Abstraction in Action Paula de Solminihac: Los nombres Secretos https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/paula-de-solminihac-los-nombres-secretos/

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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.

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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.

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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.

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October 9, 2015 Alexander Apóstol: Yamaikaleter https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/alexander-apostol-yamaikaleter/

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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.

August 28, 2015 Pier Stockholm https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/pier-stockholm/

I incorporate the material function of my studio as a means of illustrating my artistic practice.

 
Traducido del inglés

Incorporo la función material de mi estudio como medio de ilustrar mi práctica artística.

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August 19, 2015 Pablo Méndez https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/pablo-mendez/

Poetry can lead us to the flow of wind. The words, or mental images can take us away, into trance. The relation with the unknown takes shape in that stopped time, and it’s up to us to give body to the experience. Everything is an abstraction. Let’s overlay this with words, feelings and movement.

 
Traducido del inglés

La poesía nos puede llevar al flujo del viento. Las palabras o imágenes mentales nos pueden llevar lejos, a un trance. La relación con lo desconocido toma forma en este tiempo detenido, y nos toca a nosotros darle cuerpo a esa experiencia. Todo es una abstracción. Vamos a poner palabras, sentimientos y movimiento sobre ésta.

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August 17, 2015 Nicola Noemi Coppola https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/nicola-noemi-coppola/
Translated from Spanish

The contact between two or more preexisting elements generates variations in the state of matter. This series of transformations can provide representations that unveil their synergetic state. The representation of invisible forces demands tools so that they may be seen, otherwise they would escape the senses and as a result be lost to understanding. This is the motor for a great part of the sciences: the necessity of representing the invisible to be able to “comprehend it.” Coming from a branch of the sciences, I try to represent the force of matter that continues to inscribe the history of its causes and effects. For me this is also an obsession with the infinitely small or the invisible, and it is therefore necessary to solidify the symbolic mark of society, and the voice of the environment that will never be silenced.

 

El contacto entre dos o más elementos pre-existentes genera variaciones del estado de la materia. Esta serie de transformaciones puede dar representaciones que develan su estado sinérgico. La representación de fuerzas invisibles precisan de utensilios para ser vistas, de lo contrario escaparían a los sentidos y así al entendimiento. Éste es el motor de gran parte de las ciencias: la necesidad de representación de lo invisible para así “comprenderlo”. Viniendo de una rama científica, intento representar la fuerza de la materia que sigue inscribiendo la historia de sus causas y efectos. Para mi también es una obsesión lo infinitamente pequeño o lo invisible, y resulta necesario así, dejar asentada la huella simbólica de la sociedad, y la voz del ambiente que nunca será callada.

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May 4, 2015 Rodrigo Sassi: In Between https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/rodrigo-sassi-2/

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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).

February 24, 2015 Elias Crespin: Mobiles https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/elias-crespin-mobiles/

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Artist: Elias Crespin

Mobiles
October 16 – January 3, 2015
Galerie denise rené
Paris, France

 

October 22, 2014 Dario Escobar & Marco Maggi: Private Choice https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/dario-escobar-marco-maggi-private-choice/

Screenshot 2014-10-22 10.10.39

Artists: Saâdane Afif, Mahmoud Akram, art & language, François Azambourg, Katinka Bock, Rebecca Bournigault, César, Pierre Henri Chauveau, Claude Closky, Nicolas Delprat, Guillaume Delvigne, Judith Deschamps, Florence Doléac, Stéphane Ducatteau, Joakim Eneroth, Dario Escobar, Antoine Espinasseau, Didier Faustino, Samuel Gassmann, Miriam Gassmann, Shilpa Gupta, Zaha Hadid, Jakob+ MacFarlane, Patrick Jouin, Studio Katra, Itvan Kebadian, Nandita Kumar, Li Lihong, Valentin Loellmann, Marco Maggi, Piotr Makowski, Cecilie Manz, Philippe Mayaux, Mathieu Mercier, François Morellet, Sarngsan Na Soontorn, Nøne Futbol Club, Navid Nuur, Melik Ohanian, ORLAN, David Pergier, Olivier Peyricot, Benoit Pype, Bruno Romeda, Olve Sande, Laetitia Sellier, Olivier Sidet, Augustin Steyer, Sebastiaan Straastma, Studio Minale Maeda, Jeanne Susplugas, Hitomi Uchikura, Felice Varini, Florian Viel, Sacha Walckhoff, Andy Warhol, Victoria Wilmotte, Jens Wolf.

