Development – 2017 

From January 2017 Abstraction in Action will transition to become an independent initiative led by Greg Attaway and Cecilia Fajardo-Hill.

We will continue to develop our mission to promote and research contemporary abstract art from Latin America since the 1990s, seeking to activate the field and foster new perspectives.

The AIA website will continue to operate and after a short pause, it will resume its expansion.

• Happenings

Artist: Ishmael Randall Weeks 

Constructive Resistance
November 17, 2016 – December 23, 2016
Steve Turner 
Los Angeles, USA

• Happenings

Artists: Elena Asins (Spain), Kader Attia (France), Robert Barry (U.S), Pavel Büchler (U.K), Paulo Bruscky (Brazil), Waltercio Caldas (Brazil), Luis Camnitzer (Uruguay), Arturo Cuenca (Cuba), Sandu Darie Romania (Cuba), Antonio Dias (Brazil),  Iran do Espírito Santo (Brazil), Juan Downey (Chile, U.S),  Marcel Duchamp (France),  Juan Francisco Elso (Cuba), Eugenio Espinoza (Venezuela), León Ferrari (Argentina),  Marcius Galan (Brazil) , Flavio Garciandía (Cuba), José Antonio Hernández-Diez (Venezuela), Karlo Andrei Ibarra (Puerto Rico), Joseph Kosuth (U.S), Barbara Kruger (U.S), David Lamelas (Argentina), Judith Lauand (Brazil), Glenda León (Cuba), Carlos Leppe (Chile), Anna Maria Maiolino (Brazil), Antonio Manuel (Brazil), Carlos Martiel (Cuba), Cildo Meireles (Brazil), Marta Minujín (Argentina), Priscilla Monge (Costa Rica), Hélio Oiticica (Brazil) | Lygia Pape (Brazil), Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy), Liliana Porter (Argentina), Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas (Cuba), Lázaro Saavedra  (Cuba), Mira Schendel (Brazil), Franz Erhard Walther (Germany), Horacio Zabala (Argentina)

Toda percepción es una interpretación: YOU ARE PART OF IT
November 30, 2016 – March 12, 2017
CIFO Art Space
Miami, Florida

The exhibition Toda percepción es una interpretación: You are part of it is a retrospective look from the viewpoint of contemporary issues of art, culture, politics and economics. It seeks to reflect on the successive reconfigurations of the art map in the last few decades, on the displacements and relocations of its primary centers, from Paris to New York, from Venice to São Paulo, from Basel to Miami. It speaks of areas that have succeeded in alternating centripetal or centrifugal forces, where art has relocated its meeting points and its observation points. We also pay attention to the effects of redrawing the financial or political map, with the repercussion it has on how one makes and proceeds in art.

• Happenings

Artists: Carlos Arnaiz, Ernesto Deira, Sarah Grilo, KIRIN, Juan Lecuona, Lucía Mara, Georges Nöel, Kvĕta Pacovská, César Paternosto, Fidel Sclavo, Eduardo Stupía, Valeria Traversa, Jan Voss.

The Lines of the Hand
November – December, 2016
Jorge Mara – La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Happenings

Artist: Iván Navarro

Mute Parade
October 26, 2016 – December 23, 2016
Paul Kasmin Gallery
New York, USA.

Upon entering Mute Parade, the viewer is confronted by a towering pyramid of  six drums with the words HIGH, TONE, TUNE, BASS, MUTE, and DEAF embedded in LED lights.  This monumental work, titled TUNING, 2015, produces a visual representation of sound while simultaneously removing and negating the original function of the instruments; ‘playing a song,’ in the absence of sound. In the center of the adjacent room, two freestanding drums– each six-feet in diameter– incorporate neon, LED, mirrors, and electricity to produce Navarro’s iconic infinite vanishing points. Circular texts, written in light, repeat the words KICKBACKand KNOCKNOCKNOCK in a seemingly boundless loop. The inherent silence and stillness of the artworks creates an uncanny perception of audio and movement, probing the relationship between sight and sound.

A final installation consists of four 6 x 6 foot structures that make up the Impenetrable Room (2016). This new compositional innovation co-opts the materials and format of portable “road cases,” which are customarily used to transport and protect musical instruments. Refitting the cases with mirrors and neon light, Navarro transforms these static objects into deep spaces that appear to reverberate in perpetuity. Silent and monolithic, these self-contained rooms resonate with unspoken narrative power.

Throughout the exhibition, black and white paper squares are scattered across the floors of all three galleries. The words “Read You” and “Loud Unclear,” printed on opposite sides of the cards, call attention to the disjunction between the visual and auditory aspects of communication. Informed by the aesthetics and rhythms of military parades, Mute Parade contemplates the juxtaposed feelings of celebration and intimidation that martial music begets.

• Happenings

Pop & Post Pop
December 6, 2016
María Calcaterra Moderno & Contemporáneo
Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Happenings

Artists: Olga de Amaral, Emilio Chapela, Jaime Davidovich, Wilson Díaz, Monir Farmanfarmaian, José Gabriel Fernández, Rafael Ferrer, Mathias Goeritz, Fernanda Gomes, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Jesús (Bubu) Negrón, Karina Peisajovich, Horacio Zabala.

Illuminations II
December 3, 2016 – February 10, 2017
Henrique Faria and Miami Biennale
The Historic Dorissa of Miami Building
Miami, Florida

• Happenings

XIII Bienal de Cuenca
“Impermanencia”
Curated by: Dan Cameron
Curator educational program: Cristián G. Gallegos
November 26, 2016 – February 5, 2017
Cuenca, Ecuador

• Happenings

Artist: Magdalena Fernández

CLIMAS
Opening November 17, 2016
Saludarte Foundation / Ideobox Artspace
Miami, Florida

• Happenings

Artist: José Luis Landet

Doma
Opening November 15, 2016
Arroniz Arte Contemporáneo
Ciudad de México, D.F., Mexico

José Luis Landet*’s work involves a wide range of operating and assimilating cultural processes crossed by social, political and ideological actions, through which he explores cultural remnants.

In Doma, Landet presents the work of South American artist Carlos Gómez (1945-2014), from his epistolary communication with poet Zé Braulio, until his exile to Mexico in 1977. The restoration and presentation of Gomez’s work represents an ideal starting point for Landet’s objectives: to recover, document and innovate.

Doma (Tame):
1 The process of domestication of a wild animal through the repetition of exercises.
2 To deprive a passion or conduct.

• Happenings

Artists: August Muth, Regine Schumann, Soledad Arias, Ariane Roesch, and Myke Venable.

Luminous
November 12 – December 31, 2016
Gallery Sonja Roesch
Houston, TX

The show consists of five artists whose work collectively examines phenomenological experience through the use of luminescent light and color. The gallery is overcome by a strong luminous presence, shifting perceptions of space and enhancing sensory experience through the use of minimally reductive materials. Objects in space recede and advance while colored fluorescent light mixes to create visual reflections and overlays.

The minimally reductive nature of each artwork leads to infinite possibilities of thought, evoking memory and familiarity while linking past to present. “Luminous” embodies the mystic creation of light and color; the varied results of each work push our perceptions and bring the fundamental act of seeing into the limelight.

• Happenings

Artist: Eduardo Stupía

Fossils and Sediments
September 20 – November 10, 2016
Jorge Mara . La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

The series Fossils consists of eleven pieces of acrylic paintings on medium sized paper. Here, the fold of the paper embedded in the porous material of acrylic produces an inspired and spectral imitation of the work of nature on itself, with the carbon effect of mono – copy.

The series Sediments displays graphic territories, in the way of a stratification of crystallized moments unfolded in the same plane as islets of representation derived from the various uses of graphite, pencil, charcoal, chalk pastel. The amphibious reality of this mixed universe once again puts into action the back and forth progression, from the spectral to calcareous, from the stony to smoky.

• Happenings

Artists: María José Arjona, Emilia Azcárate, Adrián Balseca, Pablo Cardoso, Matías Duville, Florencia Guillén, Manuela Ribadeneira, Paula de Solminihac.

LARA, Latin American Roaming Art
September 15 – November 13, 2016
Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito
Quito, Ecuador

Esta exposición reúne el trabajo resultante de la cuarta edición de la residencia LARA (Latin American Roaming Art) llevada a cabo en las Islas Galápagos en marzo de este año. El proyecto consiste en reunir a un grupo artistas en un lugar de la región por dos semanas, tiempo durante el cual se informan lo más posible de los alrededores para luego iniciar un proceso individual de producción donde se traduce su experiencia del sitio.

Las ciudades de Honda en Colombia, Ollantaytambo en Perú y Oaxaca en México han servido como locaciones en anteriores ediciones, aparejadas de sus respectivas muestras en las ciudades capitales. Para la itinerancia del proyecto en Ecuador se propuso el ambiente privilegiado del archipiélago, relativamente inexplorado desde el arte contemporáneo.

Galápagos, siendo patrimonio de la humanidad por su biodiversidad, suele evocar imágenes idílicas de la naturaleza y de un universo lo menos posible tocado por la mano del hombre. Sin embargo, quienes hacen su vida allí -sean estos colonos, científicos o agentes vinculados al entramado estatal- configuran imágenes conflictivas y muchas veces contrapuestas sobre este territorio que luce atravesado por varios dilemas. Las mayores tensiones surgen sin duda de la contradicción entre los afanes conservacionistas y las lógicas del desarrollo urbano y crecimiento demográfico, en cuyos entresijos habita una industria turística en permanente expansión. Estas islas, que sirvieron de inspiración clave para modelar el paradigma evolucionista, también poseen una azarosa historia humana que revela, a nivel simbólico, curiosas paradojas: desde crónicas pobladas de crueldad y violencia, hasta las representaciones visuales que producen las misiones religiosas de hoy donde se conjugan evocaciones del pensamiento de Darwin con el creacionismo más dogmático.

Pero con su dramático origen volcánico delatado por doquier el archipiélago se muestra, ante todo, como un gran laboratorio natural donde fauna y flora se manifiestan en todo su esplendor. Matices de este encanto que ejerce el lugar adquieren mayor presencia en las obras de los artistas extranjeros, las cuales responden menos a “temas” y se perfilan más como memorias residuales, donde se incorporan ecos de imágenes que habitan ahora un territorio más evocativo y etéreo. Resuenan en ellas diversas maneras de asir el paisaje, recodificar la información recibida y devolver una mirada más subjetiva a partir de observaciones varias. La producción de los artistas locales se percibe, en cambio, como una lóbrega contrapostal donde se invocan indicios de un presente discordante ligado a rastros de un pasado que tiene su propia leyenda negra.

Asunto clave en la dinámica de la residencia fue propiciar la creación de una atmósfera de intercambio donde se potenciara la convergencia de disímiles intereses y personalidades. Aquello es lo que en conjunto reflejan las obras resultantes, las cuales configuran un variopinto muestrario de impresiones que revelan múltiples maneras de responder a un contexto, a la vez que enfatizan aspectos del lado humano de quienes participaron en este experimento.

• Happenings

Artists: Sandra Gamarra, Marco Maggi.

3rd Bienal de Montevideo
September 29 – December 4, 2016
Palacio Legislativo, Salón de los Pasos Perdidos
Montevideo, Uruguay

• Happenings

Artists: Sigfredo Chacón, Carlos Cruz-Diez, José Gabriel Fernández, Héctor Fuenmayor, Jaime Gili, Arturo Herrera, Pepe López and Lucía Pizzani.

Contralapared
September 18 – December 18, 2016
Espacio Monitor
Caracas, Venezuela

Contralapared es una muestra conformada por 8 sobresalientes artistas venezolanos activos de tres generaciones claramente definidas: Sigfredo Chacón, Carlos Cruz-Diez, José Gabriel Fernández, Héctor Fuenmayor, Jaime Gili, Arturo Herrera, Pepe López y Lucía Pizzani. Proyecto propuesto por Sigfredo Chacón y Héctor Fuenmayor, la idea se fundamenta en que los creadores visuales participantes realizaran obras ambientales, in situ, que si bien sostienen su independencia autoral funcionan, en su conjunto, como una gran instalación espacial interactuando entre ellas. Es de hacer notar que todas y cada una de las obras fueron creadas durante este año 2016 y pensadas especialmente para los espacios de la galería. Estructuras ambientales que van desde el piso hasta el techo de la sala, diseñadas por la arquitecto Lillian Malavé, sirven como soporte a las monumentales piezas.

• Happenings

Artist: Alberto Casari

Verba Volant (Never Write Bullshit)
October 4, 2016 – November 19, 2016
Galeria Pilar 
São Paulo, Brazil

Tú tienes que desaparecer aunque no lo quieras y puedes contar solo contigo. Te dicen consume produce revienta y nadie los para; dicen, golpéate consume y revienta, muere y te dan duro. Pero uno que se alce, uno que se oponga uno que se levante y los mire de frente a los ojos, así de frente y a los ojos, sin cerrarlos ni parpadear y de pronto ruja fuerte como un león y les diga que vió chicos de Camboya trasplantados sobre los cielos de Paris, chicas peruanas en el infierno. Es que tú que crees que vienes a ver arte te has pasado la vida buscando un un un centro de gravedad permanente. No soy como tú me quieres, yo no soy como tú quieres que sea para detener el genocidio infame de especies salvajes, fauna flora humanos por doquier que gimen se golpean mueren resucitan languidecen, caminan impávidos, bailan y gozan sin saber que por ahí vaga la luz azul, azul es la luz y durará durará pero también se desvanecerá si es que no logramos escapar de la alienación cotidiana en los parques, autobuses, tú en tu casa querido amigo que crees que el arte es algo así, algo extraño. Hay gente diferente del otro mundo menos mal omnipresente, que se une y baila, camina con nosotros. Oigo una música y me da la clave, azul la música y me da la clave, tal vez encuentre algo con esta clave y salga de la estrecha vía, de este inmenso túnel. Uno no sabe, la luz puede que sea la clave, la clave improvisada por algún genio. Todos somos genios todos somos artistas todos vivimos buscando una emoción siempre más indefinible y es por eso que el silencio es vital, el grito es vital, la música azul es vital, el río de lana también va a parar al mar y allí llegaremos los dos cuando reventemos a menos que entres mi hermano conmigo al ciclo y comprendas que tú tienes que desaparecer aunque no lo quieras y puedes contar solo contigo. Te dicen consume produce revienta y nadie los para; dicen, golpéate consume y revienta, muere y te dan duro. Pero uno que se alce, uno que se oponga uno que se levante y los mire de frente a los ojos, así de frente y a los ojos, sin cerrarlos ni parpadear y de pronto ruja fuerte como un león y les diga que vio chicos de Camboya trasplantados sobre los cielos de Paris, chicas peruanas en el infierno. Es que tú que crees que vienes a ver arte te has pasado la vida buscando un un un centro de gravedad permanente. No soy como tú me quieres, yo no soy como tú quieres que sea para detener el genocidio infame de especies salvajes, fauna flora humanos por doquier que gimen se golpean mueren resucitan languidecen, caminan impávidos, bailan y gozan sin saber que por ahí vaga la luz azul, azul es la luz y durará durará pero también se desvanecerá si es que no logramos escapar de la alienación cotidiana en los parques, autobuses, tu en tu casa querido amigo que crees que el arte es algo así, algo extraño. Hay gente diferente del otro mundo menos mal omnipresente, que se une y baila, camina con nosotros. Oigo una música y me da la clave, azul la música y me da la clave, tal vez encuentre algo con esta clave y salga de la estrecha vía, de este inmenso túnel. Uno no sabe, la luz puede que sea la clave, la clave improvisada por algún genio. Todos somos genios todos somos artistas todos vivimos buscando una emoción siempre más indefinible y es por eso que el silencio es vital, el grito es vital, la música azul es vital, el río de lana también va a parar al mar y allí llegaremos los dos cuando reventemos a menos que entres mi hermano conmigo al ciclo y comprendas que tú.

• Happenings

Artists: Laura Barrón, Dianna Frid, Alexandra Gelis, Pablo Helguera, Manolo Lugo, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Eugenio Salas, José Seoane, José Luis Torres, and Clarissa Tossin.

Clarissa Tossin: TransAMERICAS: a sign, a situation, a concept
September 10, 2016 – December 11, 2016
Museum London
Ontario, Canada

In TransAMERICAS: a sign, a situation, a concept, artists examine relationships formed between people and places, including resonant and often overlapping themes of community, travel, bridges and language. The contemporary practices featured in the exhibition go beyond Eurocentric conceptions of Latin American culture, transcending stereotypical and reductive views of the fantastic or exotic. The artists live and work in Canada, the United States, and Southwestern Ontario, which have diverse communities of people of Latin American heritage. This presence is increasing, contributing narratives to the national and continental experience.

• Happenings

Artist: Pablo Siquier 

Hostile
September 15 – November 3, 2016
Sicardi Gallery
Houston, Texas

• Happenings

Artists: Adán Vallecillo, Bruno Baptistelli, Elena Damiani, Engel Leonardo, Johanna Unzueta, Michael Gunzburger, Monika Bravo, Montez Magno, Omar Barquet, Otto Berchem

• Happenings

Artist: Nuno Ramos 

O Globo da morte de tudo
September 3, 2016 – November 6, 2016
Sesc Pompeia
São Paulo, Brazil

• Happenings

Artist: Felipe Mujica

32nd Bienal de São Paulo – INCERTEZA VIVA
September 7, 2016 – December 11, 2016
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil

Mujica presents the work Las Universidades Desconocidas [The Unknown Universities], constituted of a group of 30 curtains made by two different teams: half of them in the center of São Paulo and the other half in the outskirts of the city. The title comes from a book of poems by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño, which proposes something like an abstract place where we can all relate to, it alludes to autonomy, suggests how one person is basically its own best guide. The artist reports that during his stay in São Paulo the trips between the center and the outskirts became his Unknown University, just like making the work on a horizontal dialogue with the fabricators and all the experience lived throughout this process.

The public also brings its own unknown universities that end up projected onto the work: the curtains are manipulable, the public can touch them and move them in the space making various combinations between them. Interacting with the work is in it self an act of learning and an opportunity. In 3 months, by the end of the show, the curtains will possibly be used and dirty after a period of multiple configurations created and lived by the public.

–

Mujica apresenta o trabalho Las Universidades Desconocidas [As Universidades Desconhecidas], constituído por um grupo de 30 cortinas feitas por duas equipes diferentes: metade no centro de São Paulo e a outra metade na periferia da cidade. O título vem de um livro de poemas do escritor chileno Roberto Bolaño, que propõe algo como um lugar abstrato com o qual todos podem se relacionar, nos remete à autonomia, sugere como uma pessoa é basicamente sua própria guia. O artista relata que na sua estadia em São Paulo as viagens entre o centro e a periferia foram a sua Universidade Desconhecida, assim como construir o trabalho num diálogo horizontal com os fabricantes e toda a experiência vivida durante esse processo.

O público também traz as suas próprias universidades desconhecidas que acabam projetadas no trabalho: as cortinas são manipuláveis, o público pode tocá-las e move-las no espaço formando diversas combinações entre elas. Esse próprio gesto de interagir com a obra é por si só um ato de aprendizagem, uma oportunidade. Ao final dos 3 meses de exposição, as cortinas estarão possivelmente gastas e sujas, após um período de múltiplas configurações criadas e vivenciadas pelo público.

• Happenings

Artists: Amelia Toledo, Angélica Teuta, Antonio Manuel, Arnaldo Antunes, assume vivid astro focus, Carlito Carvalhosa, Carlos Fajardo, Damián Ortega, Débora Bolsoni, Iole de Freitas, Iran do Espírito Santo, Iván Navarro, Jac Leirner, José Bechara, José Resende, Laura Belém, Lea Van Steen e Raquel Kogan, Lucia Koch, Marcia Xavier, Marcius Galan, Nuno Ramos, Rodrigo Bueno, Túlio Pinto, Vanderlei Lopes, Waltercio Caldas

Transparência e Reflexo
September 7, 2016 – October 30, 2016
Museo Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBE)
São Paulo, Brazil

• Happenings

Artist: Clarissa Tossin

Clarissa Tossin: Encontro Das Águas (Meeting of Waters)
October 8, 2016 – November 20, 2016
JOAN
Los Angeles, CA, USA

• Happenings

Artist: Clemencia Labin 

LA EXTRANJERA – DIE FREMDE – THE FOREIGNER
September 9, 2016 – October 15, 2016
Galerie Renate Kammer
Hamburg, Germany

• Happenings

Artists: Alexander Apóstol, Bob and Roberta Smith, Camila Botero, Monika Bravo, Lisa Castagner, Jaime Gili, Lothar Goetz, Justin Hibbs, Polonca Lovšin with Tomaz Tomažin, Adriana Minoliti, Santiago Reyes Villaveces, Engel Leonardo, Lucía Pizzani, Lizi Sánchez, Paul Jones, Manuel Saiz and Annalisa Sonzogni.

CONCRETE
CONCRETE is curated by Jaime Gili in conjunction with the PC80 committee
September 17 –  25, 2016
Pullman Court
London, UK

In the 80th anniversary of the building, its residents are organising a series of events throughout the year to celebrate Pullman Court’s architecture and raise awareness of what it means universally, for the country, for the city and also locally, for the residents themselves. Events include talks, workshops, tours, an exhibition of historic photographs from the RIBA archive, and CONCRETE, an exhibition showcasing 17 international contemporary artists invited to work within the building.

Eleven years ago, under the umbrella of the 2005 London Open House, an exhibition entitled nineteenthirtysix took place across Pullman Court. On that occasion, three artists celebrated its uniqueness and the historical spaces of the building. In 2016, CONCRETE, will show some of the original works from the first show, alongside new site-specific commissions by artists who are resident or familiar with Pullman Court, and by some who are new to it but who deal with modern heritage and/or the city in their works. Back in 2005, the main issue was to raise awareness of modern heritage in Britain with one fine example, helping to confront a tendency to blame certain modern architecture for many social ills, overlooking issues like maintenance and investment. The artists exhibiting in CONCRETE will reflect on this, on the Modernist forms and elegance, and on the city as a whole, on the way people live in its spaces, and the way politics and the economy force changes on the city and its inhabitants.

Artists and audience will be able to see Pullman Court as an early example of high rise living that has influenced later housing developments, with its apartments set around services and amenities that organise life in a way that has become common nowadays.

• Happenings

Artists: Jin-me Yoon, Faye HeavyShield, Terry Frost, T. R. Uthco and Ant Farm, Shelley Niro, Soledad Arias, Laura Vickerson.

Soledad Arias: Some more or less distant realities
July 11-September 5, 2016
Walter Phillips Gallery, Satellite Space
Alberta, Canada

The exhibition comprises works from the Walter Phillips Gallery permanent collection, which was founded in 1977. Echoing the logic of Breton’s idea of the image, Some more or less distant realities is curated using the exquisite corpse method—a Surrealist technique employed to create (poems, images) collectively. Multiple individuals such as curators, artists and arts workers have selected the works in this exhibition through a process of sequential choices.

• Happenings

Artist: Elena Damiani 

Impact Structures
August 18, 2016 – September 24, 2016
Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden

Working with collage, sculpture, video and installations Peruvian artist Elena Damiani employs the disciplines of geology, geography, cartography, archaeology and astronomy to reinterpret such categorisations and the way we understand the world around us. Her fictional and constructed landscapes propose alternative readings of geological time, history and humankind’s classifications of evidence. For her first exhibition at Galerie Nordenhake Damiani uses sources such as NASA, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey repository to present a framework of quasi-evidence on celestial bodies like meteorites and comets and their landfalls. The works in the exhibition comprise documentation of traces of surface impacts, celestial transits, and cosmic debris left by impact events. Scientific evidence merges with fiction revealing how technology informs our representations of nature, and examining what we actually know about the natural world and how that knowledge is produced.

• Happenings

Jaime Davidovich (1936-2016)

Abstraction in Action is saddened to announce the passing of Jaime Davidovich, who died on August 27 in New York.

My taped projects are about surfaces, context and space.

I first started working with adhesive tape in 1966. Initially I used the tape to hold my paintings to the wall, but starting in 1970 I eliminated the painting and concentrated on the tapes as my primary medium. I wanted to explore the possibilities of using spaces where the viewer does not expect art to be found. This concept brought me to intervene staircases, landing platforms and outdoor walls and objects. Each work was created for a unique space. When covering a surface, the tape creates an additive grid full of amorphous patterns caused by air bubbles. When developing a tape project, sometimes paper or a photograph was the support and framework for the piece, but many times the project was able to become monumental as it seamlessly adapted to the architecture of the space. Also in 1970, I began to incorporate videotape as part of these projects. The taped projects became “Art on tape and tapes as art”.

• Happenings

Artist: Adriana Minoliti 

Aichi Triennale 2016
August 11, 2016 — October 23, 2016
Toyohashi, Okazaki, Nagoya, Japan

Combining elements of architecture, design and visual arts, Minoliti’s works disclose a political and historiographic dialogue between eroticism and abstraction. Informed by queer and feminist theories, the artist’s paintings and installations play with gender pictorially, mixing spiritual values and aesthetics appreciations. The human body and geometric figures alike are charged with porn-erotic desires.

• Happenings

Artists: Carmen Argote, Cirilo Domine, Naotaka Hiro, Owen Driggs, Peter Bo Rappmund, Clarissa Tossin.

Placebound
August 28, 2016 – October 2, 2016
Curated by Bia Gayotto
Nan Rae Gallery, Woodbury University
Burbank, California

• Happenings

Artist: Eduardo Santiere

Multitudes
July 27, 2016 – September 7, 2016
Henrique Faria 
Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is Eduardo Santiere’s medium and matter: surface and volume. With graphite, colored pencils, sharp materials and infinite meticulousness, Santiere composes universes whose scale we cannot be sure of. He constructs a Scenario for an Empty World [Escenario para un mundo vacío] – one of his “scratchings” on exhibit – subjecting the paper’s surface to incisions and tearings that liberate it from the pressure that made it smooth and regular. He brings out sculptural reliefs that lightly dangle from the matter they have been detached from. It is a question of a morphological transformation that moves from the void to abundance.

The paper’s two-dimensionality is just as roughly subjugated in the works in which Santiere uses conventional drawing materials. Light graphite lines surround or connect points of color of various densities, colored ovoid forms – flat or on lacerated paper – are interconnected — the paper erupts and spumes like foam. We lose ourselves in studying the position, shape, movement and mutual relation of the microorganisms or heavenly bodies hovering over the white of the page. We waver between surrendering to arbitrariness or hunting for a system.

• Happenings

Artists: Feliza Bursztyn, Leyla Cárdenas, Johanna Calle, Danilo Dueñas, César González, Rosario López, Maria Fernanda Plata, Alex Rodríguez, Luis Roldán, Rosemberg Sandoval, Bernardo Salcedo e Icaro Zorbar.

Pensamiento escultórico
July 22, 2016 – August 27, 2016
Casas Riegner
Bogotá, Colombia

Nowadays, the term sculpture holds certain ambiguity. Throughout the twentieth century, the artistic category of sculpture remained fragile partly due to the fact that most of the significant accounts of modernist art were articulated in relation to painting. In addition, during the late 1960’s the term sculpture was stretched and made malleable so as to cover highly heterogeneous forms, thus moving away from the so called medium specificity that used to define it. Feeling the need to bring order to the field in which contemporary sculpture operated and attempting to  fight the so-called pluralism that characterized much of the art that was being  produced after 1968, Rosalind Krauss published her seminal essay “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” (1978).

Besides taking inspiration from the precepts and intentions laid out by Krauss in her famous essay, the exhibition Pensamiento Escultórico  is put forward as a space for reflecting about sculpture.  By questioning the extent to which sculpture has changed as a result of this transformation from object like to installation-oriented work, the exhibition seeks, among other things, to highlight the body’s experience in relation to the three-dimensional work. The absence of some of the traditional ways of producing sculpture such as carving, casting and modelling, the occasional elimination or renewal of the pedestal, the use of highly charged materials and the act of undoing the substance from which the work is made of, are all strategies that while going beyond the limits of traditional artistic canons, point to a constant rethinking of  the artists’ sculptural perspectives.

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Artists: Ricardo Alcaide, Abdulaziz Ashour, Ernesto Caivano, Darío Escobar, Fernanda Fragateiro, Simryn Gill, Anne Lindberg, Yuri Masnyj, Julianne Swartz, Yuken Teruya, Rirkrit Tiravanija & Tomas Vu, Adam Winner.

good news.
July 28 – August 29, 2016
Josée Bienvenu Gallery 
New York, USA

good news., an exhibition of international artists working on and off paper to deconstruct and reconfigure information. With the daily deluge of bad news at our fingertips, we become disoriented in our distanced yet simultaneously intimate sense of connectedness to the world.

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Artist: Luis Roldán

Periplo
July 13, 2016 – October 10, 2016
Museo de Arte del Banco de la República
Bogotá, Colombia

La obra de Luis Roldán está determinada por un claro interés hacía la pintura, ya sea por las posibilidades de representación o por la expresividad de sus cualidades; la suya ha sido una trayectoria prolífica de más de treinta años, que lo han posicionado como uno de los artistas contemporáneos de Colombia con mayor reconocimiento a nivel internacional. En Luis Roldán. Periplo, la retrospectiva que presenta desde el 13 de julio hasta el 10 de octubre el Museo de Arte del Banco de la República de Bogotá, se exhiben 60 obras que, más allá de hacer una revisión cronológica, indagan la manera como el artista presenta y representa el acontecer del tiempo íntimo, el tiempo del viaje, el tiempo de la ficción y el tiempo de la creación artística.

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Artist: Sigfredo Chacón

Pinturasparadaltónicos
July 17, 2016 – September 18, 2016
Trasnocho Cultural
Caracas, Venezuela

La exposición Pinturasparadaltónicos del artista venezolano Sigfredo Chacón (Caracas, 1950), presenta una selección de obras sobre tela y papel realizadas entre 2011 y 2016, donde el autor propone un alfabeto cromático diferente al que se maneja convencionalmente, basado en la percepción de sus dos hijos daltónicos. Aquí, como en parte de su obra precedente, establece un contrapunto entre lo visual y lo textual, poniendo al descubierto la no coincidencia entre el color estándar y sus equivalentes daltonianos.

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Artists: Richard Garet and Crystal Z. Campbell

Sound One
July 19, 2016 — August 12, 2016
Cindy Rucker Gallery
New York, USA

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Artists: Augusto Ballardo, José Ignacio Iturburu, Valentino Sibadon, Carlos Zevallos and Danilo Filtrof

VEJIGA DE PEZ VoL. IV – INMERSIÓN
June 16, 2016 – September 11, 2016
MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORANEO / MAC-Lima
Lima, Perú

Vejiga de Pez (Fish Bladder) is a group of visual artists dedicated to exploring the relationships between geometry, space, and natural processes. Each artist focuses on a personal concern, addressed by materializing certain reference points in architecture, archaeology, and biology. The result is a series of interventions—site specific art—where interaction with the visitor forms part of the creative process. Despite the differences that one may note among the works, the underlying artistic language is the same in each case: geometry.

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Artists: Claudia Andujar, Margarita Azurdia, Nicolás Bacal, Manuel Casanueva, Gregorio Cuartas, Magdalena Fernández, Marcius Galan, Mónica Giron, César González, Gertrude “Gego” Goldschmidt, Ariel Guzik, Mateo López, Anna Maria Maiolino, Felipe Mujica, Gabriel Orozco, John Mario Ortiz, Nicolás París, Carlos Rojas, Bispo do Rosario, Armando Reverón, Xul Solar, Juan Diego Tobalina.

De lo Espiritual en el Arte. Obertura
July 14th, 2016 – September 11, 2016
Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín
Medellín, Colombia

Es probable que la noción de lo integral sea tan decisiva a esta centuria como la de relatividad lo fue para el siglo XX.

Las ideas que se han trazado hasta el momento con el fin de superar la emergencia ecológica demandan con urgencia el reemplazo de los modelos que amenazan la continuidad de la existencia en el planeta, por prácticas integrales que van de la mano de comprensiones sistémicas y holísticas.

Los desarrollos alcanzados hasta el momento por las ciencias naturales y humanas ofrecen oportunidades ideales para llegar a esas metas. A ellos se debe la existencia de herramientas de conocimiento, investigación, educación, conexión y difusión como no hubo antes en la historia y, también, la claridad de que las actitudes integrales son inconcebibles sin el desarrollo de la consciencia espiritual y sin una educación diseñada con ese propósito.

Los análisis sistémicos revelan el desequilibrio que conlleva el favorecimiento de la razón sobre otros ámbitos de la vida y fortalecen el interés en formas de conocimiento generadas en la órbita del espíritu. Estas formas advierten que desde el territorio del espíritu se ingresa con respeto hacia otra ciencia que es exigente, compleja, complementaria a la empírica, y que emerge en un espacio distinto: el interior.

A ese respecto, el arte representa un invaluable campo vivo de observación y entendimiento en tanto que es uno de los medios que le da rostros al espíritu. En esa medida, su historia guarda una herencia apreciable cuya investigación y reinterpretación contribuye a recuperar lo que largos años de materialismo y dominio de la razón ensombrecieron. A causa de la inmensidad y variedad de su riqueza, sin embargo, esta herencia tomará años de estudio y recuperaciones.

Con esa consciencia, esta exhibición fue concebida como una obertura, como el ingreso desde distintas sendas a un universo enorme, múltiple y en eterna y necesaria construcción. De allí que los artistas contemporáneos, cuyas obras representan caminos de exploración necesarios para las comprensiones a que se ha abierto el presente, compartan estas salas con grandes maestros de la historia del arte que los han influido directa o indirectamente, ya sea como pilares de su gramática visual o como intérpretes que abarcan el mundo al que pertenecen y que con su contribución descubren de modo continuo.

El común denominador que une a estos artistas, que trabajan desde distintos lugares e intereses, es el desarrollo lúcido de las visiones complejas y unitarias que se requieren hoy, las cuales reclaman un lugar importante en el diálogo en el que se definen las nuevas convenciones que representarán al ser y al universo.

Sin que necesariamente pertenezcan a una religión, algunos de los artistas aquí convocados se alimentaron de los saberes codificados en ellas, o en las herencias ancestrales, con la idea de desentrañar las lecciones que nos dan sobre luz, geometría, matemática, y sobre la manera en que éstas estructuran la forma o la materia. De este modo, rescataron culturas y filosofías arcanas que en la actualidad son de gran interés y mantuvieron vibrando para nosotros el espacio de la sabiduría milenaria.

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Artists: José Carlos Martinat, Iosu Aramburu, Jaime Gili, Asger Dybvad Larsen, Ricardo Rendón, Saul Sánchez, Fernando Carabajal, Wolfram Ullrich, Emilio Chapela, Justin Hibbs,Károly Keserü, Dannielle Tegeder, Martín Pelenur, G.T. Pellizzi, Mario Palacios Kaim.

Abstraction 2
July 9, 2016 – September 10, 2016
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Abstraction 2 aims to capture the current state of contemporary abstraction, highlighting the differences and similarities displayed in the artistic practice of fifteen national and international artists.

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Artist: Guido Ignatti 

Guido Ignatti: Setup
July 1, 2016 – September 11, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver
Denver, USA

Trained as a sculptor and set designer, Guido Ignatti uses simple materials to stage situations that transform everyday urban life. Ignatti’s four installations on view at MCA Denver will form a trajectory, beginning with an intimate gallery of abstract paintings, moving through an arrangement of modified plants, and culminating with a room-sized sculpture and a mural that combines poetry and political graffiti.

By setting up environments that oscillate between the ordinary and the enigmatic, he invites reflection on art’s pleasures and pitfalls – on what art can offer and withhold. Guido Ignatti: Setup is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the US.

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Artist: Elias Crespin

Hommage au Carré
July 10, 2016 – September 11, 2016
Galerie Wagner
Paris, France

Résolument engagée dans la présentation et la promotion de l’abstraction géométrique, la Galerie Wagner propose une présentation d’œuvres de 25 artistes sur le thème du carré. Cet accrochage fait écho à la donation André Le Bozec au Musée du Touquet. Cette donation comporte quatre vingt dix œuvres d’artistes qui sont, pour une dizaine d’entre eux, représentés par la galerie Wagner, dont Guy de Lussigny pour qui le carré est « la forme la plus stable qu’ait inventé l’esprit humain ».

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Artists: Miguel Acosta, Alfredo Alvarez Plagaro, Ana Isabel Diez, Florencio Gelabert, Sonia Falcone, Mabel Poblet, Martin Pelenur, Viviana Zargon.

Fragmentations and other Parables
June 16, 2016 – August 6, 2016
Alejandra von Hartz Gallery
Curated by: Aluna Curatorial Collective
Miami, Florida

Fragmentation and other parables, curated by Aluna Curatorial Collective (Adriana Herrera and Willy Castellanos) at Alejandra von Hartz Gallery is an approximation to the recurrence, meaning, and the logic of fragmentation in contemporary artistic practices: Is it true that it disrupts the threads of connection with history or could it suggest other types of relations to the past and the present? What are the contemporary parables that suggest fragmentation in art?

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Artist: Sigfredo Chacón

Pinturasparadaltónicos / Colorblindpaintings
July 17, 2016
Transnocho Cultural
Caracas, Venezuela

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Artist: Ricardo Alcaide 

Down the Line
June 8, 2016 – July 8, 2016
Johannes Vogt Gallery
New York, New York

Alcaide’s site-specific floor installation investigates notions of instability in urban environments as a result of the mistranslation of modernism and its inherent concept of progress to Latin America.

Alcaide has used the gallery’s white cube space as a studio to create a series of sculptural painting-panels in varying sizes that are presented horizontally on the floor. In order to make these works the artist mounts wooden slats onto the surface of the panels whilst applying glossy polyurethane paint regularly used in car shops. The screwed in slats leave marks on the paint underneath once removed, like remnants of the history of its making. Within Alcaide’s installation each work follows its own linear composition while engaging a dialogue with the works in its immediate proximity. In a flow of push-and-pull, the repetitive character of the compositional methods used by the artist alludes to the sometimes monotonous formalistic appeal of modernist architecture.

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Artists: Alice Quaresma and Jauyoung Yoon

Threaded
July 5th – July 29th
Flatiron Project Space
New York, USA

An exhibition of work by SVA Summer Residency program alumni Alice Quaresma (Brazil/U.S.) and Jayoung Yoon (Korea/U.S.). “Threaded” investigates the psychic strands and physical sinews connecting an individual to her environment, while acknowledging the complex interaction of time, space and memory. Hailing from geographically opposed corners of the globe, and both currently living and working in the New York area, Quaresma and Yoon each refer back to their origins with intimate and architectural gestures enacted in two- three- and four-dimensional space.

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Artist: Bernardo Ortiz 

Borrar
May 18, 2016 – October 9, 2016
Museo de Arte Moderno 
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La obra de Bernardo Ortiz (Bogotá, Colombia, 1972) explora los territorios del dibujo, la escritura y la tipografía, y cruza la delicada frontera entre la obra de arte que se crea escribiendo y el dibujo que forma parte de un texto mayor: el de la práctica cotidiana del artista.

Ortiz es un artista preocupado por el acto de ver y sus dobleces. Con su trabajo, nos invita a agudizar la mirada y a preguntarnos cómo se construye una imagen y qué constituye una obra de arte. Y nos provoca abiertamente al titular su exposición Borrar.

Para esta exhibición en el Moderno, Bernardo Ortiz ha producido una estructura arquitectónica especialmente diseñada para la ocasión, con el objetivo de permitir el despliegue de obras y dibujos. El espectador recorrerá la instalación descubriendo las operaciones poéticas de un artista dedicado obsesivamente a hacer posibles nuevos vínculos entre el texto y la imagen, que dejan de lado toda grandilocuencia para enfatizar la importancia del pequeño gesto artístico cotidiano y su potencial de transformación.

Ortiz se define como “dibujante” y señala: “Siempre he pensado que el dibujo permite mantener viva la potencialidad de lo que no fue hecho. Dibujar es una forma de hacer visible algo que todavía no existe del todo. Una ingeniera diseñando un puente, alguien que dibuja un mapa para otra persona, etc.”.

Sus medios son simples: una hoja de papel, un retazo de seda, una computadora portátil, tinta o un lápiz negro y duro. Esta modestia de recursos impone un ritual riguroso para la creación de ciertos trabajos: el regreso cotidiano a diversas series de obras a través de las cuales el artista se compromete a usar el dibujo para hacer visible el paso del tiempo.

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Artist: Emilia Azcárate

Full Emptiness / El vacío lleno
May 27, 2016 – July 30, 2016
Miami Biennale
Miami, Florida

Azcárate’s works on paper, canvas and board, present unique forms of conceptualizing and synthesizing her spirituality and artistic practice. The installations shown in the gallery space highlight color, concentric compositions and forms of calligraphy and serve as a visual counterpoint to the permanent installation of James Turrell’s Coconino (2007). The disciplines of Azcárate’s meditation practice carry her through her art making, providing a structure that allows for the blurring between internal reflection and participation in the frenetic activity of contemporary society.

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Artists: Esvin Alarcón Lam, tepeu choc, Diana de Solares, Darío Escobar, Patrick Hamilton.

Overlap/ Traslape
Opens June 1, 2016
The 9.99 Gallery 
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Three dialogues are established with three different processes that relate to the idea of overlapping and superimposing elements, time, generations, and actions:

The first dialogue is a interaction in relation to mostly urban landscape in combination with the materials used.

Alejandro Almanza Pereda presents “Horror Vacui (Escena invernal No.1)” [Winter Scene No.1] (2014). From a snowy landscape, Almanza Pereda builds a cement structure that extends beyond the work’s frame to cover the entire wall. The seemingly accidental look of the quasi-action-painting-type dripping acquires a new connotation due to the material and the space extending beyond the painting.

In the same manner, Esvin Alarcón Lam’s  “Desplazamiento No.9” [Displacement No.9] (2016) also plays with the space outside the frame. Like a passageway leading to another dimension, the work created out of bus parts establishes an  association between the urban landscape and public transportation.

This dialogue ends with tepeu choc’s “Registration No.1” (2016) made out of the plastic material utilized in the informal economy. In it, a series of cut outs call to mind construction tool silhouettes.

The second dialogue is established by the works’s geometric elements such as line, figure, and volume.

Darío Escobar’s “Quetzalcoatl IV” (2004) plays with notions of stability between the undulating bicycle tires, as they surrender their circular shape to gravity laws, and the bronze counterweights.

The piece by Luis Diaz, “The Gukumatz in person” (1971), like Escobar’s work, references the (serpent) deity’s undulating movement: this time in its Quiché appellation, and in a more stable manner derived from flexible wooden sections that adapt to different crawling movements. These sharp forms make a return to verticality in “Chuzo” (2012-2016), a construction-tool-like work by Patrick Hamilton.

In “Sin título” (Untitled) (2015), a drawing by Diana de Solares, assorted color layers generate movement related to air and the kind found in children’s pinwheels. Thus, varying elements of nature come together and overlap in this work.

Finally, the third overlapping dialogue emerges between a spiritual perspective  and the physical body. The indigo and turquoise of Sandra Monterroso’s cotton yarn, “Expoliada III” (Despoiled III) (2016) series, colors associated with water, represent the varying tonalities of rainfall through time.

Meanwhile, in Isabel Ruiz’s “Vuelo de las Mariposas” (Flight of Butterflies) (2016 ), the set of opposing crutches reminds us of the body’s fragility: The before-and-after of a transition between what is natural and what the fire has consumed.

In Diego Sagastume’s photographs, we return to the urban landscape of painted walls and open skies whose tonalities show the passage of time, also found in Christian Lord’s “(Mira)anda IV” ((Look)go IV) (2015), a work that through wordplay, invites us to contemplation and to walk, suggested by the circle’s forward movement.

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Artist: Cristina Ghetti

stripe – generators
May 19, 2016 – July 30, 2016
Galería Punto
Valencia, Spain

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Artists: Emilia Azcárate, Emilio Chapela, Eduardo Costa, Jaime Davidovich, Diana de Solares, Karina Peisajovich, Osvaldo Romberg, Luis Roldán, Eduardo Santiere, Horacio Zabala.

Imagining Spaces: Constructions in Color and Text
June 23, 2016 – August 19, 2016
Henrique Faria
New York, NY

Imagining Spaces: Constructions in Color and Text, a group exhibition focused on the formal and thematic elements of color and text in Latin American art of the last sixty years. The exhibition framework is based on the premise that color and text are two major building blocks of creative expression, and can therefore be seen as architectural components of a given composition.

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Artist: Gabriel de la Mora 

Gabriel de la Mora: Sound Inscriptions on Fabric
July 15, 2016 – September 2, 2016
The Drawing Center
New York, NY

Gabriel de la Mora is best known for constructing visual works from found, discarded, and obsolete objects, such as eggshells and shoe soles. De la Mora describes these objects, which have outlived their usefulness, as caches for historical information about everyday life. In his exhibition at The Drawing Center, De la Mora will present an installation of fifty-five pairs of found speaker screens. Each screen is imprinted with an inscription created by the dust and air that circulated through the speaker during its life, recording the cadence of countless voices, advertisements, news broadcasts, soap operas, football games, and music, as well as noise, interference, and silence.

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Artist: Jose Dávila

The Elephant and the Feather
May 6, 2016 – September 4, 2016
Marfa Contemporary
Curated by Dr. Natalie Maria Roncone
Marfa, Texas

Introducing a particular interest in Western culture, the imagery comprised within the artist’s work is based on a deep approach to architecture and art history. This allows him to create tautological games regarding the legacy of the 20th century avant-gardes. Recently, the artist has explored photography and documents as a means of registration, and their possibilities of resignification. These media lets him to appeal to the imagination and generate new perspectives on artistic tradition.

In the same vein, Dávila has recently developed a series of sculptures whose structural work is based on the arrangement and overlapping of material elements such as boulders, glass and marble, kept in balance with industrial ratchet straps. The functional articulation of these materials is a comment on the historical distance between different artistic practices.

Davila’s work addresses the question about the limits of instrumental values through the use of common materials to create sculptures, objects and installation. Frequently, the nature of these materials approaches both, architecture construction as well as formal artistic production, which subscribe his work to principles coined by Minimalism and Arte Povera. Dávila has also manifested a special interest in the use and occupation of space, issues that have been present throughout his career.

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Artist: Fernando Uhía

Impresionismo Multinacional
May 19, 2016 – June 28, 2016
Galería Nueveochenta Arte Contemporáneo
Bogotá, Colombia

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Artist: Amadeo Azar

Shadowplay
May 11, 2016 – June 25, 2016
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

“…certain types of perception of the world are poetic themselves. Everything that helps to dissolve the boundaries, making the world a homogeneous and poorly differentiated whole, is impregnated with poetic power (is the case of fog or twilight). Some objects have poetic impact, not as objects alone, but by breaking the delimitation of space and time with their mere presence, they induce a special psychological state. Poetry is not just another language; it’s a whole new beholding. One way to see the world, all objects in the world (both highways and serpents, flowers and parking lots).”¹ 

“… There is a dual operation at work, the desire to recreate a historical piece, on one hand, and to reinterpret geometric abstraction on the other. This dual intent is characteristic of the works Azar has made in recent years, accomplishing a strange association of scale and mood, a peculiar combination of figuration and abstraction, the coexistence of diverse temporalities: we see in them the image of something that once was coupled with new ways presented as a viable artistic path, today.” ²

“An image is an act, not a thing.” ³

“Using modernity as a catapult, as starting point for exploring new landscapes. Scrape the golden aura of modern practice, taking it closer to the imperfection of real societies to expose the corrosive air of today, to loosen the rust of the past and adapt to local hybrids. There is a new facade that makes use of the foundations planted in the quicksands of the tropic, where everything is malleable and voluptuous. An artistic act becomes transcendental when it crosses several layers of reality through its core, that’s when art, sharing the same room with the social and the political, becomes a historical event.  Abstraction builds a bridge to a world of ideas, built with ropes and lumber, where some steps are missing and others are loose or hanging. There is a musical curiosity in all creative processes, intuitive and poetic where we approach to Vanguardism as an extension of tyranny.” ⁴

1 Intervention 2, Michel Houellebecq, Flamitron, 2009.
2 El camino a la Semilla, Alejandra Aguado, 2015.
3 Jean Paul Sartre
4 Amadeo Azar

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Artist: Emilio Chapela

No Pain, No Brain
April 28, 2016 – June 18, 2016
Henrique Faria Fine Art
New York, NY

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Artist: Bernardo Ortiz

Borrar
Solo show curated by Victoria Noorthoorn
May 14, 2016 – October 9, 2016
MAMBA Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina

The work of Bernardo Ortiz (Bogota, 1972) explores the territories of drawing, writing and typography, and crosses the delicate boundary between the work of art that is created by writing and the drawing that is part of a larger narrative: the daily practice of an artist.

For this exhibition at MAMBA, Ortiz produced an architectural structure specially for the occasion, in order to enable the development of works and drawings. The visitor will go through the installation discovering the poetic operations of an artist obsessively dedicated to making possible new links between text and image, leaving aside all grandiloquence to emphasize the importance of small daily artistic gestures and its potential for transformation.

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Artist: Richard Garet

Screen Memory
April 28, 2016 – June 11, 2016
Galerie Burster
Berlin, Germany

Richard Garet’s artistic approach is characterized by an interdisciplinary interweaving of various media such as sound, moving image, expanded photography and multimedia performance. By activating sensorial, physical and psychological stimuli, his works draw the observer’s attention to the processes of perception and time.

Garet’s work was featured in the first sound art exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art of New York, MoMA; soundings: a contemporary score in 2013, with Garet being selected to join the show as one of the sixteen most innovative artists working with sound as a medium today. Recognizing his work solely in the genre of sound art however will certainly not satisfy to describe his oeuvre on the whole.

