Abstraction in Action Richard Garet: Screen Memory https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/richard-garet-screen-memory/

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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.

 

June 6, 2016 Horacio Zabala: Dark Mirror https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/horacio-zabala-dark-mirror-2/

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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
December 2, 2015 Carla Guagliardi: Skulptur https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/carla-guagliardi-skulptur/

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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.

November 10, 2015 Horacio Zabala: Dark Mirror https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/horacio-zabala-dark-mirror/

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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.

October 14, 2015 Miguel Rothschild: XXI. Rohkunstbau – Apokalypse https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/miguel-rothschild-xxi-rohkunstbau-apokalypse/

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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.

August 19, 2015 Edgar Guzmanruiz: Chiaroscuro https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/edgar-guzmanruiz-chiaroscuro/

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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

May 19, 2015 Omar Barquet, Pablo Rasgado & Omar Rodríguez-Graham: Pararrayos https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/omar-barquet-pablo-rasgado-omar-rodriguez-graham-pararrayos/

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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.

May 19, 2015 Miguel Rothschild: Book presentation https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/miguel-rothschild-book-presentation/

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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.

May 5, 2015 Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen: Trace https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/carla-arocha-stephane-schraenen-trace/

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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.

April 28, 2015 Danilo Dueñas: The painting fallen, and the collapse of Rome https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/danilo-duenas-painting-fallen-collapse-rome/

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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.

March 23, 2015 Nicolas Lamas: About Sculpture #4 https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/nicolas-lamas-sculpture-4/

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Artists: Alis / Filliol, A Kassen, Matt Bryans, Nicolas Lamas, Maximilian Schubert, Santiago Taccetti and Klaus Weber.

About Sculpture #4
November 28, 2014 – January 10, 2015
Galerie Rolando Anselmi
Berlin, Germany

The project has evolved throughout the year, with four group exhibitions exploring contemporary sculpture. The artistic relevance of this medium is examined through the work of 25 international artists, born between the 60s and the 80s. The artists included in the exhibitions, ranging from established to emerging, are invited to present one piece, trying to expand and go beyond conventional debates and notions of sculpture. Their works reflect a multi-layered and contradictory image of common media definitions through the implementation of different strategies of investigation and aesthetic parameters. In this occasion we are excited to host works by Nicolas Lamas, Maximilian Schubert, Klaus Weber, A Kassen, Santiago Taccetti, Matt Bryans, Alis/Filliol. The shows aim to build a narrative in space, investigating the relationship between space and material in an effort to exhibit a heterogeneous spectrum of possibilities.

The work of Nicolas Lamas is based on a processing reflection about space, time, culture and science. Lamas formalizes his questioning using various media, playing on codes and undermining constructed perceptions and systems that govern our daily life. His work Partial View, consisting of a rock and a scanner, highlights the meeting of two heterogeneous elements, exposing the relationship between actual weight and the virtual weight of a scanned image and the impossibility of understanding an object if one only considers the surface of things. Through this, he attempts to somehow underline relativity, malleability, and the level of indeterminacy in all of which we attempt to comprehend, searching for an objective and definite truth.

In Maximilian Schubert’s wall sculptures, titled Format, lenghts of brass and copper converge at minute hinges, folding the rectangular structure into opposing angles that appear to contract and expand. These works appear paused in space, their motion arrested in one of many possible iterations. Through his works Schubert investigates and questions the concept of representation. The works are reduced to pure form, neither involving direct reference nor attempting to activate particular predetermined associations.

The two large-scale white paintings Untitled (Einstatzbereich Innen – Außen) by Santiago Taccetti, can deceive the viewer, who is forced to walk close to the canvas before realizing that no actual paint is visible. The unpredictable reaction of different material permeates Taccetti’s work, which investigates the relationship between sculpture and painting. In this occasion, the artist experimented with different kinds of household paint and used a variety of instruments to press and imprint the material into the reverse of the canvas, creating a beautiful pattern and texture on the surface of the work while the thick layers of paint remain hidden on the reverse.