Private Choice
October 18 – 23, 2014
Paris, France

An imaginary and ephemeral collection of contemporary art works and design inhabits for its second edition a new historical space.  At the birthplace of famous filmmaker George Méliès, is a beautiful opportunity to acquire art and design pieces composing this universe.  This adventure is possible thanks to the loan of art works from galleries and partners. It is here that upon the invitation of homeowners and collectors, Pierre-Henri and Marie Chauveau, that project designer, Nadia Candet has chosen to present Private Choice n°2.

Ascending the Staircase
Upon crossing the threshold, the house invites you ascend the staircase where you are met by three tapered toucan beaks by young artist Florian Viel.  At the top of the stairs sits Pavillion nomade II by architects Jakob + MacFarlane. Digital drawings, moving structures, imaginary and preparatory sketches for a project of mobile architecture on brain research spreads rightfully in this house. Facing it is Super Ghost Mirror by designer Olivier Sidet, a mirror reflecting everything but the person looking in it, preferring, besides self-contemplation, attention to environment. Throughout the home are site specific works by Felice Varini connecting each room.

Three Movements
The intimate architecture is reflected in works by Zaha Hadid, who has designed two vases and crafted by event partner, Lalique, Manifesto and Visio are slender crystal towers created specifically for Private Choice.  Didier Faustino presents a domestic vanitas Dead Domesticity Zone, wall to wall carpet sewn as an emptied skull to be walked on, and an installation: Threesome where, an ensemble of three double armchairs, not far from the staircase designed by Le Corbusier.

Under the sky of the living room, with the survival blanket and Dario Escobar
The living room, the central space of the house, is visited by artists from all over the world with the linking language, English, is imbedded in the mural installation of Iranian artist Navid Nuur. On an isothermal blanket, an aluminum drawing form the words: Not like a piece of pie but like rope in a net. On both sides of the entrance to the dining room, two paintings by Polish artist Piotr Makowski. Near the windows are hung motor oil compositions by Guatemalan artist, Dario Escobar and his installation Observe & Reverse. On a pillar, are paintings by Norwegian Olve Sande, and on the table, the powerfully discreet universe of Marco Maggi who will represent the Uruguayan pavilion during the 2015 Venice Biennale. Dividing the territory, using everyday material as universal binder: engine oil, football balls, survival blanket, or rug.

Evidence rooms
It must be mentioned that more than 100 works, 55 artists, 24 participating galleries and editors, and over 10 brand partners fill the space. But like any house, this house reveals itself fully during the visit, exposing mysteries of the space that holds the collection: it shelters as in any living place, a second ghost, (with the one of Olivier Sidet, an apparition from Melik Ohanian), and a pharmacy (Jeanne Susplugas), a penne necklace (François Azambourg), a coveted piece of jewelry (Laetitia Sellier), cufflinks (Samuel Gassmann), a kitchen knife (Shilpa Gupta), a carpet (Cecilie Manz, collection 2014 Chevalier édition, partner of Private Choice), Brillo (Andy Warhol), footprints (César), a mask (Mathieu Mercier), a wedding video (Nøne Futbol Club) and the peculiar story of collector Dorith Galuz (Judith Deschamps).
« That’s life ».

October 22, 2014 Jorge Pedro Núñez: Entre Machine et moi Machin https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/jorge-pedro-nunez-entre-machine-et-moi-machin/

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Artist: Jorge Pedro Núñez

Entre Machine et moi Machin
September 12 – October 26, 2014
Galerie Crèvecoeur
Paris, France

The artist presents an abstract landscape, between sculpture and in-situ installation, composed by geometric figures human-scale based, featuring machine and motor. Symbols of the modern era defined by “the cult of the rapid combustion”, according to Peter Sloterdijk, motor and machine are still characteristic of the contemporary economy, even though the digital world, both in a real and fantasy process, is overwhelming. He uses standards materials of our developed environment like metal, glass, plaster and oil, combines heterogeneous logicals and creates an itinerary dividing, in an invisible way, the space. By creating a situation which tends to modify our gathering and our wandering, the artist follows his reflexions about the reception of the art forms, the display of existing objects and history of surfaces and materials. The theme of the machine, and its anthropomorphic projections, is in the title of the show, ironically reminded by the artist, quoting Serge Gainsbourg, author of Machins Choses, a 1965 song.