In screen memory, his very first solo show at galerie burster – and his first solo show in Europe – Garet‘s selected body of work extracts his interest in experimenting with mixing media and material, shifting borders back and forth within various media and beyond, hovering between digital and analogue – in order to create an aesthetic, sonic, above all immersive perceptual experience.

With installative choreographies such as seen in untitled series painting semiotics or with digital-print series such as activated void, Garet refers to his background in visual art – he studied painting in New York in the nineties – but remaining true to his artistic approach he consequently transfers his pictorial experience into a digital context: The layering buildup and the relationship to malleability and materiality find themselves now translated into various ‚new‘ media such as sound, video art and installation to name a few.

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Artists: Johanna Reich (Alemania), Shazia Sikander (Paquistán), Santiago Sierra (España), Claudia del Fierro (Chile), Adel Abidin (Iraq), Karlo Ibarra (Puerto Rico), Rosell Meseguer (España/Chile), Kaoru Katayama (Japón), Jose Angel Toirac (Cuba), Enrique Ramírez (Chile), Maja Bajevic (Bosnia), Pedro Tyler (Chile), Katri Walker (Escocia), Marc Bijl (Paises Bajos) y Krisdy Shindler (Canadá).

Land or Liberty! On Patriotism, Nationalism and Populism
April 14, 2016 – June 12, 2016
M100 – Centro Cultural Matucana 100
Santiago, Chile

Si tuvieras que elegir entre patria o libertad, ¿qué escogerías? Es la invitación que hace la nueva muestra de M100,  que reflexiona de forma crítica y aguda sobre el patriotismo, el nacionalismo y el populismo, que siguen provocando conflictos étnicos, políticos y religiosos. Guerras, refugiados y terrorismo.

Si por un lado el patriotismo es el amor hacia lo propio, las raíces y la tierra, el nacionalismo es una ideología agresiva que rechaza todo lo foráneo.

La exposición, una co-producción con el Museo COBRA de Ámsterdam y el MoCCA de Toronto, tiene a la vez dos puertas. Una de la patria y la otra de la libertad, que harán que cada visitante haga su propio recorrido. Himnos nacionales, banderas, héroes y uniformes son manifestaciones visibles de los sistemas políticos. Estos y otros símbolos son utilizados por los artistas en esta reflexión.

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Artist: Martin Pelenur

Ballena
April 12, 2016 – until June
Curated by Martín Craciun
Centro Cultural Dodecá
Montevideo, Uruguay

Martin Pelenur will open his new solo exhibition Ballena (Whale) at Dodecá Cultural Center in Montevideo. Curated by Martín Craciun the exhibition encompasses a new series of painting within a site specific installation. The intervention transforms the exhibition space into a machine to produce and display an exercise about repetition and time.

“Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness. ”
– Geppetto talking to Pinoccio

A sequence of industrial materials and processes are obsessively sorted. The idea that the experience of paying close attention may result in a pleasurable activity in any context is quite relative. The truth is that visual intelligence is very important in the time of accelerated circulation of images. Therefore deceleration, along with the slowdown in time and perception are key strategies to study things in detail. As enunciated by Gustave Flaubert, God is in the details[1]. – a world of original information, graphics and forms, of synchronicity, of veil and reveal arrhythmias.

Pelenur transform the exhibition space into a workshop, a lab. He creates a system of materials, forms and processes. Pelenur´s blue whale is time and form; is it possible to control the outcome on the basis of catalysis? how to become a dabbler of chemicals and repetitive processes, a master of failure and controlled indeterminacy?. Varnish is here a physical medium to mold and shape, a vehicle for content and ideas. The challenges of life in art as its content are introduced by the artist.

The exhibition is an exercise that intends to translate into the exhibition hall Pelenur´s universe, with its timeframes and temporalities. The installation is a machine for producing and thinking. His personal challenge is to generate sufficient and structural thickness – micron varnish, accumulated in countless layers resting for weeks erected in industrial elements.

Pelenur has been dedicated to develop a sustained experiment on painting. He constantly seeks to modify his approach, resisting the comfort of trends and maintaining the freshness of a practice that he is passionate. Every experience nourishes the next to generate inputs for his next move.

[1] The phrase was attributed throughout history to Voltaire, Flaubert, Aby Warburg and Mies Van der Rohe.

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Artist: KIRIN

DIDERÓTICA
April 9th, 2016 -May 31st, 2016
Jorge Mara-La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Happenings

Artist: Horacio Zabala

La pureza está en la mezcla/Purity Is in the Mix
March, 2016 – July, 2016
Colección de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Horacio Zabala: La pureza está en la mezcla / Purity Is in the Mix,  is a retrospective exhibition curated by Rodrigo Alonso for the Colección de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat in Buenos Aires. It is open to the public until July  and it will travel to the Phoenix art Museum to inaugurate in October and will be on public view until March of 2017.

• Happenings

Artist: Omar Barquet

Syllables
May 11, 2016 – June 25, 2016
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

V

The passion on the wall, the knot to come, the birth. 

The sunless openings, the illuminated edge and its mourning. 

The battle between the red and the orange, the fresh wind 

of the memory of Greece where living is an experiment 

of atmospheres, of bones, of cuts and sinking.

Syllables is an interdisciplinary show inspired on the 5th melisma for Gunther Gerzso written by Mexican poet Francisco Hernández; conducted by Omar Barquet and integrated as the 6th movement of the Ghost Variations project.

Ghost Variations is an interdisciplinary proposal launched in 2012, composed of a sequence of six projects organized similarly to the movements of a symphony, and as a series of six experimental collaborations understood as fugues.

Together they pose an analogy to the disctint evolutionary phases of a hurricane, emulating its intensity and movements, like the sketch of a spiral shape, mainly reflecting on the perception of time and life through the transformation cycles of a landscape and the chaotic nature of our thoughts, depicting a pulse wich changes in intensity, and thus, the estate of things.

• Happenings

Artist: Nuno Ramos

O DIREITO À PREGUIÇA
April 27, 2016 – June 27, 2016
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Belo Horizonte, Brasil

Exposição do multiartista Nuno Ramos que traz a Belo Horizonte trabalhos inéditos, como as instalações Paredes (instalação); Balanças (instalação + performance); O direito à preguiça(órgão-andaime/instalação sonora). Além, de outras obras que ainda não foram vistas na capital mineira: No sé (instalação + performance); Confissões de uma máscara (Desenhos); Choro Negro (instalação escultórica).

Nuno Ramos é um dos mais importantes artistas brasileiros revelados na década de 80 e com contínua produção. Vem desenvolvendo trabalhos para diversas instituições nacionais e internacionais como a Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1982,198 e 1995), a Latinamerican Art of the Century, o Moma, em Nova Iorque (EUA), entre diversas outros. O trabalho de Nuno vem se diversificando em várias áreas das artes visuais, cênicas, sonoras e poéticas, com uma produção que inclui filmes, livros e letras de música.

Na mostra serão abordadas diversas temáticas da produção do artista, como a mistura entre música e grandes peças. A ocupação do espaço com obras de dimensões elevadas, que poderão ser observadas de diversos ângulos e que causam estranheza aos espectadores, uma das marcas de Nuno Ramos, também estarão presentes.

• Happenings

Artists: Felipe Arturo, Adrián S. Bará, Alberto Borea, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, Derek Franklin, Ximena Garrido- Lecca, Leor Grady, José Carlos Martinat, PS3* and Slobodan Stosic

DIVAGATION
Curated by Meyken Barreto, Carlos Garcia-Montero, Cecilia Jurado and ghostwriter.
May 6, 2016- May 30, 2016
Y Gallery 
New York, NY

The show brings together a group of international artists whose practice is characterized by a special sensitivity towards the aesthetic and symbolic potential of everyday materials and objects. Their approach to artistic creation is strongly informed by the context in which their work is produced and by the background from which they come. With different points of departure, from performative to space- based concepts, they investigate and generate narratives about contemporaneity. From Mexico, Peru, USA, Israel, Spain and Serbia, the artists gathered here address different topics from social or politics to contemplative or physics, but they are all joined by a peculiar way to transform their reality in poetic ways.

• Happenings

Artists: Ángela Wilson, Andrés Vio, Eugenia Vargas Pereira, Pedro Tyler, Catalina Prado, Francisco Peró, Teresa Ortúzar, Carolina Oltra, Lorenzo Moya, Catalina Mena, Alicia Larraín, Hernán Gana, Amelia Errázuriz y Rodrigo Bruna.

Lo Bello & lo Sublime
April 14, 2016 – May 21, 2016
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá – MAC
Bogotá, Colombia

El sentimiento más delicado, según Kant, se bifurca en dos especies; una es el sentimiento de lo bello y el otro es el sentimiento de lo sublime. Donde la afección para ambos es agradable, pero de manera muy diferente, así vemos que el día es bello y la astucia es pequeña y bella. Grandes lineamientos para comprender a este filosofo alemán, al expresar que el día es bello y la noche es sublime, esta sensacion tiene varios niveles, que van desde lo melancolico, al horror. Desde lo grande que es sublime a lo bello que es pequeño, pero nada es tan certero, ni tan definido. Asi se traspasan estas  especies provocando  sentimientos que nos llevan desde lo bello a lo sublime.

El entendimiento  es sublime, el ingenio es bello, la audacia es sublime y grandiosa, en esta construcción  arbitraria construida en el año 1765, al año siguiente en un compendio de notas, donde las cuestiones morales  y antropológicas hablan de un mundo eurocentrista, antes de aparecer  la extensión de lo sublime en el nuevo mundo, donde los caracteres asignados a lo europeo y sus diversas  nacionalidades dan paso las mesticismos, donde los aportes de los pueblos originarios unidos a lo europeos, más un nuevo ingrediente, que son las culturas africanas, producen seres con una historia llena de nuevas fuentes.  Las ideas de Kant se enriquecen y al citarlo, nos conduce a un desarrollo nuevo de interés.

Existen espacios inconclusos en el arte latinoamericano, producto de contingencias socio culturales y que son causantes de un desarrollo tardío en el quehacer local. Las peripecias de nuestro arte en lo formal se aprecian en salas donde se atiborran la recepción de proyectos que al final no dieron a la luz.  Lo social y politico, factores inherentes, se agrupan como testigos de los quehaceres de nuestros artistas.  En este plano esta exposición se compone en una revisión de nuestro arte, considerando lo interno, cuyos contenidos aluden a situaciones inherentes a las realidades contingentes.

• Happenings

Artist: Mauro Giaconi

From the Depths of Time
Until July 24, 2016
Museo Universitario Del Chopo
Mexico City, Mexico

The Argentine artist works against the boundaries of a discipline that is conventionally understood as marks on a surface. In his practice, he continually redefines the act of drawing using autobiographical reflection, historical references and his anchoringin a present-day commitment with the awareness of someone who has lived in different latitudes and grew up under a dictatorship.

The exhibition comprises three works that present his working processes: an ephemeral mural that covers the walls of the room, incorporating architectural elements from the museum’s immediate surroundings. The installation Alma (Soul) is made up of a heap of “rocks” formed from empty plastic bags. Finally, the museum’s storage room is used to project the video Línea transversal (Transversal Line), which records an action inspired by an episode from the military dictatorship in Uruguay.

• Happenings

Artist: Horacio Zabala 

Entre líneas
April 8, 2016 – May 9, 2016
Henrique Faria Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La muestra de Horacio Zabala que presenta la galería Henrique Faria y que lleva por título Entre líneas, puede interpretarse a partir del acto de tachar. Si la escritura –como quería su inventor Thot– tiene como fin preservar la memoria, ¿qué sentido tiene la tachadura? ¿Qué es lo que sucede cuando se oculta lo escrito? ¿Se hace una impugnación de lo recordado, se censura un mensaje, se borra un acto de comunicación, se instaura un nuevo tipo de escritura que ya no sirve a la memoria sino al olvido? Horacio Zabala le quita a la tachadura todas las connotaciones negativas que posee para ponerla en un plano de la invención. Tachar y crear son, en su obra, un gesto único e indivisible. Y eso desencadena, por lo menos, tres procesos: la tachadura como manifestación sensorial, como investigación de la censura y como afirmación del monocromo.

La escritura, que en estas obras es el origen o el punto de partida, está escamoteada. Está dentro de los libros, pero son libros que no se pueden abrir. Está en los periódicos, aunque en palabras y números que no se dejan leer. Debería estar en los lomos pero lo único que ellos nos ofrecen son monocromos rojos. A la vez, esa escritura que se oculta es el andamiaje de la obra: regula el juego de líneas, impone sus límites. La primera operación de Zabala es pasar –con sus tachaduras– del orden de lo legible a lo visible, de la escritura al color. La mancha nos hace ver algo y, en ese mismo gesto, ver lo que no se puede pensar: visibiliza lo ininteligible.

Ese juego de borradura y ocultamiento hace pensar en la censura. Más cuando se sabe que Zabala participó en el arte político de los años setenta y vivió fuera del país en tiempos de la última dictadura militar. Mario Perniola, que leyó su obra bajo la noción psicoanalítica de censura, dijo que el artista “suprime todo con una determinación radical” y “opera la negación de la negación” porque en los periódicos ya operan mecanismos de silenciamiento y desinformación. ¿Al evidenciar los mecanismos de la censura –se pregunta el crítico italiano– se trata de regenerar el arte? La respuesta de Zabala es doble: política y existencial.

Por el lado político, sus obras nos extraen del entorno pero no lo olvidan nunca. El entorno siempre está ahí: tachado y por eso mismo visible. Los títulos de algunas obras lo evidencian al reponer las fechas del periódico que le dan origen: La Nación, jueves 14 de julio de 1988 o Le Monde Censurado – Bourse de Paris, 24-11-93. Ahí están como indicaciones de un día determinado. Ese momento nos remite a otros: imposible no pensar las rayas coloridas que tachan los registros de la Bolsa de París en relación con el

predominio de lo económico en la actualidad y con un lenguaje –el de los indicadores financieros– que apenas sabemos leer pero que influye tanto en nuestras vidas. Esa es la lectura contextual y, si se quiere, política: el mecanismo de la censura habla de la memoria pero también de las complejas apariciones del olvido involuntario o deliberado. Exhibe problemas de legibilidad y los resignifica en términos visuales. La máquina de arte debe procesar tanto las memorias como los olvidos, los recuerdos como lo que quedó reprimido o borrado. Al tachar, Zabala exhibe las diversas aristas de la censura.

La respuesta existencial no niega la lectura política sino que la potencia desde otro lugar. En Zabala, la tachadura es también el camino a un desamparo mayor como sus planos de cárceles o sus cálculos matemáticos. La cárcel no es sólo la represión del poder, también remite a la precariedad humana. La biblioteca sin palabras además de la cancelación de la lectura, es también la apertura a otras actividades humanas: mirar, clasificar, archivar, incorporar lo leído. Las obsesiones con la página de un periódico exceden la ironía sobre las jergas financieras para convertirse en una aventura del color y de la invención. En definitiva: el monocromo, en Zabala, es existencial, testimonio extremo en que la tachadura oculta tanto como revela, en el que lo sensible y lo conceptual se unen en el mismo momento en que se separan.

Horacio Zabala hizo sus primeras obras en la década del sesenta: a diferencia de otros artistas que fueron desplazándose hacia el arte conceptual, Zabala nació conceptual. Formado como arquitecto, en Zabala los anteproyectos son tan importantes como la obra misma: son todas transformaciones de una sensibilidad artística que se despliega, un pensamiento que se hace en imágenes. De ahí la importancia de esta muestra: en las bibliotecas monocromáticas, en los trabajos con los periódicos, en los avatares del rojo, el espectador (un lector de signos) puede acompañar los procesos de un arte dinámico que nos lleva a sensibilizarnos, a partir del color y la forma, sobre los actos de escribir, censurar, tachar, dibujar, planificar, componer y agregar un objeto al mundo.

Gonzalo Aguilar

• Happenings

Artist: Emilia Azcarte

Pinturas de Castas
April 7, 2016 – May 30, 2016
Tiempos Modernos
Madrid, Spain

A medidos del siglo XVIII se desarrolló en  la América colonial un fenómeno artístico extraordinario: los pintores locales retrataron los cambios que se estaban produciendo en una sociedad con distintas  razas que se mezclaban. La llamada Pintura de Castas fue un fenómeno artístico-cultural que se dio fundamentalmente en el Virreinato de Nueva España (México) a principios del siglo XVIII  y que surge a raíz de la necesidad de establecer las bases del mestizaje casi sistemático que se daba en América. Estas pinturas eran utilizadas como una herramienta de explicación sobre las consecuencias de la unión entre razas y el resultado de ésta.

Realizados por pintores locales, los propios nombres de los cuadros son reveladores: “De Español, e Yndia, nace Mestiza”, “Español, y Mestiza producen Castiza”, “De Mulato, y Mestiza, nace, Cuarterón”…  Los cuadros, que se realizaban en series de 16 obras, fueron muy populares entre la sociedad ilustrada, pero apenas se conservan como series completas.

A través de la pintura, el color y la abstracción Emilia Azcárate ha querido plasmar una realidad que ya se daba hace trescientos años y reflejar la lucha constante a la que las minorías sociales se han tenido que enfrentar y cómo esa lucha, con el paso del tiempo, ha ido tomando nuevas formas. Antes, sus limitaciones se debían a leyes de segregación racial y hoy en día, después de la abolición de estas, se siguen sufriendo las consecuencias de un orden social que está implícito en el funcionamiento de la sociedad sobre todo en Latinoamérica.

Lo contemporáneo nace de la historia

El desarrollo de la Pintura de Castas coincide en el siglo con un descubrimiento revelador: el establecimiento de los colores primarios (amarillo, azul y rojo) realizado por Isaac Newton en su obra ‘’Opticks’’ publicada en 1702. A partir de esta coincidencia, Emilia Azcárate trabaja con un método casi matemático:

“Aprovechando esta coincidencia significativa asigné a cada una de las principales razas que contribuyeron con el proceso de mestizaje en América uno de los colores primarios. El amarillo a los indígenas, como símbolo de la riqueza; el azul a los africanos como símbolo de la naturaleza; y el rojo a los españoles por la importancia que le daban a la “pureza” de la sangre. A partir de esta disposición combino cada color primario según la raza que le corresponde, utilizando un sistema de porcentaje aproximado. En paralelo, diseñé un alfabeto que se asemeja a los jeroglíficos, escritura cuneiforme o  “códex”, donde el texto y la imagen forman una pareja inseparable. En mi alfabeto las letras no tienen limitaciones. En la pintura de castas el texto dice lo que la imagen esconde”.

• Happenings

Artists: Miguel Aguirre, Gabriel Alayza, Iosu Aramburu, Marlon de Azambuja, Alejandra Delgado, Katherinne Fiedler, Catalina González, Carla Higa, Koening Johnson, Luana Letts, Eliana Otta, Fernando Prieto, Gianine Tabja y Adán Vallecillo.

Todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire
April 13, 2016 – May 8, 2016
Centro Cultural PUCP
Lima, Perú

“Todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire” está basado en el libro homónimo de Marshall Berman, donde se plantea una modernidad a partir de reconocer a la urbe moderna como principal escenario de la vida, donde la ciudad genera divisiones y dramas internos e ironías materiales.

Para efectos de este proyecto –y en deliberado ejercicio de reflexión- instalaciones, intervenciones en sitios específicos, fotografías y videos pondrán en evidencia la ironía de aquel urbanismo modernista es que su triunfo contribuyó a destruir la misma vida urbana que esperaba liberar. Los artistas invitados vienen de diversas disciplinas y formaciones artísticas. Lo cual significa una ejercicio de diversas miradas sobre la modernidad y el urbanismo.

• Happenings

Artist: tepeu choc

Color Mapping
April 6, 2016 – April 30, 2016
Alianza Francesa Guatemala
Guatemala

By abstracting physical space and transforming it into graphic representations, this is how the art of making maps operates, allowing us to conquer inhospitable territories and to access areas through which we move. In a similar manner the artist tepeu choc (Guatemala, 1983) manages to greatly synthesize the external lines and to render them concrete in the most basic aspects of artistic creation: form and color. He creates new languages for reading these lines transforming them in a occupied area. His titles inform us what he is expressing. From figurative representations that he captures in basic color, following the encapsulation of specific times and their abstractions, to the three-dimensional gain and the reading x-ray style of his sculptures, his work invites us to tour those places, that having become strangers. we are able to re-visit from a new appropriation perspective. Color becomes the basic element for the distinction between lines dividing objects, spaces, and temporality—areas where the artist moves. With only seven basic colors, Tepeu Choc is capable of recreating abstract ideas of distance, or the difference between night and day. Color also becomes referential in his sculptural work in the form of floating threads around the interior and exterior space, without specific distinction. While in his two-dimensional creations he applies the golden mean rule, which allows them to be accessible and pleasing to the eye, in his sculpture he retains a somewhat chaotic element due to the plasticity of the materials with which he works, especially in this exhibition. Thus, the artist’s so-called conquest comes from his real-world knowledge and from the rules of abstraction, which first appear close to an exercise in geometry but in reality is a recomposition of the physical spaces he invites us to get to know.

• Happenings

Artist: Karina Peisajovich

Background
April 14, 2016 – June 4, 2016
Alejandra von Hartz Gallery
Miami, Florida

Peisajovich explores the material constitution of the image more than that of representation. Whether through her environmental lighting projects as in her drawings, she alters the sensory experience of the viewer and at the same time, prompting him/her to wonder about the construction of his/her own perceptual process. In her own words “I think of visuality as an unnatural and imaginary phenomenon, fragile, contingent and constructed at the same time. From all of this are made the images in which we live”.

With their absolute formal nudity, the drawings titled “Gradient” can be seen as time encrypted in color. The palette of these works is organized based on the tension produced by chromatic relations, manifesting the unstable parameters of the eye.

“All that sinks into light is the resonance of what the night submerges” *, it is an intervention of the Gallery’s illumination system.  Peisajovich alters the existing electrical system and the disposition of the space’s lighting fixtures, changing their role and orientation.

In relation to this work, Peisajovich says: “In the latest Light Works I was more focused on using the already existing illumination systems of the premises where I was invited to show. In art spaces, especially in museums, lighting is used to impart a certain theatricality to the works. There is something of overacting in this operation. In this sense, these works disarm and absorb this setting.”

In both, the drawings and the intervention of light, appear the idea of the pictorial background, not as an inert support, but as an active space which realizes imaginary expectations. As produced by the fluctuations of the natural light in an environment, backgrounds are planes where latent forms that have not found their place are projected.

*The title of this work is taken from the film “Passion” of Jean Luc Godard.

• Happenings

Artist: Patrick Hamilton

Black Tools
January 28, 2016 – May 14, 2016
The 9.99 Gallery 
Guatemala City, Guatemala

• Happenings

Artist: Dario Escobar 

Composições [Compositions]
April 6, 2016 – May 7, 2016
Casa Triângulo
São Paulo, Brazil

Dario Escobar’s artistic research develops from sculptural and installation acts started with the appropriation of industrial objects. Throughout a path of over fifteen years, the artist has already worked in dialogue with visual traditions as diverse as the Guatemalan baroque, the skin of broken cars and objects seen as symbols of consumerism. His operation as an artist happens from the selection of those pieces and their reconfiguration through actions like juxtaposition and repetition, fragmentation and cut of materials, and a reflection on how to install them inside the exhibition space.

In “Composition”, continuing this investigation, the artist presents new works in Brazil, which propose multiple possibilities of composition through the appropriation and approximation of dissimilar elements. In the series “Geometric construction” and “Modular construction”, Escobar recodes the tradition of painting the back of trucks in Guatemala, creating new patterns that invite the spectator to open them up and enjoy their distinct configurations. The formal research starting with the two-dimensional is also perceptible in his “Motor oil compositions”, in which also using a non-conventional material the artist explores the possibilities of paper and drawing.

Regarding the three-dimensional, in the series “Still-life” the artist explores ways of presenting objects from the sports industry, like basketballs, still aseptic and distant from its use by the human body. In “Balance” there is a tension of the material as well as of the elements mentioned by the artist: on one hand the metal sheets recall the minimalist sculptures of Carl Andre, on the other hand, sustaining its weight, the glass is present in the famous American glasses commercialized in Sao Paulo since 1940 and already elevated to symbols of Brazilian design.

Besides those works, in dialogue with this sculptural thought that composes through the geometry inherent to ordinary objects, there will be presented new works which will be developed through the meeting between Dario Escobar and the commodities from the popular markets in Sao Paulo. Therefore, these compositions aim to establish other direct conversations with the Brazilian visual culture, in the same way the artist replies everyday to the industrialized objects used in Guatemala.

-Raphael Fonseca

• Happenings

Artist: Thomas Glassford 

Siphonophora
Until July 24, 2016
Museo Universitario del Chopo
Mexico City, Mexico

Siphonophora is a site-specific work that echoes earlier chapters in his career—above all his work on the articulation of neo-botanical structures—as well as a glossary constructed in the present. In direct allusion to the siphonophores, colonies of planktonic marine organisms with a peculiar morphology that places them between animals and plants, Glassford constructs a sculptural organism that recalls the building’s former incarnation as a natural history museum. The work combines reference points ranging from the human microbiome—the collection of microbes that colonize the body and that together comprise one hundred times more genes than in our own genome—to the classic children’s story Jack and the Beanstalk, by way of the artist’s own experiences on a farm, weaving together his extensive knowledge and love for plants, which form an important part of his everyday life.

In both the siphonophores and the microbiome, there is a social parallel with the community, the family nucleus, a neighborhood, or city. This dependency and correlation allows unity and divergence. The encounter with this complex installation fluctuates in the perception between a fossil, plant elements, or an animal organism. Depending on the viewpoint, its monumental character situates us walking on the ocean floor, entering a cave, observing from the sea surface, or seeing a climbing plant from cloud level. This ambiguity highlights the construction of parallel worlds in which viewers recognize themselves in the astonishment of a single, unrepeatable yet collective reflection.

• Happenings

Artists: Andrea Galvani, Marlena Kudlicka, Andres Marroquin Winkelmann, Jose Carlos Martinat, Ishmael Randall-Weeks.

Lo Real Absoluto
in collaboration with Jorge Villacorta
April 13, 2016 – June 17, 2016
Revolver Galeria
Lima, Peru

• Happenings

Artist: Ricardo Rendon

Possible Memory
April 2, 2016 – April 30, 2016
Zipper Galeria
São Paulo, Brazil

Against the backdrop of a social vision that remains very clear in the way that the act of physical labor is understood, the artist seems to once again emphasize the sculptural value of his production. Evidently, the works of Rendón never ceased to be properly sculptural, and thus occupying, in an inescapable way, the exhibition space. But what we see here is a clear concern with specific aspects of the sculpture, notably the treatment of weight, or the way in which the weight of each piece is not an accessory but rather central to the creation of the work. By suspending wooden and stone slab fragments, Rendón brings these questions to light, while suggesting a dialogue with references to the recent history of Western sculpture, such as the series Gravitaciones by Eduardo Chillida, among other possible references, thus justifying his claim for a central role for sculpture in the contemporary art scene.

• Happenings

Artist: Mauro Giaconi

Impermanence
February 2, 2016 – April 16, 2016
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Back in 2012, Giaconi conceived the gallery space as a field of conceptual and material experimentation with his exhibition Season of Lead. Where the graphite-covered walls became a set of exchanges between the outside and inside world, between the architectural references and psychical elements from the near environment, making a permeable membrane between different states and dimensions.

After three years and five months, the artist —with the assistance of a restoration team— used ethanol and acetone compresses, tensoactive agents and sharp tools directly on the wall fragments until he found the yet recognisable traces of his past exhibition —now intentionally cracked, underlining their chaotic, fragile and impermanent condition.

By exploring concepts and basic techniques of restoration, the artist deconstructs the architectonic space to rediscover imagery that remained deliberately hidden until now, to unveil ideas of nostalgia, violence and order.

• Happenings

Artist: Montez Magno

Poemata (It is all poetry)
March 30, 2016 – May 21, 2016
Galeria Pilar
São Paulo, Brazil

The latest exhibit by Brazilian artist Montez Magno (b. Pernambuco, 1934) contains over forty works, rigorously selected to reflect Magno’s sixty-year investigation of artistic language as expressed on a myriad of surfaces. Curated by art critic Lisette Lagnado.

Lagnado examines the artist’s poetic inflections, a lesser-known aspect of his work, highlighting the dialogue between painting and script; between “celestial letters” and poems.

“Poemata” seeks to establish non-hierarchical relations between two praxis of creation, making subtle transitions using works in different forms (for example, a painting and a score, a drawing and a poem), subtle just like the lines that appear in the white space on the surface of his work, be it paper, canvas or Styrofoam.

With lines at times vertical and at others horizontal, reminding us of the patterns of a notebook, the chosen works display a type of leitmotif in the vocabulary of the artist, independent of the chosen surface.

• Happenings

Artists: Víctor Aguado, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, María Chávez, Ferrer-Molina and Richard Garet.

Sound vs Sense: Intersections
March 22, 2016 – April 9, 2016
ICNY Instituto Cervantes New York
New York, NY, USA

Sound and language have a challenging relationship. What exactly does it mean to “understand” what we hear? This doubt is expressed through various artistic forms in this exhibition, taking the form of a dialogue and blurring the lines that divide aesthetic categories as apparently well-defined as music, poetry, or the visual arts.

In their installations, artists Víctor Aguado, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, María Chávez, Ferrer-Molina and Richard Garet place us face to face with some of the infinite nuances that constitute and inhabit our language.

• Happenings

Artist: Diana de Solares

Diana de Solares: The Material Space of Radiance
March 17, 2016 – April 23, 2016
Henrique Faria Fine Art
New York, NY, USA

It is no coincidence that my immersion in art began through my brief studies of architecture as a very young woman. In retrospect, it makes sense to me. I now realize that I wasn’t seeking tools for creating buildings and houses, but trying to get at some kind of knowledge about space in human life. Some years ago, my paintings became three-dimensional, and then my three- dimensional constructions became installational.

The notion of space led me to that of place. And to questions such as, Where are we when we are in the world? How does an object become a place? How do we experience the world?

Andrew J. Mitchell begins his brilliant monograph of Heidegger’s ideas on sculpture proposing, “sculpture teaches us what it means to be in the world…to be in this world is to be ever entering a material space of radiance1”. Mitchell is referring to Heidegger’s reflections on the relation between space and body. In this context, space is no longer deemed as the void where bodies are contained, but as an almost material entity that facilitates and embraces, that allows bodies to appear, radiate, and thus, constitute a world. In Heidegger’s novel conception of limit, a body’s boundary does not mark its end but rather its beginning–for it is there that it interacts and mingles with the physicality of the world around it. This beautiful notion of a participatory space that allows bodies to move beyond themselves and distribute their radiance has changed my perception of a work of sculpture, as it appears in front of me.

I imagine an experience in which a multiple exchange of radiance occurs. The work of art emanating its life through space, and the viewer momentarily emptying himself to accommodate its radiance, in an ongoing movement that transforms both person and object. With the works contained in The Material Space of Radiance, I have sought the embodiment of space through the various visual and haptic qualities of the constructions interacting in it. These varied works have unfolded in the same span of time and share qualities of color and tactility as well as an affinity to human body, and in sharing this moment in space and time they “slowly dissolve in the world”.

– Diana de Solares

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Artist: Pia Camil

Pia Camil: A Pot for a Latch
January 13, 2016 – April 17, 2016
New Museum
New York, NY, USA

The New Museum hosts the first solo museum presentation in New York of the work of artist Pia Camil.

In her paintings, sculptures, performances, and installations, Camil draws inspiration from the urban landscape of her native Mexico City and engages with the history of modernism. Her projects transform the remnants of dysfunctional commercial culture, revealing the inherent problems as well as the latent aesthetic potential within inner-city ruin. Often using laborious fabrication processes in collaboration with local artisans, Camil deaccelerates the frenetic pace of mass commodification through the handcrafted production and intimate quality of her works. In recent projects, she has expanded the scope of her practice to create theatrical environments that invite the viewer to navigate the exhibition space and experience shifting viewpoints and juxtapositions.

For “A Pot for a Latch,” Camil presents a participatory sculptural installation produced specifically for the Lobby Gallery. Inspired by the modular display systems typically used by vendors, Camil has constructed a succession of gridwall panels of her own design, complete with built-in hooks, shelves, and other fixtures for displaying items. Composed of grids, lines, and geometric shapes, the structures form a volumetric drawing within the space of the gallery, referencing cheap commercial constructions as well as the serial patterning of paintings and sculptures made by Minimalist artists such as Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin.

The title of the exhibition refers to the potlatch, a ceremonial gift-giving festival practiced by the Native-American peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, for whom it continues to be a system of wealth redistribution. Camil invites the public to participate in the ongoing creation of her piece on designated days, during which visitors are encouraged to exchange their own unique items for others in the installation. The composition on the gridwall panels is thereby in flux and is repeatedly altered throughout the course of the exhibition. With “A Pot for a Latch,” Camil transforms the Lobby Gallery into a shop of sorts, in which the monetary value of an object is supplanted by its personal history and significance.

New Museum visitors are invited to exchange items for those in the installation during a series of six public events. On subsequent days, participants’ items will be exchanged for those items that are installed in the Lobby Gallery on that particular day.
Sunday April 3, 2–4 PM

Artist’s invitation: “A Pot for a Latch” is an invitation to exchange.
The object you bring is a talisman of sorts, and it should be thought of in the same way that the ancient Romans conceived of in their term “res,” which denotes a gift that has both a personal value and a history. Bring objects of power, of aesthetic interest, and of poignancy. The monetary value of these items is insignificant; their value lies instead in their richness of meaning and in the new life that they acquire on the grid within the Lobby Gallery.
Potential exchange items may include: clothes, curtains, blankets, artworks, photographs, paintings, frames, nondescript items of undetermined function, objects that resemble parts of the human body such as wigs or mannequins, costume jewelry and accessories, mirrors and reflective items, potted plants, colorful items and/or those with interesting shapes and forms, transparent materials such as shower curtains, lingerie, or X-rays, books, and trinkets.

Prohibited exchange items include but are not limited to: electronics, heavy items (over twenty pounds), small-scale objects (less than six inches in diameter), loose-leaf paper, tote bags, mass-produced garments, food or other perishables, weapons, and chemicals or other hazardous materials.

The exhibition is curated by Margot Norton, Associate Curator.
Cover Image: “Pia Camil: A Pot for a Latch,” 2016. Exhibition view: New Museum. Photo: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio

• Happenings

Artists: Adrián Balseca, Adrian Paci, Adriana Escobar, Alexandra McCormick, Allan Sekula and Noël Burch, Amar Kanwar, Ana Patricia Palacios, Annaleen Louwes, Anri Sala, Antonio Caro, Antonio Paucar, Arquitectura Expandida and Caldo de Cultivo, Camila Botero, Camilo Cantor, Camilo Restrepo, Carlos Motta, Clara Ianni and Debora da Silva, Claudio Perna, Colectivo Nomanada, Cráter Invertido, Dan Perjovschi, Daniela Ortiz, Elena Vargas Tisnés, Élkin Calderón Guevara, Emilia Azcárate, Fernando Arias, Giuseppe Campuzano, Gülsün Karamustafa, Halil Altindere, Jordi Colomer, Jorge Alonso Zapata, Jorge Andrés Marín, José Alejandro Restrepo, Juan Javier Salazar, Juan Obando, Libia Posada, Liliana Angulo, Magdalena Fernández, Mapa Teatro, María Buenaventura, Michael Soi, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Mónica Mayer, Mujeres Creando, Myriam Lefkowitz, Natalia Giraldo Giraldo, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, Nathaly Rubio, Núria Güell, Paromita Vohra, Phil Collins, Santiago Vélez, Sislej Xhafa, Tercerunquinto, Todo por la Praxis, Tricilab, William Engelen, Wilson Díaz, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Yoel Díaz Vázquez.

MDE 15 Medellín
Curated by Nydia Gutiérrez, Tony Evanko, Fernando Escobar, Sharon Lerner, Edi Muka.
October 2015 – March 2016
Museo de Antioquia
Medellín, Colombia

The theme of Local Stories/Global Practices has been conceived to create a space of reflection and engagement with the recent transformation of Medellín since the turn of the millennium. Medellín, considered to be a progressive Latin American city that has implemented innovative programs to stimulate social and urban development, is part of a larger picture. While the results of these processes are real and tangible, the dynamics they have generated are particularly complex from an ethical standpoint. In order to understand their implications we propose to focus on these processes of change and explore them through commissioned projects, works of artists and other socially oriented initiatives, sometimes inserted in spaces beyond the artistic field.

MDE15 inserts itself in the social fabric of the city while sharing stories, experiences and practices from elsewhere in the world. Transformative changes can elicit psychological, physical and social responses that range from issues of trust and security to economic well-being. The stories that result from observations and from the direct experiences of people in communities, often address the coping mechanisms that are required to survive and flourish amid those changes, which often occur at a pace that outstrips the citizens and society’s ability to assimilate them. MDE15 aims at focusing on the unsaid and the less visible aspects of the everyday, such as memory, the past, the persistence of structural problems, but also the resilience of life in the city. It also relies on the potential of art to harness the capacity of individual and collective imagination to re-signify complex situations.

It is in this context and in the context of a critical standpoint in which the definition of artistic practice is constantly being challenged, that the MDE15 unfolds.

Topics

1. Violence, conflict and memory
2. Local stories in a global context
3. Exertion of power over the body
4. The institutional teasing
5. Resilient city: dreams, desires and possibilities

• Happenings

Customizing Language
Curated by Idurre Alonso and Selene Preciado
January 7 – February 14, 2016
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Customizing Language critically examines how language reflects geopolitical realities. The project approaches language as a tool to reflect power relations, hierarchies, social differences, and historical problems, as well as a cultural system of belonging that can indicate the loss or reconfiguration of certain kinds of identities. The participating artists engage local and historical issues by using experimental language to create a dialogue with the audience, exploring issues of “custom” as cultural tradition, U.S. Customs as an immigration agency, and lowrider customization in popular culture.

• Happenings

Artists: Cyrcle, Jan Kaláb, Ox, Rero, Andrey Zignnatto, and Aníbal Vallejo.

TRANSBORDER
January 30 – February 28, 2016
Fabien Castanier Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The exhibition centers around artists who challenge the idea of boundaries within art, both physical and ideological borders. Each artist presents new work for TRANSBORDER, examining the transitory elements of shape, color, form, and context within art making. The group exhibition takes a survey of how the language of both abstraction and figurative form can be conveyed throughout vastly different corners of the world.  Across borders of both time and space, these artists have created connectivity and conversation through creation.

From the curator
This exhibition aims to bring together, in a single physical space, artists from five nationalities, while also focusing on the artists’ variations in approaches, practices and techniques. So why did I want to bring these artists together in the same space and time? But also, why Transborder?

Firstly, art is for me a pretext for meetings and travel. Art is above all a human adventure. However art is also a coming together of objects, materials, and works that evoke an “emotional shock” that drives viewers to evolve ideas, perceptions, life trajectories and constructs of reality. I ask you to search your memory for a time that you, as a viewer, experienced a work by an artist you did not know, yet you sensed an inexplicable vibration. That same sensation in that precise moment has driven my desire to curate Transborder, to evoke these emotionally compelled experiences in viewers.

I have the feeling that what unites us all is the fact that we are all in the “fold”, i.e. that we have decided to place ourselves consciously or unconsciously to the limit of inside and outside as Michel Foucault suggested. “We must escape the alternative of outside and inside: we must be the border.”

TOP: Jan Kaláb | Black Planes, acrylic on cut-through canvases, 44 x 48 in. (112x121cm)

• Happenings

Artists: Emilia Azcárate, Jacques Bedel, Fernando ‘Coco’ Bedoya, Paulo Bruscky, Jorge Caraballo, Elda Cerrato, Emilio Chapela, Guillermo Deisler, Noemí Escandell, Nicolás García Uriburu, Anna Bella Geiger, Leandro Katz, Leonel Luna, Jonier Marín, Juan José Olavarría, Alejandro Puente, Osvaldo Romberg, Horacio Zabala, Carlos Zerpa.

América
October 21, 2015 – February 10, 2016
Henrique Faria
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Perfiles múltiples para un continente

La historia de América está repleta de gritos: aquellos del conquistador divisando tierra, los de independencia -desde Dolores a Yara- o los del inmigrante que a comienzos del siglo XX intentaba conjurar con su voz el calvario que atravesaba. Sin embargo, hay otras formas de decir América, modos singulares de invocarla, donde se experimenta con su nombre, su cartografía o su pasado. Aquí América se revela como una construcción, una evocación estratégica para desarmar imágenes naturalizadas, desafiar poderes o confrontar mecanismos de opresión.

A través de las obras que participan de esta exposición es posible distinguir no sólo cómo los diversos problemas de las agendas americanas fueron recurrentes en las investigaciones de los artistas contemporáneos sino la manera en que sus estrategias, sus fundamentos políticos y sus objetivos de intervención se modificaron a lo largo del tiempo. Sin embargo, es necesario regresar hacia las obras, establecer nuevos diálogos entre artistas y clarificar sus contextos de circulación para dar lugar a la tarea que parece más urgente: desarmar lecturas naturalizadas que en el estado actual del arte definen los perfiles de lo latinoamericano.

Agustín Díez Fischer

• Happenings

Artists: Omar Barquet, José Bedia, Jorge Méndez Blake, Carlos Cárdenas, Los Carpinteros, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Eugenio Dittborn, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Carlos Garaicoa, Guillermo Kuitca, Gilda Mantilla, Moris, Vik Muniz, Oscar Muñoz, Damián Ortega, Liliana Porter, Sandra Ramos, Pablo Rasgado, Camilo Restrepo, Graciela Sacco, Ana Tiscornia, José  A. Vincench, Ishmael Randall Weeks, and many others.

A Sense of Place – Selections from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection
Curated by Patricia Hanna and Anelys Alvarez
December 3-6, 2015
Mana Contemporary
Miami, FL, USA

Despite the fact that these artists are working in a globalized society, where technology and communication transcend physical boundaries, many continue to construct personal and cultural identities by exploring ideas that are specific to their own experiences and places of origin. The show will examine the idea of building such an identity; how artists use abstraction, architecture, politics and memory to carve out a sense of place; and how these concerns are reflected in Pérez as a collector and in Miami as a developing city. Artists in the show include a mix of well-known and emerging art stars from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, including: Omar Barquet, José Bedia, Jorge Méndez Blake, Carlos Cárdenas, Los Carpinteros, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Eugenio Dittborn, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Carlos Garaicoa, Guillermo Kuitca, Gilda Mantilla, Moris, Vik Muniz, Oscar Muñoz, Damián Ortega, Liliana Porter, Sandra Ramos, Pablo Rasgado, Camilo Restrepo, Graciela Sacco, Ana Tiscornia, José  A. Vincench, Ishmael Randall Weeks, and many others.

Jorge M. Pérez was named one of the most influential Hispanics in the U.S. by TIME magazine, and is considered a visionary for his contributions to South Florida’s cultural and artistic landscape, as well as his integration of world-class art into each of his real estate developments.

A Sense of Place is being held at Mana Wynwood Convention Center, 318 NW 23rd Street, Miami, Florida.

• Happenings

Artists: Fariba Abedin, Adela Andea, Soledad Arias and Lorraine Tady.

The Weight of Light
December 5, 2015- January 2, 2016
Rudolph Blume Fine Art / ArtScan Gallery
Houston, TX, USA

The visible light spectrum is quite dramatic and holds all the colors that humans can see; a beam of white light is made up of all the colors. Visible light is composed of photons, which are the most abundant particles in the universe. These weight-less particles have the ability to form a stream or wave-like pattern that makes up the wavelengths of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Contrast of hue, in painting, enables the painter to establish the interplay of luminous forces. Black and white are the artist’s strongest tools to express darkness and light, but with the advancement in harnessing different light particles, neon and LED lights are new and exciting instruments.This exhibition explores and juxtaposes the visual parameters of light as a physical presence and asa symbolic conjecture.

Soledad Arias’ work has been exhibited extensively in museums throughout the US and South America. Her wall based neon sculptures engage the viewer with mostly trivial, yet emotionally charged words like “white lies” or “like you i forgot”. The impact of the brilliant luminescence and the halo effect of the neon writing potentially transforms the immanence and perception of these phrases.

• Happenings

Artists: Álvaro Barrios, Eduardo Berliner, Luis Camnitzer, Mario Cravo Neto, Antonio Dias, Paz Errázuriz, León Ferrari, Guillermo Kuitca, Liliana Porter, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Melanie Smith and Horacio Zabala.

Dark Mirror, Art from Latinamerica since 1968
September 27, 2015 – January 31, 2016
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg, Germany

In its exhibition, Dark Mirror: Art from Latinamerica since 1968, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg provides compelling and multi-faceted look at contemporary art in Central and South America.

Topics such as the literal and metaphorical boundaries of freedom, gender identity, social criticism and political power as well as reflections on nature vs. urban existence will be examined via more than 150 works. These come from all genres of art – including installations, objects, paintings, photographs, videos and works on paper – and will be shown in an exhibition space encompassing 1100 square meters. This extensive selection of works, from the largest and most important institution devoted to contemporary Latin American art in Europe: the Zurich-based Daros Latinamerica Collection, not only sheds light on parallels to the history of European art but also on specific Latin American developments, particularly since the 1960s.

The works by such artists as Álvaro Barrios; Eduardo Berliner; Luis Camnitzer; Mario Cravo Neto; Antonio Dias; Paz Errázuriz; León Ferrari; Guillermo Kuitca; Liliana Porter; Miguel Ángel Rojas; Melanie Smith and Horacio Zabala provide a striking picture of Latin American art’s creative diversity and energy.

With respect to its beginnings in 1967 as well as its focus on groups of works by major artists, there are conceptual parallels between the Daros Latinamerica Collection and the holdings of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. The examination of the artistic continent of Latin America in the Dark Mirror exhibition also serves, in this context, as a laboratory for a global expansion of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg’s collection.

The exhibition Dark Mirror Art from Latinamerica since 1968 is supported by the artEDU Foundation.

Image: Marcos López, Criollitas, 1996/2006

• Happenings

Artists: Matheus Rocha Pitta, Marcos Chaves, Pedro Motta, Marepe, Rosângela Rennó, Rochelle Costi, Alexandre da Cunha, Marcos Vilas Boas, Fernando Lazslo, Alice Quaresma, Laura Belém, Maria Laet, Luiza Baldan, Arnaldo Antunes, Cinthia Marcelle, Vicente de Mello, Maria Nepomuceno, Marcia Xavier, Omar Salomão, Marcius Galan e Douglas Garcia, Jarbas Lopes, Thiago Honório e Cao Guimarães.

Coleções 10
Curated by Nessia Leonzini
November 25, 2015 – January 30, 2016
Galeria Luisa Strina
São Paulo, Brazil

A série Coleções, considerada um projeto pioneiro no universo da fotografia e da arte contemporânea no Brasil, tem como objetivo ampliar o público da fotografia no país e a formação de novos colecionadores. Já participaram de Coleções mais de 100 artistas, consagrados e emergentes, brasileiros e estrangeiros.

Nesta edição fazem parte 23 artistas que trabalham, também, em outros suportes e representam diferentes pontos de vista. Eles utilizam um vocabulário imagético inspirado por objetos e situações do dia a dia ou determinados por uma poética pessoal. O espírito de Coleções é definido pelo envolvimento dos artistas que produzem trabalhos específicos para o projeto e tornam possível a aquisição de obras de arte a um preço acessível.

• Happenings

Artist: Ricardo Rendón

Equilibrio y concentración
November 21 – December 18, 2015
Nueveochenta
Bogotá, Colombia

La obra de Ricardo Rendón se ha mantenido como un comentario constante de las posibilidades espaciales y materiales de la práctica escultórica, en busca de la concepción de atmósferas creadas para la reflexión sensorial de la forma y los materiales que la detonan. Su trabajo discurre en los limites de los formatos industriales y los propios de la práctica artesanal, y propone con su antonimia de producción una plataforma de especulación de lo que podría identificarse como nuestra “actual naturaleza”, cargada de soportes y disciplinas para comprender la materia de manera no científica, sino emocional.

David Miranda

• Happenings

Artists: Rocío Areán, Christian Bagnat, Luis Camnitzer, Jef Chippewa, Sandra Gamarra, Carlos Garaicoa, Carmela García, Jimena Kato, Adriana Lara, Rogelio López Cuenca, Fernando Millán, Levi Orta, Víctor Piverno, Elvira Poxon, José Andrés Prieto, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Tania Rubio, Sara y André, Lucía Simón, Ignacio Uriarte, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Pierre Valls.

Grafización Bocetos, mapas y partituras: representaciones gráficas para la interpretación
Curated by Víctor Aguado Machuca y Antoine Henry Jonquères
November 11-29, 2015
LiMAC Museo de arte contemporáneo de Lima
Lima, Peru

Archivo de documentos preliminares, véase: notas, bocetos, borradores, apuntes, mapas y partituras. Tómese éstos como guiones gráficos para la interpretación. Entiéndase por «nota» cualquier documento digital, mecanografiado o manuscrito de carácter personal. Entiéndase por «boceto» cualquier documento preparatorio que contenga una idea esbozada. Entiéndase por «borrador» cualquier documento provisional que preceda a la obra pero no sea la obra final. Tómese el término «apunte» desligado de su carácter de registro. Tómese el término «mapa» desligado de su condición documental. Tómese el término «partitura» según su etimología: como partición (partition, en francés) y como punto de partida (departure, départ). Nótese que aquí la «partitura» no está limitada por el uso del lenguaje musical, así como el «mapa» tampoco lo está por el uso del lenguaje cartográfico o arquitectónico. Entiéndase por ambos términos cualquier escritura abstracta, emancipada de la realidad sonora y visual, que describa un desarrollo espacial y temporal.