Alis/filliol presents The Family (La Coperta), part of a series of sculptures started by the artists this year. The artist duo develops its research using disparate materials, mixing natural elements and industrial products, wax, plaster, mechanical grease, wood, plasticine, polystyrene. The continuous experimentation gives birth to figures with grotesque connotations, provoking a deep sense of alienation and uncertainty.

Artist group A Kassen work with performative installation and sculpture. They examine and experiment with the borders between art and non-art, as well as self invented systems that change the functions of things within a given space. In this sense, they form a critique of the institution and draw attention to how we act and navigate in a certain context. For this occasion A Kassen presents a site-specific installation, composed by small fragments of a statue. The pieces are part of a little angel’s statue once belonged to the Lauritz de Thurah’s Baroque Garden at Gl. Holtegaard in Denmark. The statue was destroyed by the artists, turned into pieces and placed for two years into the ground in front of its original place. After being removed from the garden, they are now neatly displayed on the gallery’s floor in a provocative process of re- contextualisation.

Metal items fill the floor of the second exhibition room. This is Matt Bryans’ installation, Gravermaskintenner, composed by 18 digging machine teeth sourced by the artist in Norway. The machine teeth are worn out until they have no purpose anymore and are left behind to be recycled as metal or forever discarded, depending on the fluctuating global prices of iron and steel. The pieces are consumed, revealing on the surface every single impact and dent caused by their former use. The artist has carefully collected them, refined, sanded and oiled, making them appear like some mystical objects with a completely different meaning and function.

Klaus Weber’s works call our deepest belief systems into question. With recurring motifs of death, animism and ritualism, his works provide an ironic counterpoint to the shared understanding – social, natural, scientific – that underpins our society. Weber’s Witch Ladder is an over-sized version of those used in witchcraft that allows demons to enter a place through the ceiling. Composed of feathers taken from birds bred in captivity and affixed on either side of a rope, it performs a counter-energy by troubling the conditions of reception within the functionalist rationality of the exhibition space. Weber appropriates the magical device undermining the consolidated hierarchical knowledge between producers and receivers and illustrates how our past beliefs still reverberate in the present.

Image: Nicolas Lamas, 2014, Partial view, stone, scanner, variable dimensions
December 22, 2014 Pablo Rasgado: Afterlife https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/pablo-rasgado-afterlife/

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Artist: Pablo Rasgado

Afterlife
November 14, 2014 – January 25, 2015
Arratia Beer
Berlin, Germany

For his new series, Pablo Rasgado has delved into the depths of catalogues raisonnés, into the Bibliothèque Kandinsky at the Centre Pompidou and other archives in an attempt to recover lost images. One may argue that every research is an endeavour to retrieve or discover something that is lost or at least unknown. In Rasgado’s case however the objects he pursued had to remain lost in order to be singled out and reclaimed. Rasgado was searching for the blind spots of art history: The images that his serendipitous investigation has disclosed were those that have gone missing, that have been misplaced, destroyed, forgotten, or stolen at some point in their biography, whose provenance expired into the status “present whereabouts unknown.”

Rasgado set himself the task of repainting these works in their actual size and as close to the original as possible. However the new images mimic not their originals but rather their surrogates, the photographs, in regard to the amount of detail and most importantly their colour palette: most of the re-painted works adopt the greyscale of the photographs taken at some point over the last century and transform the reproduction into an oil grisaille.

Accordingly the paintings chosen by Rasgado necessitate two predicaments: that they are nowhere to be found, and that at some point before their loss they were photographically recorded. Rasgado collides the media and genres of painting and photography and with them their many complex evocations of the absent, of their status as emanation or representation of something that they are not. He also collides two distinct chronologies: The paintings date back to the 1440s up to the 1960s, but their photographic records follow a different and independent timeline, as well as a very distinct phenomenological status.