September 29, 2014 Marcius Galan: Inside https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/marcius-galan-inside/

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Artists: Jean-Michel Alberola, Dove Allouche, Yuri Ancarani, Sookoon Ang, Christophe Berdaguer & Marie Pejus, Christian Boltanski, Peter Buggenhout, Marc Couturier, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Dran, Valia Fetisov, Marcius Galan, Ryan Gander, Ion Grigorescu, Hu Xiaoyuan, Eva Jospin, Jesper Just, Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow, Mark Manders, Bruce Nauman,  Mike Nelson, Numen, Abraham Poincheval, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Reynold Reynolds & Patrick Jolley, Ataru Sato, Stéphane Thidet, Tunga, Andra Ursuta,  Andro Wekua, and Artur Zmijewski.

Inside
October 20, 2014 – January 11, 2015
Curators: Jean de Loisy, Daria de Beauvais and Katell Jaffrès
Palais de Tokyo
Paris, France

Inside is a group exhibition that is, above all, a voyage within, an exploration of self, and a unique experience that transforms the building into an organism to be traveled. This season will also be the occasion to discover David Maljković, an artist chosen together with the Paris Festival d’Automne, who will fill an entire floor of the Palais de Tokyo with his retro-futurist science fiction games. Finally, Inside China will present the first selection of works chosen by a Palais de Tokyo curator who went to meet with artists in China during a prospecting expedition conducted over the course of the year.

Inside offers visitors a passage to the interior of the self, for which the exhibition space serves as a metaphor. This immense odyssey, both physical and psychological, invites us to walk through two floors of the Palais de Tokyo that have been transformed by artists in such a way that, from one installation to the next, we remain constantly immersed in the works, which lead us within ourselves—from our skin to our most intimate thoughts.

September 25, 2014 Leyla Cárdenas: Légère Inquiétude https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/leyla-cardenas-legere-inquietude/

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Artists: None Futbol Club, Léa Le Bricomte, Leyla Cárdenas, Olivier Magnier, Saad Qureshi, Valerie Vaubourg, David Renault (Les Frères Ripoulain), Claire Froës, Théo de Gueltzl & Octave Marsal.

Légère Inquiétude
June 12 – July 20, 2014
White Project Galerie
Paris, France

Through a series of new works of art by emergent artists, Légère Inquiétude explores the concept of concern as a way to question the restlessness that troubles the contemporary society as well as the young art scene. LI questions the syntax of the exhibition itself as well as the languages of the objects displayed in their intangible form, the materiality of the work and even the possibility of its disappearance and its re-enactment.

July 11, 2014 Amalia Pica: One Thing After Another https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/amalia-pica-one-thing-another/

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Artist: Amalia Pica

One Thing After Another
June 5 – August 17, 2014
Curator: Sophie Kaplan
La Criée Centre for Contemporary Art
Rennes, France

Argentinian artist Amalia Pica‘s first solo show in France is a continuation of a project begun at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City in the summer of 2013. At La Criée she is presenting a group of sculptures and a new film in which she pursues her formal and political exploration of mathematical set theory. Pica’s works suggest systems of exchange, transmission and reception of information, at the same time as they offer a fresh reading of the avant-gardes and abstraction.

The issue of communication—of the statement and the performativity of verbal and non-verbal language—is a core concern for an artist committed to exploring its systems and modes of functioning. Through sculpture, photography, installation, performance and video, her work sets out to define the communicational codes we share beyond the barriers of language.

At the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 Pica presented Venn Diagrams (under the spotlight), a projection of two coloured circles inspired by the set theory John Venn developed to describe the logical-mathematical relationships of inclusion and exclusion. The Venn diagram reference is especially significant for this artist: under the 1976–1983 dictatorship in her native Argentina the diagrams were banned from the school curriculum on the grounds of their subversive potential for instigating group dynamics and expressions of collectivity. Thus her work foregrounds the inherent political aspect of information exchange.

Since 2013, first at Museo Tamayo in Mexico with the exhibition A∩B∩C, then at Herald St Gallery, London, Kunsthalle Lisbon, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and now at La Criée, Rennes, Pica has been replaying the issues raised by Venn’s diagrams. For A∩B∩C she arranged coloured geometrical plexiglas shapes along the gallery walls: the exhibition was regularly activated by performers who brought the shapes together at the centre of the space, held them up in a way that gave rise to certain combinations, put them back in a different place, and then repeated the exercise forming a new composition.

Photographs and a film resulted from these performances, and the film is being shown at La Criée together with a group of sculptures specially made for the exhibition. A joint venture with Mexican filmmaker Rafael Ortega, the film shows the shapes at rest, their slow activation by the performers and then the way they are combined, making up a new ‘sentence’ each time. As an attempt to start at the crucial point (the intersection) the two screens projection starts with such close angles of the shapes that the narrative appears extremely abstract and it slowly unveils the performance as the zoom travels outwards.