Nótese que el archivo no pretende poner en entredicho las categorías «obra» y «documento». Aquí el documento ocupa eventualmente el lugar de la obra pero no es la obra final. Absténgase de considerar que el documento expuesto insinúa que tal vez no haya lugar para la obra, el archivo no está condicionado por la faceta productiva del arte conceptual; tampoco cuestiona si será necesario ejecutar la obra tal como describe el documento, o si por el contrario deberá bastar con éste. Entiéndase en todo caso que el documento no es autónomo sino declaradamente preliminar, accesorio, funcional, o dicho de otra manera: que precisa forzosamente un estado posterior.

El archivo no está sujeto a la supervivencia material, puesto que los documentos no importan como objetos sino como factores (del latín: facere, «que hacen»). Concíbase indistintamente el documento original y una fotocopia del mismo, ambos formatos se ajustan al propósito del archivo.

• Happenings

Artist: Sandra Gamarra

Paisaje entre comillas
October 17 – November 14, 2015
Galería Lucía de la Puente
Lima, Peru

Como constructora de imágenes en un mundo en el que se multiplican constantemente, Sandra Gamarra las recicla y reincorpora para indagar en sus orígenes y especular sobre su posible destino. En su cuarta exposición en la galería Lucía de la Puente, utiliza el género de paisaje occidental “en el arte” para señalar de dónde procede, que lo caracteriza y cuáles son las repercusiones que ha tenido en nuestra relación con el entorno. Continuando con la apropiación de imágenes y cuestionamiento del arte mediante la pintura, Sandra Gamarra utiliza el medio con el que se creó la idea de paisaje europeo con la intención de desvelar su supuesto realismo y de esta manera confrontarlo con la Naturaleza.

Desde que el paisaje apareció como género propio en el siglo XV en el arte europeo, este concepto ha invadido otras áreas del conocimiento. Se habla de paisaje social, sonoro, visual, económico, psicológico, como si fuese una verdad tangible y olvidando que el paisaje ha sido construido como una ilusión, una aproximación y una fragmentación de la naturaleza, que de por sí no busca abarcarla por completo. Al construir puntos de vista parciales, el paisaje “no traza tanto los contornos o examina la topografía de su entorno como selecciona y reforma naturalmente la naturaleza para representarla de modo ejemplar”. (Sutton, 1994, El siglo de oro del paisaje holandés, p.16)

De este modo “ejemplar”, los paisajes sirvieron también de certificados de autenticidad. El territorio era delimitado y domesticado por la pintura. Al igual que el mapa, el paisaje sirve como una herramienta para relacionarse con el entorno, que la edita y reencuadra, desde una perspectiva única.

Por otro lado, la representación de la naturaleza en las culturas precolombinas fue siempre simbólica y abstracta; no existió, por tanto, la ilusión “realista” del paisaje. En comparación a la lógica cristiana que considera que el mundo fue creado por un dios, las culturas precolombinas ubican a sus propios dioses en la naturaleza. Esta distinción fundamental respecto a la interpretación e interacción con lo natural es producto de una mentalidad que no intenta dominar la naturaleza (a sus dioses), si no que más bien se sabe dominada por ésta.

El Perú actual se exporta como un país de paisajes. Los instrumentaliza para comercializarlos turísticamente o usarlos como símbolos de poder y permanencia en los billetes y monedas, tarjetas de crédito, condecoraciones, etc. Este “paisaje” que sirve de eje unificador de lo peruano ha reducido a la naturaleza, mucho más compleja y sensible a nuestra acción. La incomprensión de las consecuencias ambientales producto de la explotación de los recursos naturales y el uso del territorio es una medida de esta distorsión.

En nuestra sociedad, generadora incansable de imágenes, la pintura de paisaje podría parecer un género obsoleto, relegado a decorar pasillos y salvapantallas. Si bien la fotografía de paisaje ha tomado el relevo a la pintura, popularizándola a través del turismo y la publicidad, ha mantenido la fragmentación y reducción que la pintura, de la que es heredera, ha construido como “realidad”.

Paisaje entre comillas  tiene como punto de partida fotografías de paisajes peruanos provenientes de la prensa y reproducciones de obras de distintas épocas para colocarlas sobre soportes como espejos, cuadros antiguos y falso pan de oro. De esta manera, la carga simbólica y las propiedades de cada material hacen que la pintura pierda la independencia que le confiere la superficie blanca

Sandra Gamarra retoma el paisaje para cuestionar los elementos que lo conforman, señalar las consecuencias que tiene sobre nuestros modos de pensar y devolverle su perdida aura de falsedad. Desde este punto de vista, se pueden observar las deformaciones que infligen las imágenes en nuestro raciocinio cuando no son usadas con los fines para las que fueron creadas.

Antoine Henry Jonquères

• Happenings

Artist: Adán Vallecillo

Earthworks
Curator: Carla Acevedo-Yates
November 13 – December 21, 2015
80M2 Livia Benavides
Lima, Peru

Adán Vallecillo nació en Danlí, El Paraíso, Honduras (1977). Es licenciado en Sociología por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (2010). Realizó estudios de arte en Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2000) y en la Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Tegucigalpa, Honduras (1995).

Su carrera artística incluye decenas de exhibiciones individuales y colectivas, así como varias conferencias y talleres en América Latina, el Caribe, Europa y  Estados Unidos. Entre algunos de los reconocimientos a su labor artística se pueden citar selecciones para: CIFO, Miami, USA (2015); Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, México D.F. (2015); Trienal Poligráfica de San Juan, Puerto Rico, (2015);  10 Bienal de Mercosur, Porto Alegre, Brasil, (2015); Bienal de Montevideo, Uruguay, (2014); Bienal de Arte Paiz, Ciudad de Guatemala (2014); Bienal de Cartagena, Colombia, (2014); California-Pacific Triennial, Orange County Museum of Art, USA, (2013); Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Museo del Barrio, New York, USA (2012); 54 edición de la Bienal de Venecia, (2011); XIV Muestra Internacional de Performance, Ex-Teresa, Arte Actual, México D.F. (2010); Bienal del Istmo Centroamericano, Managua Nicaragua, 2010; XXXI Bienal de Pontevedra, España, (2010); 10 Mª Bienal de la Habana (2009),Residencia Artística en la  Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, (2007), entre otros.

Sus obras forman parte de importantes colecciones como Daros Latin-america, Zurich-Río de Janeiro;Fundación Teorética, San José, Costa Rica; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Nueva York-Caracas; Saxo Bank, Dinamarca; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano MoLaa, California, Estados Unidos;Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica; entre otras.

• Happenings

Artist: Sandra Nakamura

Una razón superficial
November 11 – December 5, 2015
Wu Galeria
Lima, Peru

Una razón superficial reúne una serie de obras en diversos formatos que abordan la idea de superficie como simulacro, a la vez apariencia, ejercicio e imagen. En ellas, es recurrente la alusión a la línea de horizonte -a la superficie del agua- como un punto de referencia inestable y desde el cual el paradigma de la percepción se hace evidente.

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Artists: Arnaiz, Greco, Grilo, Kemble, Kirin, Lecuona, Lío, F. Muro, Macaparana, Minujín, Pakovskà, Pucciarelli, Sacerdote, Sakai, Sclavo, and Stupía.

El color de los sueños
November 6 – December 30, 2015
Jorge Mara La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

A blue stain on the white fabric and beside it the words: ceci-est-la-couleur-de-mes- rêves. That is how Joan Miró named his monochrome picture.

Many other artists – before and after- felt attracted by the use of a single color in their works. Klee, Kandinsky, Fontana, Klein and Malevich painted monochrome works. Sometimes the dominance of one color is inextricably associated with the artist: Ives Klein is blue, Beuys and Jasper Johns are identified with gray, Rothko and Tapies with roasted reds. Black is Goya and Ad Reinhardt, Millares and Saura too. Gray evokes Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns and Robert Morris. Blue is Miró; red belongs to Matisse and Newman. Roasted red belongs to Rothko and Tapies. Black is Goya and Millares, Ad Reinhardt, Saura …

Art history provides examples of various possible meanings for monochrome painting. This is sometimes negation and sometimes affirmation. The monochrome is a vacuum which, by definition, means absence of image. The rectangle of a single color is a tabula rasa on which the unique relationship that it counts is the one between the pictorial surface and the viewer.

The first fully monochrome paintings, three fabrics that Rodchenko painted in 1915, Red, Yellow, Blue, expressed a return to the primary colors, or in other words, the principle ones. For artists of the revolutionary vanguard, the goal was to go “beyond the painting”. The tabula rasa corresponds to the revolutionary impulse of starting over: Russian and Polish constructivists, the School of New York in the post-war, Burri, Fontana and Manzoni in Italy, Yves Klein in Paris and the Zero Group in Germany use monochromes in the immediate post war. During Franco’s dictatorship the Spanish abstraction is characterized by mostly almost black paintings. Blacks are typical Saura pictures, including a series based on the black paintings from Goya. In fact, the first specific identification of single color paintings in art history goes back to the series of frescoes painted by Goya in the Quinta del Sordo, known as “black paintings”. His Perro semi-hundido (1819) is certainly the first monochrome works of art history.
From there onwards, there were and are many artists who aspire- through the use of one color only – an eloquent silence, to an irradiation of light and color, or an unrelenting darkness. In this exhibition we present various works, mostly related to our gallery artists who explore in their works, and in their own way, this singular and complex way of using a dominant color.

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Artist: Cipriano Martínez and Christine van der Hurd

Woven Cities
November 27 – December 19, 2015
Maddox Arts
London, UK

Christine Van Der Hurd and Cipriano Martínez have a mutual appreciation for traditional artistic techniques and geometric design. When they were first introduced in the Autumn of 2013 their collaborative process was quick to develop. Cipriano Martínez paints with oils on canvas and then screenprints his artwork; while Vanderhurd rugs are woven by highly skilled craftsmen in India using traditional techniques. This process involves a strong mutual belief in the artistic, hand crafted approach to the creation of an original artefact of true lasting value.

In contrast to the ordered geometry found in Vanderhurd designs, Martínez enjoys disruption and dislocation of pattern, creating conflict between order and chaos. The greatest challenge for him during this creative process was adapting to a different format for the execution of these pieces, and that this would create an alternative interpretation of his original paintings. Though he was never expecting the process to be an easy one.

For example, the designs that included very small triangular shapes had to be enlarged to a minimum of 6 centimetres to enable sharp, straight lines to be achieved in the weaving process. The artwork represents aerial views of maps and cities, describing the juxtaposition of order and chaos found within them. Martínez has relished the implications of this new medium, while Vanderhurd’s considerable understanding of colour has been a key component in the development of these dhurries.

A small selection of Cipriano Martínez oil paintings will be accompanying the exhibition.

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Artist: Eduardo Stupia

Cenas de uma Viagem
November 9, 2015 – January 16, 2016
Baró Galeria
Sao Paulo, Brazil

A mostra conta com obras criadas em São Paulo, inspiradas no bairro da Barra Funda. As telas pintadas por Stupía, reconhecido por seus desenhos de formas arquitetônicas utópicas, revelam uma percepção do artista, mais do que sobre o deslocamento geográfico. Stupía acredita que toda mudança física e territorial implica em mudanças emocionais, é o que transparece nas obras que compõem a exposição.

“O bairro da Barra Funda impõe suas qualidades a um recém-chegado e um forte temperamento cênico. Nesse sentido, entendo a mostra como um verdadeiro diário de viagem, além de aventuras geográficas, mas sim impressões psíquicas, ressonâncias, metáforas e miragens. Às vezes, olhando para cada uma das telas, individualmente parecem representar aspectos mais narrativos”, comenta Stupía.

Segundo o artista, a inspiração aconteceu naturalmente quando esteve em visita ao galpão da Baró Galeria, ao entrar no grande espaço, observou que havia uma ressonância entre o alcance e geometrias, estruturas arquitetônicas e espaços ao ar livre em torno. “Tudo começou a ser processado e traduzido na forma de linguagem gráfica pura, ou seja, minhas impressões sobre a viagem produziram um fenômeno mais análogo do que mimético”, reforça.

As cores são a influência mais visível na estadia de Eduardo Stupía no bairro, na série há presença, vibração, temperamento e importância, segundo o artista, mais fortes do que em suas obras mais recentes. Suas pinturas narram mais uma vez o estado das coisas, antes mesmo das próprias coisas. Sons, percepções sobre o caos, mistura de características suburbanas com a turbulência do centro, estão em cada detalhe em suas obras.

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Artist: Jesús Matheus

Neoglifos
November 1, 2015
Beatriz Gil Galería
Las Mercedes, Caracas, Venezuela

Solo show by artist Jesús Matheus

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Artist: Ana Tiscornia

Des-habitaciones
November 5, 2015
Galería del Paseo
Miraflores, Peru

Los trabajos que hacen parte de Des-habitaciones son pinturas, ensamblajes, y objetos, creados a partir de una preocupación recurrente en mi trabajo de los últimos años, la de encontrar un lugar conceptual y poético que albergue aquello que resulta de cualquier desplazamiento ya sea físico o de sentido.

Estas construcciones y re-disposiciones de objetos y materiales, en general surgen de una relación paradojal entre la arquitectura -un lugar por excelencia vinculado al acto constructivo- y la destrucción, o la dislocación. Al reordenar los materiales, creando nuevas situaciones busco un potencial poético -una especie de cartografía del olvido- que al mismo tiempo exponga y recobre fragmentos disperos de un proyecto utópico. Aunque mis trabajos suelen ser disparados por circunstancias políticas y catastróficas sociales, no corresponden a ningún incidente específico, sino que miran a una situación global compartida.

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Artists: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, Alexander Apóstol, Miguel Braceli, Alberto Cavalieri, Arturo Herrera, Suwon Lee, Victor Lucena, Alfredo Ramírez.

BIG
September 27 – December 20, 2015
Espacio Monitor
Caracas, Venezuela

Karla Franceschi C.

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Artists: Benjamin Bergmann, Hermann Breucker, Christian Truth Czaplicki, Ingrid Dahn, Bogomir Ecker, Thomas Florschütz, Aslan Gaisumov, Carla Guagliardi, Selma Gültropak, Bernhard Heiliger, Pia Janssen, Martin Kaltwasser, Markus Karstieß, Mischa Kuball, Marlena, Kudlicka, Katharina Monka, Johanna Reich, Thomas Rentmeister, Matthias Schamp, Jan Scharrelmann, Martin Schwenk, Max Schmitz, Kenneth Snelson, Albert Weiss und chinesische Gelehrtensteine aus dem Museum DKM, Duisburg sowie Werke aus der Sammlung des Skulpturenmuseums Glaskasten Marl.

Skulptur
October 25, 2015 – February 7, 2016
Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl
Marl, Germany

Die Ausstellung Skulptur 2015 will die Möglichkeiten von Skulptur heute aufzeigen, ohne eine These zu belegen, sondern indem sie die Marler Situation mit den über 80 Skulpturen im öffentlichen Raum und die spezifische Sammlung des Skulpturenmuseums nutzt. Konkret ist damit eine Verzahnung der hochinteressanten Marler Sammlung mit eigens für die Ausstellung entstandenen neuen Arbeiten im Museum sowie drei neuen Installationen im Skulpturenpark von Bogomir Ecker, Selma Gültropak und Jan Scharrelmann und gezielt ausgewählten Leihgaben gemeint.

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Artists: Vyacheslav Akhunov, Jonathas de Andrade, Meris Angioletti, Alexander Apóstol, Marwa Arsanios, Vartan Avakian, Azorro Group, Zbyněk Baladrán, Sammy Baloji, Yason Banal, Guy Ben-Ner, Michael Blum and Damir Nikšić, Deanna Bowen, Pavel Braila, Andrea Büttner, Robert Cauble, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Park Chan-Kyong, Chen Chieh-jen, Chto delat/What is to be done?, Josef Dabernig, Elena Damiani, Shezad Dawood, Manon de Boer, Jos de Gruyter &  Harald Thys, Angela Detanico, Annika Eriksson, Kota Ezawa, Antanas Gerlikas, Tamar Guimarães, Dan Halter, Annemarie Jacir, Ranbir Kaleka, Beryl Korot, Nestor Kruger, Rafael Lain, Lars Laumann, Aníbal López, Reynier Leyva Novo, Basim Magdy, Cinthia Marcelle, Bradley McCullum & Jacqueline Tarry, Anja Medved, Tracey Moffatt, Ivana Müller, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Phu Nam Thuc Ha, Ho Tzu Nyen, Ahmet Ögüt, Agnieszka Polska, Jenny Perlin, Daniela Paes Leao, Elodie Pong, The Propeller Group, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz,  Sara Ramo, Tracey Rose, Sona Safaei, Edwin Sánchez, Heino Schmid, Michael Stevenson, Stephen Sutcliffe, Yukihiro Taguchi, Prilla Tania, Alexander Ugay, Ulla Von Brandenburg, Wok the Rock, Zhou Xiaohu, Sun Xun, Jin-me Yoon, Dale Yudelman, Helen Zeru, Chen Zhou.

Project 35: The Last Act
ICI Independent Curators International, organized by Andrey Misiano
August 8, 2015 – January 31, 2016
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Moscow, Russia

Project 35: The Last Act is an unprecedented exhibition of single-channel video works that reveal today’s global connectivity through art. It is the result of an extensive five-year project by Independent Curators International (ICI), which exclusively culminates at Garage. Project 35: The Last Act presents 70 video works from artists living and working all over the world—from Zimbabwe and Guatemala to Japan, from the USA and New Zealand to Kyrgyzstan, that have been selected by 70 leading curators who are part of ICI’s extensive network, including, Chus Martinez, Viktor Misiano, Hou Hanru, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Since 2010, different versions of the exhibition have been presented in over 50 institutions around the world. As the finale, this is the first time they will be screened together, providing a unique, global overview of video art now.

Showcasing many leading artists in Russia for the first time, the exhibition is also unusual for its “cinema” style presentation in Garage’s new auditorium. Each week there is a new, daily program of video works, which are each especially selected for audiences by eleven key creative people in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, such as Olga Chernishova (artist), Anton Belov (Garage Director), and Elena Yushina (independent curator), based on their personal interests and tastes. Visitors can watch for half an hour, an hour, or four hours—to see the “top picks” that each selector has made and why they liked them—and can keep coming back to see more works from more selectors over the winter months, all through January 2016. In this way the exhibition offers a flexible viewing opportunity for visitors to enjoy on their own time.

Project 35 began as the first international survey of what curators thought was the most interesting video art happening around the world since the new millennium, further revealing the ways in which artists are wanting to communicate today. To begin, 35 international curators selected 35 video works that ranged from reinterpretations of traditional philosophical propositions, to uprisings and protests in South Africa and emerging youth culture in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, to environmental exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then, in 2012, 35 new curators selected 35 new videos works, expanding the reach of the project to reflect the continued rise of video art as an important medium for artists. Together, the works reveal the diversity of approaches practitioners are taking to the medium, using various animation techniques, as well as borrowing from the language of cinema, performance, and even YouTube, to produce work that weaves between documentary and fiction formats.

The weekly screening program that takes place in the Garage Auditorium has been prepared in collaboration with Russian artists (Olga Chernyshova, Evgeny Granilshikov), film critics (Alexey Artamonov, Boris Nelepo), journalists (Maria Kravtsova), art critics (Alexander Evangeli), curators (Elena Yushina, Aperto gallery; Maya Kuzina, Documentary film center; Andrey Misiano, Garage) directors (Anton Belov, Garage) and theatre director who will choose their personal favourites from the wide range of works.

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Artist: Ximena Garrido-Lecca

Solo show
November 5 – December 26, 2015
Casado Santapau Gallery
Madrid, Spain

Solo show by Ximena Garrido-Lecca.

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Artists: Rosenda Álvarez Faro and Grabadores por Grabadores, Carlos Amorales, Francisca Aninat, Rodrigo Arteaga, Myrna Báez, David Beltrán, Hernaín Bravo, Fernando Bryce, Waltercio Caldas, Manuel Calderón, Johanna Calle, Luis Camnitzer, Tania Candiani, Claudia Casarino, Albert Chong, Lourdes Correa-Carlo, Elena Damiani, Annalee Davis, Paula Dittborn, Frances Gallardo, Carlos Garaicoa, Félix González Torres, María Elena González, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, José Iraola, Alfredo Jaar, Voluspa Jarpa, Ivelisse Jiménez, Leandro Katz, Lucia Koch, Irene Kopelman, Ricardo Lanzarini, Nicola López, Claudia Martínez Garay, Vik Muniz, Mônica Nador, Jesús Bubu Negrón, Rivane Neuenschwander, José Ortiz-Pagán, Amalia Pica, Isabel Ramírez, Sandra Ramos, Rosângela Rennó, Verónica Rivera, Nicolás Robbio, Mariana Rondón, Graciela Sacco, Rosemberg Sandoval, Oscar Santillán, Giancarlo Scaglia, the SEMEFO Collective, Daniel Senise, Edra Soto, Adán Vallecillo, and Alicia Villarreal.

Displaced Images / Images in Space
The 4th Poly/Graphic San Juan Triennial: Latin America and the Caribbean
Curators: Gerardo Mosquera (Chief Curator), Vanessa Hernández, Alexia Tala
October 24, 2015 – February 28, 2016
Institute of Puerto Rican Culture
San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Poly/Graphic Triennial of San Juan, Latin America, and the Caribbean represents the transformation of what was, for more than 30 years, one of the most important art events in Latin America and the Caribbean: the San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphics. Created in 2004, the Triennial promotes experimentation in the graphic arts, stimulating the combination of traditional printmaking and contemporary practices within a different curatorial theme each year.

Under the curatorial team of distinguished art critic Gerardo Mosquera (Cuba) as chief curator and co-curators Alexia Tala Barril (Chile) and Vanessa Hernandez Gracia (Puerto Rico), this 4th edition, titled Displaced Images/Images in Space will examine the shift of the graphic image between fields, supports, habits, and techniques, and especially its projection into three-dimensional spaces.

This edition of the Triennial will feature 55 artists from Puerto Rico, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as Latino artists residing in the United States.

This ambitious edition will include exhibitions, an educational program, events and publications throughout Puerto Rico, expanding beyond the capital city of San Juan to include spaces on the periphery and in other municipalities. As well, galleries and alternative spaces across the island will organize exhibitions in salute to the Triennial.

As a fundamental part of this 4th Triennial, an educational program has been designed whose aim is to develop and nurture creative thinking through participatory activities aimed at a variety of audiences and focusing on the exploration and collective recognition of the aesthetic experience. The project will feature activities that go beyond looking at art and entering the classroom as passive and hierarchical experiences.

The highlight of the workshops and lectures will be an international symposium, titled “The Contemporary Image: From Symbolic Space as Hegemony to Symbolic Space as Problematization,” to be held on October 25, 2015 in the theater of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Panelists scheduled to take part are Luis Camnitzer, Marta, Gili, Alfredo Jaar, Mari Carmen Ramírez, Cuauhtemoc Medina, and Beatríz Santiago Muñoz. This opening summit will bring together internal and external audiences of the 4th Triennial, and is aimed at promoting a discussion of the contemporary image, and the image in general, as social experience.

Amalia Pica, Venn Diagrams (In the spotlight), 2011, Focos en trípode, sensor de movimiento, gel de iluminación y grafito sobre la pared, Dimensiones variables, Obra: Cortesía de la Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

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Artists: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, and Piotr Tolmachov.

Landscape and Spacing
Pulsar
November 6 – 22, 2015
Antwerp, Belgium

Pulsar is a new artist run, not-for-profit space located in Antwerp. Each month we feature works by local, international, established or emerging artists. A platform is offered for artist curated installations and exhibitions, encouraging a wide range of disciplines and practices.

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Artist: Emilio Chapela

Cavalo de pau
October 9 – November 21, 2015
Galeria Pilar
Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Artists: Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, Esteban Aldrete, Maj Britt Jensen, Christian Camacho, Ramiro Chaves, Carolina Esparragoza, Andrés García Riley, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Rodrigo Hernández, Mauricio Marcin, Jonathan Miralda, Jazael Olguín, Rita Ponce de León, Emiliano Rocha, José Luis Sánchez Rull, Daniel Steegmann.

Como fantasmas que vienen de las sombras…
Project: Juan Caloca and Andrés Villalobos
October 30, 2015
ESPAC
Mexico City, Mexico

Contrario a lo evidente esta cueva no es el resultado de una búsqueda primigenia. Esta caverna es un umbral. Un pasaje a otros mundos, una nueva forma de ver y sentir. La cueva en este caso sirve como metáfora de procesos de representación. La cueva es un dibujo expandido, una textura gigante. Esta caverna alude a lo interior, a lo más profundo de los pensamientos escondidos detrás de las pantallas, las imágenes y los seres humanos. Esta cavidad sirve de analogía para hablar de la televisión, el pensamiento y los desdoblamientos del ser. De algún modo esta cueva representa el origen, pero no el de la humanidad, ni mucho menos el de la filosofía como en la de Platón.

La intervención a su vez plantea un esfuerzo para el espectador. Los recorridos probables para transitar la exposición no serán de fácil acceso, requiriendo un esfuerzo extra en los participantes. Exigiéndoles una interacción activa tanto con el espacio como con las piezas contenidas en éste.

Es así que las piezas de la exhibición se afectarán una a otra, formarán parte de un todo conglomerado. No estarán aisladas señalando su aura artística sino que se implantarán en este habitáculo para formar una sola idea antropofágica. Unos comiéndose a los otros. Unos siendo los otros.

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Artist: Marcius Galan

Planta / Corte
October 8 – November 14, 2015
Galeria Luisa Strina
Sao Paulo, Brazil

O título da exposição é retirado da denominação das vistas de desenhos de arquitetura, utilizadas para a compreensão geral da área de um projeto.

Em Planta/Corte, Marcius Galan fragmenta elementos como linhas, cantos, e intervalos, em uma escala próxima à escala real, em que a espessura das linhas coincide com a das paredes da galeria.

Exercícios geométricos e de transposição de escalas, além do tráfego entre diferentes disciplinas, são recorrências em seu trabalho. Na Bienal de São Paulo de 2010, o artista apresentou dois trabalhos: Ponto em escala real, apropriando-se de um elemento gráfico do mapa (um ponto) e submetendo-o a uma escala 1:1; eEntre, um conjunto de microscopias que partiam de linhas divisórias em mapas nos quais a noção de precisão se transformava na possibilidade de adentrar em um universo interno às fibras do papel.

O universo da geometria costuma ser encontrado em sua pesquisa. A linha pode ser um simples desenho no papel, assim como também pode se impor como barreira física, impossibilitando a livre movimentação entre territórios, orientando nosso percurso pela cidade, e organizando o espaço doméstico e, diagramando os formulários burocráticos, as filas de banco, etc. Nesse sentido, ao desmembrar essas plantas em pequenos fragmentos, temos uma situação ambígua entre a organização e a desordem.

Translúcido, outra série apresentada na exposição, é formada por sobreposições de retângulos de ferro vazios que estão posicionados contra a parede e projetam um improvável reflexo de vidro e sombra. O trabalho forma um conjunto de janelas, em equilíbrio aparentemente precário, onde a percepção do espaço está outra vez em jogo.

Na última sala será apresentado um conjunto de trabalhos inéditos intitulados A mão suja, em que superfícies impregnadas de grafite são suspensas em uma parede que guarda a marca de sua instalação, formando desenhos que registram os movimentos durante a montagem da sala. Novamente o desenho deixa de lado seu aspecto virtual, de representação, e impregna a sala com os rastros do trabalho ali realizado durante o período de pouco mais de uma semana.

Ao sobrepor sistemas e códigos, apresentando novas formas de leitura e de compreensão do espaço, Marcius Galan explora a funcionalidade dos objetos e dos sistemas de representação, e propõe, consequentemente, um questionamento acerca da ideia de precisão – sobretudo no que se refere à representação de lugar, como a cartografia, a geometria, a arquitetura e o design.

Recentemente, seu trabalho participou de importantes mostras coletivas como Site, Specific, Objects, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlim, Alemanha (2015); Now? Now!, Biennial of the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, EUA (2015); Empty House/Casa vazia, Luhring Augustine, Nova York, EUA (2015); Spatial Acts: Americas Society Commissions Art, Americas Society, Nova York, EUA (2014);  Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, EUA (2014); My Third Country, Frankdael, Amsterdã, Holanda (2013); Blind Field, Krannert Art Museum e Kinkead Pavilion, EUA (2013); Planos de fuga: uma exposição em obras, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brasil (2012); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation 2011 Grants Program, Miami, EUA (2011); 8^a Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brasil (2011); 29^aBienal de São Paulo, Brasil (2010); Para ser construidos, MUSAC Castilla y León, Espanha (2010); Color into light: Selections from the MFAH Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, EUA (2008).

Exposições individuais incluem: Diagrama, NC – Arte, Bogotá, Colômbia (2013); Geometric Progression – Marcius Galan Inside the White Cube, White Cube Bermondsey, Londres, Inglaterra (2013).

Seu trabalho é parte das seguintes coleções privadas e institucionais: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (Brasil), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (Brasil), Fundação Serralves (Portugal), Zabludowicz Collection (Inglaterra), Museum of Fine Arts Houston (EUA), Cisneros Fontanals Foundation (EUA), MALBA – Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Nicolas Cattelain Collection (Inglaterra), CACI – Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim (Brasil), Coleção Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (Brasil).

Entre os prêmios e residências, destacam-se: residência na Gasworks, Londres (2013); Prêmio PIPA (2012); residência na School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005); prêmio residência do Instituto Iberê Camargo (2005); residência na Cité des Arts, Paris (2003). hosting information lookup

• Happenings

Artists: Iván Argote, Arocha + Schraenen, Lothar Baumgarten, Matthew Buckingham, Elena Damiani, Adler Guerrier, Jorge Pedro Núñez, Edgar Orlaineta, Laercio Redondo, Matheus Rocha Pitta, Sergio Vega.

The Devil is in the details
Curated by Jesus Fuenmayor
September 17 – November 20, 2015
KaBe Contemporary
Miami, FL, USA

The title of the exhibition “The Devil is in the details” pretends to point towards the details’ appearances in a work of art that unexpectedly allow viewers to comprehend the work (and even history) in a different way, even when this reading betrays our expectations or completely twists a work’s initial intention. Instead of just speaking about how important the use of historiography is for this group of artists, the show draws attention to what Roland Barthes used to call the “Punctum.” That is, that detail in an image (or work) that escapes its own structure, shooting out like an “arrow” towards the viewer. The artists selected for this exhibition have turned to the representation of history not just as material itself but also as means by which to criticize how history is constructed. They are not just interested in the past tense or simply reviving archival strategies, but in putting the past in relation to the present and the future, creating overlapping temporalities that bring disparate moments together. scottrade site down

• Happenings

Artists: Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Darío Escobar, Alexandra Grant, Patrick Hamilton, Sandra Monterroso, Gabriel Orozco, Sebastián Preece, Richard Prince, Isabel Ruíz, Inés Verdugo.

Pero no soy fotógrafo / But I am not a photographer
November 5, 2015
The 9.99 Gallery
Guatemala City, Guatemala

In Roland Barthes’s book La Chambre Claire (1980), he explains that the critical part of photography focuses on the mechanical moment. The moment in which the brain decides and the finger clicks is the moment in which the “[t]he obstinacy of the referent in being there, always there” is present. Currently, that moment continues to be the most important; it is the one that makes the difference between points of view. Photography as a technique has rapidly shifted from the dark room into digitalization. When it started in the nineteenth  century, it was a contraption. The expertise one needed to have in physics for the light aperture, along with the chemistry knowledge required to reveal the images have all but faded away. Technological advances allow many of us to carry a camera in our pocket.

Photography’s goal is to capture a moment that takes place only once, whether it is in the various classifications borrowed from academic painting: still-life, landscapes, people and historical moments. The way in which we approach them, and the stories that these images tell us, are not from a specific moment; but rather from the combination of several moments: to click, to develop, to manipulate, and finally, to single that moment and to make its invisibility present.

The exhibition consists of 27 pieces, which presentation starts from a photographic aspect challenging its more orthodox definition as it returns to an academic classification. Installed in a “cabinet of curiosities” style, we see a small compilation of works that goes from landscape to photographs of historical moments, in different formats and presentations, highlighting its rareness or its single imperfection as “impure” photography.

The exhibit starts with the hesitation and manipulation of the countryside landscapes Paisajes Perforados I y II  (Perforated Landscapes I and II, 2009) by Patrick Hamilton (Chile, 1974), whose dalliances venture into his well-known photographic shots and manipulations of building materials in the series Proyectos de arquitecturas revestidas para la Ciudad de Santiago (Architectural projects re-covered for the City of Santiago, 2008) or Posters (2008), and returns to the landscapes, not only to manipulate them but to turn them into three-dimensional objects, based on repetition and reflection, as in the case of his most recent piece Escape al Paraíso (Escape to Paradise, 2014) and Spatula #1 (2015).

Playing with repetition, The less things change, the less stay the same (2013) by Alejandro Almanza Pereda (Mexico, 1977), a work that obtained an honorific mention at the XVI Bienal de Fotografía in 2014 at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, here we see a series of moments in an exercise of constructive transformation of materials, tinged with nostalgia, which will be reactivated in Geometría Imperfecta(Imperfect Geometry, 2012) of Darío Escobar (Guatemala, 1971), but where instants are even more ephemeral as light is the main composition and appeal, or in the case of Untitled (2002) where memory is contained in the  oil stains.

At first sight, the photography Dot Ball (1992/1996) of Gabriel Orozco (Mexico, 1962) could be a ready-made of a balloon in the middle of nature. In reality the manipulation of an object within its context gives it a particular placement, which is one of the more evident features of portraiture. Although we usually refer to a portrait as the likeness of a person, the truth is that a person’s own objects also speak about their specific characteristics; they show us the “observing subject,” as is the case of the series Equilibrio (Equilibrium) by Patrick Hamilton and Volume XIV (2008) of Sebastián Preece (Chile, 1972).

The human figure is revisited in the gestures of Alexandra Grant (United States, 1973). In her series Shadows, a collaboration with the actor and writer Keanu Reeves, the technical manipulation creates a game of colors, shadows, and movement. This, on the other hand, is hidden in the work by Richard Prince (United States, 1949) where the manipulation is referred to as a physical object—Bill Powers’s novel What we lose in flowers (2012). The pin-up style female nude, behind a strip that reminds us of DVD titles, gives a new meaning to the idea of mixed media. compare hotel prices The human figure is also the protagonist in Sandra Monterroso’s performance documentation (Guatemala, 1974), Tu Ashé Yemaya(2015), presented in the 12 Bienal de La Habana, and in the light boxes of Isabel Ruiz (Guatemala, 1945) in the series Río Negro (1988), where photography is on the verge of gesture. Finally, the exhibition closes with a gaze looking at another gaze, that of Inés Verdugo (Guatemala, 1983) in her work Continuidad (Continuity, 2015).

 While at the beginning of photography the end of painting was predicted, today the photographic image has become such a generalized practice that “we are all photographers.” However, photography is still a specialized field where questions of light, focus, and perspective are endless challenges to overcome.

• Happenings

Artists: Vito Acconci, Artur Barrio, Rosemarie Castoro, Eduardo Costa, Cris Gianakos, Victor Grippo, Stephen Kaltenbach, Leandro Katz, Rosemary Mayer, Ana Mendieta, Marta Minujín, Hélio Oiticia, John Perreault, Regina Vater.

Acciones en la calle: Street Works in New York and Latin America circa 1970
Curator: Gillian Sneed
October 26 – December 4, 2015
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery
SUNY College
New York, NUY, USA

“Acciones en la Calle” considers the conceptual and performative strategies employed by artists in the 1960s and ’70s that rejected institutional spaces in favor of the street as the context and subject of their work. The exhibition’s point of departure is the six-part Street Works (1969-1970), a series of events during which numerous artists utilized urban public spaces in New York City’s streets as their performance and exhibition venues.

While New York is often considered the birthplace of this genre, street actions had also taken hold in Latin America, and relationships between Latin American and U.S. artists, critics, and curators developed. Latin American artists who sought exile from dictatorships or had been awarded grants came to New York, while many U.S. artists traveled to Latin America.

“Acciones en la Calle” demonstrates resonances and disjunctions between the works and their political, practical, and theoretical concerns. While the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War protests provided the backdrop against which street works emerged in the U.S., in Latin America limited art markets and repressive regimes left only the streets as venues for artistic intervention. These artists investigated the complex intersections of political repression, violence, and social marginalization in ways that challenged the traditional “center/periphery” model so often employed in canonical accounts of Latin American and U.S. conceptual art. Curator Sneed explains: “The relevance of these works could not be more urgent today, as activists across the Americas have returned to the streets to take action.”

The works in this exhibition revolve around three themes related to the urban setting: Site, Drift, and Debris. Site considers street works that mark or highlight the location where they unfolded; Drift engages works that wander through urban networks to produce dérives, or flows; and Debris explores what is revealed about a city’s inhabitants by the refuse that accumulates on their streets.

• Happenings

Artist: Erica Muralles Hazbun

Cualquier otra realidad / Any other reality
October 15 – November 5, 2015
Sol del Rio Gallery
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Solo show by Erica Muralles Hazbun.

• Happenings

Artists: Belén, Andrea Canepa, Mauro Cerqueira, Miki Leal, Juan López, Maider López, Carlos Maciá, Tobias Rehberger, Fernando Renes y Miguel Ángel Tornero.

El público
Curator: Virginia Torrente
September 18 – October 18, 2015
Centro Federico García Lorca
Granada, Spain

Group show.

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Artists: Álvaro Barrios, Eduardo Berliner, Luis Camnitzer, Mario Cravo Neto, Antonio Dias, Paz Errázuriz, León Ferrari, Guillermo Kuitca, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Liliana Porter, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Melanie Smith and Horacio Zabala.

Dark Mirror: Art from Latin America since 1968
September 7, 2015 – January 31, 2016
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Germany

Topics such as the literal and metaphorical boundaries of freedom, gender identity, social criticism and political power as well as reflections on nature vs. urban existence will be examined via more than 150 works. These come from all genres of art – including installations, objects, paintings, photographs, videos and works on paper – and will be shown in an exhibition space encompassing 1100 square meters. This extensive selection of works, from the largest and most important institution devoted to contemporary Latin American art in Europe: the Zurich-based Daros Latinamerica Collection, not only sheds light on parallels to the history of European art but also on specific Latin American developments, particularly since the 1960s.

The works by such artists as Álvaro Barrios; Eduardo Berliner; Luis Camnitzer; Mario Cravo Neto; Antonio Dias; Paz Errázuriz; León Ferrari; Guillermo Kuitca; Marta María Pérez Bravo; Liliana Porter; Miguel Ángel Rojas; Melanie Smith and Horacio Zabala provide a striking picture of Latin American art’s creative diversity and energy.

With respect to its beginnings in 1967 as well as its focus on groups of works by major artists, there are conceptual parallels between the Daros Latinamerica Collection and the holdings of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. The examination of the artistic continent of Latin America in the Dark Mirror exhibition also serves, in this context, as a laboratory for a global expansion of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg’s collection.

• Happenings

Artist: Gabriel Sierra

Numbers in a Room
September 20, 2015 – January 4, 2015
Sculpture Center
New York, USA

By modifying and extending the guiding information of the exhibition space, Sierra will restructure the lower level galleries, effacing and confusing distinctions between the architecture, the institution, and the works that comprise the exhibition. The combination of alternative and existing floor plans, signage, and objects in the space all refer to the codes for viewing and maneuvering through the context of an exhibition.

Increasingly layered in Sierra’s presentation, the various structures comprising an exhibition in an institution create a mirroring effect, where each thing recalls another thing. This indexical accumulation makes it unclear exactly where the exhibition begins and ends, bringing into question the semantics of the various navigational prompts within art institutions. The exhibition structure asks that the visitor adjust to its new form.

Sierra (born 1975, San Juan Nepomuceno, Colombia) is based in Bogotá, Colombia and has had solo exhibitions at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2015) and Peep-Hole in Milan (2013). Recent group exhibitions include the 56th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2013); The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York (2012); and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011).

• Happenings

Artist: Elena Damiani.

Testigos: un catálogo de fragmentos / Sediments: an assemblage of remains
Curated by Cecilia Delgado and Amanda de la Garza
September 5, 2015 – February 7, 2016
MUAC Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo
Mexico City, Mexico

La propuesta de Elena Damiani forma parte del programa curatorial Intemperie Sur, que parte de la idea del intersticio como hendidura que media entre dos partes de un mismo cuerpo. Opera desde la posibilidad de vincular el adentro y el afuera del museo, por ello propone que las intervenciones artísticas sucedan en terrazas y patios.

La instalación Testigos: un catálogo de fragmentos se presenta como un interludio espacio-temporal. Conformada por dos esculturas en travertino que aluden a la naturaleza discontinua del tiempo y a la aparición de espacios liminales dentro de éste, Damiani revela los intersticios que el propio material contiene. Estas fisuras -hiatos o lagunas en el tiempo geológico- son los puntos de interés crítico, ya que representan la evidencia de ciertos quiebres, filtraciones y discordancias, factores que señalan sutilmente la existencia de un ‘tiempo perdido’.

En los vacíos es donde se formula un espacio para el cuestionamiento de la continuidad y la estabilidad de lo que entendemos como espacio-tiempo. Si bien, se considera que el tiempo ayuda a revelar la esencia de las cosas: la apariencia de una ilustración cuyos bordes han sido manoseados por un número de personas, el tono oscurecido de un árbol o la rugosidad de una piedra son testigos silenciosos que en su composición material contienen una serie de capas de información que representan un transitar del tiempo.

La primera escultura es una serie de 34 piezas talladas en travertino, son prismas cortados a la vena provenientes de la misma piedra; este corte permite ver las diferentes capas de sedimentación características de la composición de este material. Cada uno se encuentra dispuesto uno junto al otro de manera secuencial sobre el muro, recomponiendo el patrón de estratificación original de la piedra, el cual se ve interrumpido por una incrustación de resina translucida en cada una. La segunda, son dos losas de travertino cortadas a la vena que rotan en uno de sus vértices para incorporarse la una con la otra ubicadas sobre el piso. El área donde se superponen es remplazada por un vidrio del mismo espesor de manera que las capas estratigráficas queden a modo de espejo.

En su conjunto, la instalación hace referencia a dialécticas de linealidad, ruptura y yuxtaposición, de superficie plana y volumen, de adentro y afuera; señalando la potencialidad de los materiales para retener y desplegar información o dejar que ésta se filtre a través de los huecos en las superficies segmentadas. Damiani integra a la instalación resina y vidrio en las fracturas del travertino, destacando la notoria intrusión de elementos ajenos entre los sedimentos naturales, generando así pequeños vanos o paréntesis que exponen una serie de quiebres en la continuidad de la composición morfológica de la piedra. La artista expande las posibilidades del collage como un medio para la escultura y la instalación, presentando una tensión dialéctica entre el todo y sus partes, donde la composición de las obras dispuestas en el espacio señalan la naturaleza fragmentaria, propia del collage, a través de los segmentos y las capas que se acoplan presentándose como un nuevo todo.

• Happenings

Artist: Paula de Solminihac.

Ceramix, Art and ceramics from Rodin to Schütte
Curated by Camille Morineau and Lucia Pesapane
October 16, 2015 – January 31, 2016
Bonnefantenmuseum
Masstricht, The Netherlands

Officielle
October 21-25, 2015
Paris, France

Les Noms Secrets (Hidden Names)
October 10 – November 7, 2015
Galerie DIX9
Paris, France

El reciente proyecto de Paula de Solminihac, Los Nombres Secretos, recupera residuos de materiales del trabajo de taller y recortes de sus cuadernos de trabajo, para producir obras que evocan vestigios arqueológicos y transforman los detritus de la experiencia artística en obras sometidas a la lógica de las operaciones alquímicas.

Restos de arcilla seca y hojas de los cuadernos que la artista usa a diario como laboratorio creativo, fueron combinados utilizando un método que intenta restituir los materiales a su condición inicial, la humedad de la arcilla y el vacío de la página en blanco. En concreto, mientras las arcillas fueron envueltas en trapos viejos y enterradas en arena y agua para devolverles la humedad, en las hojas de los cuadernos se orillaron a lápiz los espacios libres de anotaciones y dibujos, a fin de perfilar los vacíos y así poner de manifiesto las formas residuales del trabajo de exploración visual consignado en los cuadernos.

Su trabajo de investigación en torno a la cerámica lo realiza poniendo atención a los procesos y al trabajo sobre la materia, haciéndose parte del análisis de las dinámicas tecnológicas de la arqueología contemporánea, que en lugar de clasificar los objetos por sus rasgos formales, prefiere analizar los procesos a partir de los cuales los objetos han llegado a ser lo que son. A diferencia de las obras anteriores de Paula de Solminihac, donde la atención estaba puesta en el paso de lo crudo a lo cocido para producir mapas mentales o constelaciones de letras modeladas, actualmente centra su atención en el estado crudo-seco de la arcilla, y en su tránsito a lo crudo-húmedo y a lo calcinado como antesala de la descomposición de la materia.

El resultado es un conjunto de obras a base de capas o cortezas superpuestas, ya sea de materiales concretos como la tierra, ya sea de elementos simbólicos como las ideas que retornan una y otra vez en los cuadernos, todo esto hasta conformar un todo sin costuras entre la vida y el trabajo. Durante octubre del 2015, Los Nombres Secretos, tres cuerpos de obras relacionados entre sí, se presentará simultáneamente en el Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Holanda, en una gran muestra colectiva sobre cerámica contemporánea curada por Camille Morineau y Lucia Pesapane; en una muestra individual en galería Dix9, de París, y en un solo Project en la feria de arte contemporáneo Officielle, también en Paris.

Los Nombres Secretos / Ceramix

Organizada por tres instituciones europeas se presentará en el Bonnefantenmuseum en Maastricht, Holanda (16 de octubre 2015 al 5 de febrero, 2016), Maison Rouge, Fundación Antoine de Galbert, Paris y la Cité de la Céramique de Sèvres (2016).

Se mostrarán 13 bultos de arcilla negra que se hicieron amortajando papeles de arcilla sometidos simultáneamente a procesos de secado y humectación durante varios meses, haciendo reaccionar la materia de distintas formas. Junto con las piezas de cerámica se muestran dos fotos, una de un trozo de tela que se usó de envoltura en el proceso y otra de una ceniza de diario minúscula que sobrevivió al fuego de cocción.

Los Nombres Secretos / diarios de una transformación

Para su primera exhibición en Francia en la galería Dix9, Paula de Solminihac presenta una serie de objetos de cerámica y papel dispuestos taxonómicamente como evidencias de un proceso. Lo que se mostrará es un encadenamiento de piezas disímiles; en concreto: Soft Shells, una cuelga de trapos de algodón y lino usados como envoltorios; Archeological matter, serie de 24 clasificaciones de piedras de arcilla de colores modeladas espontáneamente en arena y agua; Diary pages, una serie de trabajos en papel con formas circulares que aluden a organismos vivos de estructuras complejas como la Victoria Amazónica, un loto gigante, y la Armillarea, un hongo que es el organismo mós grande del mundo y que vive oculto bajo tierra; Fungi print, 4 impresiones serigráficas de patrones de hongos que se estamparon en las telas usadas. Las reproducciones, hechas con tinta fluorecente, solo pueden ser vistas en la oscuridad y por un tiempo limitado hasta que se apaga la tinta; y, finalmente, Hard Shells, un collar de papel y lino que simboliza los procesos de rescate alquímico de lo desechable mediante su transmutación material y figurativa.

Los Nombres Secretos / Officielle

Para Officielleartfair, feria de arte contemporáneo que se realiza en París entre los días 21 y 25 de octubre, la artista ha diseñado un Solo Project en donde mostrará libros de arcilla y composiciones a partir de las hojas de sus cuadernos, una suerte de bitácora de papeles de distintas composiciones que ha ido acumulando en el tiempo.

En los tres paneles que conforman el espacio habrá un librero con 10 libros de arcillas de distintos colores y una columna hecha por el despliegue de uno de ellos, un segundo panel con 10 trabajos en papel y el tercer panel con tres fotografías.

• Happenings

Artists: Pablo Accinelli, Edgardo Aragón, Juan Araujo, Felipe Arturo, Nicolás Bacal, Milena Bonilla, Paloma Bosquê, Pia Camil, Bevenuto Chavajay, Marcelo Cidade, Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker, Nicolás Consuegra, Minerva Cuevas, Elena Damiani, Mariana Castillo Deball, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Federico Herrero, Voluspa Jarpa, Runo Lagomarsino, Adriana Lara, Engel Leonardo, Valentina Liernur, Mateo López, Renata Lucas, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Nicolás Paris, Amalia Pica, Pablo Rasgado, Pedro Reyes, Adrián Villar Rojas, Gabriel Sierra, Clarissa Tossin, Carla Zaccagnini.

United States of Latin America
Curated by Jens Hoffmann and Pablo León de la Barra
September 18, 2015 – January 3, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Art
Detroit, MI, USA

The exhibition United States of Latin America brings together more than thirty emerging artists from Latin America, many of whom will be exhibiting in the United States for the first time.