After recreating the lost paintings by Bellini, Velázquez, Léger, Balthus, etc., Rasgado placed the canvases in a palatial building in the centre of Paris. The building is partly abandoned and has been left in a state of slow decay for many years. Rasgaldo’s paintings, placed nonchalantly on the floor, along the Palais’ walls, and in remote corners, acted as attractors to the dust, binding it to their surfaces by virtue of an adhesive. A thick layer of grime, grit, of ashes, smut, of entropy and decay now clings to the cheeks of Philip IV, to Bellini’s Madonna, to Goya’sStone Guest. The paintings have camouflaged themselves under a veil of dirty matter, adopting a new skin.Rasgado himself then took to reworking the remaining paintings obscured under the veil of dust. The forms laid bare by his manipulations differ greatly–sometimes they seem to be casual wipes across the surface, in other instances they are highly geometric and premeditated. Bellini’s Madonna has been rendered comically absurd, only eyes and mouth drawn into the dust to create minimal smiley faces, reminiscent of Cecilia Gimenez’ infamously botched attempt at restoring an Ecce Homo fresco in Zaragoza.
Dust, as the ultimate reminder of transience, however can be reinterpreted as a perfect fertilizer in Rasgado’sAfterlife: as the white slate that facilitates the productive force of iteration, of anachronism and recollection.
(Excerpt from Eva Wilson’s Dust and Shadow and Afterlife)
Pablo Rasgado (1984 Jalisco, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City.
Pablo Rasgado’s recent exhibitions include: Limited Visibility, CAM Raleigh, NC; La voluntad de la piedra , Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico; Noise, (Collateral Events) at the 55th Biennale di Venezia, Ex Magazzini di San Cassian, Venice, Italy;Other People’s Problems: Conflicts and Paradoxes, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; When Attitudes Became Form Becomes Attitudes, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Lost Line: Contemporary Art from the Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles;Arquitectura Desdoblada, Museo Experimental el Eco, Mexico City; Cimbra: Formas especulativas y armados metafísicos,Museo de Arte Moderno,Mexico City; Open Day, Stonehouse, Lagos, Nigeria; Second Coming, Hessel Museum of Art & Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.; Destello, Colección Jumex. In 2014 Rasgado was an invited artist at La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.
Image: courtesy of the artist and Arratia Beer
December 16, 2014 Danilo Dueñas: Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/danilo-duenas-teach-us-outgrow-madness/

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Artists: Danilo Dueñas, Alfredo Jaar, Jonathan Lasker, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Fabian Marcaccio, Michael Müller, David Reed, Leunora Salihu, Albrecht Schnider and Stephen Willats.

Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
November 22, 2014 – January 17, 2015
Galerie Thomas Schulte
Berlin, Germany

Group exhibition

Image: Alfredo Jaar, “Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness”, 1995
December 1, 2014 Miguel Rothschild: Buenos Aires https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/miguel-rothschild-buenos-aires/

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Artist: Miguel Rothschild

Buenos Aires
October 18 – December 20, 2014
Kuckei + Kuckei
Berlin, Germany

The fragments of our happiness: this could have also been the title of our exhibition Buenos Aires. At Kuckei + Kuckei, the Argentinian artist Miguel Rothschild, who lives in Berlin, is charting his home town anew. In so doing, he is challenging – with every step – conventional demarcation lines and, not least, those between reality and fiction.

For his Atrapasueños series (English: Dream Catcher), the artist photographed telephone lines and electric cables in one of the slums. Their course is reproduced precisely on smashed shatterproof glass. Two centimetres separate the glass and the photo from one another: in this empty interstice, any questions that arise are allowed to remain open.

It is as if Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos were spinning their threads above the city on the Río de la Plata and deciding their fate anew with every day that passes, Rothschild presents a photo – Parzen über Buenos Aires, which explodes the frame and metamorphoses into an installation – by means of cords that replace extension cables and reach to the end of the exhibition wall.

The work entitled Memento mori. Work in progress is subject in a very special way to the principle of die and become. The photograph shows a harp, a shabby-looking shop sign overrun by rust; it bears the inscription Creaciones and dates from 1963, the year the artist was born. As soon as a visitor approaches the work, two extremely powerful spotlights are activated by motion sensors. In the course of time, this light will change the artwork, which has, from the very start, devoted itself to disappearing. It becomes paler, whiter, more translucent and consequently clear to every one of us that it is full of life.

