses energetically but without purpose. On the right side, two assistants pierce the artist's skin to insert eyelets, which they then use, along with Salazar-Lermont’s shoelace, to tie a bouquet of flowers to his chest.

Our ultra-modernized society distances us from the nature to which we belong. Questioning the value of what we pursue allows us to discover what is truly important. With Vanitas Vanitatum, Salazar-Lermont seeks to reconnect the viewer with their own mortality. The term “Vanitas” refers to a genre of still-life painting and originates from Ecclesiastes, which speaks of the futility of wisdom, pleasure, work, and wealth in the face of the certainty of our end. Salazar-Lermont uses flowers as a traditional symbol of Vanitas, reminding us of the impermanence of beauty and youth, as well as our inevitable death. Today, unbridled ambition has put our planet at risk, jeopardizing not only the future of upcoming generations but also the possibility of a full and prosperous existence. Salazar-Lermont writes: “Technology has made our reality permanently mediated. By sewing the flowers onto my body, I seek to evoke an intense and intimate sensation in the viewer. My intention is to present something raw and real, capable of competing with the constant dopamine rush of digital entertainment. The paradox is that, to achieve this, I turn to video as mediation. How do we understand what is real when the artificial becomes natural? What is natural in human beings, and how can we strengthen our ties with nature in a broader sense?”

Carlos Salazar-Lermont received his MFA in Visual Arts from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis as a Danforth Scholar, and a Dual MA in Arts Administration & Policy and Modern and Contemporary Art History in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with the support of the New Artists Society Full Tuition scholarship. Salazar-Lermont’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums, institutions, and galleries in over a dozen countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, Finland, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, the United States, and Venezuela. He is based in Chicago and St. Louis.