The sculptures—metal structures with the same coloured Perspex shapes suspended from them—are memorials of the different compositions formed by the performers in the film. Functioning as ‘fixatives’ of the shapes meetings, these visual statements form possible interpretations and narratives. Moreover the series synthesises many aspects of the history of abstract sculpture, including Minimalism, Kinetic Art and Constructivism.

Amalia Pica‘s exhibition at La Criée is a wordless narrative, an invitation to reflect on the construction, composition and effectiveness of all narrative and all language: in short, a visual semiotics.

Amalia Pica is born in 1978 in Neuquèn, Argentina. She lives and works in London.

Image: Amalia Pica, “Memorial for intersections #2″(detail), 2013. Courtesy Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam; Herald St., London; Johann Koenig, Berlin; Marc Foxx, Los Angeles. Photo: Bruno Lopes.
June 23, 2014 Jorge Pedro Núñez https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/jorge-pedro-nunez/
Translated from Spanish

I am interested in combining and juxtaposing different historical referents that derive from diverse places and times, and which coexist in an object.

My work is related to drawing, sculpture, and painting rom their more basic properties, such as material and form, but the materials I use are mostly objects from other activities. I use recognizable icons stemming from modern art history, in the creation of a work that goes through deconstruction and the relationship of objects and ideas that question the link between abstraction, history, and contemporaneity.

 

Estoy interesado en mezclar y superponer diferentes referentes históricos que provienen de lugares y épocas distintas que cohabitan en un objeto.

Mi trabajo es relativo al dibujo, la escultura y la pintura desde sus propiedades más elementales como el material y la forma, pero los materiales que utilizo son en gran parte objetos de otras actividades. Utilizo iconos reconocibles provenientes de la historia del arte moderno  para la concepción de una obra que pasa por la deconstrucción y la puesta en relación de objetos e ideas que cuestionan la relación entre abstracción, historia y contemporaneidad.

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February 19, 2014 Alexander Apóstol: Contrato Colectivo Cromosaturado https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/alexander-ap/

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Alexander Apóstol
Contrato Colectivo Cromosaturado
January 25 – March 8, 2014
Mor-Charpentier
Paris, France

Alexander Apóstol (1969) was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Currently lives and works between Caracas and Madrid.

His work has been featured in numerous major solo and group exhibitions—in Spain, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, the Casa de América, the Palau de La Virreina, and the Fundación Telefónica; in Venezuela, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber, the Sala Mendoza, and the Museo Alejandro Otero; and in the United States at the Museo del Barrio, and the Art Museum of the Americas Society. His work has been presented in museums throughout South America, including the Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; the Centro Cultural Recoleta and the Centro Cultural San Martín in Argentina; the Centro Nacional de las Artes and the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico; and the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica, among other venues.

Apóstol’s work has been represented in many international art fairs and events, including the Prague Biennial (2003 and 2005), the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador (2004), the Istanbul Biennial (2003), Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse, France (2003), the São Paulo Biennial (2002), PhotoEspaña in Madrid (2003), FotoFest in Houston, U.S.A. (2002), the Noorderlicht Photofestival in Groningen, the Netherlands (2002), the Havana Biennial (1997), and the Bienal de Barro de América in Caracas (2001).

Apóstol’s work has been featured in a variety of books, among them: Vitamin PH (Phaidon, 2006), Art Photography Now (Thames and Hudson, 2005), Blink (Phaidon, 2002), Digital Art (Thames and Hudson, 2003), Mapas Abiertos (Lunwerg, 2003), Image and Memory: Photography from Latin America (University of Texas Press, 1997). Articles discussing his work have appeared in magazines and newpapers such as Aperture, Art Nexus, Beaux Arts Magazine, Artforum, European Photography, Art in America, Lápiz, Atlantica, Extracamara, and the New York Times. In 2004, Apóstol was the recipient of the first prize at the VIII International Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador. He was an artist in residence at the Casa de America, Madrid, during 2002. In 2003, Apóstol was awarded Spain’s Endesa Scholarship for Contemporary Art.