María Cecilia Barbetta

October 22, 2014 Edgar Guzmanruiz: Myth Germania: Vision and Crime https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/edgar-guzmanruiz-myth-germania-vision-crime/

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Artist: Edgar Guzmanruiz

Myth Germania: Vision and Crime
September 17 – November 30, 2014
Berliner Unterwelten e.V.
Berlin, Germany

Die Ausstellung beleuchtet Architektur und Städtebau im Berlin der NS-Zeit, analysiert die ideologischen Zielsetzungen und dokumentiert die mit der „Neugestaltung“ aufs engste verbundene Verfolgung jüdischer Berliner. Darüber hinaus werden Legenden und Klischees rund um die „Welthauptstadt Germania“ dekonstruiert.

October 7, 2014 Carla Guagliardi https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/carla-guagliardi/

“Where is the time I have left in this space?”

Over recent years my artistic path has predominantly followed sculptural research. The researches focus on time and concomitant duration as decisive agents, elaborating and extending my ideas across a wide variety of materials. I experiment with both organic and/or industrially rendered materials, these include such materials as plastic, iron, glass, wood, copper, steel, cotton, plants, and rubber among others. Similarly, the active-positive and entropic role of water plays a significant part in my art practice. The works render imminent (and, perhaps immanent) the action of time as it forms a mnemonic record on matter in space.

As can be seen in the enclosed photos of my work, there is the presence of a poetic language which recalls interactions between internal organic fluid forms, incorporating chance and speculation and experiencing the abstraction that results from their experience with the material.  Nevertheless, no artistic activity is free from the artist’s subjective intention, regardless of purely physical and material conditions. Such assemblings combine materials that create new properties through these combinations, emphasizing on many occasions a vocabulary of physical terms like balance, density, materiality, capillarity, etc. These works, in which the physical characteristics are not virtual, symbolic or representational but where they literally exist, are nonetheless subjective emotional assemblages.

My aim is to continue the project, extend its development, while at the same time perfect some of the aesthetic and visual questions that arise from my experimental works. In short to move ahead in the sense of working with space in its continuity and extension anxiety, but simultaneously always making use of the various material confrontations that emerge. Within this aesthetic frame the paradox of disruption and temporal suspension play their part, evoke a sense of moveable perception, while also confronting contemporary mankind’s feelings as to the uncertain, unstable and fickle situation in which we live.

 
Traducido del inglés

“¿Dónde está el tiempo que tengo en este espacio?”

En los últimos años mi carrera artística ha seguido predominantemente una línea de investigación sobre la escultura. Las investigaciones se enfocan en el tiempo y la duración concurrente como agentes decisivos, elaborando y expandiendo mis ideas por una amplia variedad de materiales. Experimento con materiales orgánicos y/o hechos de manera industrial, los cuales incluyen materiales como plástico,  hierro, vidrio, madera, cobre, acero, algodón, plantas y caucho, entre otros. De igual forma, el rol entrópico y activo-positivo del agua juega un papel importante en mi práctica. Las obras representan la inminente (y quizá inmanente) acción del tiempo mientras que forma un récord nemónico de la materia en el espacio.

Como puede ser visto en las fotos de mi obra, existe la presencia de un lenguaje poético que evoca interacciones entre formas orgánicas fluidas internas, incorporando el azar y la especulación y la abstracción que resulta de experiencia con el material. No obstante, ninguna actividad artística es libre de la intención subjetiva del artista, sin importar las condiciones puramente físicas o materiales. Tales combinaciones mezclan materiales que crean nuevas propiedades por medio de estas combinaciones, enfatizando en ocasiones un vocabulario de términos físicos tales como balance, densidad, materialidad, capilaridad, etc. Estas obras en las que las características físicas no son virtuales, simbólicas o representacionales, sino que existen literalmente en ellas, son no obstante ensamblajes emocionales y subjetivos.

Mi intención es continuar el proyecto, extender su desarrollo mientras que perfecciono la estética y cuestionamientos visuales que originan de mis obras experimentales. En breve, seguir adelante en el sentido de trabajar con el espacio en su ansiedad continua y extensa, pero siempre usando las confrontaciones materiales que puedan surgir simultáneamente. Dentro de este marco estético la paradoja de la interrupción y suspensión temporal juegan su rol, evocan un sentido de percepción movible mientras que confrontan sentimientos humanos contemporáneos de la situación incierta, inestable y frágil en la que vivimos.

