SHARE

Anuar Maauad

Fellow at Black Cube, 2019

Location: Various outdoor spaces around Denver; find a full list here.

Review by Samantha Hunt-Durán

Glittering, bold, slab serif installations are cropping up all around the Denver metro area. Namely, Anuar Maauad’s multi-location SHARE installation series that has caught the attention of Denver mainstream outlets with articles from the likes of 303 Magazine and the Westword. Each one of the nearly 100 installations reads: “To share is precious, pure, and fair.”

Anuar Maauad, SHARE, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Bella Vista Mexican Restaurant, 127 E. 20th Avenue, Denver. Images by Wes Magyar. — Anuar Maauad, *SHARE*, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Bella Vista Mexican Restaurant, 127 E. 20th Avenue, Denver. Images by Wes Magyar.

The phrase is sampled from the song “I Want You,” often attributed to singer Marvin Gaye, but written by Leon Ware and Arthur Ross [1]. This instrumental, romantic, atmospheric disco song was a far cry from Gaye’s usual funk range, and the lyrics make an intriguing pairing with a font sourced from the Chicago Trump Tower sign.

Remarkably, each of the 30 bronze characters in every set of 100 phrases were meticulously hand-cut by Mexican bronze workers. The process, dissemination, and public installation all speak, in effect, to the labor surrounding iconic value systems. By appropriating the Trump Tower typeface, Maauad’s installations commandeer the ethos surrounding it and transform it into a message of egalitarianism.

Anuar Maauad, SHARE, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race Street, Denver. Images by Wes Magyar. — Anuar Maauad, *SHARE*, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race Street, Denver. Images by Wes Magyar.

Maauad is a prominent Mexico City-based artist with work in major collections (including the Museo Jumex) who, until now, was barely more than a blip on the Denver art scene’s radar. His spike in local recognition is owed in large part to his fellowship at Black Cube (read more about this experimental, non-profit “Nomadic Art Museum” here), which produced this SHARE series.

The 36-year-old is perhaps best known for the 10-year-old residency program that he founded in Mexico City at the age of 26. Much like Black Cube, Casa Mauaad is not-for-profit and “offers participants a place to stay, an artist’s studio, a production budget, and a solo exhibition.”

Anuar Maauad, SHARE, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Samantha Hunt-Durán’s home in Winter 2020. Image by Samantha Hunt-Durán. — Anuar Maauad, *SHARE*, 2019, hand-cut bronze, produced by Black Cube and installed at Samantha Hunt-Durán’s home in Winter 2020. Image by Samantha Hunt-Durán.

The fruits of Maauad’s Black Cube fellowship can be seen—in centuplicate—on public facades, fences, and homes around the Denver area. Not to mention at this author’s home in Commerce City. If not for its social commentary, most of the buzz around this multi-site piece is the glorified scavenger hunt situation it has created. Truly, this piece is a gift to Denver-area communities that will hopefully become a permanent fixture on numerous city facades.

Samantha Hunt-Durán is a Denver native, born and raised. She holds a MA in Art History, a BFA in Pre-Art Conservation from the University of Denver, and currently serves as a board member of the Commerce City Cultural Council. Her research interests include materiality, alter-modernism, embodiment, and object-oriented ontologies.

[1] The stanza goes:

One way love is just a fantasy

To share is precious, pure and fair

Don't play with something

You should cherish for life, oh baby

Don't you want to care

Ain't it lonely out there