The show is based on an ongoing conversation between two curators, Jens Hoffmann and Pablo León de la Barra, who for a number of years have exchanged research and information about artists, artworks, and the overall development of the art world from Mexico to Argentina and the many countries in between. The exhibition is an extension of this dialogue into the galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit via artworks suggested in dialogue format.

United States of Latin America features a wide range of works in a variety of mediums, for instance a series of photographs about housing in Havana, a film about the effects of gang violence in Mexico, sculptures reflecting on the involvement of the CIA in Latin American dictatorships, drawings of historical monuments from the future, a floor map about the selling of Brazilian rubber to the United States, boulders from a Colombian river that have been turned into flip-flops, and paintings about the interplay of modernist houses, tropical vegetation, and utopian architecture. The individual artworks touch upon themes such as geography, history, urbanism, memory, colonialism, architecture, war, modernism, social inequality, regionalism, and power. Given how Latin America’s realities oscillate between the colonial and the contemporary, between severe economic hardships and enormous financial expansions, between flourishing democracies and suppressive dictatorships, and between great progress and immense regression, the exhibition presents an intentionally fragmented survey, a deliberately disjointed overview, of the region and the art being made there. It allows the viewer a glimpse into a reality that may seem geographically near, but is in many ways far away and unfamiliar.

The curators invited a number of writers and curators from throughout Latin America to contribute to a glossary of terms that articulate the region’s historical landscape and conceptual syntax. This glossary will be published in the exhibition catalogue along with a conversation between the curators, texts on all of the artists, images of the exhibited artworks, and a roundtable discussion featuring a number of curators based in Latin America.

Developed in collaboration with Kadist Art Foundation, United States of Latin America is curated by Jens Hoffmann, MOCAD senior curator at large, and Pablo León de la Barra, guest curator. A range of public programs and educational activities will run concurrently with the exhibition, including a public conversation with the curators, lectures by some of the participating artists, film screenings, and performances.

• Happenings

Artist: Marco Maggi

Unfolding
September 10 – October 24, 2015
Josée Bienvenu Gallery
New York, NY, USA

Like in the Venice pavilion, Maggi separates the two basic elements of drawing. He draws with paper on the walls in the main space, and presents an installation of pencils in a separate area. “Drawing is a dialogue with a superficy and a certain superficiality. It is a superficial discipline that allows oneself to take distance from the depths of thinking in order to de-multiply an empathy for the insignificant. Drawing for me is like writing in a language that I don’t understand. I don’t believe in messages or ideas. Ideas have the tendency to become fixed and aspire ultimately to the status of ideology.” (Marco Maggi, 2015)

A portable kit composed of thousands of elements cut-out from self-adhesive paper becomes an insignificant alphabet folded and pasted onto the walls during the months preceding the exhibition. The diminutive papers are disseminated or connected following the traffic rules and syntax dictated by any accumulation of sediments. Some areas throughout the gallery are infected with color, the edge of the wall in red, blue or yellow, like the margins of a misprinted sheet of paper. The colonies of stickers on the walls enter in dialogue with the light upon them. Myriads of shadows and infinitesimal incandescent projections aim to slow down the viewer. The main ambition of the project is to promote pauses and make time visible.

In Putin’s Pencils, ten pencils are pointed against the wall, held by the tensions of bowstrings, ten arrows ready to be projected. The trajectory of these Soviet era color pencils is frozen, almost going backward in time. Leading to the project room, a ladder made of Fanfold, the already obsolete perforated computer paper, grows upward and downward from two dimensions to three-dimensional space in a symbiosis of hardware and software. Inside the room, two individual panels of cutout stickers face each other. Another wall installation, Stacking Quotes (Black Cachet), suspends bound sketchbooks with fragments of colored stickers pressed within their pages. These small referential stickers act as words cut out from a larger message, recoding the original context.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1957, Marco Maggi lives and works in New Paltz, NY and Montevideo, Uruguay. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America in galleries, museums, and biennials. This year, he represents Uruguay at the 56th Venice Biennale, on view through November 22. His first monograph was published on this occasion. Maggi’s work is also on view at the concurrent exhibition Déplier Marco Maggi at Galerie Xippas, Paris. In 2013, he received the Premio Figari (Career Award). Selected exhibitions include Drawing Attention, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2015); Embracing Modernism: Ten Years of Drawings Acquisitions, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York (2015); Functional Desinformation, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Optimismo Radical, NC-arte, Bogota, Colombia (2011); New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930–2006, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Poetics of the Handmade, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2007); Fifth Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2004); VIII Havana Biennial, Cuba (2003); 25th Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2002); and Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001). Public collections include The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; The Drawing Center, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Cisneros Collection, New York; and Daros Foundation, Zurich.

• Happenings

Artists: Claudio Vera and Martin Pelenur.

Primordial Meditations
September 17th – October 24th, 2015
Artemisa Gallery
New York, NY, USA

It is embedded in human nature to be thoughtful and innovative for survival. Collectively, a dialogue surrounding this concept is excavated from Vera’s and Pelenur’s parallel bodies of work, to raise thought provoking questions that are inherent to humanity’s progression on earth, as well as, within society. How can humanity move forward in connection with the land, and how does one’s consciousness allow this process to unfold? Such primordial concerns with existence have continued through ancient times into contemporary civilization. To investigate Vera and Pelenur in this vein brings to light the association of physical and cerebral conditions, which are key to the balancing act that humanity must perform throughout time.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, Francis Alÿs, Gaston Bertrand, Amédée Cortier, Raoul de Keyser, Walter Leblanc, Bernd Lohaus, Luy Mees, Gert Robijns, Timothy Segers, Boy and Erik Stappaerts, Philippe Van Snick, Jef Verheyen, Pieter Vermeersch.

The Gap: Selected Abstract Art from Belgium
Curated by Luc Tuymans
September 9 – December 6, 2015
Parasol unit
London, UK

Focusing on the notion of abstraction in twentieth-century and contemporary Belgian art and the varying sources of influence and inspiration among the artists of two generations, Tuymans has selected fifteen artists whose work either articulates a relationship to abstraction or takes as its cue the definition of abstraction. Although the artists themselves have emerged from different periods and motivations, a clear formal relationship between the selected works is apparent, and thereby reveals a current and earlier interest in abstraction that has not lost its relevance over recent decades.

Luc Tuymans, himself a figurative painter who constantly seeks to extend the traditional boundaries of his practice, has specifically selected these artists for the individual nature of their practice and the paradoxical way each of them uses their medium. Presented in the two gallery floors of Parasol unit, their works collectively investigate the potential, formal and conceptual tensions within the notion of abstraction.

Works by the earlier generation of artists represented in the show can be loosely situated within geometric abstraction and abstract constructivism, influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) and groups such as De Stijl (founded 1917) and the ZERO movement of the 1950s and 60s, as well as the American Colour Field painters. Whereas the more recent works by the younger generation of artists reconstruct and reinterpret the Modernist ideas and concerns from today’s artistic point of view. Ultimately, this exhibition highlights the diversity of artistic practice within abstraction, while revealing intergenerational influences and allowing viewers to explore and be challenged by the depth and limits of abstraction.

• Happenings

Artist: Mario Navarro

Aesthetical Irregularities
September 18, 2015
Proyecto Paralelo
Mexico City, Mexico

Navarro extracts fragments from the exhibition space thus creating voids and duplicates that that echo each other. The artist understands the void as a loss or as something missing, but as a place where it is possible to multiply reality over and over. The void works just as another constructive element that operates by pointing to the limits of forms and things.

• Happenings

Artist: Amadeo Azar

La tormenta que imaginamos
September 18 – October 30, 2015
Nora Fisch
Buenos Aires, Argentina

¿Qué pasa cuando un artista pinta en acuarela la modernidad? ¿Pueden las formas del arte moderno inventarse otra vez, o descubrirse como si hubieran pasado siglos olvidadas y perdidas para deslumbrar con aliento renovado? ¿Cómo puede volverse a ellas libre de vicios? ¿O volverlas tema sin hacer revisionismo, sin ahondar en el fracaso del gran proyecto moderno y de la revolución? ¿Sin caer en un conceptualismo que se pretenda superador? Sumergido en su taller, Amadeo Azar emprende una aventura infinita hacia lo profundo de su interés por las formas de la modernidad guiado por el encantamiento romántico y puntilloso con el que se entrega a su trabajo de artista, fundamentalmente de pintor. Y de su combinación aparentemente incompatible de tema y método, resulta un trabajo delicado y conmovedor en el que las formas supuestamente anónimas y prácticas, neutras y absolutas de la modernidad, se despliegan en imágenes donde la naturaleza de la acuarela -veloz, difusa y transparente- las carga de ánimo y hace visibles en una atmósfera de gran intimidad.

Si a partir del camino abierto por la abstracción, el artista moderno intensifica su búsqueda por obras que signifiquen la pura invención y, por ende, la pura verdad, el trabajo de Azar retoma, a través de ellas, el camino de la ilusión y la referencialidad. Sus pinturas de esculturas de Naum Gabo, Enio Iommi, Gyula Kosice, de obras de Raúl Lozza, son imágenes de imágenes. Lo que presentan no son ya el movimiento, el volumen o el color irrumpiendo en el espacio, sino radiografías exquisitas que traen a la vista algo para su reconocimiento. Con estos estudios, Azar penetra no sólo en la intimidad de una obra sino también en el proceso de invención de quien la creó, hace de la pieza que mira un retrato psicológico, la recorre y reproduce para entender, desde el hacer, su forma, sus brillos, sus líneas, sus volúmenes, sus quiebres; para representarla en toda su materialidad y, por qué no, en su espiritualidad. Fantasmales, las pinturas -algunas incluso fotografiadas e impresas sobre el mismo tipo de papel sobre el que él pinta- parecen eternizar, aunque en composiciones más oscuras, su luminosidad.

En el otro extremo de esta serie de trabajos, que se reproducen como espejismos, Azar parece probar la modernidad por sí mismo. Aunque con toda la carga del siglo pasado en sus manos y en sus ojos de artista, perdido en el ensimismamiento en el que se entrega a pintar, algunos de sus papeles buscan conquistar como se hizo antaño el plano puro de pintura como habiendo llegado otra vez al punto en que la materia exige no ser más que ella misma. Y, silenciosas, se asocian a estas imágenes casi fotográficas de obras reconocidas, papeles donde la acuarela logra plenos audaces en que sólo ella se hace escuchar. Crujiendo sobre el papel, sin embargo, no hay en ellos exclusiva precisión, uniformidad y pureza de color; por el contrario, es imposible no sentir en ellos la evocación de la niebla, o de una bruma de paisaje romántico o renacentista. Si, por un lado, estos plenos intensifican la relación con las fuentes que inspiran el trabajo de Azar, y se alinean con ellas, por otro, parecen defender el valor de lo inacabado, difuso, sugerente y abierto frente a la obra concluida y perfecta.

Una serie de esculturas -piezas que recuerdan los primeros trabajos constructivistas de Vladimir Tatlin que combinan planos y volúmenes de materiales diversos-, también se animan a probar estos momentos iniciáticos de las vanguardias. Combinando libros, recortes de diarios, partes de yeso, restos de papeles pintados, Azar arma volúmenes en los que incluso la pintura se integra al espacio, poniéndola nuevamente a prueba. Continuando con el principio del arte abstracto de ser fiel a los materiales, estas piezas integran al trabajo el flujo de lo que rodea al artista en su taller y tal vez buscan compartir, en el acto de su descubrimiento y composición, algo del júbilo inventivo que los guiaba.

Si la modernidad pretendía redefinir la sensibilidad colectiva, la obra de Azar renueva nuestra sensibilidad hacia ella. En el tratamiento personal, íntimo y minucioso que da a este proyecto que se cantó concreto y puro, lo homenajea andando sobre sus propios pasos con silencio y más de su propia y única delicadeza.

Alejandra Aguado

Images courtesy of the artist.

• Happenings

Artists: Jumana Emil Abboud, Adel Abdessemed, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Abounaddara, Boris Achour, Terry Adkins, Saâdane Afif, Chantal Akerman, John Akomfrah, Karo Akpokiere, Meriç Algün Ringborg, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Kutluğ Ataman, Maja Bajevic, Ernesto Ballesteros, Sammy Baloji, Rosa Barba, Georg Baselitz, Eduardo Basualdo, Petra Bauer, Walead Beshty, Huma Bhabha, Christian Boltanski, Monica Bonvicini, Sonia Boyce, Daniel Boyd, Ricardo Brey, Marcel Broodthaers, Tania Bruguera, Teresa Burga, Keith Calhoun & Chandra McCormick, Cao Fei, Nidhal Chamekh, Olga Chernysheva, Tiffany Chung, Cooperativa Cráter Invertido, Creative Time Summit, Elena Damiani, Jeremy Deller, Thea Djordajdze, Marlène Dumas, e-flux Journal, Melvin Edwards, Inji Efflatoun, Antje Ehmann & Harun Farocki, Maria Eichhorn, Walker Evans, Harun Farocki, Emily Floyd, Peter Friedl, Coco Fusco, Marco Fusinato, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Ana Gallardo, Dora García, Theaster Gates, Isa Genzken, Gluklya, Sônia Gomes, Katharina Grosse, Gulf Labor, Rupali Gupte & Prasad Shetty, Andreas Gursky, Hans Haacke, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Newell Harry, Kay Hassan, Thomas Hirschhorn, Carsten Höller, Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson, IM Heung Soon, Invisible Borders: Trans-African Photographers, Tetsuya Ishida, Ji Dachun, Isaac Julien, Hiwa K., Samson Kambalu, Ayoung Kim, Alexander Kluge, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Runo Lagomarsino, Sonia Leber & David Chesworth, Glenn Ligon, Gonçalo Mabunda, Madhusudhanan, Ibrahim Mahama, David Maljkovic, Victor Man, Abu Bakarr Mansaray, Chris Marker, Kerry James Marshall, Helen Marten, Fabio Mauri, Steve McQueen, Naeem Mohaiemen, Jason Moran, Ivana Müller, Lavar Munroe, Oscar Murillo, Wangechi Mutu, Hwayeon Nam, Bruce Nauman, Cheikh Ndiaye, Olaf Nicolai, Chris Ofili, Emeka Ogboh, Philippe Parreno, Pino Pascali, Adrian Piper, Lemi Ponifasio, Qiu Zhijie, Raha Raissnia, Raqs Media Collective, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Mykola Ridnyi, Liisa Roberts, Mika Rottenberg, Joachim Schönfeldt, Massinissa Selmani, Fatou Kandé Senghor, Gedi Sibony, Gary Simmons, Taryn Simon, Lorna Simpson, Robert Smithson, Mounira Al Solh, Mikhael Subotzky, Mariam Suhail, Sarah Sze , The Propeller Group, The Tomorrow, Rirkrit Tiravanija , Barthélémy Toguo, Xu Bing , Ala Younis

56 International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures
Curated by Okwui Enwezor
May 9 – November 22, 2015
Giardini and Arsenale -La Biennale
Venice, Italy

Rather than one overarching theme that gathers and encapsulates diverse forms and practices into one unified field of vision, All the World’s Futures is informed by a layer of intersecting Filters. These Filters are a constellation of parameters that circumscribe multiple ideas, which will be touched upon to both imagine and realize a diversity of practices. In 2015, the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia will employ the historical trajectory of the Biennale itself, over the course of its one hundred and twenty years existence, as a Filter through which to reflect on both the current “state of things” and the “appearance of things”. All the World’s Futures will take the present “state of things” as the ground for its dense, restless, and exploratory project that will be located in a dialectical field of references and artistic disciplines.

• Happenings

Artists: Adolfo Bernal, Alex Cerveny, Alexander Apostol, Anna Bella Geiger, Armando Miguelez, Bouchra Khalili, Camille Henrot, Carolina Caycedo, Christy Gast, Dora Mejia, Elena Damiani, Jose Castrellon, Leyla Cardenas, Libia Posada, Luis Hernandez Mellizo, Manuela Ribadeneira, Margarita Pineda, Milena Bonilla, Monica Paez, Nicolas Consuegra, Oscar Farfan, Paola Monzillo, Sebastian Fierro, Tania Bruguera, Tulio Restrepo.

En y Entre Geografías / In and In Between Geographie
Curated by Emiliano Valdés
September 2 – November 9, 2015
MAMM Museo de Arte Moderno
Medellín, Colombia

After almost four decades of existence, the Medellín Museum of Modern Art begins a new phase with the opening of its Expansion in September. For the opening, the Museum will present En y entre Geografías (In and In Between Geographies) among eight other exhibitions. In and In Between Geographies brings together a group of international artists who incorporate in their practices research and physical, cultural and political thinking aspects that determine the location of human beings and how such aspects affect life conditions, including subjective parameters like desire and intellectual production. The exhibition is structured in three sections that address mobility in the early 21st century through a variety of research approaches: formal, political, and metaphorical.

• Happenings

Artists: Felipe Mujica and Herbert Weber

Felipe Mujica and Herbert Weber
October 9 – November 7, 2015
Christinger de Mayo
Zurich, Switzerland

Two-person exhibition.

• Happenings

Artist: Magdalena Fernández

Magdalena Fernández
Curated by Alma Ruiz
October 3, 2015 – January 3, 2016
MOCA Pacific Design Center
West Hollywood, CA, USA

Magdalena Fernández is the first major museum exhibition of the artist’s work presented in the United States. Organized by Alma Ruiz, Magdalena Fernández features six videos and one site-specific installation at MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. A well-known and influential Venezuelan artist, Fernández has built her practice upon the foundation of Latin American modernist abstraction that took root in her native country at the beginning of the 20th century. Fernández’s multidisciplinary work incorporates light, movement, and sound, following traditions established by renowned compatriot artists Gego (1912-94), Alejandro Otero (1921-90), and Jesús Rafael Soto (1923-2005). Fernández’s artistic practice is deeply connected to the natural world, especially the tropical fauna and flora of Caracas, as well as to formal modernist sensibilities. Her extensive background in graphic design—acquired as a student at the Instituto de Diseño Fundación Neumann, and later as a designer in the studio of minimalist Italian architect-designer A.G. Fronzoni (1923-2002)—has greatly influenced the visual, sensorial, and experiential aspects that distinguish her work.

The artist has stood out as one of the most innovating artist of contemporary geometric abstraction. Her multidisciplinary work conjugates light, sound and contemporary criteria of space and use of materials, with some formal concepts of the traditional legacy of optical and geometrical abstraction. Fernández’s video-artistic practice explores the possible relations between abstraction and nature. In her work, the artist proposes a dialogue of visual and sensorial perceptions with space, transforming geometry and abstraction into nature for the senses.

Image: Magdalena Fernández, 1pmS011, 2011, video installation, dimensions variable, photo by Ricardo Jiménez, courtesy of Centro Cultural Chacao and the artist. Sayago & Pardon Collection.

• Happenings

Artist: Nuno Ramos.

Houyhnhnms
August 29 – November 15, 2015
Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo, Brazil

São mais de 20 obras entre pinturas, relevos, desenhos e esculturas de grandes proporções produzidas ao longo de nove meses e que agora ocupam o quarto andar da Estação Pinacoteca. Com exceção de Cavaloporpierrô, já montada em 2014 no Instituto Iberê Camargo de Porto Alegre, todos os trabalhos apresentados são inéditos.

As cinco pinturas encontradas na exposição retomam o uso maciço da vaselina como base das cores, procedimento que Nuno Ramos desenvolveu no fim da década de 1980 e abandou no começo da década seguinte. Quatro relevos e sete desenhos completam a mostra. Feitos a partir de chapas e tubos de metal, tecidos, plásticos e tinta a óleo sobre madeira, os relevos apresentam elementos tridimensionais que prolongam ou contrastam os movimentos sugeridos pela pintura. “Os relevos e as vaselinas se complementam. Os desenhos, por sua vez, formam uma série dedicada a Proteu, conhecido na mitologia grega como o deus da metamorfose. Cada um traz carimbado o nome de uma das transformações pelas quais Proteu passou no canto IV da Odisséia”, explica o curador Lorenzo Mammì.

• Happenings

Artist: Iosu Aramburu

Modernidad Histérica
September 9 – October 15, 2015
80m2 Livia Benavides
Lima, Peru

I
Hacia 1903, Heinrich Mann describió la obsesión de su época (y la de su hermano Thomas) con el renacimiento italiano como un renacimiento histérico. Esto es, un renacimiento inventado por el siglo XIX para proyectar sus propios deseos y frustraciones. El título de este proyecto trasplanta esa referencia 100 años en el futuro para pensar la invención contemporánea de la modernidad de mediados del siglo XX como un espacio poroso, de proyección de deseos y frustraciones contemporáneas. El pasado reciente convertido en un terreno histérico, capaz de adaptarse a las formas que nuestro tiempo necesita o cree necesitar.

II
Entre 1947 y 1949 la Oficina Nacional de Planificación Urbana, a cargo de Luis Dórich y con el apoyo de Josep Lluís Sert, Paul Lester Wiener y Ernesto Nathan Rogers, desarrolló el Plan Piloto de Lima. Un plan para organizar el crecimiento de la ciudad y separar sus distintas funciones de manera racional. Para el centro de la ciudad, el plan proponía identificar y conservar las construcciones coloniales más importantes; el resto de construcciones serían reemplazadas por edificios altos sobre pilotes ubicados hacia el centro de las manzanas, liberando espacio entre las torres que sería usado por áreas verdes y plazas cubiertas. Para ejemplificar este nuevo uso del espacio se realizó una maqueta con un segmento de 12 manzanas del centro de la ciudad, ubicadas entre el Jirón De la Unión y la Avenida Tacna y los Jirones Huancavelica y Conde de Superunda. La maqueta no solo mantenía algunos de los edificios coloniales como una parte del convento de San Agustín, sino también algunos de los edificios neocoloniales que habían sido inaugurados hace poco, como el Palacio Municipal de Harth-Terré.

• Happenings

Artist: Nicolás Gómez

Parque estacionario
September 18 – November 8, 2015
Museo de Arte de Pereira
Pereira, Colombia

En la Sala Principal del Museo el Artista Nicolás Gómez Echeverri, nos presenta una serie de proyectos y piezas que hacen parte de la investigación que el artista realiza en torno a la historia de la pintura y su legado en la comprensión colectiva del paisaje. Estos trabajos no se apoyan en la pintura para hacer una ficción del espacio contemplado, Por el contrario, parten de los códigos pictóricos existentes en los espacios recorridos a diario, que en su manifestación dan cuenta de un potencial simbólico de efecto en nuestras vidas.

• Happenings

Artists: Pablo Accinelli, Doug Ashford, Claire Barclay, Rana Begum, Elena Damiani, Shezad Dawood, Annika Eriksson, Matias Faldbakken, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Ane Hjort Guttu, Tom Holert, Philippe Parreno, Amalia Pica, Bik Van der Pol, Yelena Popova, Walid Raad, Haegue Yang.

Future Light: Escaping Transparency
Curated by Maria Lind
June 11 – October 4, 2015
MAK Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Vienna Biennale 2015 – Ideas for Change
Vienna, Austria

How come some features of the old Enlightenment have crept back and are now being revisited in art, activism, and theory? Why now, after just about a century problematizing, questioning and opposing its legacy? Perhaps it is an ever more economized, fragmented, privatized, and surveilled existence where, for instance, taxpayers are forced to compensate for the crimes of financial speculation and the gap between the rich and the poor is rapidly increasing. It now becomes enticing to return to some fundamental notions and phenomena inherited from the struggle for universal emancipation: the light of reason and rationality, the individual subject, and the public sphere. They point to a wish to explore vision from its very basics—as if to try to see anew, to radical transformations of desire and to challenges to ownership and property relations as we know them. And to do so while not losing sight of the future, in the midst of parallax views, in light of the hyper-contradictions of our time. A future beyond pre-emptive and algorithmic forecasting. Art has after all this capacity to function as part seismograph and part sniffer dog, detecting things not yet seen, gelled and shaped in other parts of society, creating new imaginaries. Whether utopian or dystopian, or an unclear mix of the two.

These basic notions in radically mutated forms seem to indicate a future affected by an emerging movement toward a new enlightenment, conscious of the violent heritage of the old one in whose name atrocities have been committed over the centuries. It is post-enlightenment, not as in “radical rupture” but as in “working through” some of its characteristics. This time it is acknowledging the tensions and contradictions of the enlightenment baggage, trying not to give up on the future while being embedded in the current condition of “retrotopia” where the past in general and “memorialism” in particular loom large. Thus, three strands of thought and action have crystallized within the framework ofFuture Light: non-penetrating light, the individual subject as reworked by the politics of queer-feminism and its polymorph desires, and the public spherereconceived through and as commons and commoning. Each strand is taking shape in a different institutional and spatial setting, accompanied by a reader entitled Future Light and the mini-symposium Politics of Shine, and partly prepared in a closed workshop in October 2013 as well as in a series of public MAK Nite Labs at the MAK.

Within contemporary art, instead of the penetrating light that gives clarity and transparency, there is the reflected and refracted light that creates opacity, abstraction, and shadows. It is the light that goes on and off, that does not serve as a searchlight and yet is able to nurture new beginnings. Besides conditioning human visual perception, its new forms—for example the low-power LED light—are having other literal effects on the look and taste of plants as well as the physical and medical conditions of humans and animals. Furthermore, the future remains a point of orientation in many of the artworks. All this is being played out in the group exhibition at the MAK. Existing paintings, videos, sculptures, and drawings by seventeen artists is making up an installation without walls but with plenty of natural light.

Theory and practice in the name of LGBT and queerness have for some time reshaped notions of the individual, subjectivity, and desire. If traditional notions of gender rely on heteronormative patriarchal formations of desire, then this linchpin is now being challenged in ways hitherto unseen, affected by synthetic extensions of identity such as hormonal drugs. Under the rubric of LOVING, REPEATING, Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz are presenting three film-based works at Kunsthalle Wien. The installations convey filmed performances where the tensions between the individual and the collective carry a high degree of theatricality. While curtains and fumes create opacity, glitter and wigs indicate glamour. The characters who feature in these dramas are consciously multi-sided, defying normality, including the law and economy. Neither being entirely historical nor present, they project ahead in a truly anachronistic manner, to new and unrealized forms of enjoyment. Today many artistic and other projects revive the notions of “commons” and “commoning” in response to failures of capitalism and the increasing withdrawal of the welfare state. How will the Vienna Biennale of 2049 resurrect the voices of the citizens’ initiatives that have appeared during the past 130 years? With The Report, STEALTH.unlimited and Stefan Gruber together with Paul Currion shed light on how the achievements of these initiatives have been essential to the development of the city, yet have often been obscured by the political requirements of Vienna’s urban ambitions. Straddling the line between fiction and non-fiction, The Report will ask what it means to be a citizen of the smartest of all smart cities. It will be released as a limited printed edition in September 2049.

In a new film Marysia Lewandowska is exploring the commons as experienced through the kindergarten as an early testing ground for sharing, belonging, privacy and withdrawal. The project was triggered by the work and life of the Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000), in which many of the contradictions of the 20th century are played out, and involves the voice of Di Zhang, a young architect in Beijing for whom “the communism of commerce” is a lodestar. Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri are arranging an “unworkshop” around the politics of food and food production, which have been central concerns for the artists in their work on commons and commoning. The design, research and art studio Metahaven, who have developed the notion of “black transparency”, have co-conceptualized and designed the e-reader Future Light and the handout which connects the various parts of the overall project Future Light.

• Happenings

Artist: Esvin Alarcón Lam

Línea de horizonte, o la tensión en múltiples puntos
September 3, 2015
The 9.99 Gallery
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Solo show by Esvin Alarcón Lam.

• Happenings

Artist: Diana de Solares

El ojo que ves no es…
August 25 – October 2, 2015
Galería de Arte, Universidad Rafael Landívar
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Solo show by Diana de Solares.

Image: Diana de Solares, “Súbitamente un mundo frente al mundo comenzaría a transpirar.” (Construcción suave no. 3) / “Suddenly a World Before the World Would Begin to Transpire.” (Soft construction no. 3)”, 2014, Sports shoe laces, construction iron, Variable dimensions.

• Happenings

Artist: Christian Camacho Reynoso

Noche y dibujo
September 10, 2015
Cooperativa Cráter Invertido
Mexico City, Mexico

• Happenings

Artist: Ricardo Alcaide

Not Much Further
September 18, 2015
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Podríamos pensar que existe una línea que divide lo inservible y lo útil, lo proyectado y lo alcanzado. Pero esa división no es real cuando deambulamos por una ciudad o recordamos una historia. Es en ese punto de suspensión donde se sitúan las reflexiones de Ricardo Alcaide.

Acostumbrado a mirar desde el modernismo venezolano, su mirada crítica se ha ido trasladando por otros entornos urbanos, ejercitando la agudeza de descubrir las promesas de lo que se imaginaba un futuro mejor en lo que está a punto de desaparecer.  En Not Much Further la sensación de atracción e incomodidad y la indefinición a través de la recuperación estética de formas modernistas, replantean imposiciones y disfunciones de la sociedad actual.

• Happenings

Artist: Lucila Amatista

Vida Primaria
Curator: Valeria González
August 20 – October 16, 2015
Ro Galería de Arte
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lucila Amatista (Buenos Aires, 1978) presenta una selección de acuarelas y cerámicas que nos muestran entidades que no pueden ser definidas como una especie del reino animal o vegetal. Organismos que viven en un mundo rebosante de vida, tan monstruoso como bello, silencioso e inmóvil. La  forma de exhibición propone una mirada crítica sobre las ciencias naturales y sus métodos de investigación y exposición.

Como plantea Valeria González en el texto que acompaña la exposición:“Hagamos el esfuerzo de comprender que, si las manchas de pigmento acuoso –lo mismo que los trozos de arcilla- crecen pacientemente a través de mínimos matices y se multiplican flotantes sobre planos ingrávidos, no se trata simplemente de decisiones cromáticas y compositivas de una artista, sino de su esfuerzo por proceder con la materia del mismo modo en que la vida se auto produce microscópicamente. (…) Y así, la obra de Lucila Amatista podrá comprenderse, también, en sus implicancias éticas y políticas”.

Texto de la exposición

En uno de sus espacios de creación, Lucila Amatista genera lo que podrían ser los objetos o los rastros de un extraño personaje. Primorosas cajas donde ha atesorado rarezas naturales; o su mesa de observación, detenida en un instante, donde los especímenes, antes de ser guardados, participan de un cierto desorden en el que podemos espiar las curiosas relaciones entre las cosas que su mente imagina. Se trata, sin duda, de un coleccionista al margen de las ciencias, o de un tiempo anterior, en el que los gabinetes de curiosidades aún no habían sido atravesados –desmantelados- por el orden racional de las clasificaciones biológicas y geológicas.
Podríamos resumir en el nombre de Mark Dion todo un espacio del arte contemporáneo dedicado a la apropiación crítica de los saberes de las ciencias naturales y sus dispositivos de display. Este distanciamiento conceptual está lejos de la escala íntima, el cuidado artesanal y el espíritu amateur con que Lucila Amatista dota a su personaje.
Sin embargo, no importa cuán caprichoso o personal, se trata de un orden humano aplicado a especies naturales. Pero los organismos vivos, a diferencias de las ideas, se organizan a sí mismos y se auto reproducen. En un segundo espacio de creación, la artista no procede representando formas de la naturaleza, sino intentando emular su dinámica de génesis y multiplicación celular. He aquí el sentido primero –ya no de la cerámica y la acuarela como medios artísticos- sino del agua y la tierra como el sustrato desde donde se origina la vida primaria.
Si una semilla es capaz de hacer estallar a un muro ¿qué sentido tiene preguntarse por su forma? La única pregunta importante por hacerle a la semilla es ¿hasta dónde irás?. Esta es la lección que nos trae Deleuze para comprender la visión de Spinoza: no una jerarquía de seres organizados bajo el dominio de la mente humana –Dios creador por encima del mundo- sino un Dios-energía repartido en cantidades diferenciales de potencias que se expanden, combinan y cesan en un gran plano inmanente.
Hagamos el esfuerzo de comprender que, si las manchas de pigmento acuoso –lo mismo que los trozos de arcilla- crecen pacientemente a través de mínimos matices y se multiplican flotantes sobre planos ingrávidos, no se trata simplemente de decisiones cromáticas y compositivas de una artista, sino de su esfuerzo por proceder con la materia del mismo modo en que la vida se auto produce microscópicamente.
El esfuerzo no será menor si tenemos en cuenta que el destino último de las ciencias no es producir saber sino legalizar, mediante patentes de propiedad intelectual, la posesión empresaria de las capacidades generativas de los organismos vivos, separando poblaciones enteras del acceso a su propio medioambiente. Y así, la obra de Lucila Amatista podrá comprenderse, también, en sus implicancias éticas y políticas.

Valeria González

• Happenings

Artist: Marco Maggi

Drawing Attention
June 19 – November 1, 2015
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

At the center of this exhibition, featuring Uruguayan artist Marco Maggi, is his ambitiously scaled paper installation Great White Dialogue (2000) which reveals an encoding of the world in macro and micro, linear and aerial perspectives. From a distance, the stacks of thousands of sheets of paper (24,549 total) that are set out in a grid onto the floor suggest a landscape, circuit boards, or an architectural model for an imagined city. Viewed more intimately, delicate sculptural forms have been cut and raised from the top layer of paper, creating shadows that extend along the paper’s surface. The perplexing abstract language of Maggi’s tiny incised paper sculptures promotes longer viewing time and shifts our bodily relationship to an intimate viewing experience.

Accompanying Maggi’s sculptural installation is a related two-dimensional work, Global Myopia (2001), made by carefully pressing into aluminum foil. The network of impressions made to the malleable metal’s surface acts as the artist’s method of drawing, developed from his interest in the printmaking technique of plate etching.  He creates a patchwork of lines that impart a sense of movement across the surface of the piece. The pairing of these works emphasizes Maggi’s ability to call attention to the transformation of everyday materials he often uses, such as coated office paper, aluminum foil, apple skins, and plexiglass, as detailed and poetic expressions of the expanded language of contemporary drawing.

Marco Maggi was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He earned his MFA from the State University of New York, New Paltz, and had his first solo museum exhibition at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001. Maggi is representing Uruguay with a site-specific installation of paper and pencils, Global Myopia II, on view through November 22, 2015, at the Venice Biennale in Italy. The Uruguayan pavilion is one of the twenty-nine national pavilions located in the Giardini della Biennale.

• Happenings

Artist: Octavio Abúndez.

El futuro no es lo que solía ser
September 4, 2015
Museo de Arte Raúl Anguiano (MURA)
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

La exposición individual multidisciplinaria de Abúndez propone una reflexión multidireccional acerca del futuro de las sociedades. El futuro, visto como problema, posibilidad y topos (lugar), alimenta las investigaciones más recientes del artista que se vinculan a su anterior exploración fenomenológica y del episteme. Desde la creación de un manifiesto político hasta la invención de un futuro alterno, la apropiación de diálogos cinematográficos o un resumen sumamente tendencioso de la Historia, Abúndez propone al visitante posturas encontradas.

La exhibición estará compuesta en su mayoría por piezas inéditas y nunca exhibidas en Guadalajara, acompañadas por un par de piezas seminales de 2006 y 2008. Esta muestra se divide en dos partes, la primera es un análisis del futuro desde tres perspectivas: el futuro como posibilidad, el futuro como ficción y el futuro como consecuencia. La segunda parte muestra dos vertientes, la emocional y la intelectual al enfrentarnos con la responsabilidad de formar el futuro.

El proyecto consta de dieciocho piezas entre dibujo, instalación, vídeo, fotografías, escultura, pintura, entre otras.

• Happenings

Artists: Alfredo Ceibal, Christian Dietkus Lord, David Sánchez, Diana de Solares, Diego Sagastume, Edgar Orlaineta, Ronny Hernández Salazar, Sebastian Preece and Tepeu Choc.

La desintegración de la forma
September 3, 2015
The 9.99 Gallery
Guatemala, Guatemala

Even at its inception and during its heyday in the mid-sixties and early seventies, conceptual art was difficult to define. No one knows who started it, which artist did what and when, what were his or her philosophy, goals and policies. None of those present remember much; each person has its own history and scholars and critics have been left to try to make head or tail out of the movement—among them, many who did not live through those times and did not witness those events. That is why American curator and art critic Lucy R. Lippard in her book Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972 tries to reconstruct that story—readily admitting not being able to rely much on her memory—to give us a context of the artistic era in which she lived. According to Lippard she concentrated her efforts to write “a critical memoir of a small group of young artists’ attempts to escape from the frame-and-pedestal syndrome in which art found itself by the mid-1960s.”

The artists in “La desintegración de la forma” have also looked for ways to express themselves by making art that need not be framed or put on a pedestal; their work is ephemeral, cheap, and unpretentious, where the idea is paramount while the material form is secondary. For example, Diana de Solares’s work made of iron and twisted wires, shoestrings, electrical cords, pieces of pottery and other found materials are veritable poetic tangles, or drawings in space as defined by the Venezuelan artist Gego (1912–1994). They rest directly on the floor or hang from the ceiling, casting dancing shadows on the wall. Rejecting the idea of ​​highlighting the work by placing it on a base or pedestal Solares eliminates that invisible barrier that separates the art from the viewer, thus denying it a special status. The works of Edgar Orlaineta, also suspended from the ceiling like a Calder mobile, have the appearance of a three-dimensional puzzle with each element playing a vital role in the final composition. In contrast to Solares’s sculptures that deal with formal aspects, the materials employed by Orlaineta are selected based on the artist’s interest in the work of American graphic designer Alvin Lustig (1915-1955), and more specifically in the book covers that Lustic designed for the publishing house New Directions during the 1940s. Although you’d think that the focal part of the piece is the narrative contained in the book that is included in each of the works and whose title provides the name for the work (in this case A Season in Hell, from the series New Directions, 2015), what actually counts for Orlaineta is the modernist design of its cover with its harmonic composition, its emphasis on abstraction and complementary colors, and its minimal use of typography. It was this rigor that gave fame to Lustig, who believed that good design should permeate all aspects of a person’s life, an idea that persists until today in the belief that form is important in the functionality of design in general.

The graphic design of the magazine covers is barely glimpsed in the work of Christian Dietkus Lord who obscures them with a series of painted circular compositions based on the Zen practice of Ensō painting. This practice dictates that the circle should be drawn with a single stroke, which once made cannot be altered. The gesture highlights the character of its creator and the context of its creation in a short and contiguous period of time. Traditionally this type of painting is done in black ink on very thin white paper. In Northern Shell ( 2011) Dietkus Lord uses a variety of colors to draw concentric circles deliberately obscuring the text that reveals the magazines’ content, including Attitude, a magazine that specializes in articles about homosexuality as a way of life for a post-AIDS generation.

The irregular circles that appear in the Transparencies (2015) of Alfredo Ceibal have their origin in the craters of volcanoes and the lakes that form inside them. The artist defines these shapes as “abstract mantras,” and depending on the limpidness of the body of water, they can be defined as “benign pools” or “malignant pools.” They are also places that invite meditation for their altitude and geographical location, as well as for their exuberant and less contaminated nature that make us feel part of a cosmic whole and of a world at peace. Ceibal’s series of drawings entitled Dialogues (2015) represents vague human forms of communication. According to the artist they denote different types of conversations that take the form of “language, ritual, dance, music, literature, body language, and the gaze, to understand each other.” To Ceibal “the great value of dialogue can not be underestimated as it is the crucial component for communication and equality in human relations.”

Communication so important for the proper functioning of society is interrupted in the work of Ronny Hernández Salazar. Vol-can (2014) is a file cabinet with open drawers filled with sand. The accumulation has formed a heap of sand, in the form of a volcano, burying the papers supposed to be archived there. Vol-can is a metaphor for the lack of justice; it represents court cases that have been forgotten, suspended in time, waiting for a judgment that may never come. The fragility of life is reflected in El final de las palabras (The end of words, 2004) by David Sánchez in which air produced by a fan spreads marble dust over the floor forming a thin white layer upon which visitors leave foot track made while walking on it. With its continued air movement the fan erases them so that others can make them again. To record and to erase is an exercise that could be repeated ad infinitum where the human presence is evidenced on a marble dust canvas analogous to the tombstones that accompany the graves. Other artists in the exhibition are Diego Sagastume with images showing the moisture condition of the asphalt, a time-ravaged wall, and rust on a ventilation duct that reflects a sunset, and a cast concrete floor; Sebastián Preece with a photograph of a decomposed book that was part of an important library but its disappearing due to neglect and the passing of time; and Tepeu choc with a work made of sift mesh and colored threads, a work he describes as the X-ray of a sculpture. Forms of communication, pseudo-alphabets, font types, abstractions that overflow, fragile materials that disappear over time, these are some of the ongoing concerns of the artists in “La desintegración de la forma.”

• Happenings

Artists: Sandra Nakamura, Claudia Martínez Garay and Arturo Kameya.

Analogías temporales
August 11 – September 18, 2015
Wu Galería
Lima, Peru

Analogías temporales reúne dos proyectos que habiendo acontecido en contextos históricos diferentes, guardan relación en el momento de hacer contacto el uno con el otro.  El azul de la distancia (2015) de Sandra Nakamura es un conjunto de impresiones hechas a partir de una fotografía de Frank Hurley titulada Endurance (Tenacidad), tomada durante la fallida Expedición Imperial transantártica de Ernest Shackleton en 1914: las imágenes suspendidas del techo y ordenadas consecutivamente en el espacio, de manera ligeramente ondulante, van de mayor a menor contraste terminando en la gradual desaparición de la imagen fotográfica. Por su parte la serie de fotografías impresas en lenticulares de Arturo Kameya y Claudia Martínez, pertenecen a la serie Mass illusion (2012), fotografías de Mass Gamescoreanos de los años 50, donde grupos de jóvenes gimnastas componen de manera colectiva imágenes con carteles en mano, formando figuras que simbolizan la República Democrática Popular Coreana de Kim II-Sung y que son leídas de diferente manera según el ángulo de visión.

Ambos proyectos, desarrollan procesos de reapropiación de fotografías ya existentes, desde donde se propone forzar la evocación de una temporalidad hallada en la imagen original. Ésta se vuelve un recurso metafórico para evidenciar ilusión, así como el devenir heroico del trabajo colectivo y  en un sentido casi opuesto: la subordinación del deseo individual por el grupal. Las múltiples lecturas posibles en el contraste de ambos proyectos, evidencian a su vez condiciones propias del medio fotográfico y la imagen: revelado, temporalidad, reproductibilidad. Se trata de la analogía que existe no sólo entre los proyectos, sino también entre la poética visual que excede el medio de la fotografía convencional, lo que acontece dentro de cada imagen y nuestra propia experiencia.

• Happenings

Artist: Alexander Apóstol

Yamaikaleter
August 13 – September 27, 2015
CAPC Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux
Bordeaux, France

The CAPC contemporary art museum of Bordeaux continues its program The Screen: Between Here and Elsewhere dedicated to films and videos by international artists, the museum will present from august to september the film Yamaikaleter made by the venezuelian artist  Alexander Apóstol.

This program is conceived by the guest curator, Anne Sophie Dianant.

Alexander Apóstol’s work is concerned with the consequences of South America’s political and cultural heritage. Using film, video and photography, the artist often introduces the relations between architecture and city-planning with regard to history. The film Yamaikaleter draws inspiration from Simón Bolivar’sThe Jamaica Letter, written in English on 14 May 1815, in which the Venezuelan statesman, an emblematic figure in the emancipation of the Spanish colonies in South America, developed his ideas.

Because the legacy of The Jamaica Letter has often been used to support any manner of political tendency, the artist has it read out loud by residents of a poor Caracas neighborhood, themselves leaders of different political groups (chavistas and anti-chavistas). These protagonists do not understand English, so the reading swiftly turns into a form-focused performance, a parody of a charisma-free discourse which seems devoid of meaning, but where we rediscover the corporal language and the intonation usually adopted by leaders. The artist proposes a deconstruction of the political discourse, keeping just the elements and codes to do with representation—the body language and the vocal intonation which punctuate the film.

Commissioned by the Goethe-Institut in 2009, Yamaikaleterwas screened at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Alexander Apóstol was born in 1969 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He lives and works between Madrid and Caracas. His solo exhibitions include Centro de la Imagen, Lima, Peru, 2011; MUSAC, Castilla y León, León, 2010; Arratia+Beer Gallery, Berlin, 2010; Harvard University, Boston, 2007 and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, 2006. He has taken part in the following group exhibitions: Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, 2013; Manifesta 9, Limburg, Belgium, 2012; 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2011; The End of Money, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2011; Photographic Typologies, Tate Modern, London, 2010-11; Atopia: Art and the City in the 21st Century, Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelona, 2010. He was awarded the prize of the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, 2012.

• Happenings

Artist: Guido Ignatti

Vista interior de una cámara
August 11 – 30, 2015
Centro Cultural Recoleta
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La muestra permite una lectura narrativa en relación al lugar donde está montada, contiene una escena que juega con la ficción y el enunciado conceptual de su sitio específico. La sala 10 oficia de cámara, un espacio aislado, quizá sagrado. Aunque el público puede ingresar a su interior solo por uno de sus accesos, el resto de las aberturas están bloqueadas por tapiados de madera que recuerdan su condición de claustro; que señalan su función concreta y simbólica de lugar íntimo donde se atesora un valor intangible. Lo cierto es que adentro, no hay más que soledad y la materialidad rústica de los tablones de madera. La cámara ha sido profanada. Su secreto ya no existe. Solo queda su atisbo aurático, las sombras de lo que fueron objetos de culto: ¿obras de arte?

• Happenings

Artists: Raquel Rabinovich, Jule Manna, Linda Mary Montano.

7 Hour Collaborative Glandathon: Dance, Pray, Bless at Nancy Donskoj’s
August 29, 2015
The Storefront Gallery
Kingston, NY, USA

A SEVEN HOUR EXPERIENCE GIVING GRATITUDE TO THE 7 GLANDS

Actions:

. Manna will move and dance for seven hours

. Montano will pray sounds for seven hours

. Rabinovich will give offerings (mud drawings) from her hands to everyone for one hour (6-7pm)

Each hour will reference one of the seven glands.

Image: Raquel Rabinovich, “Emergences (Hudson River)”, 2012-2014, Series: Emergences, Site-Specific Sculpture, On-site stones, Dimensions variable, Lighthouse Park, Port Ewen, New York, USA, Collection Town of Esopus, Photo credit: Camilo Rojas.

• Happenings

Artists: Jaime Ruiz Otis, Pablo Llana, José Hugo Sánchez, Mario Alberto Rodríguez Herrera, Toni Larios, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Diana Andrea Fuentes Salinas, Alejandro Jara López, Luis Alderete, and many more.

XIX Bienal Plástica de Baja California
June 29 – December 2015
Centro Estatal de las Artes de Tijuana
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Exposición de 60 obras de diferentes formatos, de 33 artistas plásticos de la región, en la Galería de Exposiciones Internacionales del Centro Estatal de las Artes Tijuana (Ceart Tijuana).

• Happenings

Artist: Luis Roldán

Rompecabezas
Curated by Alejandro Martín
July 24 – October 25, 2015
Museo La Tertulia
Cali, Colombia

Son tan distintas las obras que ha realizado Luis Roldán durante su vida que en una primera mirada cuesta entender que sea la misma persona quien las haya hecho. ¿Pero qué es ser una misma persona? Hay distintas formas de entender la identidad: una salida es buscar aquello común, aquello que es siempre igual, y otra asumir la complejidad, viendo las partes con cuidado y estudiando las formas en que se conectan y se relacionan. Ante el conjunto de las piezas, al ser pensadas como una unidad, es en quien las aprehende donde se produce el clic que genera la conexión.

El trabajo de Roldán se configura en conjuntos de obras en las que las piezas se agrupan de modos muy diferentes. Es posible reunirlas en series, a la manera clásica, como sucede con su serie de pinturas Reflexiones (1989) y la de esculturas-pinturas Eidola (2015), pero también es posible hacerlo en conjuntos muy heterogéneos que más bien es posible pensar como “rompecabezas”, entre los cuales están aquellos que ocupan las salas principales de esta muestra: Circunstancias (2009) y Secreta prudencia (2014). En estos “rompecabezas”, Roldán presenta a la vez dibujos, pinturas, collages, instalaciones y objetos intervenidos que, reunidos, dan cuenta de su exploración tras una cierta pista, del seguimiento de una serie de intuiciones en cadena a partir de un impulso inicial. Al ver las piezas juntas, el espectador es quien debe armar el todo, atender a los detalles y dejarse guiar por su sensibilidad para llevarse consigo una emoción o una inquietud, más que un mensaje o una idea.

Circunstancias parte de una anécdota de En busca del tiempo perdido de Marcel Proust. En este libro se cuenta el último día de la vida de Bergotte, el escritor, y la forma en la que una crítica de arte que lee lo impulsa a visitar en el museo la Vista de Delft, de Vermeer, para buscar un detalle que allí se menciona y que no había notado en un cuadro que él creía conocer muy bien. Esa pequeña pared amarilla que mira con cuidado por primera vez lo lleva a pensar: “Así debería haber escrito yo. Mis libros son demasiado secos, tendría que haberles dado capas de color, que mi frase fuera preciosa por ella misma, como ese pequeño panel amarillo”. Esa pared amarilla, que tiene eso inasible que hace la obra de arte, hace eco de la frase musical que obsesiona a Swann, otro de los personajes de la novela, y a través de los dos motivos Proust va dando forma a su concepción de la belleza: en particular, sobre cómo ella se nos presenta y nos somete de modo implacable y caprichoso a la vez [1].