Selected Biographical Information

Education

  • 1990-1991: Post-graduation in History of Art and Architecture in Brazil, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • 1989-1987: Escola de Ates Visuais do Parque Lage/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Prizes / Fellowships

  • 2010: Mostras de artistas no exterior/ Brasil Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo e Ministério da Cultura, São Paulo/Brasília, Brazil.
  • 2008: Edital Artes Visuais, Secretaria de Cultura do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • 2007: Grant Guest artist in residence, Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, USA.
  • 2002: Grant workshop-exhibition in residence program, KHOJ , Mysore/Bangalore, India.
  • 2001: Grant Bolsa de Artes RIOARTE, RIOARTE, Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • 2001: Grant Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme,, HIAP/ Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland.
  • 1999-2000: Bolsa Virtuose, Ministério da Cultura do Brasil , Atelier Programm 1999  Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.
  • 1996: Award Best show of the year, Galerias IBEU / Instituto Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • 1995: II Salão de Arte da Bahia , Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.

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September 5, 2014 Andrea Canepa https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/andrea-canepa/
Translated from Spanish

In recent years, I have focused on the modern tendency of trying to simplify the complexity of the world with the aim to control that which escapes the limits of our understanding.

We tend to categorize, organize, and administer reality as if it was a set of and independent phenomena, creating a system that we take as natural.

My work stems from the alteration of the order in which information is presented. In some cases this modification uncovers some meanings that used to remain hidden under the imposition of a logic that assumes itself as the “correct one.” In others, by schematizing the information previously schematized, both synthesis systems cancel each other out and return mere forms and colors lacking any functionality.

Through my work, I hope to make evident that the regularity of the world obeys a set of rules that as such, they could have been different. In other words. I hope to point out that all logic of functionality, whatever it is, could be different and thus not necessary in itself.

 

En los últimos años, me he enfocado en la tendencia moderna a intentar simplificar la complejidad del mundo con miras a controlar aquello que escapa los límites de nuestro entendimiento.

Tendemos a categorizar, organizar y administrar la realidad como si se tratase de un conjunto de fenómenos aislados e independientes, creando un sistema que tomamos como natural.

Mi trabajo parte de la alteración del orden en el que la información es presentada. En algunos casos esta modificación libera ciertos significados que permanecían ocultos bajo la imposición de una lógica que se asume como “la correcta”. En otros, al esquematizar la información previamente esquematizada, ambos sistemas de síntesis se anulan entre sí, devolviéndonos meras formas y colores desprovistos de cualquier sentido funcional.

A través de mi obra, pretendo dar cuenta de que la regularidad del mundo obedece a un conjunto de reglas que, como tales, podrían haber sido distintas. En otras palabras, intento señalar que toda lógica de funcionamiento, sea como sea, podría ser diferente y, por lo tanto, no es necesaria en sí misma.

Selected Biographical Information

Education / Training

Prizes / Fellowships

  • 2014: Premio Miquel Casablancas, Sant Andreu Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain.
  • 2014: Premio Arco Comunidad de Madrid para Jóvenes Artistas, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
  • 2013: Premio Generaciones, Fundación Caja Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
  • 2013: Beca Endesa para Artes Plásticas, Fundación Endesa, Teruel, Spain.
  • 2012: Pasaporte para un artista (segundo puesto), Alianza Francesa y Embajada de Francia en el Perú, Lima, Peru.
  • 2011: Beca de Formación Pilar Juncosa i Sotheby’s, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Mallorca, Spain.
  • 2010: Premio Swab de Dibujo, Feria de Arte Contemporáneo Swab, Barcelona, Spain.
  • 2008: Certamen Jóvenes Creadores, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
  • 2006: Valencia Crea, Ayuntamiento de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

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August 8, 2014 Gabriel Acevedo Velarde https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/gabriel-acevedo-velarde/

“In general, all I want is to find my own way of doing politics.”

 
Traducido del inglés

“En general, lo único que quiero es encontrar mi propia manera de hacer política”.