January 29, 2014 Elias Crespin https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/elias-crespin/

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November 8, 2013 Manuel Mérida https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/manuel-merida/

Translated from Spanish

Artists have not conformed to being simply artists; they have also needed to create a theoretic framework. Generally, artists have been their own theorists, they have created their own arena as artists, have believed necessary to take a position not only in order to make their works but to create their own world, their own code… Everything we do and think exists, in only in a way. What happens is what we make evident. There are artists that speak about their own trade and who take great pleasure in giving explanations. In my case, I have a lot of issues when analyzing my own work. There are also artists that are better orators than creators… What I meant to say is that their theory often goes beyond their own work. The tendency to take theorist definitions about art, in some cases, traps them in their own creation. In my interactive or motorized works I try to introduce movement with the intention of avoiding a single and fixed phase, and the possibility of perpetual change to make evident the quality of matter and its behavior. I rely on manual or mechanic grounds to animate the work, in which mobility is an accident, creating changing situations just as it occurs at every moment in nature. When I say this, I am based on kinetic art concepts that I acquired very late, in the year ’68 when I arrived in Paris for the first time. It was shocking to discover new ways of tackling art, since I was a gestural artist… The encounter with artists such as Soto, Cruz-Diez, Camargo, Le Parc, Lygia Clark, etc., created a conflict in me, which took me to a contradiction of my previous work. Later I understood that the situation was a possible exit to a new way of seeing, to a new experience… Nevertheless, it is good to say that in my work method is closer to a gestural painter than to a constructivist or kinetic artist. In any case, what is proposed by an artist or creator is not to make “good paintings” or pay the bills, but to try to invent, modify certain established structures despite all the contradictions that this may represent…

 

Los artistas no se han conformado con simples artistas también han necesitado un marco teórico. Generalmente han sido sus propios teóricos, han creado su propio terreno como artistas, han creído necesario tomar posición no solamente para hacer obras, sino para fabricar su proprio mundo, su propio código… Todo lo que hacemos y pensamos existe de una cierta manera tan solo, lo que pasa, es que lo ponemos en evidencia. Hay artistas que hablan de su proprio oficio y que tienen gran placer en dar explicaciones. En mi caso, yo, tengo muchísimos problemas en analizar mi propia obra. También hay artistas que son mejores conversadores que creadores… lo que quiero decir es que su teoría muchas veces va más allá de su propia obra. La tendencia a tomar definiciones teóricas sobre el arte, en ciertos casos, los encierran en su propia creación. En mis obras manipulables o motorizadas, trato de introducir el movimiento con la intención de evitar una fase fija y única y la posibilidad del cambio perpetuo para evidenciar la calidad de la materia y su comportamiento. Me apoyo en fundamento mecánico o manual para animar la obra en la que la movilidad es un accidente creando situaciones siempre cambiantes como ocurre a cada instante en la naturaleza. Cuando digo esto, me baso en conceptos del arte cinético que yo adquirí bastante tarde en el año 68 cuando yo llegue a Paris por la primera vez. Para mí fue un impacto descubrir nuevas maneras de afrontar el arte, siendo yo un artista gestual… El contacto con artistas como Soto, Cruz-Diez, Camargo, Le Parc, Lygia Clark, etc… Crearon en mí un conflicto que me llevo a una contradicción con mi trabajo anterior. Pero luego comprendí que esa situación era una posible salida a una nueva manera de ver, a una nueva experiencia… Sin embargo, es bueno decir, que mi método de trabajo está más cerca de un pintor gestual, que de un artista cinético constructivista. En todo caso, lo que se propone un artista o creador no es de hacer “buena pintura” o buena factura sino trabar de inventar, modificar ciertas estructuras establecidas a pesar todas las contradicciones que esto pueda representar…

Selected Biographical Information

Education / Training

  • 1950-1958: Fine art training. School of fine art – Arturo Michelena, Valencia, Venezuela.

Prizes / Fellowships

  • 14 prizes given by Venezuelan Salons and Museums along with a prize by Vitry City, France.

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

  • 2012: “10 works in the shop windows”, Hermes of Paris, NY, Monaco, Hong-Kong.
  • 2012: “Fondation Datris”, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France.
  • 2011-2012: Espace Meyer Zafra, France.
  • 2009: “Atlas Sztuki”, Lodz, Poland.
  • 2006-2012: Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris, France.
  • 2006: “Collective Show Une Histoire du Cinétisme”, Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris, France.
  • 2005: “Collective Show Autour de Soto”, Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris, France.
  • 2004: “Collective Show Movement and Abstraction”, Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris, France.
  • 2003: “4 Maitres du Venezuela”, Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris, France.

Collections

  • Musèe des Beaux – Arts, Caracas, Venezuela.

Links

October 16, 2013