Secreta prudencia, por su lado, va configurándose al rededor de la lectura del libro Los tiempos de Stalin, de Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko (1920-2013), quien fue hijo de uno de los líderes revolucionarios bolcheviques traicionados, perseguidos y ejecutados por el gobierno de Stalin. El autor, que a su vez fue víctima del encerramiento injusto en campos de trabajo por trece años, intenta reconstruir en su libro los horrores sucedidos bajo el poder de Stalin y cuyo rastro ha intentado ser borrado de la historia. A partir de allí, Roldán produce obras que crean una situación inquietante, en las que se hacen presente la mirada policiva, la represión y las distintas estrategias para sobrevivir. Pero es clave notar cómo, si bien en la instalación hay elementos de representación literal como la gorra soviética o las gafas que nos hablan de la casi total ceguera de Antonov, la exploración del artista en todos los casos se apoya en esos gestos para dar un salto y crear otras piezas, en las que cada una crea su propio enigma, realiza su propia exploración con los materiales y las formas o da cuenta de un particular hallazgo o conexión.

En la serie Sueños (2003), Roldán cose sobre papel dibujos con hilos cargados de grafito que crean distintas estructuras dispersas y que también pueden ser vistas como códigos o partituras. Al seguir la metáfora sugerida por el título, uno puede tomarlos como diagramas de una consciencia intermitente: esquemas para pensar el yo no como una línea continua, sino como una línea que puede atenuarse y subrayarse, que a veces duda, que da vueltas, que se bifurca. Parte de esos Sueños son los Rotos (2005). En este caso, el papel, que era una superficie continua sobre la que sucedía el dibujo, se rasga y las líneas de hilo se tornan telarañas, marañas. La situación se troca: ahora el fondo no es el papel sino el espacio, el dibujo se curva, se tuerce y se hace tridimensional y ya no nos preguntamos por la unidad de la línea, sino de la superficie. Esos papeles quebrados están ahora a punto de separarse y permanecen frágilmente unidos por los hilos. La ruptura ya no es discontinuidad, sino quiebre y nos enfrentamos al vilo, a la tensión, al suspenso.

Esta exposición busca pensar los fragmentos, las rupturas, los quiebres y las formas. Invita a imaginar cómo a partir de allí se pueden hilar memorias o relatos, ligar intuiciones o emociones, trazando líneas que intenten unir, pero que son siempre conscientes de lo vulnerables que son los lazos que crean.

[1] «A la idea filosófica de “método” opone Proust la doble idea de “coacción” y de “azar”. La verdad depende de que demos con algo que nos obligue a pensar y a buscar lo verdadero. El azar de los hallazgos, la presión de las coacciones son los dos temas fundamentales de Proust. Es precisamente el signo el que establece el objeto de un hallazgo, el que ejerce sobre nosotros esta violencia. El azar del encuentro es lo que garantiza la necesidad de lo pensado»
(Deleuze [1971]. “Proust y los signos”. Ideas y Valores. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia).

• Happenings

Artists: Alberto Conrcuera, Bill Abdale, Carlos García Noriega, Diego Sierra Alta, Federico Martínez, Isauro Huizar, Ivan Krassoievitch, Javier Barrios, Jerónimo Reyes, José Luis Rojas, Juan Caloca, Karian Amaya, Laura Meza Orozco, Mario Navarro, Mauricio Cadena, Morelos León, Pablo Dávila, Paola Cortázar, Rolando Jacob, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Sofia Byttebier, Sofía Echeverry, Xavier de María.

SALÓN ACME
August 22 and 23, 2015
Wythe Hotel
Brooklyn NY, USA

Salón ACME is a platform that exhibits the work of new and established artists, either Mexican or foreign, encouraging the country’s artistic production.

• Happenings

Artists: Amadeo Azar, Daniel Barroca, Matt Bua, Onyedika Chuke, Annette Cords, Marcelo Moscheta, Zach Rockhill, and Lauren Seiden.

Name It by Trying to Name It
July 17 – August 30, 2015
The Drawing Center
New York, USA

Initiated in 2014, Open Sessions is a new program at The Drawing Center through which a large group of artists consider their relationship to drawing as medium, process, and metaphor. Working together over a two-year period, Open Sessions artists participate in ongoing studio visits and discussions, punctuated by small group exhibitions at The Drawing Center, as well as other self-organized shows in New York and abroad.

Name It by Trying to Name It: Open Sessions 2014-15 includes all artists in the program, giving the first floor of the museum over to an exploration of contemporary drawing, encompassing performance, video, sculpture, and installation, as well as traditional drawing forms. The show’s numerous collaborations, in which ideas and materials are shared, emphasize the medium’s flexibility and process-oriented nature. The exhibition will evolve over its six-week run, as some artworks enter and exit in two-week cycles, while others remain constant throughout the show’s run. Taken as a whole, Name It by Trying to Name It presents a window into nearly two years of thinking about drawing.

• Happenings

Artist: Miguel Rothschild

XXI. Rohkunstbau – Apokalypse
June 21 – September 6, 2015
Roskow castle
Postdam-Mittlemark, Germany

This year marks the twenty-first edition of the Rohkunstbau exhibition. Themed apocalypse  and set against the historic backdrop of Schloss Roskow in the District of Potsdam-Mittelmark, the exhibition presents nine artists and an artist duo from eight nations.

The notion of transition serves as the focus of the examination of apocalypse. Every end brings a new beginning. This choice of theme for the XXI. Rohkunstbau is loosely tied to Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. But instead of being an exact interpretation of Götterdämmerung, the fourth and final part of the Ring, the exhibition draws on Wagner’s notion of an end and subsequent beginning. Wagner has served as inspiration for Rohkunstbau’s exhibition since 2011. In previous exhibitions artists have been invited to address themes of Power (2011), Morals (2013), and Revolution (2014), now followed by Apocalypse for 2015.

• Happenings

Artists: Amilcar de Castro, Ana Maria Tavares, Daniel Senise, Cristina Canale, Carlito Carvalhosa, Cinthia Marcelle, Chiara Banfi, Laercio Redondo, Marcius Galan, Miguel Rio Branco, Nelson Leirner e Rodrigo Matheus.

Exposição de Acervo 2015
June 26 – August 1, 2015
Silvia Cintra + Box4
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Com trabalho de 12 artistas representados pela Silvia Cintra+Box4, a “Exposição de Acervo 2015 ” traz um panorama diversificado da arte contemporânea brasileira.

• Happenings

Artist: Gabriel Acevedo Velarde

Estado Sincopado, Concierto y charla
August 11, 2015
Tupac Asociación Cultural
Lima, Peru

Estado Sincopado es mi proyecto de banda musical, hasta hora de una sola persona, yo. Hago letras a partir de diferentes fuentes, casi todas referentes a aspectos del contexto social o político peruano, a manera de collage. En esto hay algo de los cut-ups de William Burroughs y de cierta tendencia del hiphop de rimar palabras más por su sonoridad que por su sentido, como en el trabajo de Victor Vásquez (Kool A.D.). En los conciertos, proyecto videos que explican de dónde viene cada fragmento y yo canto sobre bases musicales pre-elaboradas, añadiendo elementos electrónicos en vivo. (Gabriel Acevedo)

Sobre Gabriel Acevedo Velarde

Gabriel Acevedo Velarde nació en Lima, Perú, en 1976. Después de vivir por distintos periodos en Ciudad de México, Sao Paulo y Berlín, regresó para vivir en Lima en enero del año pasado. Entre sus exposiciones individuales destacan: “Ciudadano Paranormal” (Museo Reina Sofía), “Interruptions on decrees and stages” (Mori Art Museum), “Quorum Power” (Museo Carrillo Gil, Ciudad de México), y ”Cone Flow” (Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas). Ha participado en las siguientes exposiciones colectivas: Bienal de Lyon, Bienal de Sao Paulo, Trienal de Guangzhou, Auto-Kino (Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin), entre otras.

• Happenings

Artists: Regina Aprijaskis, Emilia Azcárate, Valerie Brathwaite, Feliza Bursztyn, Marta Chilindrón, Mirtha Dermisache, Diana de Solares, Noemí Escandell, María Freire, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Anna Bella Geiger, Mercedes Elena González, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Elizabeth Jobim, Judith Lauand, Ana Maria Maiolino, Marta Minujín, Mercedes Pardo, Liliana Porter, Margot Römer, Lotty Rosenfeld, Ana Sacerdote, Fanny Sanín, Adriana Santiago, Mariela Scafati, Antonieta Sosa, and Yeni & Nan.

Folding: Line, Space & Body / Latin American Women Artists Working Around Abstracion
Curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin
July 9 – August 21, 2015
Henrique Faria Fine Art
NY, NY, USA

Folding is the action through which a line turns into a figure, a plane becomes tridimensional, and a painting becomes an object. And beyond all these actions, we see how representation becomes presentation.

Since the historical avant-garde, the quest for an art that transcended the representation of reality has led artists to create abstract art and to focus on the material objecthood of a painting or sculpture. This exhibition presents the work of Latin American women artists from the 1950s through the present day, showing the different ways in which they worked with abstraction and geometry to explore the space of the artwork and that of the spectator, as mediated by the body.

Latin American abstraction has gained recognition worldwide in the last decade. Exhibitions like “Inverted Utopias,” curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez and Héctor Olea in 2004 and “The Geometry of Hope,” curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro in 2007, presented the diverse abstract movements that developed in the Post War Latin American metropolis, from Joaquín Torres García and Escuela del Sur in Montevideo, to Arte Concreto Invención and Madí in Buenos Aires, the Ruptura group in São Paulo and the work of Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto in Caracas.

In all of these avant-garde scenes, women artists gained—not without struggle—a place of recognition and a social circle in which they could develop their profession with relative tolerance. Still, except a few exceptions like Gego, Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape, it is mostly male artists we see represented in museums and art history books. This exhibition does not intend to resolve that problem, which is of a much larger scale, but aims to present some of their production and to explore the formal and creative connections among this diverse group of artists from the continent. This show also chooses to escape the historical understanding of abstraction, which is referred to here not as the Post-war movement but more broadly as a creative strategy that has continued through the decades. In this way, Judith Lauand’s planimetric work of 1960 can be seen alongside the contemporary pyramidal sculptures of Marta Chilindrón, and the use of the grid in 1950s and 1960s abstraction can be observed in Anna Bella Geiger’s video Passagens II from 1974 or in Emilia Azcarate’s Sudoku series from 2009.

The earliest-made piece in the show is that of Uruguayan artist María Freire, who co-founded in 1952 the group Arte No-Figurativo along with her husband José Pedro Costigliolo, Antonio Llorens and other artists. Works like Composición vertical (1956), show her interest in orthogonal compositions and planar superimpositions, which along with her use of line demonstrate her interest not simply in abstraction and space but more specifically in dynamism. In a similar spirit, but resulting in a very different work, Judith Lauand’s Concrete 178 (1960) presents a flat geometric composition, in monochrome grays, that through a careful use of lines and planes suggests a volumetric and angular surface. Known as the “Dama do concretismo,” Lauand was the only female member of Brazil’s Grupo Ruptura, and created unique works through a very personal use of geometry, mathematics and space.

In contrast, Mercedes Pardo’s acrylic painting Untitled (c. 1975) explores space recession not through line but using color fields. The Venezuelan artist, who was a pioneer of abstract art in Venezuela along with her husband Alejandro Otero, focused on a sensorial use of color in abstract compositions to achieve the autonomy of painting. Along with Pardo, the other representative of geometric abstraction from Venezuela in this exhibition is Margot Römer, whose triptych from the series Plomos Despojados (1995) uses the panel subdivisions to present three variations of a rectangular structure by alternating the color distribution. A similar emphasis in color is seen in Acrylic No. 7, painted in 1978 by Colombian artist Fanny Sanín, who creates a complex arrangement of intersecting rectangles of different purple hues. This simple alteration of tone in one color still allows Sanín to create a rich composition of receding planes that suggests rhythmic movement and dynamism. Indeed, movement is directly incorporated in Essai de Couleur Animée, a film made by Ana Sacerdote in between 1959 and 1965 in which she interposes geometric chromatic compositions, animating their shapes.

The case of Regina Aprijaskis exemplifies the difficulties of being a woman artist and of combining work and personal life. The Peruvian artist was developing a fruitful career and became interested in abstraction in the 1950s and 1960s after two trips to New York, but abandoned painting in 1970 following the coup d’état in Peru two years earlier, to work alongside her husband in his factory. Her 1996 acrylic painting Negro, rojo y blanco demonstrates how her interest in geometric abstraction stayed intact after a 26-year hiatus, at the same time the choice of the Peruvian flag’s colors seems to speak directly about her country’s political and social struggles.

Other works in the show leave color aside and refer to the white monochrome also with the means of exploring geometry and space.  That is the case of Ana Mercedes Hoyos’ 1970s series Atmósferas, where subtle variations of white hues suggest surfaces on the canvas. Similarly, Anna Maria Maiolino’s Light Image (1971) depends on a simple square embossing on paper to invoke the tradition of the monochrome. The square is also the theme of Gego’s Dibujo sin papel 79/14, made in 1979. Famous for her Reticuláreas, or net sculptures, in this work the Venezuelan artist uses wire and metal to frame a piece of the wall, allowing the shadow to become part of the work, continuing the integration of work and exhibition space that allowed her work to spatially affect the spectator.

The relationship between the gallery space and the visitor’s body became a main topic of interest for artists in the late 1960s, notably within Minimalism and among Western artists, but similar creative inquiries were being made in Latin America. Argentinean artist Noemí Escandell created sculptural projects such as Rectangles and Squares and Volumes, Bodies and Displacements, both from 1966, in which basic geometric shapes are combined in odd dispositions to affect the tridimensional perception of the object. In Venezuela, Antonieta Sosa was doing similar work with pieces like Stable-Unstable (1967/2014), which put into question geometry and the laws of gravity while simultaneously presenting organically aesthetic objects.

The body would later be presented directly, rather than invoked, in the work of artists such as Liliana Porter and Yeni & Nan. The Argentine is represented with her 1973 work Untitled (Line), in which her finger is photographed as interrupting a line, one that transcends the frame of the work onto the real space of the wall. In the Polaroid series Cuerpo y línea (1977), the Venezuelan duo Yeni & Nan position their bodies along the geometric designs of a tennis court, evolving the linear and geometric tradition of their home country to include performance and body art.

The urban space is also the canvas chosen by Brazilian conceptual artist Anna Bella Geiger, whose video Passagens II (1974) shows her body creating diagonal trajectories in the grid-like formation of the steps of a stairway. In a similar approach, Lotty Rosenfeld’s ongoing series Geometría de la línea, begun in 1979, intervenes the infinite number of broken white lines that divide a road with intersecting, transversal lines, in a formal but also powerfully political performance associated to her participation in the CADA group protesting the dictatorship in Chile. The relationship between geometry and power is explicit in Marta Minujín’s The Obelisk Lying Down (1978). The work, created for the first Latin American Biennial in São Pablo, presents the geometrical structure of the famous monumental form lying down, allowing spectators to walk through it in a democratizing and desacralizing gesture.

In the exhibition we also encounter more expressive uses of abstraction, where experimentation with materials led to more free-flowing forms. This is the case of Mirtha Dermisache’s graphisms from the 1970s, where the lines drawn by the Argentine artist sinuously move to create abstract texts. The abstract sculpture Untitled (1981) by Colombian artist Feliza Brusztyn, who in 1967 created the famous series of motorized sculptures Las histéricas, also combines dissonant materials into visually striking, amorphous objects. Trinidanian artist Valerie Brathwaite opts for anti-geometric shapes in her Soft Bodies, a series initiated in 2011, where the hanging and floor fabric sculptures play fluidly between the borders of figuration and abstraction.

After all these decades, geometry is still very much present in the work of younger artists. Sometimes the continuity takes place by claiming geometric abstraction directly, like Mercedes Elena González’s series September 1955 (2014), which re-conceptualizes the cover of the inaugural issue of the art and architecture magazine Integral to reevaluate the legacy of modernism in Venezuela. Others adapt geometric abstraction into new formats, like the wood piece Untitled (Free Construction No. 1) (2005) by Diana de Solares. In the case of Elizabeth Jobim’s Wall (2015), geometric shapes invade the wall and floor, overlapping each other and creating optical layers. Emilia Azcárate’s Untitled (Sudoku), from 2009 takes the grid of that game as influence and codifies numbers into colors, allowing her to create a meditative abstraction that juxtaposes the game’s problem with its solution. Formally opposite to this grid but equally colorful is Adriana Santiago’s Untitled from the series Maracaibo (2015), which combines pompoms into a frame in a playful and appealing tactile composition. The work of Marta Chilindrón retakes the tradition of dynamic planes and shapes of Gego and Lygia Clark but includes color as a key part of her manipulable works such as 27 Triangles (2011). Finally, Mariela Scafati goes back to the original questions of abstract painting in her works Tu nombre completo and Nueve minutos exactos, both from 2015, which literally –through bondage ropes— and conceptually –by transforming them into objects— tense the possibilities of what a painting can be: not a representation but an object, a body itself.

These interactions between the artwork, its surrounding spaces and the bodies that interact with it are present through the sixty years in which these artworks were created. The formal explorations initiated by the historical avant-gardes have not, as proven by the younger generation, exhausted themselves. This group of women artists from Latin America offer a wide range of answers to these questions, all personal but also collective. The line and the plane not only folded but became the body, expanding the shape of art above and beyond.

Aimé Iglesias Lukin

• Happenings

Artists: Conrad Bakker, Constantin Boym, Kendell Carter, Jordi Colomer, William Cordova, Elmgreen & Dragset, Fernanda Fragateiro, Terence Gower, Brian Jungen, Olga Koumoundouros, Jill Magid, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Dorit Margreiter, Josiah McElheny, Edgar Orlaineta, Gabriel Sierra, Simon Starling, Clarissa Tossin, Barbara Visser, and James Welling.

MetaModern
May 30 – August 30, 2015
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Scottsdale, AZ, USA

The fresh and provocative artworks presented in MetaModern refer literally and conceptually to modernist design objects of the mid-century. These historic objects have gained the status of icons. It is a testament to their enduring power that they now catalyze a generation of artists too young to have experienced modernism firsthand.

The notion of modernist design and architecture had its genesis in Europe, particularly during an intense decade of experimentation at the Bauhaus beginning in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Function and utility were the school’s ethos, while the use of modern materials, honesty of form, and an embrace of abstraction were its hallmarks. World War II shifted the activity to this side of the ocean, as European practitioners, including Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Richard Neutra emigrated to the United States and joined the faculties of American architectural schools. Modernism was held as truth by the generations of students they trained: emerging in the 1960s and ’70s, these young designers felt they had arrived at a place beyond style. Modernism was the pure and true mode in which to design everything from typography to furniture to architecture.

When architects, those removed by several generations from the birth of modernism, came to maturity as designers––Frank Gehry, Charles Moore, and Robert Venturi––they challenged all that modernism had embraced. Their vocabulary included fanciful embellishment, applied color, decorative patterning, and references to historical styles.

Now, over 90 years after the revolution at the Bauhaus, modernism continues to spark a passion in designers and collectors. The prices of signature objects of the classic modernist era are soaring, and its buildings are being restored and valued as historical monuments. Although vintage Eames rockers have been integrated into contemporary high-end living rooms, they are quite different in these new eclectic contexts. Similarly, artists who incorporate iconic modernist designs in their work today often produce recombinations and modifications that result in an entirely unique mix––or meta, meaning beyond, changed, self-referential, and abstracted from another concept. Using classic elements in new configurations, these artists are making original works of art that comment on the claims of the past in light of the complexities of the present.

The artists in this exhibition, most of whom were born in the 1960s, adopt the actual vocabulary of the modern movement to question the content of its style and its relationship to history. Their work challenges the tenets of modernism head on. Often ironic and witty, the works in this exhibition offer a thoughtful critique of innumerable issues that extend across the fields of design and history.

• Happenings

Artists: Ana Bidart, Linus Bill + Adrien Horni, Jonathan Callan, Jacob El Hanani, Dario Escobar, and Julianne Swartz.

Summer Hang
Through August 12, 2015
Josée Bienvenu
New York, USA

Ana Bidart explores the possibilities and more so, the impossibilities of drawing. She brings found objects together in space and across time, and her works establish a tangible record of ephemeral relationships encountered. With Disappointment she reconstitutes meaning in the potential interaction between a compass, that does not draw, and a coiled wire, that is precariously suspended.

Swiss artists Linus Bill and Adrien Horni create collages and paintings with powerful aesthetics, bold gestures and brave dimensions. Bill and Horni produce work by assembling smaller collages, which later become part of a larger collage. They only determine a final result after countless trials and manipulations to the images (physically and digitally). With NY P.5 TL, the pair continues their ongoing explorations of process, form, and presentational strategy by combining inkjet printing, silkscreen, painting, drawing, and assemblage.

Jonathan Callan explores the relationship of disembodied knowledge to embodied experience and materiality, working with publications – books, maps, and photographs – as a source material.Entertaining is made up of 72 separate pages from a cookbook, isolating a single dish or ingredient on each page and removing everything else with sandpaper. Together the dishes (though legible as food when close up) appear as strange planets or discs in space. Some of the dishes are isolated and then completely removed, leaving a ghostly blank. Along with all the pieces where a single aspect of a page is highlighted, Entertaining explores the illustrative notion of the self, the removal of context and the substitution of a painterly space. In fact the background can often seem rendered with pastel or even fresco, and Callan likes to think of Entertaining as a composition of drawings.

Jacob El Hanani’s work draws upon the tradition of micrography in Judaism, a technique utilized in decoration and transcribing holy texts. El Hanani creates highly intricate works, like Circle and Line, through the painstaking repetition of minuscule marks repeated thousands of times using ink on paper or canvas. He draws these images without magnification; in order to reduce eyestrain, he rests every ten minutes. The end result is a work of extraordinary detail that appears to be a pattern from a distance, and speaks of the passage of time and the link between the microscopic and the infinite.

Dario Escobar is renowned for his sculptural re-contextualization of everyday objects. His work explores concepts of cultural and historical hybridity ultimately attempting to reexamine Western art history from a Guatemalan perspective.  Reticula, part of Dario Escobar’s “ultramoderno” project commenting on the failed utopia of modernism in Central America, 50 pool triangles made in Taiwan becomes a relief, and its composition follows a modern grid. Escobar’s work, characterized by the use of materials charged with historical and symbolic meaning, is articulated in a minimalist language like in Yellow Composition, a linseed oil drawing, and the wall sculpture.

Julianne Swartz’s sound works explore the entanglement of subjectivities and sensations through multilayered arrangements. In Alma’s Blanket Israel, sounds are harvested from the everyday: fragments of recordings from people, nature, instruments and environments. Some are intimate, some generic, some identifiable, and some obscure. These sounds, entwined together, weave in and out of aural focus to make a symphonic collage. The dense textile of woven and knotted, colored electrical wires, forms a series of functional circuits that distribute four channels of sound to the numerous speakers interleaved in the weaving.

• Happenings

Artist: Jorge Pedro Núñez

Fantasy
August 6, 2015
Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo
Buenos Aires, Argentina

…La tecnología historiográfica también nació con una distorsión inicialmente politizada: la convención de las periodizaciones de la historia se tomó prestada de la historiografía política y así se tradujo en la museología moderna. Los últimos trabajos de Jorge Pedro Núñez (Caracas, 1976) ponen en cuestión la lógica misma del museo. El marco o la vitrina, modalidades convencionales del parergon, de la delimitación del campo que contiene el signo artístico en su interior, son utilizados como un espacio de confrontación entre elementos históricos concatenados….

Manuel Sagade

• Happenings

Artist: Barbarita Cardozo

Tigersprung
July 16- August 23, 2015
Museo Iglesia Santa Clara
Bogotá, Colombia

Esta exposición parte de una revisión a las colecciones del traje del siglo XVIII y XIX de algunos museos de la ciudad y el concepto Tigersprung de Walter Benjamín, que propone una mirada a los trajes de la época, para abordar de manera contemporánea temáticas propias de la moda: el vestuario, el accesorio y la imagen. La exposición presenta un recorrido por trajes creados por Cardozo, en colaboración con la diseñadora de modas Olga Piedrahíta; accesorios históricos de las colecciones del Museo Colonial, Museo de la Independencia – Casa del Florero y de colecciones privadas de moda; y acuarelas inspiradas en las acuarelas de usos y costumbres.

• Happenings

Artists: Emilia Azcárate, Artur Barrio, Jacques Bedel, Coco Bedoya, Luis F. Benedit, Paulo Bruscky, Jorge Caraballo, Sigfredo Chacón, Emilio Chapela, Guillermo Deisler, Mirtha Dermisache, Anna Bella Geiger , León Ferrari, Jaime Higa, Eduardo Kac, Leandro Katz, Guillermo Kuitca, David Lamelas, Marie Orensanz , Clemente Padín, Claudio Perna, Federico Peralta Ramos, Dalila Puzzovio, Juan Pablo Renzi, Osvaldo Romberg, Juan Carlos Romero, Eduardo Santiere, Mira Schendel, Pablo Suarez, Horacio Zabala, and Carlos Zerpa.

Grafías y ecuaciones
June 1 – August 5, 2015
Henrique Faria Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina

¿En qué momento una letra se convierte en una figura, un garabato en un signo, una línea en un significante, una imagen en una palabra, un poema en un dibujo, una consigna política en una afirmación de lo sensible? ¿En qué momento, en qué preciso momento, nuestra percepción se disloca para entrar en una zona de turbulencia en la  que se entreveran signos y figuras? Grafías y ecuaciones es una exploración en las obras de artistas que transitaron por esa zona de turbulencia donde las divisiones convencionales entre palabra e imagen ya no funcionan.

Las grafías de las obras que se exhiben en esta exposición son también ecuaciones: equivalencias y analogías que hace la imaginación para encontrarse con la diferencia, lo irreductible o el sinsentido en un laberinto de trazos metafísicos, políticos o plásticos. Sea como medición previa para cualquier obra, sea como traducción irrisoria o paródica, sea como pasaje de un sistema a otro, la diferencia entre signo lingüístico e imagen visual colapsa para dar lugar a un campo experimental que nos impulsa a una indagación por el Sentido y, al mismo tiempo, a una exploración de los sentidos.

Gonzalo Aguilar

• Happenings

Artists: Bas Jan Ader, Carlos Amorales, Joseph Beuys, Monica Bonvicini, Stefan Brüggemann, Jeff Burton, Anne Collier, Jose Dávila, Moyra Davey, Carroll Dunham, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Cerith Wyn Evans, Claire Fontaine, Garea, Gelitin, Liam Gillick, Felix González Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jim Hodges, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Dennis Hopper, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Gabriel Kuri, Abigail Lane, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jesús León, Robert Longo, Sarah Lucas, David Lynch, John McCraken, Sarah Morris, Ugo Mulas, Luis Felipe Ortega, Jorge Pardo, Liliana Porter, Richard Prince, Tobias Rehberger, Daniela Rossell, Thomas Ruff, Alan Saret, Hedi Slimane, Dash Snow, Mungo Thomson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Luis Emilio Valdés Rodríguez, John Waters, Ricardo Rendón, and many more.

In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni
July 11 – October 4, 2015
Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Con más de cien obras de la Colección Jumex, In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni explora varios acercamientos a la curaduría que nos ayudarán a entender las elecciones implícitas en los actos de formar yactivar una colección de arte. Además de participar en la selección de obras para la exposición, los artistas Bernadette Corporation, Nicolas Ceccaldi y Peter Wächtler también fueron comisionados para crear piezas inspiradas en obras de la Colección Jumex.

• Happenings

Artists: Paweł Althamer, Julieta Aranda, Matthew Barney, Kevin Beasley, John Bock, Carol Bove, Ernesto Caivano, Mariana Castillo Deball, Maurizio Cattelan, Trisha Donnelly, Shannon Ebner, Simon Fujiwara, Ellie Ga, Gerard & Kelly, Simryn Gill, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Harrison, Camille Henrot, Juliana Huxtable, Rashid Johnson, Matt Keegan, Agnieszka Kurant, Mark Leckey, Lee Bul, Zoe Leonard, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Nate Lowman, Mark Manders, Ryan McGinley, Josephine Meckseper, Zanele Muholi, Iván Navarro, Catherine Opie, Gabriel Orozco, Laura Owens, Katie Paterson, R. H. Quaytman, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Xaviera Simmons, Taryn Simon, Alexandre Singh, Agathe Snow, Ryan Trecartin, Danh Vo, Sharif Waked, Jonas Wood, and Haegue Yang.

Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim
June 5 – September 9, 2015
Guggenheim Museum
NYC, NY, USA

Visual art has always been closely associated with storytelling. In Western culture, painting and sculpture initially evolved to illuminate narratives of religion, patronage, and power. Over the centuries, genre scenes, still lifes, and portraits—often created as intricate allegories for religious or historical subject matter—became popular as the narrative role of art expanded. In the twentieth century, with the advent of abstraction as a radical break with the past, many artists associated with the avant-garde rejected the figurative and, hence, eliminated explicit narrative content. In the United States and Europe, this tendency culminated during the 1960s and 1970s in Minimal painting and sculpture that foregrounded geometric abstraction and in Post-Minimalism’s examination of process and materiality. The 1980s witnessed a resurgence of figurative art, much of which harked back to expressionistic styles of the 1920s and 1930s.

During the 1990s, a generation of younger artists embraced the concept of storytelling to articulate the politics of identity and difference, investing both abstract and representational forms with narrative content. Storylines opens with key examples from that decade, which serve as thematic anchors and highlight the museum’s own exhibition history. Most of the works on view, however, were created after 2005 and offer an expansive view of the new paradigms for storytelling forged during the past ten years to communicate ideas about race, gender, sexuality, history, and politics, among other trenchant themes.

Bringing together over one hundred works from the Guggenheim’s contemporary collection, Storylines examines the diverse ways in which artists today engage narrative through installation, painting, photography, sculpture, video, and performance. For these artists, storytelling does not necessarily require plots, characters, or settings. Rather, narrative potential lies in everyday objects and materials, and their embedded cultural associations. In projects created through extensive research, acts of appropriation, or performance, the artists in Storylines uncover layers of meaning, turning to individual experience as a means of conveying shared stories, whether real or fictional.

The recent narrative turn in contemporary art cannot be separated from the current age of social media with its reverberating cycles of communication, dissemination, and interpretation. Seemingly every aspect of life is now subject to commentary and circulation via digital text and images. These new narrative frames highlight the roles that each of us can play as both author and reader, foregrounding the fact that meaning is contingent in today’s interconnected and multivalent world. As a means of celebrating this dynamic, the museum has invited writers to contribute reflections—in prose or poetry—on selected works in Storylines. Engaging the rich historical relationship between literature and art, the resulting polyphony signals the diverse interpretive potential that lies within each object on display. Visitors may access these texts using the Guggenheim app or in booklets located throughout the museum.

• Happenings

Artists: Brígida Baltar, Carlito Carvalhosa, Fabiana de Barros & Michel Favre, José Damasceno, Laura Vinci, Marcius Galan, Marcos Chaves, Paola Junqueira, Paulo Vivacqua, Waltercio Caldas, Anthony McCall, Ben Vautier, Bruce Nauman, Ceal Floyer, François Morellet, James Turrell, Keith Sonnier and Ryan Gander.

Inmaterialidade
Curated by Adon Peres and Ligia Canongia
July 2 – September 27, 2015
SESC Belenzinho (Leste)
Belem, Brazil

A mostra de arte contemporânea traz diferentes artistas cujos trabalhos evocam a desmaterialização, a sublimação da matéria, ou, artistas que têm o impalpável como elemento principal do trabalho – som, luz, ar, palavra.

• Happenings

Artist: Lucia Koch

Lucia Koch, let there be a set X
July 10 – September 4, 2015
Christopher Grimes Gallery
Santa Monica, CA, USA

Throughout her career Lucia Koch has become known for her interventions within existing architecture, either through her use of sculpture, photography, video or colored filters. In this, her second exhibition with the gallery, she will intersect the entire space with a gradient printed on fabric — something that moves in space but is constant, subtle, transformative and never repeating. In addition, ordinary windows will be replaced with colored panels disrupting one’s expectation, and images of small, empty containers enlarged to architectural scale disassociate the photographs from their references and challenge how we relate to space. Through all of these strategies, Koch elevates basic elements of architecture to effect change in one’s immediate atmosphere and physical surroundings.

Lucia Koch (b. 1966, Porto Alegre, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. She has recently participated inProspect 3, New Orleans, LA (2015), curated by Franklin Sirmans; Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2014); A Sense of Place, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA (2014); and Re-emerge: Towards a New Cultural Cartography, 11^th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates (2013). She has been included in the 11th Biennale de Lyon, France (2011); 27th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2006); 2nd, 5th and 8th editions of the Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil (1999, 2005 and 2011); and the 8th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2003). Her work has been included in such exhibitions as, Another Place, Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brazil (2011), andWhen Lives Become Form, Yerba Buena Center for Arts, San Francisco, CA (2009), which was also on view at Contemporary Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2008). Koch’s work is in the collections of such institutions as Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil and Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, among others. In 2016 she will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Happenings

Artist: Barbarita Cardozo

Tigersprung
July 16 – August 23, 2015
Museo Iglesia Santa Clara
Bogotá, Colombia

Para Benjamin, las arcadas, como objeto histórico significativo e “imagen del deseo y del sueño del colectivo”,xiv son también el Jano de doble rostro: lo que él llama la “ambiguedad de las arcadas”xv las transforma en lo que, en el sugerente término empleado por su asociado y comentarista Theodor Adorno, es una “imagen dialéctica”,xvi apuntando en dos direcciones al mismo tiempo y expresión tanto de la opresión (por la ideología del consumismo) y de la liberación (dentro de la utopía de la abundancia).

Christopher Rollason

• Happenings

Artists: Alejandra Avilés, Gabriel Boils, Virginia Colwell, Rodolfo Díaz Cervantes, Miguel Fernández de Castro, Helena Fernández Cavada, Renato Garza, Sonia Hedstrand, Gonzalo Lebrija, Gabriel de la Mora, Víctor Lerma y Mónica Mayer, Carla Rippey, Ling Sepúlveda.

Tres pies: el enigma de la sucesión. Envejecimiento y retiro
Curaduría: Víctor Palacios y Felipe Zúñiga
June 20 – September 20, 2015
Casa del Lago
Mexico City, Mexico

Exposición colectiva que aborda desde distintas perspectivas artísticas, la experiencia humana del envejecimiento y el retiro. ¿Qué sucede cuando llegamos a esa edad? ¿En qué ocupan su tiempo las personas jubiladas? ¿Es el retiro una medida económica más que humana? ¿Cómo moldea ésta nuestro presente y nuestra visión del futuro?

Foto cortesía de Gabriel de la Mora

• Happenings

Artist: Guido Ignatti

Sistemas de recuperación de la catástrofe
July 7 – August 7, 2015
Nora Fisch Arte Contemporáneo
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La instalación de Guido Ignatti presenta una serie de macetas caídas y rotas, como símbolo de un auge venido a menos, sus plantas con destino incierto están ahora sometidas a una serie de medidas para su recuperación, sostenidas por sistemas de alambres y flejes que las erigen nuevamente. Vienen acompañadas por instructivos para su multiplicación por sistema de esquejes. Las piezas que componen esta instalación funcionan como una metáfora del momento posterior a una tragedia y las posibilidades de recuperarse por medio de un tratamiento que circunstancialmente podría ser traumático. Cada pieza es una obra viva y en cierto modo performática, que se completa con un plan de acción tendiente a la supervivencia de la especie. Esta muestra es una precuela ya que se va a realizar en una escala mayor en el contexto de una exhibición individual de Ignatti en el Museum of Contemporary Art de Denver, Colorado, Estados Unidos, donde el artista presentará cuatro grandes instalaciones a mediados del 2016.

• Happenings

Artist: Jaime Ruiz Otis.

Coordenadas/Frecuencias/Fisuras
July 11 – August 22, 2015
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Por más de diez años, Jaime Ruiz Otis ha empleado como método de trabajo la exploración de los contenedores de residuos industriales en las maquiladoras de Baja California. Como resultado, este artista ha conformado una vasta y heterogénea colección de objetos y materias primas con los que produce su obra. Entre estos materiales se encuentran miles de calcomanías utilizadas para identificar las características de aparatos electrónicos y de cómputo, cuyos sobrantes o series defectuosas son desechados en grandes volúmenes.

Una característica constante en la obra de Ruiz Otis ha sido la identificación de los momentos en que la eficiencia de los procesos mecánicos e industriales es interrumpida: la mano humana, aunque invisible, se vuelve necesaria. Sin embargo en Coordenadas / Frecuencias / Fisuras, en vez de observar el accidente, este artista mecaniza sus propios movimientos y labor compositiva intuyendo patrones visuales derivados de las características de cada calcomanía. Este ejercicio de repetición constituye un mantra del que se despliegan formas caleidoscópicas y juegos ópticos variables, de acuerdo con las distancias y perspectivas desde las que se aprecien.

• Happenings

Artists: Waltercio Caldas, Lygia Clark, Raymundo Colares, Adriano Costa, Alexandre da Cunha, Amílcar de Castro, Willys de Castro, Antonio Dias, Marcius Galan, Fernanda Gomes, Jac Leirner, Rodrigo Matheus, Paulo Monteiro, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Mira Schendel, Tunga, and Erika Verzutti.

Empty House Casa Vazia
Jun 27 – August 28, 2014
Luhring Augustine
NYC,  NY, USA

• Happenings

Artist: Gabriel Acevedo Velarde.

Pasillo de documentos e imágenes promocionales
July 7 – August 14, 2015
80m2 Livia Benavides
Lima, Peru

“Cuando las puertas del ascensor se abrieron en el piso 22, no podía ubicar la relación entre este hall y la posición del edificio respecto a la entrada. De hecho, olvidé por unos instantes cómo había llegado ahí. La panorámica de la ciudad soleada entraba por amplias ventanas levemente cubiertas de polvo reluciente. ¿Era este el ministerio desde donde se podía ver el mar a lo lejos? ¿Era aquí donde estaban los estudios del primer canal de televisión? “Por aquí, por favor”, me dice el encargado.

Hay un espacio en común entre el mundo de deseos subjetivos y la experiencia de las instituciones modernas, como el estado o el museo. Es un estado de “quasi-escenografía” en donde estas dos dimensiones se distorsionan mutuamente. Ahora, por ejemplo, tuve varios encargos: concebir la imagen institucional del canal de televisión estatal, diseñar la portada de un libro sobre un caso histórico de corrupción y hacer una exposición individual. Hace unos días, mientras corría al lado del mar, pensaba que todo esto demandaba simultáneamente responsabilidad ciudadana y un enfoque personal.

Mientras el encargado me llevaba a través de pasillos de oficinas cerradas, yo trataba de grabar en la memoria todo lo que veía. Esos segundos se convirtieron en horas, días, tal vez años de imágenes, algunas vívidas, otras filtradas por casets de VHS o Betamax. En algún momento mi sonrisa se detuvo frente a la cara del Jefe de Personal, que me dijo que no, no se puede. Gracias de todas maneras, respondí sin dejar de sonreír, pues sabía que en realidad no necesitaba su permiso. Sólo quería conocer el edificio por dentro.” – G.A.V

• Happenings

Artists: Claudia Alvarez, Afruz Amighi, Rina Banerjee, Christian Ruiz Berman, Sanford Biggers, Cui Fei, Leonardo Drew, Rashawn Griffin, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Wenda Gu, Ginny Huo, Tamiko Kawata, Iván Navarro & Courtney Smith, Kambui Olujimi, Cecilia Paredes, Soo Sunny Park, Yinka Shonibare, Nari Ward, and Ishmael Randall Weeks.

New Ways of Seeing: Beyond Culture
May 10 – July 12, 2015
Dorsky Gallery – Curatorial Programs
Long Island City, NY, USA

New Ways of Seeing: Beyond Culture features works by emerging and seasoned artists of African/ African American, Asian/Asian American, Latino/ Hispanic, and Middle Eastern heritages who are changing and expanding the vocabulary and agendas of the art world by injecting ideas from their world cultures and experiences. These proactive artists utilize materials and imagery in innovative ways that address themes including race, gender, ritual, craft, and language. Their materials often challenge existing associations and subvert expectations. They break down barriers to create new mythologies. Their works conflate the local and global, past and present, fact and fiction. These artists are “transcending the limits of individual cultures.”1

The phrase “New Ways of Seeing” acknowledges that many past and present interpretations of culture are flawed, incomplete, or even false. As we know, scholars from ancient to Post-Colonial and Postmodern times had different views and agendas, often excluding women. In another direction, cultures borrow from, adapt, and change each other in myriad ways.

• Happenings

Artist: Ricardo Alcaide

One Phenomenon Among Others
July 4 – 25, 2015
Baró Jardins – Baró Gallery
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Com base na experiência e percepção de como a sociedade funciona e lida com os problemas causados pelas condições de vida modernas nas grandes cidades, o trabalho recente de Ricardo Alcaide tem criado diferentes paralelos entre a combinação de princípios da arquitetura modernista com a precariedade que se manifesta na vida cotidiana, revelando o progresso na sociedade como vago, perdendo rapidamente a sua forma.

Em sua terceira exposição na galeria Baró, One Phenomenon Among Others (Um fenômeno entre outros), Ricardo Alcaide apresenta suas mais recentes pinturas realizadas sobre paneis de MDF com tinta industrial. No processo, o artista constrói estruturas temporárias de madeira sobre o suporte para criar limites e divisões que conformam a composição, posteriormente removidas. Trata-se neste caso de uma aproximação fictícia de partes de mobiliário desmanchado que retém a memoria da estrutura já inexistente. Eis aqui um “ato de desconstrução” no processo real que conta como o ponto mais relevante deste trabalho. A recriação abstrata revela esta descontrolada e imprecisa condição e reflete  – novamente – sobre a falência do progresso associado com a estética moderna dentro de seu discurso. O resultado pode ser percebido formalmente como pura abstração com possíveis leituras do neoconcretismo, mas o que reside por trás disso são anedotas e formas simbólicas da dura realidade de hoje e de seu “progresso” subdesenvolvido.

• Happenings

Artist: Bernardo Ortiz

180615
June 18 – July 31, 2015
Casas Riegner
Bogotá, Colombia

En varios de sus escritos Gilles Deleuze dejó consignado que el pensamiento se produce a partir de un campo de posibilidades, de allí se deriva lo que denominó “la imagen del pensamiento”: aquello que nos permite hacerlo visible o enunciable. De forma similar, Bernardo Ortiz busca develar en su obra soportes y recursos que posibilitan la experiencia visual: la imagen como resultado de una amalgama de soluciones técnicas y materiales — como texto hecho de capas— se hace presente en dibujos, instalaciones e intervenciones.

Para 180615, su más reciente exposición individual en Casas Riegner, Ortiz continúa explorando entre posibilidades o límites que, de forma particular, se hacen evidentes en el arte: lo perceptible y lo imperceptible, lo reproducible y lo irreproducible, lo actual y lo potencial, lo real y lo ficticio. Haciendo uso de soluciones formales que van desde sobreponer dibujos, intervenir los soportes con distintas capas de gouache o perforaciones, contrastar colores afectando la legibilidad de las palabras, o reuniendo trazos hechos a mano con impresos — al igual que trazos precisos con pinceladas despreocupadas— el artista busca acercar lo conceptual a lo material. De tal forma, la muestra compone una narrativa marcada por gestos, referencias y acentos, que además emplea como recurso la ruptura de escala, ubicando dibujos de gran tamaño sobre diferentes soportes como una gran estructura en madera de balso.

De forma particular, en 180615 también están presentes técnicas en desuso como la digitalización de imágenes en TeX (1) y las impresiones heliográficas, métodos que enfatizan la cualidad fotográfica de la imagen y aluden a procesos obsoletos que evidencian sus límites: tanto la fotografía, la pintura, el dibujo como la proyección, están compuestas por unidades mínimas. Así, la reproducción, la copia, el dibujo del dibujo o la foto del dibujo, convergen borrando los límites entre técnicas, conceptos y discursos.

Si a cada época han correspondido diversas formas de producir una imagen, Ortiz se da a la tarea de crear instantáneas en las que se hacen perceptibles sus mecanismos. Después de todo, la experiencia visual, que muchas veces parece reducida a la imagen, es el producto de un complejo sustrato.

Bernardo Ortiz (Bogotá, 1972) estudió Artes Plásticas, Filosofía y Literatura. Ha realizado muestras individuales en Bogotá, São Paulo y Sevilla, y ha participado en renombradas exposiciones internacionales entre las cuales se destacan: II Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, Francia (2011); Air de Lyon, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011); 30 Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (2012); Prix Canson Nominees Exhibition, Petit Palais, París, Francia (2013); Marking Language, Drawing Room, Londres, Inglaterra (2013); 11 Bienal de Monterrey, Monterrey, México (2014); y 12 Bienal de Cuenca (2014).  Su obra hace parte de importantes colecciones como la del Museo de Arte Moderno de Nueva York, Tate Modern (Londres), Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt), Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Nueva York), Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP, París) y Kadist Art Foundation, (París).

(1) Software de diseño gráfico de gran popularidad en la década del 70 para digitalizar imágenes.

• Happenings

Artists: Gaspar Acebo, Marcolina Dipierro, Bruno Dubner, Sofía Durrieu, Bruno Gruppalli, Julián León Camargo, Guido Ignatti, Kirsten Mosel, Andrés Sobrino, Carola Zech.

About Line
July 3, 2015
Espacio Kamm
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Group show.

• Happenings

Artists: Kim Allen, Kari Altmann, Marcela Armas, Jeremy Bailey, Diego Berruecos, Zach Blas, Mariana Castillo Deball, Marcelo Cidade, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Sterling Crispin, Debora Delmar Corp., de_sitio, Claudia Fernández, Francisco Fernández, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, LaToya Ruby Frazie, Melissa Furness, Coco Fusco, Marcius Galan, Anna Bella Geiger, Cristóbal Gracia, David Hartt, Karl Haendel, Sarah Anne Johnson, André Komatsu, Robert Longo, Jorge Macchi, Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman, Erick Meyenberg, Adam Milner, Nuria Montiel and Fernando Palma, Daniel Monroy Cuevas, Aliza Nisenbaum, Fernando Ortega, Bernardo Ortiz, Adam Pendleton, Tania Pérez Córdova, Jorge Satorre, Joaquín Segura, Matt Scobey, Skawennati, Eduardo Terrazas, and Ryan Trecartin.

NOW!
July 14–August 30, 2015
2015 Biennial of the Americas
Denver, CO, USA

The 2015 Biennial of the Americas is the third iteration of this international festival of ideas, art and culture in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the 2015 Biennial of the Americas is NOW! Today we stand on shifting ground, with one foot in a new geological era and one foot lingering on the structures of the past. The 2015 Biennial of the Americas will dive deep into our present circumstances, seeking to understand contexts, conditions, and challenges across the western hemisphere today.

Artistic program
Artists featured in the 2015 Biennial of the Americas from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean create visual art, music and dance in response to current issues and questions. They address specific situations where they live, as well as concerns shared across borders such as violence, environmental issues, technology, and social justice. Mexico City will form a particular focus in the program following the Biennial of the Americas Mexico City Summit held in June 2014.

Program highlights
The artists in the central exhibition of the Biennial of the Americas, Now? NOW! at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver capture complexities of now in the Western Hemisphere. The exhibition Oíd el Sueño de una Palabra / Listen to the Dream of a Word at the Biennial Pavilion in Downtown Denver results from a collaboration facilitated by Mexico City curatorial collective de_sitio. They invited a group of practitioners from different disciplines to interact with Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico, a small, yet exemplary community organization in a marginal outskirt southeast of Mexico City. Vis-à-vis: Biennial Ambassadors Residency Exhibition at McNichols Civic Center features four ambitious new projects by artists Matt Scobey (US), Melissa Furness (US), Cristóbal Gracia (Mexico) and Daniel Monroy Cuevas (Mexico) developed through the 2015 Biennial Ambassadors Program. Aimed at nurturing creative links and deepening artistic dialogue across the Americas, the program focused for 2015 on connecting Denver and Mexico City through a series of ten-week residency exchanges run by contemporary art organizations ArtPlant and SOMA. Major public commissions by Mexico-based artists Erick Meyenberg and Marcela Armas examine the connection between Denver’s present, past and future.

Opening week festival and arts professional preview
July 14 to 19, all-day programming precedes evening symposia, and late night events celebrate the opening of Biennial venues. New this year is the Biennial Pavilion, a site for talks, workshops and performances, programmed with events throughout the summer.

Other highlights include a week-long residency of public performances and workshops by Brazil’s Companhia Urbana de Dança, presented in collaboration with the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, and a rare presentation of Matthew Barney’s latest film, River of Fundament, co-presented by the Clyfford Still Museum and Denver Art Museum. Biennial Night @ Civic Center, a major outdoor music and performance festival, features appearances by Jeremy Bailey (Canada), Black Violin (US), Wonderbound (US), and others.

The Artistic Director and Curator of the 2015 Biennial of the Americas is Lauren A. Wright.

Image: Robert Longo, Full-Scale Study for Five Rams (Ferguson, Hands Up: November 30, 2014), 2015. Charcoal on unique digital pigment print in 3 parts, 104 x 150 inches. Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.

• Happenings

Artist: Francisco Ugarte

Paisaje Sugerido
May 15 – July 3, 2015
Curro y Poncho
Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico

The exhibited pieces have an interest in documenting changes within the natural environment in a specific time frame. Therefore, they are not meant to be observed necessarily from beginning to end, but to be seen like a scene through a vain.

Francisco Ugarte’s work is based on the grounds of architecture, mainly during the creative process: the proposal is generated from a deep focus in the environment, and a subsequent response to it. Using a variety of media including site-specific interventions, video, installation, sculpture and drawing, his work can be understood as a phenomenological exercise in which reality is comprehended through contemplation and perception of things.