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February 19, 2014 Edgar Guzmanruiz https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/edgar-guzmanruiz/
Translated from Spanish

My site-specific works aim to create relationship bridges between art and architecture, where the architectural space is affected. The visitors relate to each other through works that alter the perception of “reality.” The interventions intersect, juxtapose, overflow, or are contained in the exhibition space.

Some have their origin in the display of a drawing or a painting in space. While some works are more related to the context of the place of exhibition, others seek a universal communication, beyond a specific culture. Present in my works is the constant use of few elements, an interest in shadow, void, absence, the passage of time, death. The most recent work explores from the visual arts to the geometric impossibility of relating parallel worlds through narratives.

 

Mis trabajos site-specific buscan construir puentes de relación entre Arte y Arquitectura, en donde el espacio arquitectónico es afectado. Los visitantes se relacionan entre sí a través de obras que alteran la percepción de “realidad”. Las intervenciones intersectan, se superponen, desbordan o son contenidas por el espacio de exhibición.

Algunas tienen su origen en el despliegue de un dibujo o una pintura en el espacio. Mientras unos trabajos están más ligados al contexto del lugar de exposición, otros buscan una comunicación universal, más allá una cultura específica. En mis obras se puede leer una constante en la utilización de pocos elementos, y el interés por la sombra, el vacío, la ausencia, las huellas del tiempo, la muerte. El trabajo más reciente explora desde las artes plásticas la imposibilidad geométrica de relacionar mundos paralelos a través de narrativas.

 

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November 6, 2013 Fernando Carbajal https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/fernando-carbajal/

My work is a platform of investigation where four lines of work converge. Arriving from different reflections on the idea of production and artistic product, I develop a personal questionnaire to resolve through concepts characteristic of art, beyond supports or specific media. The work begins years before its exhibition under a rigorous daily process –quotidian-­‐ where text and image start to determine the path of apparition of the object and, above all, a recognition of how far to go, so that both the construction process as well as the moments that follow the work: exhibit, documentation, collection, are conducive to a latent state of conditions. The first line of work then, runs and traverses over an Arbeit Journal (workbook) that is usually a container of written poetic acts, preparation drawings, synoptical paintings and new glossaries. In my work there is an interest in the belief that “The syntax is a quality of the soul”, as Paul Valéry said, so it substantially asks not a reading from the possible spectator, but a kind of co-­‐ responsibility from its own substance. My second and third lines to investigate are extremely formal, conceptual and plastic determinants from materiality and the inherent boundaries of each substance used. I try to meditate about sculpture, painting, drawing and photography from their humanistic affiliation, from its undeniable quality as anthropological links; which is why my work is a kind of tracking, punctual, specific, not of art history, but of gaps where, although special circumstances exist, an inexplicable and elusive emptiness evidences a human potential almost lost, forgotten. In these moments of rupture, these breaks on the folded surface of time and space are axes of my personal network, which has been formed 12 years ago. It allows me not only a congruent and organic structure between each work, but it favors territories mainly unique and close to my own entity. Around the idea of painting and sculpture, for example, the raw materials gesticulate their own resonance; they limit the scope of form that the tooling and hand dissect, while the drawing is that possibility of looking at what one desires, almost immediately, almost simultaneously to the desire, like photography. The last line of investigation is the one that defines the links. My work is a field of action for the spectator, an observatory, an inventory. The work is not hermetic but neither immediate. Requires and is required, softens up when seen, solidifies itself at the sight. In the meantime (sway), my interest is to proliferate –more than to explain-­‐ an interest for the questions. Try to make the spectator believe that we surely inhabit an enormous and indecipherable question, and as beings from that realm, we converse through questions, and not through answers, with things. This correspondence and exchange could explain the diversity of appearances in my work. It is not a reflex of a pretentious question. It is evidence of the simplest question that we haven’t been able to formulate. The art work, for me, is that one presence whose origin never distorts its aim, and whose aim extols every moment of its origin. It is my way to have a discussion and to generate bonds from small questions for a more and more extensive listing of answers

 