• Happenings

Artist: Rosario López Parra.

Los Acueductos
July 5 – November 6, 2015
La Oficina del Dcotor, Casas Riegner
Bogotá, Colombia

Este proyecto desarrollado a partir de un archivo fotográfico de obras de ingeniería civil, “se basa en el poder de la fotografía como documento, pero también como objeto escultórico. Es decir, las fotografías recuperadas, independientemente que fueran obras de ingeniería sanitaria, proponen una apertura en el pensamiento contemporáneo de la escultura. Se leen como obras tridimensionales de gran envergadura que trascienden su funcionalidad y, en su emplazamiento, señalan un territorio apropiado y fragmentado del paisaje circundante”.

• Happenings

Artists: Marcolina Dipierro and María Carballo.

Acuerdo Formal
June 2 – July 10, 2015
Fondo Nacional de las Artes
Buenos Aires, Argentina

En una fotografía existe la tensión que proviene del no saber qué viene antes o después, uno está suspendido en la ficción de ese instante único, atrapado en el medio de algo que se hace y se deshace.

‘Acuerdo Formal’ es una imagen que refleja este instante precisamente. La sala parece estar multiplicándose ocultamente hasta que entramos y presenciamos su estado congelado en disyuntiva. Como un cristal de hielo cuyos dos elementos se ordenan radicalmente con el aumento de la presión, así la arquitectura de la misma se expande en una acumulación geométrica de tabiques y goma, una configuración que es sólo una de sus posibilidades infinitas.

Construímos pisos para sostener las paredes que nos circundan y cortamos agujeros para movilizarnos entre ellas. Dipierro y Carballo toman estos elementos estructurales, los componentes básicos de todo recinto arquitectónico, como su punto de encuentro. La sala tradicional es por definición un espacio neutro o “no espacio” que permite que los observadores se absorban en una obra de arte sin sentirse conscientes de una restricción física. Las artistas responden precisamente a este modelo familiar y lo invierten. Mediante la réplica meticulosa del piso y paredes como únicos materiales, nos presentan un espacio compuesto solamente de su arquitectura, enfatizando la materialidad de aquello que normalmente se ignora.

Al toparse con los tabiques y tener que esquivar los desniveles del piso, somos conscientes de que la narrativa de la instalación se relaciona con nuestros cuerpos y cómo nos trasladamos por ella.

Vemos cómo una simple operación arquitectónica puede hacernos reconsiderar una sala familiar y darnos una textura diferente de aire, luz, y sonido.

-Claudia Cortinez

• Happenings

Artists: Roberto Aizenberg, Nicanor Araoz, Marcela Astorga, Hugo Aveta, Nicolás Bacal, Ernesto Ballesteros, Eduardo Tomás Basualdo, Diego Bianchi, Joaquín Boz, Marcelo Brodsky, Eugenia Calvo, Gabriel Chaile, Nicola Costantino, Ariel Cusnir, Julián D’Angiolillo, Flavia Da Rin, Marina De Caro, Andrés Denegri, Mirtha Dermisache, Sebastián Diaz Morales, Matías Duville, Leandro Erlich, Tomás Espina & Martin Cordiano, León Ferrari, Ana Gallardo, Alberto Goldenstein, Gabriela Golder, Max Gómez Canle, Sebastián Gordin, Jorge Gumier Maier, Luján Fúnes, Graciela Hasper, Carlos Herrera, Carlos Huffmann, Roberto Jacoby, Magdalena Jitrik, Fabio Kacero, Guillermo Kuitca, Fernanda Laguna, Luciana Lamothe, José Luis Landet, Martín Legón, Catalina León, Donjo León, Marcos López, Jorge Macchi, Adriana Minoliti, Marta Minujín with Mark Brusse, Guillermina Mongan, Margarita Paksa, Esteban Pastorino, Marcelo Pombo, Santiago Porter, “Middle School Liliana Maresca Project” (Lorena Bossi, Ariel Cusnir, Sebastián Friedman, Leandro Tartaglia, Dani Zelko) with the students of highschool n°44 of La Cava de Fiorito, Pablo Reinoso, Marisa Rubio, Mariela Scafati, Pablo Siquier, Elisa Strada, Eduardo Stupía, Pablo Suárez, Luis Terán, Valeria Vilar, and Adrián Villar Rojas.

My Buenos Aires
June 20 – September 20, 2015
Maison Rouge
Buenos Aires, Argentina

My Buenos Aires at la maison rouge continues a series of exhibitions that showcases the art scene in cities worldwide. The series was launched in summer 2011 with Winnipeg, Canada, followed in 2013 by Johannesburg, South Africa. Some regret what they see as a “standardized” art world, laying the blame at globalization’s door, and so this seemed the opportune moment to look at centres of creativity which, though out of the spotlight, enjoy a thriving art scene of works infused with the city, its territory, history and myths.

Buenos Aires, a mystery reinvented

A mirror city, established twice (in 1536 and then again in 1580), “Our Lady of the Fair Winds” stands on Río de la Plata, the “silver river” that gave the country its name. Buenos Aires extends over two hundred square kilometres and is home to three million porteños (“port-dwellers” in Spanish). The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation has a population of fifteen and a half million, making it Latin America’s third most-populated agglomeration after Mexico City and São Paulo.

Described by Malraux as “the capital of an empire that never existed”, Buenos Aires fuels many fantasies. The mere mention of tango or beef, of Borges or Maradona, of Argentinean beauties will plunge anyone, even someone who has never set foot in the city, into dreamy nostalgia.

The visual and cultural familiarity that greets a European visitor can disappoint those in search of instant exoticism and pre-packaged emotions. Yet this is precisely where its power of seduction lies; in the (un)acquaintance of what we find when we peel away the masks of this tentacular city, which in 1914 was home to as many immigrants as Argentineans and where still today 40% of its residents were born elsewhere.

Buenos Aires is a child of immigration, whether voluntary or forced; a city haunted by absence. To live there is to accept estrangement and to overcome loss. Hardly surprisingly then, Buenos Aires shares New York’s love of psychoanalysis, and has one therapist for 120 inhabitants.

Seductive, Buenos Aires is no less sombre. It bears the stigmata of violence endured, of uprooting, dictatorship and the mourning of the many disappearances including, since the financial and economic crisis of 2001, that of its own image as a “major European power” that would inexplicably have alighted on the American continent.

The public protests that arose following the 2001 crisis have shown a capacity for counterpower that has no equivalent in the history of modern nations. Even in the throes of crisis, strikes and the pillaging of recent decades, Argentineans continue to wield sarcasm, dark humour and irony as a remedy against resignation.

A chameleon city, Buenos Aires comes with all the accoutrements of a modern conurbation – urban violence, air and noise pollution – yet behind the jacarandas that line its avenues it conserves the extraordinary capacity to reinvent itself and to reveal, unabashedly and sometimes even brutally, the pressing need to live better.

An artistic community that stand together

Authors and actors from all disciplines have in them this extraordinary and also determined capacity for reinvention. In the visual arts, decades of crisis and “getting by” have at least forged a community of artists who, irrespective of rivalries and conflicting views, face adversity as one.

Artists have responded to the lack of infrastructures and learning opportunities by throwing open their studios, hosting charlas (group discussions) where ideas can be brought out into the open. Those who do manage to enter the global art market willingly put their own money into supporting local creation. The grant endowed by painter Guillermo Kuitca, for example, gave an entire generation of artists between 1991 and 2011 access to a studio, and to critical and technical support with which to develop their work. Bola de nieve (“snowball”), a free website set up in 2005 by Ramona magazine, is a database of images where each artist invites another, thereby forming an endless chain. 1,135 artists now show their work there. In a similar spirit, an artist might often recommend visiting another artist’s studio, even when this means putting off visits to his or her own studio to another day.

A compelling movement

In the space of a few years, the map of Buenos Aires contemporary art has undergone substantial transformation to become more evenly spread between the city’s various neighbourhoods. Little by little, the art scene is moving away from the centre. Ruth Benzacar’s gallery, now in its fiftieth year, is leaving the historic Calle Florida for new premises west of the Palermo neighbourhood. New venues are opening in the north, such as Hotel de Inmigrantes. Further north still, the Haroldo Conti Memorial Cultural Centre includes a sculpture park that pays tribute to the men and women who disappeared during the dictatorship, and a cultural centre showing contemporary art. Di Tella, a private university with a famous past, launched an experimental research programme in 2010 under the directorship of the historian and curator Inés Katzenstein. To the south of the city, new director Victoria Noorthoorn is revolutionising the Buenos Aires Modern Art Museum (MAMBA).

The microcentro remains the city’s nerve centre at the heart of its history, and is still the site of numerous art venues, including the Fundación Osde, and galleries. The disgruntled still march on Plaza de Mayo while artists have begun to install works under the obelisk. This reconfiguration of Buenos Aires’ art venues symbolises a city that is gaining momentum, spreading its wings ready to fly. The direction it will take remains to be seen.

Cultural Policy

The city’s Culture Department is behind a number of initiatives which support this quality cultural provision.

The Patronage Law has forged stronger ties between business and the worlds of art and culture by encouraging the private sector to become involved with projects of cultural significance for the city. In a similar vein, thanks to the creation and development of the city’s southern zone (Polo Sur), artists have been able to revive parts of Buenos Aires which for decades languished outside the main exhibition circuits. Initiatives such as the arts district (Distrito de las Artes), the art factory (Usina del Arte), and numerous theatres, cultural centres and exhibition spaces have breathed new life into the south of the city whose industrial landscape now offers something new.

For several years, the successful Tandem programme has enabled art and culture taking place in Buenos Aires to resonate with comparable projects in other capital cities around the world, including Madrid, Amsterdam, Medellín and Paris.

Taking art into public spaces, installing sculptures in the city’s squares, organising open-air performances, launching new circuits such as in Calle Florida or the Borges Xul Solar walking tour… these and other initiatives illustrate the fusion between tradition and modernity, and show how new generations are embracing the city and its mythology.

My Buenos Aires, the exhibition

My Buenos Aires runs counter to the romantic vision of Buenos Aires. Paula Aisemberg and Albertine de Galbert seek to offer visitors to la maison rouge neither a portrait of the city nor a “who’s who” of Argentinean artists, but rather a sensation, an experience of the dynamics at work in the Argentine capital.

The exhibition moves back and forth between political and private, public space, the domestic and the unconscious, exploring themes such as instability, tension and explosion, masks, encryption and the strange.

Along their way, visitors will encounter remnants of facades, mutant scaffoldings, car bonnets, motorway junctions, burned-out houses and headless statues. They will decipher coded languages to the gentle sway of the music rising from the city and the whir of fans. When night falls, they can settle onto an old sofa and listen to a raspy tango, pick their way through the patched-up ruins of a kitchen that’s acting as though nothing was wrong, or study their reflection in the black ink of a white marble basin. They will sink into a waking dream inhabited by strangely unnerving doubles and faceless people falling from the sky, only to wake in the muffled folds of a stucco wedding cake.

With more than sixty artists working in all media, from installation to painting, sculpture, video and photography, four generations are represented. Established names such as León Ferrari, Guillermo Kuitca or Jorge Macchi will join others to be discovered. More than 15 of them will travel to Paris to work on in situ installations.

My Buenos Aires is an invitation to plunge into the mystery of Buenos Aires without attempting to resolve it, and to experience the unsettling strangeness of its multiple personalities.

• Happenings

Artist: Dario Escobar

En otro orden / Another Order
June 25, 2015
The 9.99 Gallery
Guatemala City, Guatemala

“En otro orden” consists of nine sculptures, four paintings and ten drawings. The sculptures are presented in dialogue with American minimalist sculpture, not as a continuation of it, but as an exploration of its aesthetics and its socio-economic structure from an artistic and intellectual space. Escobar sculptures contrast with the austere minimalist works by inserting the industrial object, which had a fairly significant presence in contemporary sculpture in the 1990s

Minimalism was born in the sixties and is geographically focused on the island of Manhattan, New York. A purely American movement, Minimalism refers primarily to a type of sculpture or three-dimensional works made beginning in the1960, which emphasize the abstract and downplay the expressive, avoiding any embellishment or decoration. Among the most renowned exponents are Donald Judd, Ron Bladen, and Tony Smith who exploited industrial mass production and Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, and Robert Morris who chose to present the objects, as they were indistinguishable from found objects, generating an art that could be classified as non-art because of its aesthetic ambiguity.(1) Both currents show a preference for the object’s lack of content.

The sculptures in “En otro orden” identify with both developments and especially with the work of Donald Judd and Carl Andre. Still Life No. 4, Still Life No. 7, and Equilibrio No. 1, made from fabricated materials such as steel, plywood, and rubber, identify with the current represented by Judd. Judd’s preference for putting distance between him and the object by refusing to produce them himself was initially strongly criticized.(2) However, this position is now quite common and is inherent in the works of Escobar mentioned herein. For Judd it was a way of maintaining control over the material(3) and so it is for Escobar. But Escobar contaminates the minimalist spirit of his work with the addition of industrially manufactured objects that are easily recognizable as basketballs and baseballs. Escobar does not show the material in a “pure” state as would Judd but introduces a Duchampian gesture: the easily identifiable found object.

The Duchampian readymade is also evident in the works that have a closer relationship with the austere sculpture of Andre. Equilibrio No. 2, Untitled No. 1, Untitled No. 2, and Untitled No. 3 are made of wood beams and thick wood pieces in different sizes that rest directly on the floor, as is characteristic of Andre’s work. They are examples of a type of unadulterated sculpture. Their genesis is wood that Escobar found in a local sawmill and used as is, changing its configuration by rigging beams and square blocks in a vertical or horizontal orientation. The presence of basketballs and soccer balls balancing precariously on a fairly sophisticated play of balance is amusing and contrasts with the severity and lack of expressiveness of the wood. The spherical shapes temper the rigidity of the straight lines.

The same applies to Balance No. 3, the only work that is made of square steel plates. The 25 steel plates form a grid measuring 98 7/16 x 98 7/16 inches in the style of Andre, but unlike Andre’s grids, which tend to rest flush with the floor and were meant to be walked on, Escobar fragmented the grid by placing tennis balls under it. The balls subvert the geometry of the work by allowing a glimpse of the negative spaces beneath it; its hard surface is turned into a kind of false floor that precludes a direct physical relationship with the work because one cannot stand firmly on it.

Untitled No. 1 is an atypical work within the exhibition because its forms lack the exactness of the other works. The irregularity of the hoe handles reveal their hand-made origin: a found object used by Escobar to create a work which, despite its uniqueness, it has a relationship with Minimalism in the use of the repetition of forms. The incorporation of a baseball at the base of each vertical element accentuates its physical imperfection, makes it unstable, and adds to its anthropomorphic appearance because it resembles an animal’s leg. Untitled # 1 leans against the wall with the top of the hoe handles forming a straight horizontal line that contrasts with the bottom, which seems undulating and disorderly. While for Andre the transformation of the materials was unnecessary and the use of raw unadulterated materials essential in his questioning of what and who makes a work of art, Escobar is determined to destabilize again and again these and other principles of Minimalism from a non-hegemonic perspective and in relation to more recent artistic trends.

The exhibition is completed by ten drawings made with cinnabar pigment and graphite on paper and four small paintings on wood. The series entitled Dibujo que no obedece al contorno No. 1-10 (Drawing that does not obey the contour No. 1-10) shows solid geometries that do not fit into similar forms that are barely glimpsed due to the delicacy of the graphite line. Their solidity and forms have a certain kinship with certain sculptures by Tony Smith, as they do not easily reveal themselves but require time and attention as any work that is based on visual perception. The use of cinnabar pigment, employed by the Maya in ceramic painting, bestows them a unique and valuable attribute for the rarity of the material and its use in contemporary art. As their titles indicate Construcción Modular No.1-4 (Modular Construction No. 1-4) are geometric paintings that reflect the interest Escobar has for abstraction, usually expressed in his drawings, but continued in a series of paintings with movable panels begun in 2010. Close to Frank Stella’s objective paintings of the sixties, these works embrace geometry in order to eliminate the potential narrative of painting.(4)

The works in “En otro orden” openly converse with the American Minimalist movement and especially with its two pillars—Donald Judd and Carl Andre. With this Escobar attempts to open a dialogue that is pending in Central America, and certainly in Guatemala since the cultural disruption caused by the armed conflict that began in the sixties. It also tries responding with humor and perhaps a dose of boldness to an artistic expression that is characterized by a severe and plain aesthetic and to rethink, half a century later, the relationship that exists between the artist and the subject from Escobar´s own perspective.

(1) Kenneth Baker, Minimalism: Art of Circumstance (Abeville Modern Art Movements). New York: Abeville Press, 1988. p9.

(2) Ibid. p58.

(3) Ibid. p58.

(4) Ibid. p34.

• Happenings

Artist: Alice Quaresma

Além (Beyond)
Curated by Mario Gioia
Fauna Galeria
São Paulo, Brazil

The current exhibit of Alice Quaresma is one of the most interesting ones, not only for its unstable and migrant character in the photographic process, but also for embodying, in a poetic and unique way, some pungent issues to the contemporary artist. In particular, we can highlight those that lean towards relationships, identity issues, uprooting, sense of permanence and displacement, among other powerful traits within her work.

In the Além (Beyond) exhibit, which represents a new debut for Fauna Gallery, now located in Vila Mariana _ a special locus within São Paulo art circuit _ the artist based in New York and who had much of her art education in London shows a series of photographs in which the boundaries and definitions of this language are consciously stretched, but do not fail to establish themselves within the photographic field. They are certainly expanded, since Quaresma seems to aim for what she refers to as “photo-objects”, while taking advantage of painting, drawing, collage and three-dimensional elements.

“The non-object designation is entirely appropriate to my work. […] There are certain types of artworks that belong to the same family. My work is neither architecture, nor sculpture or painting in the old sense “1, declared Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) to Vera Martins in 1961. Mentioning the name of Oiticica, a reference in the Brazilian Neoconcretism, comes in handy in Quaresma´s visual and conceptual research for being a paradigm in this blur of boundary of means and pillar of art and languages, expanding the resonance of the national constructive project and, to this date, still influential to new generations of artists here (in Brazil).

It is now relevant to tell a little about Alice Quaresma’s journey. Graduated in painting in London, she began to experiment with photography in college, and then went through a phase of self-portraits and other phases of still life in the studio setting, with equipment and strategies focused on an impeccable technique. Later she got back to painting and, from there, managed to deconstruct her own photographic process using elements of other plastic arts and visual researches, guided by a formal detachment.

It is almost under an aegis of crisis _ seen not in the negative sense, but as a propeller for something new to be experienced and discovered under new prisms _ Quaresma’s journey is being built, and now unfolds in a persistent unease about what is photographic _ in a time of overflown circulation of this mean (photograph), something that brings ubiquity but also increasingly rarefied quality of its specificities _ and how it can be covered by subjectivity and a less tenuous presence.

“I am interested in dealing with time; but overlapping it, not linearly. When you see a blurred picture, it is simply the record of time in one click (only one image)”, she says. “Then the paint and many other materials that I have been using on my photographic images come in. I will always use materials, which I have not yet tested. At the moment, I have been using a lot of paint, oil sticks and colored tape.”

Then a more experimental approach comes in, as advocated by Oiticica and his peers, and that helps Quaresma in building a particular path, in which there were times when Demand, Hofer and Becher were decisive, but they stand just as some of the modules that constitute her work. “These interferences deal with the possibility of bringing casual traits. Hand Gestures bring more intuition and less control. The materiality brings moments of surprise by enriching the texture over the flatness of the photo paper.”

And there is this feeling of being a foreigner, from continuously dealing with the idea of not belonging and with the careful, yet not painful, construction of an affectionate memory, which can have great concreteness links, but also, only in images and records, something evanescent, undone. In this sense, they gain importance in Além artworks, such as: Encontro, Mudanças do Tempo e Vestígios (Encounters, Time Changes and Traces); which the titles reveal much of her indicial temporality in collapse. This is something that was already noticeable in her previous project, such as Raízes (Roots, 2013) _ blurred ocean, vigorous vegetation massifs now portrayed in black and white, once glorious public and private buildings and, at the time of the authorial registration, less solid and robust.

Moving against the almost incessant reproduction quality of the photo medium, Alice Quaresma’s unique creations seem to unveil, therefore, a new territory, to “beyond”. And here they echo in the inescapable collage thought of the Italian Luigi Ghirri (1943-1992): “Many […] have seen or considered these photographs as photomontages; just like I would call them, instead of photodémontage. To a large extent, the reality is increasingly transformed into a colossal photograph, and the photomontage has already happen; it is in the real world” ².

Mario Gioia, June 2015

1. OITICICA FILHO, Cesar, COHN, Sergio, VIEIRA, Ingrid (org.). Encontros – Hélio Oiticica. Azougue, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, p. 25.
2. FABIANI, Francesca, GASPARINI, Laura, SERGIO, Giuliano, NOGUEIRA, Thyago (org.). Luigi Ghirri – Pensar por Imagens. Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, 2013, p. 68

• Happenings

Artist: Clarissa Tossin

Unmapping the World -Book release & Conversation with Michael Ned Holte
June 13, 2014
Samuel Freeman Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Unmapping the World is organized around a set of works produced by Clarissa Tossin over a period of five years during artist residencies, and commissioned by Brazilian and North American art institutions. These works manifest the development of a poetics that employs a wide range of strategies in order to address contemporary issues. Tossin’s objects, videos, and installations explore a broad and intricate spectrum of desires, impasses, and utopias, while also establishing their own expressive logic, above and beyond these topics.

Driven by the curiosity of the artist-anthropologist, Tossin’s works are formed through analysis of the politics of space and urban spaces, as well as interrogations into the mappings and discourses of power, relationships of consumption and identity, circulations of symbols and ideas, and the role of architecture—particularly that of Brasília, a modernist monument that she has come to call ‘home.’

The book is bilingual, in English and Portuguese, and includes texts by Moacir dos Anjos, Michael Ned Holte, and Guilherme Wisnik. The publication has been made possible by a fellowship from the California Community Foundation.

• Happenings

Artists: Omar Barquet, Mauro Giaconi, and José Luis Landet.

Amplificar
May 30 – July 16, 2015
Document Art
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La simplicidad de la existencia: su agitación, su inquietud, su pena y su gozo, su espesor, su densidad, su cosa extensa, su tiempo convulso, desunido, su indisciplina, sus farfulladas, su inconciencia visceral y su lucidez no menos clavada al cuerpo… ̈Jean-Luc Nancy (1940).

Los artistas Omar Barquet (México), Mauro Giaconi y José Luis Landet (Argentina) se reúnen para plantear nuevamente una experiencia abierta, donde conceptos como paisaje, lenguaje y entorno son algunas de los ejes temáticos que traman esta propuesta.Ubicando al espectador como potencial protagonista y generando un espacio-terreno de juego, donde una serie de dispositivos lúdicos y simbólicos se disponen para ser activados, Barquet, Giaconi y Landet buscan desde la acción física e interactiva, amplificar el debate sostenido a larga distancia en forma de cadáver exquisito a través de medios de comunicación digitales.

• Happenings

Artists: Felipe Mujica, Margarita Azurdia, Jorge González, Ana Maria Millan, Javier Tellez and Johanna Unzueta.

A reherasal by Felipe Mujica and Johanna Unzueta
June 10, 2015
ISCP -International Studio & Curatorial Program
Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artists and Beta-Local collaborators Felipe Mujica and Johanna Unzueta will present original artworks and documentation of work by Margarita Azurdia, Felipe Mujica, Jorge González, Ana Maria Millan, Javier Tellez and Johanna Unzueta in ISCP’s exhibition galleries. The exhibition will reveal contrasts between Geometric Abstraction, with its idealistic and formalist characteristics, and more personal, exotic and political forms of expression. Works include a video of a flying body crossing the US-Mexico border in a semi-circle trajectory, a ceramic turtle resting over a neo-geo-style cube, and a group of photographs of Minimal-like sculptures and paintings with the artist fashionably posing next to them, among others. This presentation is a prelude “test-drive” or “rehearsal” for an exhibition scheduled for later this year in Santiago, Chile at Die Ecke Arte Contemporáneo.

• Happenings

Artists: Esvin Alarcón Lam, Ricardo Alcaide, Darío Escobar, Gianfranco Foschino, Juan Fernando Herrán, Harold Mendez, Gabriel de la Mora, Ronny Quevedo, and Ana Maria Tavares.

Líneas de la Mano
May 12 – July 3, 2015
Sicardi Gallery
Houston, TX, USA

Featuring artists from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela, Líneas de la mano (lines of the hand, lifelines) takes as its premise the idea that geometries connect the quotidian moments of our daily lives. Indeed, a line connects two points, A and B, start and finish, end and beginning; lines are defined by this function of connection, even as they continue to move past the points they connect

The artists in the exhibition use the languages and conceptual frameworks of modernism and abstraction to suggest poetic connections: between people, between historical referents, between political experiences, and between places. The line as connector becomes a way of skillfully addressing fraught histories, and of weaving a set of relationships. Líneas de la mano also considers the tactility of each object. The works exhibited demonstrate a strong relationship to materials and their histories, from the scrap metal of Guatemalan buses, to the thick, sooty texture of an archival photograph transferred to aluminum, to the fabric retrieved from vintage radio speakers.

The exhibition title playfully alludes to palmistry; the connection is meant to highlight the actions of the hand, implicit in the creation of the work. Astrologer, numerologist, clairvoyant, and palm-reader Cheiro (William John Warner, 1866-1936) writes, “the hand… denotes the change going on in the brain, even years before the action of the individual becomes the result of such a change.”  Read in a different context, it is a compelling statement about the artistic process.

• Happenings

Artists: Cecilia Biagini, Verónica Calfat, Ignacio Fanti, Pachi Giustinian, Mimi Laquidara, Martina Quesada, and Agustina Quiles.

La fuerza débil
Curadora: Silvia Gurfein
June 2 – July 10, 2015
Fondo Nacional de las Artes
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dentro del marco del Ciclo Recorridos Descentrados, se presenta la muestra “La fuerza débil” curada por Silvia Gurfein.

Imagen: Cecilia Biagini, “Multiplicidad potencial”, 2012, Pintura vinílica sobre madera, 48 x 57 x 10 cm.

• Happenings

Artist: Mauro Giaconi

Estado fallido (État défaillant)
May 15 – June 20, 2015
Bendana Pinel Art Contemporain
Paris, France

Siendo el dibujo su principal medio de investigación, expandiéndolo hacia la escultura, hacia el video y la instalación, Giaconi presenta en “estado fallido” una serie de obras que se desprenden de sus últimos años de investigación artística, donde la destrucción y la reconstrucción son un constante mantra que modifica, redefine y excava el entorno subjetivo del artista.

La arquitectura, el cuerpo, las fronteras y la memoria son algunas aristas de un bloque de obras con el que Giaconi se propone hacer foco en la tensión entre conceptos opuestos, reflexionando y desdibujando los límites entre construcción y destrucción, peso y levedad, nacimiento y muerte, sueño y despertar. Borroneando sus bordes, desgastándolos, modificándolos, es como Giaconi rasca y busca instancias liberadoras, energías redentoras, instantes de fe.

El termino “estado fallido” es acuñado por periodistas y politólogos para referirse a un estado soberano en crisis que deja de cumplir con las garantías básicas y que presentan un evidente fracaso social, político, y económico. Giaconi utiliza este termino fundiéndolo con su significado con literal, con la falla, con el estado de error, de accidente, de residuo, generando reflexiones en torno a la permanencia, a la vida y a la muerte.

Estado fallido, estallido de abrazos.

dibujar la piedra, desdibujar los muros

que son de todos, como los errores

cada quién que junte sus cenizas

que levante su propia fortaleza

donde quiera

donde quepa

para todos.

Estado fallido, muertos sin cuerpo.

nadie merece tumbas vacías

son llantos tan anchos que se muerden la cola.

desdibujemos el estado, el confort.

desdibujemos la patria

una para cada quien

donde quepa

para todos.

m.g.

• Happenings

Artist: Richard Garet

Sounds of Times Square
June 1 – 30, 2015
Times Square Arts
NYC, NY, USA

For this “Midnight Moment” project Richard Garet proposes to use sounds captured from the area of Times Square as a tool to generate a visualization of the sonic environment. Then the artist will remove the audio leaving just the moving image signal creating an experience of sound through vision that would change and pulsate according to the properties of the sonic composite. The viewer then is pulled into lavish landscapes of continually reconfigured color and mood.

“In my processes establishing the material is key, and from there it becomes a reductive process where a vast number of possibilities and outcomes are explored until the work reaches proper momentum, purpose, and significance. Moreover, objectifying the ordinary and reinventing the character of found mundane things in life is very interesting to me.” -Richard Garet

Click here to see video

More info here

• Happenings

Artist: Clarissa Tossin

How does it travel?
May 29, 2015
Samuel Freeman Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA

How does it travel? brings together photographs, sculptures, prints, and site-specific works that analyze movements and their resulting displacements and transformations. She tracks materials, ideologies, and bodies that travel by foot, by car, by plane, and by her own hand. Using two primary nodes, Brazil and the United States, Tossin finds generative ground in transpositions that yield compelling misregistrations.

• Happenings

Artist: Gabriel Sierra

el título de la exposición cambia a cada hora
May 3 – June 28, 2015
The Renaissance Society
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA

His project consists of a group of constructions to stand in or to walk over, which relate abstractly to the idea of inhabiting different moments of space and time. The exhibition features a cyclical title that changes hourly:

10:00 am    Monday Impressions. 

11:00 am    How the Outside Leaks into the Room.

12:00 ­pm    Smells Like 100 Years Old.

1:00 pm     The Room Is in My Eye. The Space under My Body.

2:00 pm     In the Meantime, (This Place Will Be Empty after 5:00 pm).

3:00 pm     An Actual Location for This Moment.

4:00 pm     Few Will Leave Their Place to Come Here for Some Minutes. 

5:00 pm     Did You Know Who Built Your House? 

Sierra is intrigued by the language of man-made objects and the dimensions of the spaces in which we live, work, and think. His practice employs a variety of techniques – from sculpture and spatial interventions to performance and texts – to examine how the human body functions in relation to its environment. Trained in architecture and design, and drawing on the history of Latin American Modernism, Sierra connects the perception of forms and materials to the construction of language, communication, and knowledge.

Sierra’s installation at the Renaissance Society features materials (for example, wood, stones, and plant matter) that have been isolated from their usual geographic situations, processed and domesticated for the context of the exhibition. By inviting visitors to walk over and among the constructions with no determined path, the artist sets up a series of areas that refer to the transitional space of the antechamber. They are not destinations in themselves, but passages of experience leading from one to another, momentary neutral zones.

The exhibition’s title will change every hour to frame the specific moment in which the visitor experiences the work. Like the various constructions Sierra offers, this shifting title experiments with the ways in which environments, and the exhibition in particular, are perceived across time.

An exhibition catalogue featuring essays by Douglas Fogle and Irene V. Small and documentation of the installation is forthcoming.

Gabriel Sierra (born 1975, San Juan Nepomuceno, Colombia) lives and works in Bogotá. Recent solo exhibitions include ggaabbrriieellssiieerrrraa at Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico (2013) and Thus Far at Peephole, Milan, Italy (2013). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Do Objeto para o Mundo, COLEÇÃO INHOTIM, Itaú Cultutal, São Paulo (2015),Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative: Latin America, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014), Impulse, Reason, Sense, Conflict at Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami (2014) and The 2013 Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013).

• Happenings

Artists: Angela Ferreira, Arnaldo Antunes, Catarina Botelho, Chelpa Ferro, Chiara Banfi, Gabriela Albegaria, Guto Lacaz, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Maimuna Adam, Mauro Pinto, O Grivo, and Susana Gaudêncio.

As Margens dos Mares
May 8 – August 2, 2015
Sesc Pinheiros
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Com curadoria de Agnaldo Farias, a mostra reúne doze artistas de Angola, Brasil, Moçambique e Portugal, a fim de apresentar uma parcela da produção contemporânea destes países lusófonos. Os trabalhos apresentam interseções entre as artes visuais e a música, refletem sobre questões como memória, espaço e arquitetura por meio de instalações, fotografias, vídeos e objetos.

Um encontro entre artistas expoentes de Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique e Portugal que busca apresentar por meio das artes visuais e da música uma expressão da cultura contemporânea destes países lusófonos: este é o horizonte de “As Margens dos Mares”, projeto que ocorre no Sesc Pinheiros entre 8 de maio e 2 de agosto com curadoria do crítico de arte e professor da FAU-USP Agnaldo Farias e direção musical do guitarrista, compositor e produtor norte-americano Lee Ritenour.

Realizada pelo Sesc e idealizada pela Sociedade Cultural Arte Brasil, a iniciativa reunirá uma exposição com obras de doze artistas que refletem sobre questões como memória, espaço e arquitetura a partir de instalações, fotografias, vídeos e objetos, além de encontros musicais inéditos com a presença de músicos dos países convidados. “A diluição dos contornos rígidos que, um dia, estabeleceram fronteiras entre linguagens artísticas expandiu caminhos para criadores. Imagens, sons, toques, cheiros e gostos hoje se misturam em composições sinestésicas que proporcionam reflexões sobre inquietações contemporâneas – esta profusão de experiências sensíveis constitui a linha mestra d’As Margens dos Mares”, explica o diretor regional do Sesc São Paulo, Danilo Santos de Miranda. “O projeto nasceu de uma música aparentada às jam sessions jazzísticas, nas quais instrumentistas de origens diversas entram em sintonia pela linguagem dos sons, timbres e ritmos”, conta Carmen Ritenour, diretora-fundadora da Sociedade Cultural Arte Brasil. “Suas marcas são a colaboração entre artistas consagrados e a oferta de diversas manifestações criativas ao público”, completa a diretora geral da iniciativa. ARTES VISUAIS.

A exposição, localizada no segundo andar do Sesc Pinheiros, contará com obras de Arnaldo Antunes, Guto Lacaz, Chelpa Ferro, Chiara Banfi e O Grivo (Brasil); Ângela Ferreira, Maimuna Adam e Mauro Pinto (Moçambique); Catarina Botelho, Gabriela Albergaria e Susana Gaudêncio (Portugal) e Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola). “As instalações predominam e a música, incluindo ruídos, atua como elemento agregador da exposição, atravessando-a de ponta a ponta”, define o curador Agnaldo Farias, cujo trabalho é voltado ao rompimento das barreiras entre linguagens artísticas.

Ações educativas e programação integrada com debates, oficinas, intervenções e exibições de filmes enriquecem o período expositivo, de 8 de maio a 2 de agosto. Para o curador da exposição, Agnaldo Faria a mostra é um diálogo sinestésico. “São 12 trabalhos artísticos de Angola, Brasil, Moçambique e Portugal, que interagem no espaço de ‘As Margens dos Mares’. As instalações predominam, e a música, incluindo ruídos, atua como elemento agregador da exposição, atravessando-a de ponta a ponta”, define o curador que busca por obras que nascem do rompimento das barreiras entre linguagens artísticas. A noção de sinestesia e o estímulo de mais de um sentido norteou as escolhas da curadoria.

• Happenings

Artists: Magdalena Atria, Ricardo Rendón, Mariángeles Soto-Díaz, Rubén Ortiz Torres, and Antonio Muñiz.

Multifarious Abstraction
Curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill
June 20 – July 25, 2015
Fabien Castanier Gallery
Culver City, CA, USA

Multifarious Abstraction is an exhibition that questions traditional understanding of the nature of abstraction as a modern field separate from reality. The five artists participating in Multifarious Abstraction present conceptually challenging, loaded and sometimes political explorations of abstract vocabularies in art, which point to unique ways to experience and think on contemporary culture. The five artists are from Latin America, where the division between high and low culture is not as central or as marked as in The United States and Europe. The abstraction proposed here moves away from modernist utopian ideals and pure aesthetics, to dialogue with industrial and popular culture, daily life, inner struggle, politics and gender.

Magdalena Atria is exhibiting free abstract compositions entirely made with plasticine. The artist, who has developed an extensive oeuvre with this material, addresses painting through a material which is malleable, fragile, common and familiar, to produce slowly complicated surfaces that embody “tension between the rational and the emotional, between the personal and the collective, between the existential and the banal, the formal and the symbolic.” Atria attempts to connect the ideal, manifested through abstraction, with the daily and existential dimensions of concrete reality.

Antonio Muñiz is an artist who explores by an intuitive method ways to free the mind and perception from predetermined responses. He employs fumage, a technique for producing organic forms with a burning candle at varying angles and distance from the canvas, thus creating an uncontrolled compositional structure. Muñiz pursues the “gray area”, a multidimensional space that is both symbolic and psychological and deconstructs conditioning dualities such as black/white, outsider/insider, and right/wrong. The artist states: “The gray area is a non-judgmental, non-linear space where we allow ourselves to interact with our environment, breaking free of duality and of conditioned responses.”

Ricardo Rendón’s work is informed by his interest in traditional trades and materials, which are for the artist places of “creative learning”. He states: “My work is presented as a system of questioning of the creative practice, of the execution, productive realization and notion of work.” His mediums range from industrial materials, to sand paper, felt and leather; and his techniques from perforating, cutting, nailing, grinding, sanding, gluing, to welding. For Multifarious Abstraction, the artist exhibits work from the two series: Work Area and Lighting Circuits, with materials such as copper and industrial felt. He transforms a plumber’s purposeful and precise procedure for joining copper tubes into the method for creating free standing sculptures which reflect both on traditional knowledge and on contemporary art’s expansive possibilities.

Mariángeles Soto-Díaz uses the language of abstraction as a way to materialize and connect ideas. Her work explores critically the legacies of modernism, echoing the particular modern historical traditions of Venezuela in dialogue with modernity and abstraction in contemporary culture. For this exhibition she will be showing the site-specific installation The Pink Elephant in the Room, to insert into the White Cube the discussion of gender and racial inequality in the art world. As the artist explains: “The Pink Elephant in the Room addresses the ‘invisibility’ of these issues through indulging in the color pink as a feminist statement while also re-signifying upon the language of abstract painting.”

Rubén Ortiz-Torres is a multidisciplinary artist who goes back to the late 1980s. His work, whether it be photographs, paintings, movies or sculptures, is informed by a hybrid and original combination of popular and mass culture. One of the key references in his work is the low rider and car industry cultures. In his recent work, he experiments with the auto industry’s most recent advances in car paint. For example, his piece Womb Envy (2014), is made with urethane and thermochromic paint and high-density foam. This orange piece in the shape of a pregnant tummy, when touched with your fingers, becomes marked temporarily in yellow on the work’s surface. His black Mexican and American flags made with urethane and chromo-luminescent paint, exhibited in the show, refer on the one hand to modern issues of anarchist ideology, and on the other, to how these national symbols, especially in the context of recent events in Mexico and the USA (The Baltimore riots), may allow the political minority standpoints in contemporary society to be embodied.

Cecilia Fajardo-Hill is a British/Venezuelan art historian and curator. Fajardo-Hill specializes in modern and contemporary art with a focus in Latin American art. She has a PhD in Art History from the University of Essex, England, and an MA in 20th Century Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England. From 2005- 2008, Fajardo-Hill served as Director and Chief Curator for CIFO and the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, and from 2009-2012 served as Chief Curator at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, CA. Presently, Fajardo-Hill is guest curator at the Hammer Museum, the Chief Curator of the Sayago & Pardon Collection and Abstraction in Action, and a visiting scholar at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. She is currently based in Los Angeles, CA.

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Artists: Jenny Patricia Ariza, Jonathan Blanco, Nicolás Cadavid, Jennifer Cristancho, María Angélica Martínez, Rafael Prada, Rafael Valenzuela, Luis Carlos Reyes, Freddy Saúl Serrano, and Rossely Ramírez Villamizar.

Remembranza
Curated by Plegable Colectivo (Barbarita Cardozo y Laura Lucia Serrano)
May 8-29, 2015
Centro Cultural del Oriente
Bucaramanga, Colombia

Remembranza” es la segunda curaduría de Plegable Colectivo en donde el tema de interés gira en torno a la naturaleza, ésta vez, desde proyectos de artistas emergentes y jóvenes de Santander, que al apuntar a tan amplía variedad de connotaciones de tipo simbólico, conceptual, cultural o histórico, abren un espectro a las diferentes formas en las que nos relacionamos con ella.

Los recorridos mentales y de desplazamiento presentes en la mayoría de las piezas denotan la necesidad del ser humano por contemplar, estudiar, representar, registrar o apropiar la naturaleza.

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Artists: Carlos Bissolino, Carlos Baragli, Daniel Callori, Julián León Camargo, Juan Giribaldi, Guido Ignatti, Julim Rosa, Leo Ocello, Luis Ortega, Sofi Quirno, Alejandro Taliano, and Natasha Voliakovsky.

Bonzo
May 16, 2015
Casa Uno
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bonzo es un proyecto artístico que, gracias al apoyo de Metro Building, se aloja temporalmente en casas que serán demolidas, con el fin de establecer talleres de artistas y generar proyectos autónomos de investigación y experimentación en un tiempo denido por el propio lugar.

Las casas, ya deshabitadas y a la espera de su demolición, serán laboratorio de diversas experiencias. Cada casa albergará una propuesta determinada, y cada propuesta artistas, talleres e hipótesis de trabajo durante el tiempo en que esa casa espera para ser otra cosa.

Bonzo es cada una de las casas y todas a la vez. Cada espacio tendrá autonomía funcional y a su vez formará parte del proyecto total. Cada casa tendrá un núcleo creativo fuerte que será integrado por aquellos que quieran desarrollar un asunto en esa situación determinada, y que podrá incluir a los artistas responsables, a curadores y a invitados especiales que puedan potenciar la propuesta.

El ciclo de trabajo será entre cinco y ocho meses para los artistas que usen las instalaciones como taller/laboratorio y se evaluará cada caso particular en los artistas que propongan una muestra o acción especíca. Antes de la demolición, se harán al menos dos aperturas de cada casa con el fin de mostrar las producciones nales, así como también las que estén en proceso, tanto de los artistas en situación de taller como de los invitados especiales.

Cada nueva casa construida sobre un bonzo tendrá un espacio destinado a mencionar el proyecto que ahí se integró y a los artistas que lo compusieron, enlazando las etapas de la casa, como una transformación del espacio y como una memoria de lo sucedido.

Dependiendo de la propuesta de cada artista, algunos fragmentos u obras completas podrán resguardarse para formar parte del patrimonio del nuevo edificio.

Proyecto curaduría y gestión: Carlos Baragli, Juan Giribaldi y Guido Ignatti.

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Artist: Chiara Banfi

Fiume Achates
May 14 – June 13, 2015
Silvia Cintra + Box4
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Em sua terceira exposição individual na galeria, Chiara irá apresentar dois novos trabalhos. Uma grande instalação feita com pedras de rios e uma série de treze desenhos chamada “Achates”, com pedaços de Ágata incrustadas em partituras musicais. O título da exposição vem justamente do nome de um rio na Sicília, sul da Itália, onde foram encontradas as primeiras pedras de Ágata.

Como toda a questão da obra de Chiara se baseia nas relações possíveis entre música e arte, a artista chegou nas ágatas quando estava pesquisando equipamentos de som e vitrolas. A Ágata ė na realidade um tipo de quartzo, que ė usado nesses equipamentos como um estabilizador. A partir disso, Chiara coloca esse material nas partituras, como se cada mineral tivesse sua própria frequência, vibração e consequentemente som.

Já na instalação “Afluente”, que irá ocupar metade do espaço da galeria, a artista trabalha com pedras de rio compradas em lojas de paisagismo. Essas pedras são cortadas e Chiara cabeia todas com cabos RCA, que foram desenvolvidos na década de 40 para ligar vitrolas mono a amplificadores.

Embora não se trate de uma instalação sonora, fica clara uma sugestão, a memória do som dos rios que essas pedras poderiam carregar.

No dia 23 de maio, durante o CIGA (Circuito de Galerias promovido pela feira Art Rio), Chiara irá fazer na galeria um show com os músicos Domenico Lancellotti e Bruno de Lullo. Juntos eles formam a banda “Dissonambulos” que tem como principal objetivo explorar as diversas sonoridades que saem das esculturas sonoras criadas pela artista, permeando a apresentação com algumas canções que surgem e desaparecem nas ondas do som.

Image: Fiume 11, 2015, from the series Achates, 48x64x5cm, Agata, papel pautado e freijó, unique piece.

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Artists: Agnieszka Kurant, David Lamelas, Elena Damiani, Felipe Cohen, Felipe Ehrenberg, Francis Alÿs, Frank & Robbert, Robbert & Frank, João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, John Smith, Luis Ospina, Marcius Galan, Martin Creed, Nelson Leirner, Pilvi Takala, Raphael Hefti, Stefan Burger, and many more.

Akakor
Curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli and Maria do Carmo M.P. de Pontes
April 9 – May 23, 2015
Baro Galeria
Sao Paulo, Brazil

The exhibition Akakor looks at acts of charlatanism within the artistic realm.

Image: Installation view

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Artist: Edgar Guzmanruiz

Chiaroscuro
May 16 – June 13, 2015
Galerie Weisser Elefant
Berlin, Germany

Für diese Ausstellung fotografiert der aus Kolumbien stammende Edgar Guzmanruiz Personen, die nur von einem Computer-Bildschirm beleuchtet werden, ebenso Stilleben im Licht von iPods. Mit ihren Hell-Dunkel-Effekten sind die Bilder von geradezu barocker Farbigkeit und Stimmung. Und auf diese kommt es dem Künstler vor allem an, als Kontrast zu den modernen Lichtquellen und deren Funktion als Dauerreferenz einer nächsten Generation Ego.

Das Zentrum der Ausstellung bildet ein „Teich“, in dem sich Narziss spiegelt und in sein eigenes Bild verliebt. So von Leidenschaft verzehrt, stirbt er und verwandelt sich in die Blume, die seinen Namen trägt. Damit führt Guzmanruiz immerhin eine Tradition fort, die seit der Renaissance von Künstlern wie Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Poussin und Olaf Nicolai geprägt wurde.

Letzterem kommt die Arbeit insofern nahe, als man sich selbst im künstlichen Teich spiegeln kann, doch besteht dieser aktualisiert aus Flachbildschirmen. Damit thematisiert er die Erkenntnis ganz direkt, dass wir uns verdoppeln in dem Augenblick, in dem wir uns verlieren. Eine Beobachtung neben dem Fotografieren der Porträts erweist, dass jüngere Menschen nicht mehr so lange still sitzen können, bis ein Bild von ihnen erstellt ist. Obwohl sie sich selbst betrachten, sind sie nur an flüchtigen Effekten interessiert.

Dies führt uns – über den Mythos von Narziss hinaus – zu Aktaion, der auf der Jagd nach Wild der Diana begegnet, badend in einem Weiher, und nackt. Zur Strafe für den Frevel verwandelt diese ihn in einen Hirsch. Und der wird sodann gerissen, ausgerechnet von Aktaions eigenen Hunden. Das Schicksal wendet sich gegen den, der es fordert ohne Konsequenzen zu bedenken. In Giodarno Bruno’s Buch der „Heroischen Leidenschaften“ sind die letzten Gedanken des Helden: „So spanne hoch ich die Gedanken jetzt / Zum Ziel. Allein sie wenden sich zurücke / Und reißen mich mit scharfem Biss in Stücke“.

Die Hunde des Aktaion können wir verstehen als die Geister, die man zur Hilfe rief und die doch ins Verderben führen: „und ohne Hoffnung kehrt ihr mir zurück“. – Wobei wir oben auch für den „scharfen Biss“ etwas willkürlich „Blick“ einsetzen könnten. Denn dies ist das Thema dieser Ausstellung: der Blick, der von sich selbst abgewendet überhaupt wieder etwas wie Hoffnung oder zumindest Ausblick eröffnen kann. Alle Technik, die unser Leben erleichtern soll, bleibt nur so weit sinnvoll, als sie humanen Zwecken, ja sagen wir es: Idealen dient.

Ralf Bartholomäus

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Artists: Marcelo Grosman, Sofía Bohtlingk y Alfredo Londaibere, Amadeo Azar, Julián Terán, Guido Ignatti, Silva Gurfein, Lux Lindner, Nicolás Gullotta, Ana Tiscornia and Tiziana Pierri.

Selección de trastienda
May 9 – June 12, 2015
Nora Fisch Arte Contemporáneo
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Group show, selected artists from gallery.

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Artists: Omar Barquet, Pablo Rasgado, Omar Rodríguez-Graham, Javier Areán, Veronica Bapé, Miguel Angel Cordera, Taka Fernandez, Agustín González, Jacqueline Lozano, Javier Pérez, Eric Pérez, Patricl Petterson.

Pararrayos
Curated by Christian Barragán
May 27 – July 2, 2015
Embajada de México en Alemania
Berlin, Germany

Group show with contemporary Mexican painters.

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Artist: Cipriano Martínez

Failed Geometry
February 15 – May, 2015
Viloria Blanco Gallery
Miami, FL, USA

Solo exhibition by Cipriano Martínez.

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Artist: Pablo Rasgado

Ellipsis
May 9 – June 6, 2015
Steve Turner Contemporary
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The show features five bodies of work from the last seven years. Rasgado’s works deal with such natural phenomena as gravity, light and energy along with their attendant results—time and ephemerality. He uses a variety of familiar materials—drywall, glass, tape, florescent bulbs, dirt, spiderwebs—to focus on that which is just beyond ordinary perception. In a sense, each work is a clock, recording decay and change over time. Deceptively simple, the works constitute a compendium of phenomena just beyond the grasp of material experience.