Mi obra es una plataforma de investigación en donde convergen cuatro líneas de trabajo. A partir de distintas reflexiones en torno a la idea de producción y producto artístico, desarrollo un interrogatorio personal a resolver mediante los conceptos propios del arte, más allá de soportes o medios específicos. El trabajo comienza años antes de su exhibición bajo un riguroso proceso diario –cotidiano-­‐ en donde texto e imágenes comienzan a determinar la ruta de aparición del objeto y, sobretodo, un reconocimiento de hasta dónde ha de detenerse, para que tanto proceso constructivo como los momentos que la a obra suceden: exhibición, documentación, coleccionismo, propicien un estado latente de condiciones. La primera línea de trabajo entonces, corre y atraviesa sobre un Arbeit Journal (libro de trabajo), que usualmente es contenedor de actos poéticos escritos, dibujos preparatorios, cuadros sinópticos y glosarios nuevos. En mi obra existe un interés en la creencia de que “La sintaxis es una cualidad del alma”, según Paul Valéry, por lo que sustancialmente solicita no una lectura del espectador posible, sino una especie de co-­‐responsabilidad desde su propia sustancia. Mi segunda y tercera línea a investigar son sumamente formales, determinantes conceptuales y plásticas a partir de la materialidad y los alcances propios de cada sustancia a utilizar. Intento reflexionar acerca de la escultura, la pintura, el dibujo y la fotografía desde su afiliación humanística, desde su innegable cualidad de eslabón antropológico; por ello, mi obra es una clase de rastreo, puntual, específico, no de la historia del arte, sino de las brechas en donde, si bien existen circunstancias particulares, un vacío inexplicable e inasible evidencia un potencial humano casi perdido, olvidado. Esos momentos de ruptura, esos quiebres sobre la superficie plegada del tiempo y el espacio, son ejes de mi red personal, que se ha venido conformando desde hace 12 años. Me permite no sólo una estructuración congruente y orgánica entre cada obra, sino que propicia territorios mayormente únicos y apegados a mi propia entidad. En torno a la idea de pintura y escultura, por ejemplo, las materias primas gesticulan su propia resonancia, delimitan en sí los alcances de la forma, que el herramental y la mano disecan, mientras que el dibujo es aquella posibilidad de mirar lo que se desea, casi inmediatamente, casi simultáneo al deseo, como la fotografía. La última línea de investigación es la que define: los vínculos. Mi obra es un campo de acción para el espectador, un observatorio, un inventario. No es una obra hermética pero tampoco inmediata. Exige y es exigida, se reblandece al ser vista, se solidifica en la mirada. En ese intervalo (vaivén), mi interés es el de contagiar -­‐más que explicar-­‐ el interés por las preguntas. Hacer creer que seguramente habitamos una pregunta enorme e indescifrable, y que como seres de ese paraje, dialogamos a través de preguntas, y no de respuestas, con las cosas. Esa correspondencia e intercambio podría explicar la diversidad de apariencias de mi trabajo. No es un reflejo de una respuesta pretenciosa. Es una evidencia de la pregunta más simple que no hemos sabido formular. La obra de arte para mí es aquella presencia que nunca tergiversa su fin, y cuyo fin enaltece cada momento de su origen

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November 2, 2013 Danilo Dueñas https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/danilo-duenas/

On painting

A wall, the painting, the floor, the ceiling, the mist in the room.

The organ, the flute, the hemlock.

The truth, the specter, the real.

What is it that lives?, said the hare to the tortoise, is it the hemlock or the rose? The rose said, it is me, I shall always live, whilst the room shall grow and the sound shall ring in our ears. But my life shall never cease. Please testify to this never-ending truth and you too, shall live as me.

 
Traducido del inglés

Sobre la pintura

Un muro, la pintura, el piso, el techo, la neblina en la habitación.

El órgano, la flauta, la cicuta.

La verdad, el espectro, lo real.

¿Qué es lo que vive?, dijo la liebre a la tortuga, ¿es la cicuta o la rosa? La rosa dijo,

soy yo, siempre viviré, mientras que la habitación crezca y el sonido repique en nuestros oídos. Pero mi vida nunca terminará. Favor de testificar a esta verdad sinfín y tú también vivirás como yo.

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October 15, 2013 Miguel Rothschild https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/miguel-rothschild/

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October 8, 2013