Pablo Rasgado (b. Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, 1984) has had solo exhibitions at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2011, 2012 & 2014); Arratia Beer, Berlin (2012 & 2014); OMR, Mexico City (2013); and Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City (2011). He has also had work in group exhibitions at CAM Raleigh (2014); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2013); Ex Magazzini di San Cassian, Art Collateral Events, 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Herzlya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel (2013); Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2012); and Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (2010). His work is owned by public collections including Wattis Foundation, San Francisco; Perez Art Museum, Miami; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He lives and works in Mexico City.

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Artists: Akira Ikezoe, Alberto Rodríguez Collía y Andrea Mármol, Buró de Intervenciones Públicas, Elisabeth Wild, Federico Herrero, Felipe Mujica, Jessica Kairé, Jesús “Bubu” Negrón, Johanna Unzueta, Jorge De León, Melvin Laz, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, Regina José Galindo, Stefan Benchoam.

Tocar Madera
April 25, 2015
El Aserradero / Proyectos Ultravioleta
Guatemala City, Guatemala

After more than five and a half years and countless collaborations, exhibitions, presentations, excursions, concerts, workshops, lectures, derives, debates, talks, screenings, discussions, performances, bike rides, fairs, encounters and legendary parties, Proyectos Ultravioleta is moving to its new space in zone one of Guatemala City.

This first exhibition in our new home showcases the works of the 15 artists represented by the gallery. In order to mark the occasion, we invite everyone to join us, chase away the bad omens, commend ourselves to favourable luck, and touch wood.

Additionally, there will be amazing burgers by Querido Combo, finger licking Caribbean fusions by Morisoñando, and Guatemala’s finest coffee brewed by Rojocerezo.

Those arriving on their bikes can park inside our lot. Those who would prefer to come by car can park around the corner, on 11 ave (between 20 and 21st street) in front of Agrochina.

So please help us spread the word, and come celebrate with us!

Después de más de cinco años y medio, y un sin fin de colaboraciones, exposiciones, presentaciones, excursiones, conciertos, talleres, charlas, derivas, debates, lecturas, proyecciones, discusiones, performances, paseos en bici, ferias, encuentros y fiestas legendarias, Proyectos Ultravioleta se traslada a su nuevo espacio en la zona uno de la Ciudad de Guatemala.

Esta primera exposición en la nueva casa de UV presenta trabajos de los 15 artistas representados por la galería. Para celebrar dicha ocasión, los invitamos a todos para acompañarnos a ahuyentar los malos presagios, encomendarnos a la buena suerte y tocar madera.

Además, habrá deliciosas burgers a cargo de Querido Combo, comida caribeña de gran sazón por Morisoñando, y el mejor café del territorio guatemalteco con Rojocerezo.

Los que lleguen en bicicleta podrán estacionar adentro. Y los que prefieran el carro, pueden parquear en el estacionamiento de a la vuelta, sobre la 11 ave (entre la 20 y 21 calle) frente al Agrochina.

Así que rieguen la bola, y vengan a celebrar con nosotros!

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Artist: Richard Garet

META-residue: input, material, space
May 8-31, 2015
Studio 10
Brooklyn NY, USA

The title of the exhibition “Meta-residue: input, material, space” deals with the perception of time, its affects and reception of materiality and space, mediated through the idea of meta-residue identifying the essence of what once was but is no longer tangible. This phenomenon is all around us. Not only as content and evidence of life but also as the mechanics that filter into aesthetics through constructs that are created in response to the felt world.

Image: treating pictures like wire 2, 2015, mixed media, 12″ X 18″.

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Artist: Christian Camacho Reynoso

doble electrón
May 6, 2015
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

Solo exhibition by Christian Camacho Reynoso.

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Artist: Ivelisse Jimenez

Else-weres
April 9 – May 31, 2015
Diana Lowenstein Gallery
Miami, FL, USA

Solo show by artist Ivelisse Jimenez.

Image: Blind Enough #4, 2010, Mixed media on canvas, 54 x 48 in. (137.16 x 121.92 cm)

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Artists: Emilia Azcárate, Leyla Cárdenas, Danilo Dueñas, Bernardo Ortiz, Adolfo Bernal, Carlos Bunga, Feliza Bursztyn, Beatriz Eugenia Díaz, Fernando Fragateiro, Rosario López, Delcy Morelos, Aleex Rodríguez, Carlos Rojas, Luis Roldán, Rosemberg Sandoval, José Antonio Suárez Londoño and Icaro Zorbar.

Why Abstract Art? (¿Por qué el arte abstracto?)
May 7 – June 11, 2015
Casas Riegner
Bogotá, Colombia

Group show.

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Artist: Miguel Rothschild

Book presentation
May 1, 2015
Kuckei + Kuckei Gallery
Belin, Germany

On this occasion, the artist will present his new book, which is published by Hatje Cantz Verlag and show some of his work along with it.

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Artist: Aníbal Catalán

Campo Dinámico
April 17 – May 17, 2015
Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro
Querétaro, Mexico

Solo show by Aníbal Catalán.

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Artist: Marcolina Dipierro

…en dos
April 23 – May 25, 2015
Galería del Paseo
Lima, Peru

Me interesa profundizar en las posibilidades y potencialidades contenidas en el círculo y el triángulo; representar su infinitud formal, visual y perceptiva, estableciendo vínculos y diálogos de dirección, actitud, límites, volúmenes y replieges.

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Artists: Ananké Asseff, Juan Becú, Joaquín Boz, Sofía Bohtlingk, Dino Bruzzone, Elena Dahn, Bruno Dubner, Matías Duville, Julieta Escardó, Raúl Flores, Margarita García Faure, Lisa Giménez, Alberto Goldenstein, Max Gómez Canle, Sebastiám Gordín, Diego Gravinese, Silvia Gurfein, Silvana Lacarra, Estefanía Landesmann, Marcos López, Eduardo Médici, Emiliano Miliyo, Jorge Miño, Andrea Ostera, Esteban Pastorino, Oscar Pintor, Santiago Porter, Dalila Puzzovio, Res, Jorge Roiger, Rosa Chancho, Mariela Scafati, Pablo Suárez, Rosana Schoijett, Paula Senderowicz, Rosana Simonassi, Cecilia Szalkowicz, Mariano Vilela, Martín Weber, Pablo Ziccarello.

In Fraganti
Curated by Valeria González
April 11 – July 18, 2015
ArtexArte
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Proyecto que investiga la “y” que une y separa, de manera fluctuante, a la pintura y la fotografía, no tanto como disciplinas estables sino los espacios intermedios, dialógicos o conflictivos, en que los lenguajes se cruzan y engendran nuevas prácticas y pensamientos.

Se trata sobre todo de cruces de dispositivos, algunos de los cuales advienen en la desembocadura de largos procesos históricos.

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Artist: Macaparana

Música
April 27 – June 27, 2015
Galería Jorge Mara La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Una exposición para ver y oír. Esta muestra trata de una serie de más de 70 obras sobre cartón y papel inspiradas en la música. Hay en toda la obra de este artista una gran influencia musical. En este conjunto la correlación obra plástica y formas musicales es muy cercana y deliberada. Las obras de Música podrían considerarse casi partituras sin que exista una notación musical propiamente dicha. Existe una corriente de intérpretes y musicólogos que sostiene que una obra plástica – pintura, dibujo- puede ser interpretada por uno o varios instrumentos , improvisando libremente sobre las formas o las líneas de acuerdo a lo que estas sugieran al intérprete. El resultado, una vez traducido formalmente a música, puede ser vertido a una notación convencional e interpretado como cualquier partitura. Esto es lo que la flautista argentina Patricia Da Dalt ha hecho con un grupo de obras de Macaparana que forman parte de la muestra. Inspirada directamente por las obras, frente a ellas, la intérprete, sirviéndose de cuatro tipos de flautas distintas, ha “improvisado” una suite en cuatro partes, que da cuenta de lo que el espíritu, las formas y el color de estas obras le transmitían o sugerían. Esta llamada Suite Macaparana fue registrada en un CD, incluído en el catálogo editado con motivo de la exposición. Junto a esta composición, la flautista interpreta la obra del compositor japonés Toro Takemitsu, Itinerant, a la memoria de Isamu Noguchi, para flauta solista y el Trío Luminar su grabación de la Sonata para flauta, viola y arpa de Claude Debussy.

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Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen.

Trace
May 1 – June 27, 2015
Galerie Isabella Czarnowska
Berlin, Germany

The title “Trace” already conveys an impression of the character of the exhibition and the atmosphere it will create. The artists will moreover venture beyond the physical boundaries of the space and open it up for new and unknown dimensions. As a result, the exhibition will exert a seductive lure and provide aesthetic pleasure by receiving and integrating each of the forms on view. At the same time, it will arouse suspicion and a feeling of uncertainty about what else will appear. The line between the utilitarian function of the architectonic space and a fictional, non-utilitarian one is very fine, and sometimes it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

In the installation Frieze II, the wall looks as if it was being deliberately peeled away to expose an unknown source of light. Room II raises questions about the condition of historical memories and their contemporary character. A marble floor structure running across entire gallery seems to allude to the foundations of another building. Perhaps the form refers to a building of the past, now existing as no more than a trace? Or why not think of it as an announcement of possible future events?

The Cabinet, Credenza and Bedside Table form a series of objects distributed throughout the gallery. Each of them features the finest palisander veneer. If at first sight they look like elegant pieces of furniture, on closer inspection we discover that the objects are non-functional. What is more, they have been perforated with perfectly round holes which lead the gaze right through to the other side. This singular gesture not only opens the objects up to new dimensions, but also emphasizes their non-functional character all the more strongly. A literal act of perforation, well known from everyday situations, means nothing more than the end of validity, and turns the furniture into useless objects but beautiful sculptures.

Earlier works by Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen were presented in the exhibition “Caraota Von Moules” with Arturo Herrera at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2012); in their solo exhibition “Persiana” at the Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Mechelen, Belgium (2014); in “Landscape” in the Sala Juarez of the LARVA Laboratorio de Artes Veriedades, Guadalajara, Mexico, and in the show “In A Rhythmic Fashion” at Glyphotheque, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia (both 2015).

A catalogue entitled “What Now?” was published by the DISTANZ Verlag in conjunction with the first exhibition by Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen at the Galerie Isabella Czarnowska in 2013. The catalogue is available at the gallery as well as in bookstores worldwide.

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Artists: Mateo López and Bernardo Ortiz, among many more

Drawing Biennial 2015
Until April 30, 2015
Auction online: 16 – 30 April 2015
Drawing Room
London, UK

Drawing Biennial 2015, an exhibition organized by the Drawing Room in London, UK. Selected by Drawing Room directors Mary Doyle, Kate Macfarlane and Katharine Stout, each of the 252 participating artists was invited to make an original drawing in any medium on an A4 sheet of paper. Drawing Biennial 2015 culminates in an online auction that will run until April 30th. The sale of the works, all of them donated by the artists, will support the Drawing Room’s exhibition program.

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Artists: Miguel Andrade Valdez, Julieta Aranda, Kader Attia, Elena Bajo, Otto Berchem, Monika Bravo, Fernando Bryce, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Heman Chong, Elena Damiani, Marlon de Azambuja, Milagros de la Torre, Aleksandar Duravcevic, Nicole Franchy, Richard Garet, Kendell Geers, Pedro Gomez-Egaña, Radamés Juni Figueroa, Lucia Koch, Annette Lemieux, Jose Carlos Martinat, Jo Ractliffe, Rivka Rinn, Santiago Roose, Susan Siegel, DM Simons, Antonio Vega Macotela, Sergio Vega, and Zoé T. Vizcaíno.

THEOREM. You Simply Destroy the Image. I Always Had of Myself
Curated by Octavio Zaya
May 3 – August 1, 2015
Mana Contemporary
Miami, FL, USA

Several artists from far-flung locations such as Peru, Brazil, and Norway, are traveling to Mana to create their installations on-site. The artists address the hypothetical question ‘what if?’ – as inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 film Teorema – contemplating a world turned upside-down, where social tensions can be amplified to the point of poetic subversion, achieving possible transcendence.

Image: Miguel Andrade Valdez, Encofrado Construção III, 2015.

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Artist: Marco Maggi

Global Myopia II
May 9 – November 22, 2015
Uruguay Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Venice, Italy

Marco Maggi will represent Uruguay at the upcoming Venice Biennale, opening to the public on May 9 and on view through November 22, 2015. The Uruguayan pavilion is one of the 29 national pavilions located in the Giardini della Biennale. Marco Maggi’s drawings, sculptures and installations encode the world. Composed of linear patterns that suggest circuit boards, aerial views of impossible cities, genetic engineering or nervous systems, his drawings are a thesaurus of the infinitesimal and the undecipherable. Marco Maggi’s abstract language refers to the way information is processed in a global era, and his work challenges the notion of drawing itself. For the 56th Venice Biennale he will present Global Myopia II, a site-specific installation of paper, stickers and pencils on the inside of the pavilion, and a large floating sculpture on the outside.

Saying that the world is myopic sounds depreciative: a planet without perspective, moving forward without any clear sense of direction. Marco Maggi, on the contrary, claims and prescribes myopia as the extraordinary ability to see from very close. Nearsightedness allows one to focus carefully on invisible details, it challenges the acceleration and the abuse of long-distance relationships characteristic of our era. After a farsighted 20th century with solutions for everyone and forever, it is time to stimulate our empathy for the immediate and the insignificant.

In Global Myopia II, paper and pencil, the two basic elements of drawing, get separated and the act of drawing is split into two stages. A portable kit composed of 10,000 elements cut out of self-adhesive paper becomes an insignificant alphabet that the artist will fold and paste onto the walls during the three months preceding the biennale. The diminutive papers are disseminated or connected following the specific traffic rules and syntax dictated by any accumulation of sediments. The colonies of paper sticker on the walls enter in dialogue with a custom lighting track provided by Erco. Myriads of high-definition shadows and infinitesimal incandescent projections will aim to slow down the viewer. The only ambition of the project is to promote pauses and closeness.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1957, Marco Maggi lives and works in New Paltz, NY and Montevideo, Uruguay. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America in galleries, museums, and biennials. He is represented by Josée Bienvenu in New York. In 2013, he received the Premio Figari (Career Award). Selected exhibitions include Functional Desinformation, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Optimismo Radical, NC-arte, Bogota, Colombia (2011); New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930–2006, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Poetics of the Handmade, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2007); Fifth Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2004); VIII Havana Biennial, Cuba (2003); 25th Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2002); and Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001). Public collections include The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; The Drawing Center, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Cisneros Collection, New York; and Daros Foundation, Zurich.

The 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia is directed by Okwui Enwezor, curator, art critic and writer, and the Director of the Haus der Kunst, Munich. The Uruguayan Commissioner is artist Ricardo Pascale and the project is curated by Patricia Bentancur, Senior Curator and New Media Director at the Centro Cultural de España in Montevideo (CCE), a leading space for Iberoamerican art.

Image: Marco Maggi, Putin’s Pencils, 2014. Soviet era color pencils and bowstrings. Image courtesy of the artist and Josée Bienvenu Gallery.

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Artists: Mariella Agois, Alberto Borea, Jorge Cabieses, Casari & PPPP, Valentino Sibadon, Miguel Aguirre, Haroldo Higa, Edi Hirose, José Luis y José Carlos Martinat, Musuk Nolte, and Patrick Tschudi.

Señalamientos
Curator: Jorge Villacorta
April 23 – May 23, 2015
Lucía de la Puente Galería de Arte
Lima, Peru

Celebrating 20 years of the gallery. Group exhibition.

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Artist: José Dávila

Actos tectónicos de duda y deseo
February 27 – April 30, 2015
Travesía Cuatro
Madrid, Spain

Las piezas que conforman esta exposición remiten a las nociones de equilibrio y balance, las cuales son generadas en el momento de abandono en el que dos fuerzas que permanecían en conflicto, finalmente ceden. Este instante de aparente neutralidad es también la presencia simultánea de todas las posibilidades. El artista pretende extender esta condición de indeterminación aprovechando el conocimiento técnico, que en su uso común busca maximizar la eficacia de los materiales, Dávila en cambio, los convierte en entidades inútiles. Las herramientas estructurales son empleadas con fines meramente poéticos. La lucha interminable de lo arquitectónico en contra de los efectos de la gravedad es sintetizada a través del uso de materiales industriales, destinados para la construcción, para crear estos sistemas de fragilidad, que carecen de profundidad y han quedado recluidos a su extensión superficial; amenazados por la fractura y la interrupción de las relaciones de fuerza y las estructuras de tensión que los constituyen y les otorgan autonomía. Estas obras obligan a reconsiderar el significado de lo escultórico. Desafían la frontera que separa al contenido del contenedor, para efectuar una expansión espacial que modifica por completo la experiencia arquitectónica. Rosalind Krauss denomina lo anterior como el fenómeno propio de las estructuras axiomáticas, constituidas por la fusión de la arquitectura con la no-arquitectura. Lo anterior implica la introducción de formas ajenas que rechazan toda incorporación funcional, problematizando las obviedades del campo donde se ubican, para así reclamar una presencia propia. Las especificidades de los materiales llevan a cabo un desdoblamiento del espacio por medio de una serie de transparencias y reflejos. El carácter pictórico de los cinchos contrastando con las placas despliega un conjunto de líneas referenciales que ayudan a visualizar la delicada comunicación entre las superficies y sus correspondientes puntos de apoyo.

Dávila propone una exégesis de la tradición minimalista y de la historia del arte en general, recurriendo a una especie de lenguaje críptico reservado a la naturaleza de los objetos, que desafía la comprensión y las categorías de la mirada subjetiva. Las esculturas permanecen como gestos intermedios, entre la destrucción inminente y la permanencia. El trabajo de Dávila aborda la cuestión sobre los límites de los valores instrumentales mediante el uso de materiales comunes para crear esculturas, objetos e instalaciones. Con frecuencia, la naturaleza de estos materiales se acerca tanto a la construcción de la arquitectura como a la producción artística formal, que suscriben su trabajo a los principios acuñados por el Minimalismo y el Arte Povera. Dávila también ha manifestado un especial interés en el uso y ocupación del espacio, temas que han estado presentes a lo largo de toda su carrera.

Su obra ha sido expuesta en el Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo MUAC, Ciudad de México; Caixa Forum, Madrid; MoMA PS1, Nueva York; Kunstwerke, Berlín; San Diego Museum of Art; Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MAK, Viena, Fundación / Colección JUMEX, Ciudad de México; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Museu do Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo; The Moore Space, Miami; NICC, Antwerp, entre otras; y ha aparecido en publicaciones internacionales como Cream 3, ed. Phaidon, 100 Latin- American Artists, ed. Exit y Megastructures-Reloaded, ed. Hatje Cantz. Dávila ha recibido el apoyo de la Andy Warhol Foundation, la Kunstwerke residency en Berlín y el Premio Nacional para jóvenes artistas del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) en 2000. Además fue fundador de la Oficina para Proyectos de Arte (OPA), en Guadalajara, México.

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Artist: Iosu Aramburu

Demasiado pronto, demasiado tarde
Curated by Alba Colomo
April 15 – May 30, 2015
Centro Cultural Británico de San Juan de Lurigancho
Lima, Peru

Muestra individual de Iosu Aramburú (Perú)

La exposición se apropia de la mirada del novelista J. G. Ballard y hace un recorrido por el imaginario urbano de la Lima de mediados del siglo pasado. En la muestra, los edificios se diluyen hasta volverse ruinas o fantasmas y ser reclamados por su entorno.

El artista exhibirá fotografía, pintura, dibujo y una instalación interactiva en el jardín del centro de estudios.

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Artists: Richard Serra, Phyllida Barlow, Christian Jankowski, Nicolas Feldmeyer, Cipriano Martinez, Levi van Veluw, David Rickard, Livia Marin, Richard Schur, Liv Fontaine, Knopp Ferro.

Weight for the Showing
Curated by Paul Carey-Kent
April 23 – June 16, 2015
Maddox Arts
London, UK

Of the many competitors for our attention when we look at a work of art – meaning, narrative, form, colour, gesture, scale, sound, movement – its weight is not generally high in the list, heavy as much sculpture and some painting may be (Bram Bogart’s super-thick applications or Analia Saban’s container canvases come to mind). Indeed, although WEIGHT FOR THE SHOWING is themed around weight, all the works have other interesting agendas, most notably perhaps the frequency with which they skew logic and the zest with which they engage with art history.

Some artists playfully substitute the heavy for the light or vice versa: Gavin Turk’s bronze bin bags are well known, Andreas Lolis has made marble look very like card or polystyrene; Fishli & Weiss fashioned all manner of items out of polyurethane; and Sarah Sze recently made rocks out of photographs of rocks, which she showed alongside real boulders. Others have used surprisingly-weighted items, e.g. Andrew Palmer attaches rocks to paintings, and Aselm Kiefer fixes anything from soil to submarines to his canvases; Damien Hirst’s ping pong ball pieces might be the opposite end of that scale.

Such play is allowed here, but the show concentrates more on two other aspects: the relative weight of elements within or between works, which latter may be down to evident heaviness of mark, or else be a matter of ‘feeling’ heavy or light for no obvious literal reason; and the metaphorical association of weight with seriousness and being weighed down by troubles or history. There’s no neat division, but Barlow, Rickard, Schur, Ferro and Martinez are perhaps more in the first category; and Serra, Jankowski, Marin, Feldmeyer and Fontaine in the second.

Enough weight may also lead to collapse. Nietzsche worried about the possibility of Eternal Return, in which we’re doomed to repeat events for eternity, making existence a heavy burden, given the impossibility of escaping the cycle. Buddhism provides a potential way out of that by embracing the cycle, as does Milan Kundera when, assuming in contrast that such a cycle is impossible, he holds that ‘life which disappears once and for all, which does not return is without weight…and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime…means nothing’. Decisions are then ‘light’ – they do not tie us down – but meaningless and potentially empty. That isn’t entirely welcome either, hence the ‘the unbearable lightness of being’. A more pragmatic view would be that we’re in the space between the baggage of the what’s gone and the disintegration to come – but the interim phase may last a while yet, and we might as well enjoy it. Just so, there’s plenty of wit in these works, that raise interesting issues but also help visitors to enjoy a few minutes of the gap.

Image: Christian Jankowski, Heavy Weight History (Ronald Reagan), 2013 – b/w photograph on baryt paper, 140 x 186.8 cm, ed.1 of 5+2 ap

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Artists: Jimena Croceri, Dana Ferrari, Adriana Minoliti and Fernanda Laguna.

Monumento
March 20 – April 18, 2015
Mite Galería
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Images: Fernanda Laguna, “Sin título”, 2014, Mixed media / Adriana Minoliti, “Geometría tropical”, 2015, Acrylic on fabric.

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Artist: Omar Barquet

Omar Barquet, performance and solo show
April 10, 2015
Christinger De Mayo
Zürich, Switzerland

Solo show and performance by Omar Barquet

Image: Omar Barquet, Ghost Variations’ 3rd Fugue: The Shinning Sequence. Photo: Pablo Faccinetto

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Artists: Jorge Miño and Amadeo Azar.

Los restos del triunfo (Dos por tres)
Curated by Valeria González
April 8, 2015
Fundación Federico Jorge Klemm
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Religiosa o no, una revelación es un acontecimiento que excede a sí mismo, señalando una verdad que lo precede. Aún antes de saberlo ellos mismos, las obras de Jorge Miño y Amadeo Azar avanzaban en sintonías paralelas. La experiencia artística que hoy nos presentan, en la que han trabajado como un auténtico dúo, es una desembocadura que ilumina y resignifica sus propios pasados.

A nadie habrá escapado que ambos comparten el interés por los idiomas geométricos de las utopías constructivas que brillaron antes de la segunda guerra mundial. Pero se trata aún de un rasgo demasiado genérico, casi consustancial al arte posmoderno. Para captar algo de la singularidad de su espíritu es preciso aclarar lo que ellos no hacen. Miño y Azar no condescienden a la risa triste de la ironía. No trabajan con cadáveres de proyectos fracasados (“fracaso” puede decir aquel que espera de la utopía una respuesta útil) sino con un acervo de inquietudes formales e imaginarias aún inagotable.

Para remarcar sus coincidencias, pero sobre todo cómo un repertorio acotado y riguroso es capaz de combinatorias infinitas, los artistas dicen todo en blanco, negro y rojo. En una gran retícula donde las fotografías de Miño y las acuarelas de Azar se intercalan, vemos que los colores netos del diseño ruso se abren a la multiplicación de matices sutiles, creando un efecto casi atmosférico.

Hace años, su pasión por las vanguardias geométricas los llevó a tensar los límites del plano: Azar comenzó sus piezas de papel plegado y Miño a multiplicar los efectos ópticos de sus distorsiones fotográficas. Aquí, por primera vez, integran sus lenguajes en una secuencia de piezas realizadas en conjunto.

En un tercer y último paso, los artistas ponen en diálogo dos obras individuales de gran tamaño. Visto musicalmente, el dúo se presenta entonces al compás de tres partituras diferentes. En el primer mural, las dos voces al unísono se integran en una melodía continua. Como instrumentos afinados en una misma clave, la copia sobre papel de algodón acerca su registro al de la acuarela. Gradientes cromáticos y lumínicos modulan la textura de esta gran superficie como suaves diferenciales sonoros de timbres y alturas.

La secuencia de piezas en coautoría puede pensarse como una segunda partitura compuesta de breves arreglos contrapuntísticos a intervalos mayores. Fotografía y papel plegado se superponen como dos interpretaciones vocales en base a un mismo motivo musical.

Por último, asistimos a la alternancia de dos cantos solistas de largo aliento. En tanto los papeles plegados de Azar componen una línea melódica en degradé continuo, la fotografía de Miño acude a los contrastes. Ambos pulsan la geometría hacia la incertidumbre de los reflejos y las reverberaciones lumínicas.

Dos artistas que jamás fueron a Rusia pueden volver a hacer del duro abecedario del constructivismo una experiencia estética de inesperadas resonancias.

Image: Amadeo Azar, 72 acuarelas sobre papel plegados, 2015, 120 x 520 x 20 cm

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Artist: Ricardo Rendón

Límite posible
March 2 – April 18, 2015
Arroniz Arte Contemporáneo
Mexico City, Mexico

• Happenings

Artists: Abraham Cruzvillegas, André Cadere, Anri Sala, Artur Barrio, Channa Horwitz, Chris Burden, Cildo Meireles, Cinthia Marcelle, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, David Lamelas, Décio Noviello, Ernesto Neto, Gabriel Sierra, Hélio Oiticica, Hitoshi Nomura, Iran do Espírito Santo, Jac Leirner, Jorge Macchi, Jose Dávila, Juan Araujo, Kiyoji Otsuji, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Mauro Restiffe, Marcellvs L., Marcius Galan, Melanie Smith, Michael Smith, Pipilotti Rist, Raquel Garbelotti, Rivane Neuenschwander, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Tsuruko Yamazaki.

Do Objeto para o Mundo – Coleção Inhotim
Curated by Rodrigo Moura and Inês Grosso
April 2 – May 31, 2015
Itaú Cultural
São Paulo, Brazil

A mostra itinerante “Do Objeto para o Mundo – Coleção Inhotim”- primeira vez que parte do acervo do instituto deixa sua sede, em MG – chega a SP para ocupar três andares do Itaú Cultural. A obra “Seção Diagonal”, de Marcius Galan, instalada em Inhotim desde 2010, foi readequada para o espaço da exposição. Dividida em seis núcleos temáticos, a coletiva possibilita ao público conhecer como a arte neoconcreta influenciou decisivamente as técnicas contemporâneas.

Image: Marcius Galan, Seção Diagonal

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Artist: Iván Navarro

Jardins, Opening of new gardens at Baró
April 11 – May 23, 2015
Baró Jardins
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ao subverter conceitos de design, criando um minimalismo carregado de emoção, o artista chileno coloca em foco reflexões políticas e sociais originárias de sua experiência com o regime ditatorial chileno sob o qual cresceu. Mais do que trazer estas questões à luz do neon, Iván Navarro transporta o espectador a infinitos labirintos, onde o espelhos ecoam o que muitas vezes as vozes podem calar.

Image: Iván Navarro, Strike

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Artists:  Chris Coleman, Donato Sansone, Henrique Roscoe (VJ 1mpar), Hugo Arcier, Lucas Bambozzi, Luiz duVa, Matheus Leston, Mike Pelletier, Rick Silva, Ricardo Carioba, Richard Garet, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Santiago Ortiz, Semiconductor, Susi Sie, Transforma.

Adrenalina -a imagem em movimento no século XXI
Curator: Fernando Velazquez
March 14 – May 5, 2015
RedBull Station
Sao Paulo, Brazil

A adrenalina é um hormônio neurotransmissor que é descarregado no corpo em situações que demandam uma rápida resposta em termos cognitivos, comportamentais e fisiológicos. Ela aguça os sentidos e aumenta a capacidade do cérebro de processar informações, com o objetivo de reestabelecer o equilíbrio entre o ser e o meio.

Esta exposição apresenta um recorte do audiovisual nos dias de hoje, em que vivemos anestesiados pela imagem. Emprestar, no título da mostra, o nome desta substância é um modo de sugerir que ainda podemos ser desafiados e surpreendidos por imagens. 

Os trabalhos apresentados têm em comum a utilização de programação algorítmica e de artifícios generativos, ou seja, se utilizam de sistemas ou regras que permitem o aparecimento de soluções imprevistas. São obras que exploram os recursos narrativos e de linguagem do chamado tempo real, estratégia alternativa à edição convencional de natureza aristotélica.

O interessante neste conjunto de obras está na forma particular de olhar a realidade, as coisas e as pessoas, revelando estruturas e qualidades visíveis e invisíveis a partir de perspectivas que nos solicitam condicionamentos cognitivos específicos, além da abertura ao diálogo com imaginários pouco conhecidos.

Como nos lembra Steve Dietz, todo novo meio penetra as camadas da cultura deixando um legado estrutural de base. O novo meio da fotografia trouxe um outro entendimento da estética da pintura e contribuiu para consolidar culturalmente a conjunção tempo-espaço. O novo meio do vídeo traz uma nova compreensão da estética do cinema, e junto com a TV estabelece o assimilação da ideia de tempo real. O novo meio digital muda o entendimento da arte no sentido que desloca o interesse do comportamento da forma, para a forma dos comportamentos, destacando a potência da interatividade e dos comportamentos em rede. Dos campos eletromagnéticos que nos atravessam em tempo integral (e cujo real efeito sobre o nosso corpo ainda desconhecemos), ao corpo de dados que nos conforma (possível de ser processado e manipulado por algoritmos autônomos), vivemos tempos de reconfigurações sutis da ética, da estética, da política e do território – tópicos sobre os quais propomos refletir a partir deste heterogêneo grupo de obras.

Apoio: SONY

Image: Ricardo Carioba, Abra, 2009, still.

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Artist: G.T. Pellizzi

Before Completion
January 10 – February 14, 2015
Harmony Murphy Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The works in this exhibition are inspired by Hexagram 64 of the I Ching (Book of Changes), colloquially referred to as Before Completion. This section of the ancient augury Chinese text addresses the moment of clarity and illumination in the creative process that exists after a work is resolved, but before it is finished.

This exhibition will feature site specific wall drawings, sculptures, as well as interior and exterior light pieces. These works utilize the materials and vocabulary of buildings-in progress and construction sites, such as snap lines, plaster, plywood, etc., as metaphorical representations of the construction of any work of art. Referencing Flaubert, who famously said: “Books are not made like children but like pyramids.

G.T. Pellizzi was born in 1978 in Tlayacapan, Mexico. He studied philosophy at St. Johns College and graduated from The Channin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. From 2001-2011, Pellizzi co-founded and has been involved in various art collectives, including The Bruce High Quality Foundation, with whom he has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art, PS1 MoMA, Centre Pompidou, PAC Murcia, and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and various art galleries in New York, Zurich, Berlin and London. In the past year he has participated in exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Museo del Barrio in New York, the Biennial of the Americas in Denver, and at L&M. Gallery in Los Angeles. Pellizzi lives between New York and Mexico.

• Happenings

Artists: Basma Alsharif, Jordi Colomer, Patricia Esquivias, Emiliano Rocha Minter, Barbara T. Smith, Sergio De La Torre, and Clarissa Tossin.

In Search of an Exit
April 7 – May 3, 2105
Curated by the MA class of 2015: Lucia Fabio, Samantha Greggs, Daniela Lieja, Selene Preciado, Heber Rodriguez
Heritage Square Museum
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The works in the exhibition present situations where individuals or groups of people find themselves in a space and have to negotiate their existence within pre-established and external conditions. Inspired by Jean Paul Sartre’s 1944 play No Exit, the exhibition considers themes of time, existence, freedom, and collectivity through time-based work. The structure of a given environment is a pervasive yet ever-evolving stimulus of human behavior capable of catalyzing a spectrum of reactions, from cultural resistance to immersion. The works in this exhibition, a selection of video installations, sound works, and performances, address the adaptability of the human condition in response to external circumstances.

The exhibition will take place at the Heritage Square Museum—a living history museum featuring nineteenth-century buildings from Southern California—a choice of location that highlights the human impulse to preserve artifacts. As the characters in No Exit questioned the peculiarity of their surroundings (a Second Empire-style parlor room), the twenty-first-century artworks stimulate a similar assessment of the three Victorian-era houses into which they are placed. The unique setting additionally highlights the prevalence of the built environment and the effects of architecture as preoccupations for many of the artists in the exhibition.

• Happenings

Artists: Jane Benson, Alberto Borea, Ángel Delgado, Javier Téllez, Lan Tuazon, Jorge Wellesley.

Mobility and Its Discontents
March 6 – May 30, 2015
The 8th Floor
NY, NY, USA

The exhibition examines the dynamics of mobility and its physical, psychological, socio-economic, geographic, and political boundaries. Mobility and Its Discontents signals a shift in the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation’s mission, now focused on broadening public access to artistic and cultural activities in New York City. Featuring artists from Venezuela, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines, alongside two Cuban artists from the Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection, the show brings the Rubins’ dedication to contemporary Cuban art into conversation with a wider artistic community, reflecting the diversity of New York’s cultural life. The works in the exhibition convey experiences of separation, isolation, and distance, experienced on both a local and global scale, in sites such as the United States-Mexico border, New York City’s financial district, and Havana, Cuba. Collectively, they contribute to a dialogue about the barriers encountered in contemporary life, suggesting possibilities for transformation enabled by connectivity and increased access.

Image: Alberto Borea, “Wall Street”, 2013

• Happenings

Artist: Luis Roldán

Eidola
April 2 – May 16, 2015
Henrique Faria Fine Arts
NY, USA

A skull can be read as a ruin signifying the vanity of human existence, the inevitable transitory splendor of human life. Ruins are crumbles of our material world, abandoned fragments, hollowed out of the divine spirit that once animated them.

Images give us hope, that particular hope of accessing the world without limits. Images create a special bond with death, as if the birth of the image could both suppress and sustain life. Or even be exchanged for a life. The human skull, this faceless death mask, this skeletal residue with its empty stare that once animated a human face, is an image, an emblem, an allegorical representation of a history, a montage out of which is read, like a picture puzzle, the nature of human existence, its spirit. Yet it is also the figure of its greatest natural decay, the transformation of the body into corpse, and then, into dust.

But what is really remarkable of the skull as image is the effect it has on recognition. It looks like a figure with something missing; it is at once a body and its ghostly double. It is a cadaver, just as the French theorist Maurice Blanchot notes: “He is, I see this, perfectly like himself: he resembles himself. The cadaver is its own image”.

But all that isn’t so odd after all. Body and image are to resemble each other the same way a shape resembles its mold, emptiness resembles what surrounds it, or an observation or a thought translates into a painting or a sculpture.

Luis Roldán’s ever mutable urge to rescue ruinous objects from their fate by imposing upon them new destinies is, in truth, the task of all artists: that of embodying one’s observations. In the poem “Eidolon”, Walt Whitman suggests that the drive of human creativity is that of issuing eidola. In ancient Greek literature, an eidolon (plural: eidola) was an image, a double, a phantom, a ghostly apparition, a spirit-image of a living or dead person. For the Romans, the same type of spectrum was known as simulacra.

The gathered objects in Roldán’s new piece, Eidola, used to be hat molds. They were the volumes that shaped hollow felts into hats. They stood in the place of the head, like soulless wood brains —as the one Pinocchio must have had— constantly searching for another fragment to attach itself to, in pursuit of completeness.

Eidola is a legion of sculptures searching for idols and a band of paintings searching for corporeality. In other words, it’s an arrangement of elements that emphasize what is left of them, or, rather, what is missing. The sculptures and paintings organized in the exhibition space are fragments that invite us to continue completing, enlarging, augmenting, researching the myriad hypotheses that might justify their existence. But mostly, their purpose is to provoke our imagination, to make us creators of stories and narratives by suggesting an interplay between observation and materialization, surface and volume, void and being, possessions and desires.

Split surfaces, pieces in halves and fragments, invoke a certain fear that appears when we stand in front of an open body. It might be the fear not only of having to acknowledge the fragility of life, its brevity, but also the fear of probing and questioning the indivisibility of the human body. In Eidola, surfaces stop being the intangible frontier between interior and exterior. Roldán exposes the colorful fleshiness of the parts, and renders, as a visible residue, the delimitation among individuals.  These objects are fragments, as we are also fragments, constantly searching for an other who, even if not exact, will complement us, shape us, and make us whole.

Again, it is not about the independence of parts, but how they come together. Striping down the surfaces, opening a gap, creating a tension between paintings and sculptures, doesn’t come from a preoccupation with dissection that seeks to rescue some essence. On the contrary—and this is just an intuition—Roldán grants some sheen to these objects, covering their surfaces with brightness and color, creating new bonds and points of contact that will, in return, renew our gaze over mundane things.

Eidola is a response to constraints and a seizing of opportunities. Despite the use of found objects, Roldán’s representation of the external world becomes a much more complex thing. He shakes objects loose from their attachments and bestows new meanings upon them. Meanings that point toward absolute acts of poetic intuition, producing a text written with our own words, yet one which appears suddenly from a place beyond language.

For despite these attempts of interpretation, Eidola will remain a mystery, a resilient friction. These artworks will resist analysis and interpretation; they will not offer relief or closure. We will not be able to dismantle the mystery, at least not until we cash-in on their stubborn materiality. We cannot tear the mystery into pieces. Art invites and resists interpretation. This is what constitutes art and this is how it reveals the extent of our world yet to be encountered.

In fact, there is nothing to comprehend. The pleasure that derives from these objects comes not only from the beauty with which they have been invested, but also from their essential quality of being present, surrounding us, staying with us, completing us. Here is a traffic and an economy of properties: the object hides its essence, the essence hides in the attributes, but the attributes render visible the object in a grammar of intuition and anticipation, and above all, in a grammar of the encounter.

Perhaps, in a broader sense, we all depend on the images and thoughts that others have produced, what others have encountered for us. We have no easy way of distinguishing a genuine thought from those that have been borrowed or suggested by others. However, it is our good fortune to be able to enjoy them once we encounter them. As it is our fortune to continue imagining alternative realities, meanings.  Indeed, this is what a fragment calls for: to continue its creation, to invent its match, its double, to complete it.

Democritus did say that our attitudes and emotions give off eidola, but that they are too thin for us to detect them, except when we are asleep, as they enter our dreams.

Mariangela Méndez

Luis Roldán (Cali, Colombia, 1955) studied Art History at the École du Louvre (Paris), engraving at S.W. Hayter (Paris) and Architecture at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia). He has exhibited extensively at institutions internationally. A selection of solo shows include: Expiación, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá (2014); Presión y flujo, Galería Casas Reigner, Bogotá (2014); Mechanical Ventilation. Interactions with Willys de Castro and Other Voices, Henrique Faria, New York (2013 and 2011); Transparencias, Museum of Modern Art, Medellín (2011); Continua, Sicardi Gallery, Houston (2007); Acerca de las estructuras, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San José, Costa Rica (2006) and Permutantes, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (2005). Selected group shows include: the First Biennial of Cartagena, 2014; the Tenth Monterrey Biennial, 2012; the 53^rd Venice Biennale, Latin America Pavilion, 2009; and Dibujos, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires (2004). He has won numerous awards such as the Luis Caballero Award (Bogotá, 2001) and the National Award in Visual Arts (Colombia, 1996). His work is included in important collections such as Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Museo del Barrio and Deutsche Bank Collection, New York; FEMSA Collection, Monterrey; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami and the Museums of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Medellín. He lives and works both in New York City and Bogotá.

Image: Eidola (detail), 2015, Oil on wood, Dimensions variable.

• Happenings

Artist: Pia Camil

Frieze Projects 2015
New York, USA

Pia Camil has conceived a project that will function as a portable environment. Inspired by Hélio Oiticica’s Parangolé – a series of capes, flags and banners made to be worn as ‘habitable paintings’ – Camil’s project will consist of a series of wearable fabrics distributed freely to the fair’s visitors.

Camil’s pieces of fabric are designed to allow for various versatile uses including clothing – such as robes or ponchos – and more utilitarian functions – such as picnic blankets, table cloths and sheets. Disseminated within the context of the fair, Camil’s fabric pieces will require the direct participation of the viewers, quietly emphasizing one of the main characteristics of the experience of art fairs, where the act of looking at art is often as important as the act of looking at others and distinguishing oneself from them.

• Happenings

Artists: James Nares, Jenifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Felipe Águila.

Onomatoepopeyas, La re-significación del espacio a través del sonido
Curated by Iván Navarro
March 21 – April 21, 2015
Centro Cultural Matucana 100
Santiago, Chile

ONOMATOEPOPEYAS es la combinación de las palabras “onomatopeya” y “epopeya” para explorar cómo el sonido está representado en las narrativas “épicas” que estos trabajos contienen.

-“Street” de James Nares (video)

Esta es la pieza central de la exhibición. En septiembre de 2011, Nares- quien vive en New York desde 1974- grabó por 16 horas la gente de las calles de Manhattan desde un auto en movimiento usando una cámara de alta definición que generalmente se usa para grabar cosas que se mueven a alta velocidad (una bala o un colibrí). Luego Nares ralentizó este material y lo dejó en una hora de movimiento continuo y fijo, que musicalizó con una melodía de una guitarra de 12 cuerdas compuesta  e interpretada por su amigo Thurston Moore, co-fundador de la banda Sonic Youth.

-“Returnin g a Sound”de Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla  (video)

Este video fue hecho en Vieques, Puerto Rico, una isla usada durante 60 años por la milicia norteamericana y las fuerzas de la OTAN para ejercicios de bombardeo. Aquí se prepararon intervenciones militares como la de Vietnam, Corea, Bahía Cochinos, Los Balcanes, Somalía, Haití, Golfo Pérsico, Afganistán e Irak.

El movimiento nacional rebelde junto a una red internacional de apoyo, logró que se detuviera el bombardeo en mayo de 2002, además del retiro de las fuerzas militares norteamericanas de la isla, y el comienzo del proceso de desmilitarización y futuro desarrollo de la zona.

“Returning a sound” da cuenta de esta campaña de paz y justicia, y al mismo tiempo señala los posibles riesgos. El video se dirige no solo al paisaje geográfico sino al paisaje sonoro, que para los habitantes de la isla queda marcado por el recuerdo de los bombardeos. Siguen a Homar, un rebelde y activista, que cruza la isla desmilitarizada en una motocicleta que tiene una trompeta soldada al silenciador. Así, al aparato para reducir sonido se le cambia su sentido original para producir un estridente llamado de atención, que le da un nuevo panorama sonoro a áreas de la isla antes expuestas a las detonaciones.

-“Instrumento de Protesta” de Felipe Águila  (escultura)

Felipe Águila expuso hasta el 5 de enero su obra “Strumento di protesta- Opera Latinoamericana”, en la Galería Cívica de Arte Moderna y Contemporánea de Turín, en conmemoración del 69° aniversario de la liberación de Italia. El chileno Felipe Águila vuelve a la imposición del toque de queda durante la dictadura y al silencio quebrado durante las noches de protesta por el sonido de los “cacerolazos, que dialogaban de una casa a otra, de un barrio al otro de la ciudad”. El artista construye una verdadera batería, un instrumento musical donde las ollas son los tambores, las tapaderas son los platillos y las cucharas de madera son las baquetas.

Paralelamente abriremos Radetzky Loop, una instalación realizada por Iván Navarro en colaboración con el músico Atom™. Esta obra se sitúa en el campo de la estética de la resistencia, porque re-significa un neumático, regularmente utilizado para fines muy distintos a los de este proyecto. Por un lado, la rueda de camión de transporte de minerales como el cobre que cumple la importante función de trasladar el popularmente llamado “Sueldo de Chile” (que son las utilidades obtenidas por la empresa gubernamental CODELCO, provenientes de la venta de cobre). Y por otro lado, ironiza dicha función energética como una gran barricada para marchas y protestas callejeras, que resalta su dramatismo interrumpiendo flujos de tránsito peatonal y sonoro.

El neumático se transforma en una micro sala de escucha, donde el visitante se sumerge en un espacio industrial e íntimo, con fragmentos de sonidos de la popular marcha Radeztky. Los sonidos activan la memoria al poder militar, posiblemente grabada en el inconsciente colectivo social.

Lo anterior será acompañado de un concierto a cargo del músico Atom™.

Programa:

Inauguración Radetzky Loop  – IVÁN NAVARRO. 21 de marzo 2015

Intervención sonora  Atom™//Radetzky Loops Live -21 de marzo 2015, Teatro Principal Matucana 100

Exhibición:  21 de marzo al 21 de abril, Galería Concreta.

• Happenings

Artists: Milton Becerra, Esteban Blanco, Carola Bravo, Monika Bravo, Tania Candiani, Fernando Carabajal, Consuelo Castañeda, Othon Castañeda, Eduardo Costa, Juan Raúl Hoyos, Pablo León de la Barra, Gonzalo Lebrija, Alberto Lezaca, Gabriel de la Mora, Atelier Morales, Ronald Morán, Bernardo Olmos, Ernesto Oroza, Gamaliel Rodríguez, Rafiño, Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova, Mariasun Salgado, Sergio Vega, and Viviana Zargón.

Affective Architectures
Curated by Aluna Curatorial Collective
Closing reception March 28th, 2015
Show ran from December 6, 2014 – February 15, 2015
Aluna Art Foundation
Miami, FL, USA

Amidst the flood of banal images, what artworks created through an inter-subjective dialogue with the architecture or the spaces inhabited by artists, have the power to move us and remain in our memory? This question was the point of departure in Affective Architectures, an exhibition curated by Aluna Curatorial Collective (Adriana Herrera and Willy Castellanos), and presented with the collaboration of the Instituto Cultural de México in Miami. The opening will be on December 6 at the headquarters of Aluna Art Foundation and the show will run until February 15, 2015.

Twenty three artists from Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Spain display specular visions of the architectures that are, or were, mirrors of the failed dreams of modernism in the continent, but they also reveal the potential reserves of creativeness that often manifest themselves in the midst of chaos or necessity.

Walter Benjamin, who left the legacy of a perspective of the world around him that was as critical as it was poetic, used to say that architecture was the oldest of arts because the human need for shelter is timeless. And yet, immersed in the architectures that model our cities, we perceive them absentmindedly, without discovering to what extent they contain and alter the acts of our existence.

For Benjamin, criticism was a matter of “the right distance”. The works exhibited reflect an affective gaze on the cities inhabited on the border between the public and the private: they are re­counts of the steps that have been walked, testimonies of having got lost, but also of groping for a way out. Many images, going against the wish to “do” or build characteristic of modernism, reveal the wish to “undo” or “deconstruct”, and track the past and the present of large cities, posing questions about what may be possible.

Paraphrasing what Gerhard Ritcher termed “the question of position”, each of the participating artists approaches inhabited architectures based on a constant negotiation between closeness and distance. They observe, without indifference —from the closeness of affectivity, but also from the distant perspective of memory—, architectures that contain ‘life deposits’, stored memories of life experiences in spaces, which often fuse with social histories everywhere in the world.

Affective Architectures functions as a mirror reflecting our biographies within the failure of the grand narratives in Latin American and Caribbean cities, but also as a window into alternative passages: strategies of the imagination that may allow us to reinvent our ways of inhabiting the world.

About the Instituto Cultural de México en Miami (Mexican Cultural Institute in Miami): The Instituto Cultural de México in Miami (ICMM) projects the wealth and diversity of the millenary culture of that country in Southern Florida. In addition to fostering the acquisition of knowledge on Mexico’s history, literature, cinematography and dramatic arts, it assigns special relevance to the new artistic trends and generations that are successfully developing in Mexico and that, due to their acknowledged quality, have achieved a solid projection at the national and international level.

• Happenings

Artist: Camilo Guinot

La forma promiscua
March 12 – April 5, 2015
Centro Cultural Recoleta
Buenos Aires, Argentina

La propuesta del artista consiste en una instalación escultórica utilizando ramas de la poda pública. Guinot reúne, combina y tensiona la idea de producción humana y la de naturaleza. Asimismo involucra en la exposición las nociones de constructivismo austero, el antimonumento (escultura efímera), la sinergia, la ambigüedad temporal, además de aplicar la idea de lo promiscuo a la mezcla y la diversidad que subyace tanto en el proceso artístico como en el de la vida.
En el lenguaje del artista, la poda le otorga a las ramas el status de desecho. Las mismas son recolectadas y recontextualizadas formalmente en relación al entorno. Cada rama puede entenderse como patrón constructivo, y su vez como unidad de tiempo. Acumuladas y dispuestas en el espacio implican la traducción de tiempo a forma.

• Happenings

Artist: Amalia Pica

A∩B∩C∩A∩B∩C, a reading
Whitechapel Gallery
London, UK

The artist’s new immersive event centres on a projection of a film by Rafael Ortega, with actors narrating an abstract language of sounds, conceived by Amalia Pica.  The  film depicts a performance of Pica’s work A ∩ B ∩ C: a constellation of different configurations and intersections of shape and colour.  The performance continues the process of layering from the original work: from object, to performance, to film, returning again to performance.

• Happenings

Artist: Pedro Tyler

Extensa
March 24 – May 2, 2015
Sicardi Gallery
Houston, TX, USA

Pedro Tyler transforms metal rulers into installations that connect the sculptural object with the history of philosophy. The exhibition opens with a reception on Tuesday, March 24, from 6-8 pm with the artist.

Tyler looks to the intersections of philosophy and religion, sculpture and knowledge. “Extensa has to do with the idea of immensity,” he writes. With his installation Principio y Fin (Beginning and End), Tyler bends sections of metal measuring tapes, turning them into the symbol for infinity. Connecting each piece, the linked chain emerges from the wall and splits into several strands, which connect to the ceiling.

The installation and sculptures in Extensa continue the artist’s ongoing investigation of systems of measurement as metaphors for the immensity of the universe. The artist writes, “Making sculpture is providing matter with form, organizing the space in which we move. How then to make an inanimate body transmit thought and emotion? According to Descartes, body and thought are quite distinct. He maintains that there are only two things: the extended thing (bodies, measurable space) and the thinking thing (the immaterial, thoughts, ideas and intuition). And inside the thinking is perfection and infinity, that is, God. But if each body is infinite within itself, are we not saying, like Spinoza, that God is in everything?”

Image: Pedro Tyler, “Beginning and End”, 2014, Variable dimensions.

• Happenings

Artist: Danilo Dueñas

The painting fallen, and the collapse of Rome
March 18 – April 25, 2015
Galerie Thomas Schulte
Berlin, Germany

“The painting fallen, and the collapse of Rome“ is Dueñas’ second one person show with the gallery after succeeding impressively with his installation in the gallery’s Corner Space in 2012.

• Happenings

Artists: Kevin Appel, Carlos Bunga, Gianfranco Foschino, Veronika Kellndorfer, Lucia Koch.

Kaleidoscope: abstraction in architecture
March 21 – May 16, 2015
Christopher Grimes Gallery
Santa Monica, CA, USA

From its beginnings in the early 20^th century the legacy of abstraction is rooted in social and political utopias. Today, abstraction as an artistic strategy has reinvented itself for the 21^st century, and the fragmentation of form is a common denominator within the majority of the works featured in this exhibition. Kevin Appel’s (United States) paintings explore the relationship between physical space, architecture and the painted image. Using photographs as a ground on which to build his painting, he applies layers of paint that act as screens, compressing the perceived space between the built environment and nature. The act of looking through one element to another, or the blocking of one impenetrable layer by another and mediating our perception of nature and our encounter with the exterior world has become a signature of his painting. Appel’s work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.

While Appel’s approach to abstraction is to collide several planes of visual information, Veronika Kellndorfer (Germany) reveals the subjectivity of space and the ephemeral nature of seeing. Her photographs of the glass facades of modernist architectural landmarks are silkscreened onto large glass panels. The works conflate internal and external environments and invite the viewer to uniquely experience their own surroundings. Kellndorfer has recently completed a site-specific commission for the Architekturmuseum, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, where she is presenting large-scale works for the Lina Bo Bardi 100 survey show open through February 22nd. Her work is included in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA, Hammer Museum Los Angeles, CA, and Pier 24 in San Francisco, CA, in addition to several European institutions.

Lucia Koch (Brazil) challenges the viewer’s perception and experience of space using diverse tactics within architectural settings. In addition to a video and one of her large-scale photographs of the interior of a small coffee bag, Koch will present a wall structure made of aluminum and colored acrylic panels that filter natural light. Through planar interventions, the wall connects different spaces and environments. In 2016 Koch will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Happenings

Artists: Delia Cancela, Eduardo Costa, Ushio Shinohara, Keiichi Tanaami, as panelists for the talks.

International Pop
April 11–August 29, 2015
Curators: Darsie Alexander with Bartholomew Ryan
Walker Art Center
Minneapolis, MN, USA

International Pop, a groundbreaking historical survey featuring some 125 works from more than 13 countries on four continents that chronicles the global emergence and migration of Pop art from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Organized by the Walker and on view April 11 through August 29, International Pop will travel to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art through 2016.

Among the most broadly recognized phenomena of postwar art, Pop was strikingly nomadic,  spreading not only through Britain and the United States but also Japan, Latin America, and both Eastern and Western Europe. From its inception, Pop migrated across borders, seizing the power of mass media and communication to reach a new class of viewers and adherents who would be drawn to its dynamic attributes. Yet, as this exhibition reveals, distinct iterations of Pop were developing worldwide that alternatively celebrated, cannibalized, rejected, or transformed some of the presumed qualities of Pop advanced in the United States and Britain. While Pop emerged in reaction to the rise of a new consumerist and media age, it also emerged in specific socio-economic contexts that inflected its development and reception: from postwar Europe to the politically turbulent United States to the military regimes of Latin America to the postwar climate of Japan with lingering United States occupation to the restricted pop cultural palette of countries in East Central Europe.

Curated by Darsie Alexander with Bartholomew Ryan

Curatorial consultants: Erica Battle, Hiroko Ikegami, Godfre Leung, Luigia Lonardelli, Ed Halter, and María José Herrera

International Pop Cinema
The exhibition includes an ambitious dedicated in-gallery cinema program curated by Ed Halter of Light Industry, Brooklyn.

Opening day talks, April 11
Livecast on the Walker Channel

Introduction
Speaker: Darsie Alexander (lead curator, International Pop)

The Internationality of Pop
Panelists: Erica Battle (associate curator, Philadelphia Museum of Art), Dávid Fehér (associate curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), Hiroko Ikegami (associate professor, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies at Kobe University, Japan), and Christine Mehring (department chair and associate professor of art history, University of Chicago)
Moderator: Darsie Alexander

Argentine Pop and Its Dematerialization
Panelists: Delia Cancela (artist, Buenos Aires), Eduardo Costa (artist, Buenos Aires), and María José Herrera (director, Museum of Art, Tigre)
Moderator: Bartholomew Ryan

Tokyo Pop
Panelists: Hiroko Ikegami (associate professor, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan), Ushio Shinohara (artist, New York), and Keiichi Tanaami (artist, Tokyo)

Image: Antonio Dias, O meu retrato (My Portrait), 1966.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen

In A Rhythmic Fashion
March 4 – 27, 2015
The Croatian Academy of Arts Glypthotheque
Zagreb, Croatia

For their first exhibition in Zagreb, the Antwerp-based artist duo have devised P10, the tenth iteration of their P-series: modular veils or curtains made of identical Plexiglas elements, hooked together with s-brackets, that both divide, distort and reveal (possible) spaces. Their work, always devised according to site-specific considerations, shows how a regular exhibition location can be made to suggest limitless space that shimmers with depth and reflection.

extract of text by Kate Christina Mayne

• Happenings

Artists: Amadeo Azar, Daniel Barroca, Lea Cetera, Youmna Chlala, Onyedika Chuke, Alexandra Lerman, Harold Mendez, Marcelo Moscheta, and Ronny Quevedo.

Open Sessions: Drawings in Context/Field
March 7, 2015
Queens Museum
NY, USA

Encompassing practices in video, photography, drawing and sculpture, this exhibition is focused on the notion of ‘field/context’ as a political, historical, spatial, and technological construct.

In order to analyze contexts and fields artists utilize various modes of making. The artists presented do not attempt to resolve or locate their practices within any given mode of representation. Encompassing practices in video, sound, photography, drawing, performance and sculpture the works herein negotiate with spaces both ambiguous and direct.

The participating artists in Open Sessions: Drawings in Context/Field are members of the Open Sessions program at The Drawing Center, which fosters a dynamic, ever-evolving conversation with new drawing practices and practitioners, viewing drawing as an activity rather than a product. The exhibition is organized by Onyedika Chuke, a participant in Queens Museum’s Artist Studio Program and The Drawing Center’s Open Sessions participant.

Schedule of Events:

1-4pm: Video Screenings, in the Theater on 2nd Floor

4-7pm: Opening Reception, Community Partnership Gallery

Note: There will be a free shuttlebus making loops from under the Mets/Willets Point 7 Train Stop and the Museum from 4:30-7:40pm.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraene.

Landscape
February 1 – March 1, 2015
Café Benito / Sala Juárez
Guanajuato, Mexico

Image: courtesy of the artists and Hey Javier Mendez

• Happenings

Artists: Gabriel Acevedo Velarde, Bernadette Corporation, Emily Jacir, Ana Jotta, Judith Hopf, Adriana Lara, Amilcar Llontop, Andreas Slominski, Sturtevant, and Heimo Zobernig.

Your Lazy Eye
Curated by Antoine Henry Jonquères
February 27 – March 6, 2015
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima
Lima, Peru

OUR ONTOLOGY OF DARKNESS
IS FLOODED WITH DIGITAL LIGHT
Sturtevant
Exposure and camouflage are part of our instinct of survival. The animal kingdom does not lack of examples. Each species has a ritual of seduction in which dances and postures allow to compete and demonstrate who is the fittest for procreation. On the other hand, to fool predators and preys, a fish may appear as a stone, an owl as a tree trunk and a chameleon change color depending on its surroundings.

Since the beginning of the XXI century, digital technologies shed light on a large part of a previously anonymous population. The ability to identify, record, steal and share data increased the tension between institutions and individuals. Similar to a large spider web, the structure of networks needs to feed from the digital identities that remain trapped in it.

Like the conquest of America, the discovery of the new “Internet” continent reshapes human interactions. However, the idea of conquering the other becomes more complex when that other is ubiquitous.

At this threshold, the archaic structures of power and the most individual utopias have found a niche where to exist, but in this ambiguous terrain, this niche can also be a trap.

With this background in mind, this group exhibition wonders to what extent primitive instincts of survival such as hunting and socialization govern the actual hyper technological environment. Throughout the selected works we can observe that the difference between camouflage and exposure dissolves itself. Behind the masks, we can clearly see that the spectacle, multinationals and religions are part of the same system of power.

• Happenings

Artist: Emilio Chapela

New International Boundary Commission
March 6 – May 10, 2015
Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil
Mexico City, Mexico

The artistic proposal of Emilio Chapela has an interest in the mechanisms involved in human communication and how these processes impact society. Also questioned our relationship with various technological tools, such as books, libraries, the Internet and social networks.

Guillermo Santamarina, chief curator of the MACG, explained that aside from what those who view the works of Emilio Chapela may take away freely from the experience of approaching this anthological show, concerted between the Carrillo Gil Art Museum and the artist, certain lines of reflection may be highlighted that lay the foundation for the structure of the New International Boundary Commission, an organization established by Chapela himself, inspired by the nomenclature of the organism created in 1889 by the United States and Mexico in order to enforce international treaties regarding the lands and waters between these two nations.

A correspondence between gazes from either side of a linguistic portal, resolved through a dynamic of critical activism in response to simulations of referential urban order; the development of poetic inspections that lead to resistance, given the terminal conditions that run like shadows behind the nefarious policies that determine obtuse teaching methods, thus perpetuating inequality and social oppression; a conceptual network that refreshes the irrepressible halo of detournement (an artistic technique that consists of appropriating material from normative culture, the art world and consumer society and intervening it in order to divert its meaning); this New Boundary Commission also accredits another column of expression within the cosmos of Emilio Chapela, singularly articulating a complex of reflection in modern art history: art for art’s sake.

“No matter what vortices the observers of this new commission choose to focus on (and not to confine within borders) in order to gain comprehension of the linguistic complex explored by Emilio Chapela, this experience—plural, open and dynamic— finds its recapitulation unified on the scale of a single floor of the MACG, thus assimilating the articulation of a single entity. As in a home. As in a solitary planet, unique in the cosmos. It is constituted by units interconnected simply by curiosity and emotions. Perhaps like that which, whenever one takes a step, encounters the ground…hard, rough, dirty, and even foul at times. Ground, what it should be, what we have always believed it was. The surface that binds us to life. Essence. Meaning. The things that occur when you close your eyes and off in in the distance, distinguish a line. The Horizon, limitless” Santamarina declared

• Happenings

Artists: Iván Navarro and Ricardo Muñoz.

Feio
February 12, 2015
Sketch
Bogotá, Colombia

En la sala de proyectos se mostrará un atlas cartografiado del artista Iván Navarro. Este proyecto de dibujo llamado “FEO” surge a partir de su interés por la estética, la asimetría, el error, la rareza típicas de la individualidad humana. Esta exposición está acompañada por el lanzamiento de la publicación FEIO editada por La Silueta en el año 2014.

En la sala princcipal de la galería, Ricardo Muñon Izquierdo, mostrará obra sobre papel producida en los últimos cuatro años. A través de yuxtaposiciones absurdas de iconos del arte, con humor, cinismo, y deformación alegórica acentúa tensiones dialéctivas entre lo público y lo privado, lo culto y lo marginal.

• Happenings

Artist: Patrick Hamilton

Progreso / Progress
February 17 – April 4, 2015
Galeria Marta Cervera
Madrid, Spain

Solo exhibition by Patrick Hamilton

• Happenings

Artist: Richard Garet

ce.onl_0011
Live Recordings
Contour Editions
On line recordings

• Happenings

Artist: Fabián Burgos

Stay in Space
February 12 – April 4, 2015
Alejandra von Hartz Gallery
Miami, FL, USA

The graphic representation of the visible spectrum of light, shows us a line with 4 colors fused, in order: violet, blue, yellow and red. Upon multiplying the lines and assigning each one a color on a scale greater than 140 colors, creates a more energetic relationship with the space. The paintings of “Stay in Space” are composed of a 140 (approximately) color palette. These colors change their hues and tones as they are being prepared. On, or “in” this mesh of lines, a group of straight lines and diagonals are drawn that cut the gentle flow of colors, to build more hard geometric shapes. This contrast is again involved in space, but this time, registers it mentally.

These paintings are accompanied by others decidedly more concrete in their geometry (“Blue Spiral”, “Endless blue”, “That network”), which confirms the persistence of Burgos in working space in a sensitive and symbolic way: symbolic in terms of space as an optical game of “truth and falsehood”.

To this insistent work on the preparation and search for colors, Burgos adds their distribution on the surface of the canvas. Sometimes the method used is intuitive; other times, mathematical (application of rule of three on the square root), a simple mechanism that Burgos uses as a random instrument to switch longer fragments of colors with other shorter ones.

Through this means a reading of blocks and forms is established, which calls every viewer to interpret with his own subjectivity. One can see in that weave of colors: spectral shapes, numbers, letters, or any other interpretation that one gives the works, like a misty narrative. However, the contrast of forms and the permanence in space, is what really occupies Burgos.

Finally, Burgos expresses once again his identification with and admiration for some Latin America’s mid-20th century geometric artists. He involves himself with them and establishes a dialogue as of today, with the differences and particularities that the passing of time imposes. In “Stay in Space” he pays a tribute to the Ecuadorian artist Manuel Rendón (Despues de Rendon, 2014).

Fabian Burgos was born in Argentina in 1962, where he currently lives and works. He is a self-taught artist and participated in Atelier Felipe Noe (1987-85), Atelier Ahuva Szlimowicz (1988-1987) and Fundacion Antorchas Scolarship organized by Guillermo Kuitca (1993-91), all them in Buenos Aires. Selected Solo Exhibitions include: Instante Eterno. Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Buenos Aires (MACBA), 2014; Comiéndose a Raúl, Galería Vasari, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2013; Abstracta, Galería Dabbah Torrejón, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010, and Conferencia de Prensa, Galería Alejandra Von Hartz, Miami, USA, 2007. Selected group exhibitions are:Recovering Beauty: The 1990s in Buenos Aires. Blanton Museum of Art. Houston. Texas, 2011; Art First, Colección MACBA Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, Manantiales, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 2011; 4 Museos + 40 Obras. Muestra Itinerante de Colección MACBA; Arte en el Plata, Intervención artística sobre la fachada del Edificio del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina curated by Inés Katztenstein and Eva Grinstein, 2009; Geometrías dislocadas, Burgos, Door, Siquier, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela, 2009; All Boys, en el Rosa x 6, Rosa Galisteo Museum, Santa Fe, Argentina, 2009; Escuelismo. Arte argentino de los 90, MALBA Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009; Pintura Latinoamericana Contemporánea (in Guayaquil Coleccions), MAAC Museo Antropológico y de Arte Contemporáneo, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2008.

He is currently developing large commissioned murals for the SLS Hotel and Brickell Heights project to be completed in Miami in 2015.

• Happenings

Artist: Rodrigo Sassi

In Between
February 3 – 24, 2015 (London)
March 19 – April 18, 2015 (Paris)
MDM Gallery
London, UK and Paris, France

The fruit of a 6-month residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, In Between is Part One of Rodrigo Sassi’s first European solo exhibition: London 3 – 24 February and Paris 19 March – 18 April 2015 at MDM Gallery in partnership with Gallery Nosco | Frameless (London).

• Happenings

Artists: Mariella Agois, Miguel Aguirre, Ricardo Alcaide, Alberto Borea, Jorge Cabieses, Alberto Casari, Aldo Chaparro, Margarita Checa, César Cornejo, Dare Dovidjenko, Sandra Gamarra, Huanchaco, Billy Hare, Haroldo Higa, Edi Hirose, Fernando La Rosa, Nicolás Lamas, Julio Le Parc, Benjamín Moncloa, Vik Muniz, Musuk Nolte, Pedro Peschiera, Jorge Piqueras, Liliana Porter, Emilio Rodríguez Larraín, Valentino Sibadon, Pier Stockholm, José Tola, Adriana Tomatis, Patrick Tschudi, and Alice Wagner.

Divertimento
January 14 – February 6, 2015
Galeria Lucia de la Puente
Lima, Peru

Group show

Image: Alberto Borea, from the series American Deconstruction, 2015, Collage on canvas, 150 x 190 cm.

• Happenings

Artists: Audra Wolowiec, Brenna Murphy, Chris Woebken & Sascha Pohflepp, Ellie Irons, Erin Sexton, Genevieve Hoffman, Jess Rowland & Margaret Schedel & Kevin Yager, Melissa F. Clarke & Sue Ngo, Nanu Al-Hamad & Miriam Simun, Natalie Jeremijenko & xDesign Team, Phillip Stearns, Richard Garet and Trish Mackenzie.

Systematic Sampling
January 8 – 22, 2015
Stream Gallery
Brooklyn, NY, USA

Systematic Sampling examines how artists contend with emerging ecologies in a series of art works and performances situated on the continuum between “technology” and “nature,” often exploring this inextricable link. The diverse group of artists all share a proclivity for using research methods and information-parsing in their process towards meaning-making.

Some artists make use of existing scientific and technological systems in their processes, some question these systems, while others work in parallel, devising entirely new forms of ‘sampling’ to produce knowledge. What are the systems that artists are putting in place as they explore emerging ecologies? And what is the “data” that comes forth?

Systematic Sampling explores these questions with a collection of inventive art works that uncover hidden systems and emerging signs of life. A wide range of mediums are represented including sound, light, painting, video, installation and sculpture. Curated by Melissa F. Clarke and Miriam Simun.

Live performances will take place at both the opening and closing events.

Image: Brenna Murphy, “Embodied Entitiy”, 2013.

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Artist: Patrick Hamilton

Territorios Fronterizos / La fotografía mas allá de la imagen
November 18, 2014 – January 25, 2015
Centro Cultural Matucana
Santiago de Chile, Chile

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Artist: José Dávila

Premio de Arte Latinoamericano EFG-ArtNexus
EFG-ArtNexus, 2015

El mexicano José Dávila gana el Premio de Arte Latinoamericano EFG-ArtNexus.

Desde hace cuatro años, EFG Bank y ArtNexus organizan este premio de adquisición de una obra de un artista latinoamericano emergente, mediante un proceso de preselección en cinco ferias de arte contemporáneo de América Latina: ArtBo de Bogotá, SP-Arte de São Paulo, arteBA de Buenos Aires, ArtLima y Ch.ACO de Santiago de Chile.

Imagen: José Dávila, en la galería Travesía Cuatro, SP-Arte, 2014.

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Artists: Matisse, Mondrian, Schiele, Pollock, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Twombly, Kippenberger, Dumas, Maggi, and many more.

Embracing Modernism: Ten Years of Drawings Acquisitions
Curated by Isabelle Dervaux
February 13 – May 24, 2015
Morgan Library & Museum 
New York, USA

In 2005, the Morgan Library & Museum embarked on a new program of drawings acquisitions with the goal of bringing to the present a collection that was known for its Old Master and nineteenth-century holdings. During the ensuing decade the institution put together a formidable collection of modern and contemporary drawings, representing a wide range of artists and movements. Embracing Modernism: Ten Years of Drawings Acquisitions, opening February 13, features more than eighty works from the collection and explores the dynamic creativity that revolutionized the medium in our time. The exhibition runs through May 24.

Embracing Modernism includes work by artists from Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and Egon Schiele, to Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Susan Rothenberg, Martin Kippenberger, and Marlene Dumas. The exhibition is divided into five sections. Each focuses on a particular departure or shift in emphasis in modern drawing—such as the approach to the use of the line—that sets it apart from its antecedents. The exhibition is organized by Isabelle Dervaux, Acquavella Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings at the Morgan, who has led the museum in this area since 2005.

“The Morgan’s decision to collect modern and contemporary drawings underscores its belief that artists of our day are part of a long continuum that celebrates the primacy of the medium,” said Peggy Fogelman, Acting Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Embracing Modernism presents an extraordinary collection of works by some of our greatest artists. The Morgan is deeply grateful to the collectors and donors who helped build our collection over the last decade and make possible an exhibition such as this.”

Exhibition Sections

The Autonomy of the Line

An essential component of drawing from its origins, line took on a new role in the twentieth century as artists eschewed naturalistic representation. Liberated from its descriptive function— as the outline of an object or a figure—line achieved greater autonomy. Drawing became, in Paul Klee’s words, “an active line which moves freely; a walk for a walk’s sake, without aim.” The sheets by Matisse, Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Saul Steinberg in this section show them investigating the expressivity of the line, whether continuous or broken. During the 1960s and 1970s, artists such as Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin eliminated any remaining illusionistic function of a line on a ground with the adoption of the grid format, in which the line is a basic modular unit.

More recently, contemporary artists have used the line to visualize aspects of man’s relationship to the world in dense, labor-intensive drawings. Examples include Giuseppe Penone’s extension of a fingerprint into growth rings of an ancient tree, or Marco Maggi’s nod to the electronic age with an intricate network of nearly invisible incisions.

Gesture and Trace

Drawing as a gesture—the record of physical engagement—is central to twentieth-century expressionist tendencies. It reflects a conception of art as a direct, spontaneous experience as seen in the work of Cy Twombly, Michael Goldberg, and Joan Mitchell. But the gesture can also be more automatic, calling into question the traditional notion of the hand of the artist. The Surrealist Max Ernst was the first to explore the technique of frottage (rubbing) to create unexpected patterns intended to stimulate the viewer’s imagination. During the 1960s, the technique was revived in process drawing—drawing as the trace of an action independent from usual artistic practice—as in Robert Overby’s rubbing of his studio wall.

Contemporary artists’ fascination with the use of chance has led them to rely more and more on unconventional modes of drawing. Gavin Turk, for instance, produced his elegant Rosette by placing a sheet of paper in front of the exhaust pipe of his van before starting the engine.

High and Low

In the modern era, the interplay between art and popular culture considerably broadened the range of drawing styles available to artists. Inspired by commercial illustrations, comic books, graffiti, tattoos, and posters, artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Paschke, Red Grooms, and Martin Kippenberger gave their drawings a new kind of energy At the same time their work questioned the very nature of what constitutes “artistic” drawing as opposed to any other form of mark making.

The use of non-traditional art material was another way to bridge the gap between art and everyday life. Following the lead of the Cubists, who first introduced fragments of newspapers and labels in their papiers collés, Kurt Schwitters created collages from scraps of contemporary urban culture: ads, ticket stubs, candy wrappers, torn packaging. The practice has remained a vital form of expression to the present day as can be seen in the collage books of John Evans and the poignant compositions of Hannelore Baron.

Everyday Objects

Although the depiction of everyday objects has a long tradition in the genre of the still-life, the range of items deemed worthy of the artist’s attention has expanded in modern times, as attested by the cigarette-butt, ice cube, soup can, and portable electric heater in the drawings on view in this section by artists including Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist. Artists also explored new modes of representation, notably in compositions that favor odd cropping and extreme close-up, largely influenced by photography and film.

From Melancholia to Schizophrenia

Nowhere is the disruption of the academic tradition in modern art more visible than in portrait and figure drawings. Liberated by photography from the necessity to produce a likeness, and stimulated by psychoanalytic revelations about the complex inner life of individuals, artists set out to render emotions and mental states with unprecedented immediacy. Various formal means— fragmentation, distortion, exaggeration, awkward poses and cropping—were used to convey sensations and feelings, from the psychological tension of Walter Sickert’s bedroom scene to Anne-Marie Schneider’s vision of a schizophrenic bus passenger who imagines himself in the luggage rack.

Self-portraits offer particularly rich territory as artists used drawing to probe their most intimate psychological states and lay bare on paper their fears and anxiety. Examples in this section include work by Egon Schiele, Lucas Samaras, Philip Guston, and Maria Lassnig. Others, such as André Masson, Jackson Pollock, and Steve di Benedetto, relied on a range of visual metaphors—including the labyrinth and other intricate patterns—to conjure the workings of the unconscious.

Image: Marco Maggi, Too Close too Far, V, (Detail) 2001, Pencil on clay 36 x 24 inches.

• Happenings

Artist: Clarissa Tossin

Streamlined: Belterra, Amazônia / Alberta, Michigan
January 16 – April 26, 2015
MOLAA Project Room
Long Beach, CA, USA

In a video installation, Clarissa Tossin brings together two Ford Motor Company towns: Belterra, a rubber plantation village in the Brazilian Amazon Forest, and Alberta, a sawmill town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Built concurrently in 1935, each town provided, respectively, rubber and wood for the manufacturing of the Model T in the United States. The installation establishes a sense of place, highlighting how specific cultural characteristics inhabited and changed these equivalent, pre-planned towns.

• Happenings

Artist: Gabriel de la Mora

(f)
February 3, 2015
OMR Galeria
Mexico City, Mexico

Solo show by Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora

• Happenings

Artists: Luis Díaz, Diana de Solares, Darío Escobar, Sandra Monterroso, and Esvin Alarcón Lam.

“5 / RPM”. RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) is a unit related to a machine’s power and speed; in this case we have taken the concept to create an analogy, where the innovative vigor of the artists has been transformed into creative energy and whose works are the manifestation of that power and the movement of different generations of Guatemalans contemporary artists.

The temporal shift becomes real and the artists express it differently. Such that the RPM concept functions as a double bind. The works on display are based on various media that refer to the effect, the imprint, and the meaning of actual movement in reference to transportation or working machines, as well as the industrial materials with which they are built.

The gallery is pleased to invite for the first time the artist Luís Díaz, who has a long history with and a great influence on the Guatemalan artistic production. With “Documento” (Document) (1972), Díaz was a pioneer of conceptual art in Guatemala, placing a piece of cardboard on a manhole cover on which a spontaneous colography was performed within the street context in which it was found. Through colography, Díaz managed to capture the traces of passing cars, whose evidence is displayed in the exhibition in a circular composition inside a rectangle, tending to abstraction. With this gesture, Díaz documented an action whose testimony has managed to remain and transcend for over 40 years.

In “La demoledora” (Demolition woman) (2010) Sandra Monterroso documents an action using various modes of representation. The videoperformance shows the artist driving an industrial steamroller over tin pots of the kind used to cook tamales -objects associated with stereotypical domestic femininity. Violent, yet oddly liberating, Monterroso’s act equally rethinks and abolishes female roles. The installation is composed of the video documenting the action, the flattened pots, and several colographies made using a process akin to the one employed by Díaz in “Documento.” The colographies become an abstract representation of the action while affirming the dispossession of the pots’s original function.

In “ Construcción Geométrica # 5” (Geometric construction #5) (2014), one of the main interests of the artist Darío Escobar is brought into question. The wooden bodies of Guatemalan rural transport vehicles are the found objects that Escobar uses to pose questions regarding the Latin American geometric awareness. Through this aesthetic resource, the artist reflects on a modernity unconsciously acquired in nations that by definition do not meet the Western standard of having achieved homogeneous progress.
“Construcción Geométrica # 5” subtly critiques such national condition, yet it is not far from its industrial origin. As it hangs on the wall, the sculpture moves by means of hinges attached to its structure, allowing for the reconfiguration of the panels while adding some dynamism to the work.

Similarly, Lam Esvin Alarcón is known for resignifying objects within a national context, in this case, addressing public transportation, such as city buses. In “Desplazamiento No. 2” (Displacement No.2) (2014), the pieces achieve both chromatic and calculated harmony, turning into spontaneous geometric compositions as a result of careful formal conclusions.

The selection of materials chosen by the artist is motivated by his interest in evidencing the passage of time and the physical erosion caused by lived spaces. With this piece Alarcón Lam was invited to participate in the exhibition “Spatial Acts” at the Americas Society in New York last year.

Like Escobar, Diana de Solares recontextualizes the found object. In this instance an object that moves away from modernity and refers back to the pre-industrialization period. In “Existir en un estado de peligrosa distracción “ (Exist in a state of dangerous distraction) (2010-2014) Solares covers the plow with automotive paint, stripping it off of its agricultural functionality so that it can be perceived as a new object, a work of art suspended in time and space. As part of the composition, the artist added dried branches treated with curative wax to provide contrast between the materials; the juxtaposition between the organic and the industrial creates tension and highlights the fragility of the plow’s elements, alluding to the object’s temporality.

Due to her intuitive processes and attention to material combinations, Solares seeks to preserve a dose of mystery and enigma allowing the viewer to openly interpret her works. Such works become meaningful to talk about the human condition, related to the evolutionary and industrial development, physical and conceptual movement, and different ways to approach it, which proves the strength of the national creative power.

 

“5 / RPM” RPM. (Revoluciones por minuto) es una unidad que se relaciona con la potencia y velocidad del desplazamiento de una máquina; en este caso se ha retomado el concepto para hacer una analogía, donde la energía innovadora de los artistas se ha trasformado en energía creadora y cuyas obras se vuelven la manifestación de la potencia y el desplazamiento de diferentes generaciones de artistas contemporáneos guatemaltecos.

Este desplazamiento temporal se convierte en desplazamiento real y los artistas la representan de diferentes formas. De manera que el concepto de RPM funciona doblemente como aglutinante. Las obras en la exhibición se basan en medios heterogéneos para referirse al efecto, a la huella y al significado de desplazamiento real, en este caso aludiendo a los efectos de las máquinas de transporte o trabajo, al igual que a los materiales de los que son construidos industrialmente.

La galería tiene el placer de invitar por primera vez al artista Luis Díaz, quien goza de una extensa trayectoria y de gran influencia en la producción artística guatemalteca. Con “Documento” (1972), Díaz fue un pionero del arte conceptual en Guatemala, al colocar un pedazo de cartón sobre una tapa de alcantarilla, sobre la cual realizó una colografía espontánea, a la merced del contexto vial en que se encontró. Por medio de la colografía, Díaz logró captar la huella de la fuerza y del paso de los automóviles, cuya evidencia es representada en una composición circular adentro de un rectángulo, tendiendo a la abstracción. Con este gesto, Díaz documentó una acción cuyo testimonio ha logrado permanecer y trascender por más de 40 años.

En “La Demoledora” (2010) Sandra Monterroso documenta una acción utilizando diferentes representaciones. El gesto de Monterroso de repensar y abolir los roles femeninos de una manera violenta pero al mismo tiempo liberadora, al accionar contra ollas de hojalata para hacer tamales, objetos asociados al estereotipo de la feminidad doméstica, es presentado en diversos medios. El videoperformance muestra a la artista conduciendo una aplanadora industrial sobre las ollas, la instalación es conformada por las ollas aplanadas que luego las transfiere gráficamente en colografías, dónde la huella del objeto agredido es plasmado sobre papel, al igual que Diaz en “Documento” (1972), convirtiéndose en una representación abstracta de la acción y afirmando el despojo de su significado original.

En “Construcción Geométrica # 5” (2014), uno de los intereses principales del artista Darío Escobar se pone en cuestión. Las carrocerías de madera de vehículos de transporte rural guatemaltecos son el objeto encontrado en el que Escobar se basa para poner en cuestión la concientización geométrica latinoamericana. Por medio de este recurso estético, el artista reflexiona acerca de una modernidad adquirida desapercibidamente en naciones que por definición no cumplen con los estándares occidentales de haber alcanzado un progreso homogéneo, de tal manera que la obra tiene connotaciones críticas sobre una condición nacional. Al mismo tiempo la obra no se aleja de su origen industrial y conserva movimiento, ya que aunque se adhiera a la pared, las bisagras colocadas en la estructura permiten la reconfiguración de los paneles, lo cuál la vuelve dinámica.

De modo similar, Esvin Alarcón Lam se caracteriza por reconfigurar objetos pertenecientes al contexto nacional, en este caso, ligados al transporte público, como lo son los autobuses urbanos. En “Desplazamiento No. 2” (2014), como producto de un cuidado juicio formal, las piezas demuestran una gran armonía cromática y calculada, volviéndose composiciones geométricas espontáneas. La decisión del material elegido por el artista se origina por su interés en mostrar el paso del tiempo y las erosiones físicas causadas por el espacio habitado. Con esta pieza Alarcón Lam fue invitado a participar en la exhibición “Spatial Acts” en Americas Society en Nueva York el año pasado.

Diana de Solares, al igual que Escobar, recontextualiza el objeto encontrado, en este caso un objeto que se aleja de la modernidad y alude a la pre-industrialización. En “Existir en un estado de peligrosa distracción”
(2010-2014) al pintarlo con pintura automotriz, de Solares despoja al arado de su funcionalidad agrícola para que pueda ser percibido como un nuevo objeto, una obra de arte suspendida en tiempo y espacio.

Tales obras se vuelven significativas por hablar de una condición humana, relacionada con el desarrollo evolutivo e industrial, el desplazamiento físico y conceptual y las diferentes maneras de abordarlo, lo cual viene a probar la fuerza-potencia creadora nacional.

  

As part of the gallery’s agenda in 2015, the first Project Room opens with a dialogue between Patrick Hamilton and Alejandro Almanza Pereda, along with the exhibition “5  RPM” on Thursday January 29.

Hamilton ‘s work focuses on the processes of urban “cosmetization” that took place in Santiago de Chile after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), during which many Modernist buildings were constructed. Using the technique of collage, Hamilton intervenes images of several buildings in the city’s new financial district with adhesive paper that imitates marble and precious woods textures, to cover up and give new meaning to the local architecture. “Proyectos de arquitecturas revestidas para la Ciudad de Santiago” (Architectural projects re-covered for the City of Santiago, 2008-2009) the artist proposes a social critique that denounces the deception caused ​​by the powerful economic sector to the Chilean people.

In the piece “Balance No. 3, Ruca” (2013) Hamilton presents a picture of a still life—a pictorial composition of inanimate objects—, which appears to be real when reproduced photographically at actual scale. The decision to use specific objects like a postcard, two chains, and a rectangle of red acetate, comes from the story that each object holds but that the artist does not reveal. Hamilton implements multiple planes with objects to build a contemporary still life to add to its fragile balance.

In contrast, the sculpture of Alejandro Almanza “Sticks & Stones No. 4” (Palos y piedras, 2014) takes up objects in diverse make up and meaning and places them in a tense and unorthodox composition. Almanza relates a wooden table and a resin bust, acquired in the flea markets, with fluorescent light tubes, tubes, stones, and what appears to be a burnt stick—objects found in the country where he creates the work. The sculpture becomes a constellation of places, memories, and stories that talk of a temporal and spatial condition. “Sticks & Stones” is the title of several popular songs; however, its origin comes from a nursery rhyme that expresses the desire not to be hurt by insults even when sticks and stones may cause one physical pain.

Winning an honorable mention at the XVI Biennial of Photography in 2014 at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, “The Less Things Change, the Less They Stay the Same” (Entre menos cambian las cosas, menos siguen iguales, 2014) documents the deconstruction of a metal bookshelf. A formal exercise that begins when a shelf is placed vertically resulting in endless variations, the shelf, no longer a utilitarian object, becomes a sculpture. The title of the work is a reversal of the well-known French epigram plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same) implying that at a deep level, changes do not affect reality

Almanza, like Hamilton, focuses on the object, the material, and their inherent history and in the way they are intervened by the artist so that they retain their original meaning while adding a new one.

 

Como parte de la agenda de la galería para el 2015, se inaugura el primer Project Room con un diálogo entre Patrick Hamilton y Alejandro Almanza Pereda, junto con la exhibición “5  RPM” el día jueves 29 de enero.

La obra de Hamilton se centra en los procesos de “cosmetización” urbana que ocurrieron en Santiago de Chile después de la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), periodo durante el cual se construyeron muchos edificios de estilo modernista. Empleando la técnica del collage, Hamilton interviene las imágenes de varios edificios del nuevo barrio financiero citadino con papel adhesivo que simula texturas de mármol y maderas preciosas, recubriendo, o maquillando por decir así, la arquitectura local para conferirle un nuevo significado. En “Proyectos de arquitecturas revestidas para la Ciudad de Santiago” (2008-2009), el artista propone una crítica social que denuncia el engaño efectuado por el poderoso sector económico al pueblo chileno

En la pieza “Equilibrio No. 3, Ruca” (2013) Hamilton presenta la fotografía de un bodegón—composición pictórica de objetos inanimados—que simula ser real al reproducirlo en escala natural. La decisión de utilizar objetos específicos como una postal, dos cadenas y un rectángulo de acetato rojo, proviene de la historia que retiene cada uno de ellos y que el artista no revela. Hamilton implementa múltiples planos con los objetos que construyen el bodegón contemporáneo en sí sumándose a su frágil equilibrio

En contraste, la escultura de Alejandro Almanza “Sticks & Stones  No. 4” (Palos y piedras, 2014) retoma objetos variados en construcción y significado y los coloca en una composición heterodoxa en tensión. Almanza relaciona una mesa de madera y un busto de resina, adquiridos en los mercados de segunda mano, con tubos de luz flourecente, tubos, piedras y lo que parece ser un palo quemado, objetos que incorpora a la obra generalmente del país dónde la realiza. La escultura se vuelve una constelación de lugares, memorias e historias que habla de una condición temporal y espacial. “Sticks & Stones” es el título de varias canciones populares pero su origen proviene de una rima infantil que expresa el deseo de no dejarse herir por los insultos aun cuando los palos y las piedras le puedan causar dolor físico.

Ganadora de una mención honorífica en la  XVI Bienal de Fotografía del 2014 en el Centro de la Imagen en México D.F., “The Less Things Change, the Less They Stay the Same” (Entre menos cambian las cosas, menos siguen iguales) documenta la deconstrucción de una estantería metálica. Ejercicio formal que empieza cuando un entrepaño se coloca verticalmente dando lugar a sin fin de variaciones, la estantería deja de ser objeto utilitario para convertirse en una escultura. El título de la obra es una inversión del popular epigrama francés plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (entre más cambian las cosas, más siguen iguales) dando a entender que a un nivel profundo los cambios no afectan la realidad.

Almanza, al igual que Hamilton, se centra en el objeto, el material y su historia inherente y en la manera que al intervenir en ellos, retienen su significado original pero también adquieren otro.

 Images: Exhibition view, Courtesy of The 9.99 Gallery, Guatemala.

 

• Happenings

Artist: Aníbal Catalán

untitled unit until the lit let the litter
February 7 – March 28, 2015
Yautepec Galería
Mexico City, Mexico

Solo exhibition by Mexican artist Aníbal Catalán.

• Happenings

Artists: Kader Attia, Francis Alÿs, Darío Escobar, Alberto Baraya, Albano Afonso, Matías Duville, Patrick Hamilton, Carlos Garaicoa, Cinthia Marcelle e Tiago Mata Machado, Moris, Pedro Alonso & Hugo Palmarola, Sandra Cinto, and Santiago Sierra.

Beleza?
January 24 – March 29, 2015
Curated by Pamela Prado
Centro Cultural Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Beleza? – com sinal de interrogação – é uma expressão brasileira que pergunta se por acaso tudo está bem. Assim, parece relançar a beleza – conceito extinto no discurso da arte – para outro lado, para o da preocupação dos artistas com o estado do mundo contemporâneo, a globalização e a crise do modelo econômico imperante. Beleza? reúne obras que parecem formular esta mesma pergunta: está tudo bem? Em distintos formatos e estratégias, dão visibilidade e reagem às transformações e contradições próprias do desgaste dos sistemas políticos e econômicos que se chocam contra as pessoas (e suas relações sociais), as paisagens (e as definições territoriais) e os países (e suas demarcações geopolíticas).

• Happenings

Artists: Ana Bidart, Jonathan Callan, Beth Campbell, Martí Cormand, Elena Del Rivero, Marco Maggi, Stefana McClure, Lauren Seiden, Sérgio Sister, John Sparagana, and Julianne Swartz.

The Suspended Line
January 10 – February 14, 2015
Josée Bienvenu Gallery
New York, NY, USA

The Suspended Line includes a series of intense tensions and ethereal suspensions: thoughts suspended in submerged books, knitted music sheets, perforated porcelain towels and socks, gold leaf constellations, fatigued newsprint, disjointed bricks: the works in the exhibition challenge the division between two and three dimensions and Newton’s law of universal gravitation.

Ana Bidart’s work is concerned with the possibilities and impossibilities of drawing, in space and across time. She explores nomadic and hyperactive art forms by bringing to life found objects: the formally exquisite yet intrinsically disposable or the materially precious but casually discarded. With Disappointment she reconstitutes meaning in potential interactions between two found objects. Born in Montevideo in 1985, she lives and works in Mexico DF.

Jonathan Callan explores the relationship of disembodied knowledge to embodied experience.  The books that form the footprint of Range are forever held in sedimentary layers that will never be opened. Knowledge is often thought to precipitate down through history and accumulate as the sum of many human additions, but here the plaster, like snow, sprinkles down in mountain peaks denying access to the books under the weight that covers them. Born in Manchester in 1961, he lives and works in London.

Beth Campbell creates works that challenge the notion of a physical world beyond our perception. Drawing upon philosophy, phenomenology and psychology, Campbell choreographs space, crafts uncanny objects, and maps thought. In Campbell’s installations and recent sculpture, what appears at first glance to be a facsimile of the everyday will reveal startling complexity: forms repeat and stutter, interiority is externalized and the familiar becomes strange. Born in 1971 in Illinois, she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Martí Cormand’s work is a testimony to the degradation of certainty. For the past two years, he has been investigating the notion of conviction by observing and rendering iconic works of the conceptual art movement  “When no one has too many certitudes any more, processes become essential. I have nothing urgent to communicate, no absolute convictions. I investigate the certainties that others had in the 1960s and 1970s. My favorite subject is the study of conviction” (Martí Cormand).  Born in Spain in 1970, he lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Elena del Rivero’s works are rooted in estrangement and recollection. Work and daily routine often intermingle in her oeuvre to become one. In most of del Rivero’s work, delicacy and a sense of loving attention coexist with a feeling of neglect and abandonment. In Wound, a hint to Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale, the punctured 24k gold leafed paper surface, bears the tool of its making with a needle and a thread, left over hanging in the center of the work. Born in Valencia, Spain in 1948, she has been living in New York for the last 30 years.

Marco Maggi’s drawings and sculptures encode the world. Composed of linear patterns that suggest circuit boards, aerial views of impossible cities, genetic engineering or nervous systems, his drawings are a thesaurus of the infinitesimal and the undecipherable. Marco Maggi’s abstract language refers to the way information is processed in a global era. Marco Maggi divides the act of drawing.  Born in Montevideo in 1957, he lives and works in New York and will represent Uruguay at The 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia this year.

Distillation of time and obliteration of information characterize Stefana McClure’s drawings and sculptures. All of her work involves translation, transposition and reconstruction as music is changed into text, and text is turned into image. The Planets (op. 32), is a spectacular symphonic suite scored for large orchestral forces and a wordless chorus, written by Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1916. The 192 page score has been sliced and rejoined as continuous lengths of paper yarn and each of the seven movements have been knitted back together again. McClure unveils and reveals the visual fabric of The Planets (op. 32): drawings to a symphonic suite by Gustav Holst as she translates and transposes the synesthetic structure that connects music and image. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, she lives and works in New York.

Lauren Seiden’s work explores the essential elements of process and materiality through an intuitive and intimate layering of graphite, breaking down the surface and transforming the paper into a physical, textural and structural form, further expanding upon the notion of drawing as painting and painting as sculpture.  The act of folding strengthens the structure while weakening the surface allowing for necessary manipulation of the material in order to maintain stability. These dualities of strength and fragility are encapsulated within a process that, like the work itself, strikes a balance between the internal and external. Born in 1981, she lives and works in New York.

Sergío Sister’s work stands at the edge between painting and sculpture. The Ripas, ladrillos, pontaletes appropriate the names of the manufactured products from which they are derived. Sergío Sister’s work relates to the US tradition of minimalism and to the Neo-Concrete movement of the 1960’s in Brazil. Many bridges can be drawn between Sister’s attempts to incorporate three-dimensional space and Mira Schendel’s Sarrafos or Willys de Castro’s Objectos Activos. Made of wooden beams dressed in canvas, Sisters ladrillos investigate surface and depth through subtle color dislocations. Born in São Paulo in 1948, he lives and works in São Paulo.

For more than a decade, John Sparagana has been working with found magazine images as his primary material.  His work has developed into a full-fledged investigation into the way information is presented and disseminated visually within contemporary culture. Born in 1958 in Rochester, New York, he lives and works in Houston and Chicago.

With lightness and gravity, Julianne Swartz places equal importance upon negative space, ambient sound, interruptions of sculptural line, and the interface between outside and inside. Her work encourages a quizzical reconsideration of our relationship to our body, to each other and to our surroundings. Lean, a steel rod defies reason as it leans towards a wall but doesn’t touch it, pushing the limits of physical gravity very literally, while exploring gravity metaphorically, in reference to the limitations, fragility and endurance of the body, and the weight of human relationships. Born in Phoenix, AZ in 1967, she lives and works in Kingston, New York.

Image: Elena Del Rivero, Wound, 2014, 24k gold leaf on punctured abaca paper, needle, thread, 11.75 x 11.75 inches

• Happenings

Artists: Abot Allievi, Arnaiz Dipierro, Grilo Hlito, Kirin, Macaparana, Lucía Mara, Fabio Miniotti, Fidel Sclavo, Eduardo Stupía, Ana Sacerdote.

Déjà Vu
November 17, 2014 – March 6, 2015
Galería Jorge Mara La Ruche
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Selección de obra de artistas de la galería.

• Happenings

Artists: Alexander Apóstol and Adán Vallecillo.

Geometría, Acción y Souvenirs del Discurso Insurgente (Geometry, Action and Souvenirs of the Insurgent Discourse)
Proyecto Fachada (Façade Project) 
December 18, 2014–March 15, 2015
Proyecto Siqueiros: Sala de Arte Público
Mexico City, Mexico

The new exhibitions at the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros are centered on a dialogue regarding the leftist political positions that defined part of the strategies of the Modern Art movement in Mexico. Departing from the analysis of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s texts, Alexander Apóstol (b. 1969, Caracas) generates an interdisciplinary collective-practice in open conversation with science—specifically mathematics. His aim is to find possible representation stages that can displace Siqueiros’s writing towards a scientific codification; once deconstructed, it will imply the areas of music, dance, drawing and documentation as catalyst and witness of this research.

Geometría, Acción y Souvenirs del Discurso Insurgente (Geometry, Action and Souvenirs of the Insurgent Discourse) is the title with which Apóstol takes stand amongst Marxist discourses in Latin America; underlining political notions and the definite serial-character it attained on certain historical moments. His research departs from four texts written by Siqueiros: “Manifiesto del Sindicato de obreros, técnicos, pintores y escultores,” 1924; (Manifest of the Workers Union, Painters and Sculptors, 1924); “De tal generador, tal voltaje,” 1933 (Such Generator, Such Voltage, 1933); “En la guerra, arte de guerra,” 1943 (In War, Art of War, 1943); “Hacia la revolución técnica de la pintura,” 1932 (Towards the Technical Revolution in Painting, 1932)—texts where the muralist spoke about the political responsibility of artistic creation and the construction of a new art.

For Apóstol, the replica of these ideological ideas has been a constant in the region—traveling while shaped as assertive policies in servile idealization or absurd parody. Being so, his work is located in this path, breaking down and codifying Siqueiros’s political speech using science-based mechanisms of translation, in pursuit of returning it to representation stages in art.

The interest upon implying science in the translation of ideological-texts is a continuity of the “Absolute”—postulate that defined the inherited “Soviet ways of thinking” in those years. Departing from these four essays, information derives in theorems associated with ideological processes regarding four gnoseological and operative categories: Science, Faith, Politics and Economy. Every codification resolves in a mathematical absolute law, where not only its numerical synthesis rests, but its capacity to bear mechanical reproduction.

Parting from this process, the numbers are returned to the field of representation, where a group of high school students will attempt to interpret them via drawing—geometrical designs that Apó