THE ARTIST BOOK AS AN OBJECT, AS A SPHERE OF MEANINGS
Under Amy Galpin’s curatorship, the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum of the Florida International University (FIU) inaugurated Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artists 'Books. On display until August 25, the exhibition brings together books intervened by various artists who use previous texts to manipulate them and adapt them to new languages and transforming them into objects.
Presented in a sculptural way -the book as an object-, each one of the pieces that constitute the exhibition abounds in philosophical questions and reflections. With the evident allusion to the didactic character of the illustrated books of childhood and the past, these artworks focus, or at least suggest, to organize themselves under a thematic axis that is the nature-nurture relationship: the innate and the acquired. Approaching it in an intuitive and affordable way to the viewer.
Also, as a parallel motif of the exhibition, the eleven artists who participate in it reside or had reside in Miami. Thus, Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artists' Books is kind of a celebration related to the artistic flow that Miami has been developing, institutionalizing itself as a place of effervescence within the contemporary scene in the last decade.
As a novel feature, the artists behind the exhibited oeuvres belong to different disciplines. While some of them use the book as a means of expression par excellence, many of them come from painting or sculpture. The coexistence of these two groups has as a consequence a heterogeneous and open body with interpretations ranging from the ethereal to more intimate expressions of the "self". Even in the case of Rosemarie Chiarlone, Rafael Domenech, Diego Gutierrez, Lisa Haque, Nicole Salcedo, and Carol Todaro, the productions they present have been made especially for the exhibition. In relation to his work, Domenech explained: "My intention is to create an environment where books are part of a system (sculpture) where the visitor gets involved in many ways."
As for the experience of the visitors, the exhibition counts with Ipads and facsimiles of the pieces on display to be able to explore them in their entirety, providing a complete experience.
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Margarita Cano.,"Being Free", 2016. Gold wallpaper, inserts, illustrations, aphorisms. Courtesy of the artist.
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Margarita Cano.,"Being Free", 2016. Gold wallpaper, inserts, illustrations, aphorisms. Courtesy of the artist.
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Margarita Cano.,"Being Free", 2016. Gold wallpaper, inserts, illustrations, aphorisms. Courtesy of the artist.
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"The Fleetingness of the Color Red", 2017, 35 monoprints on Bristol, Manila Hemp, Glassine, Assagami and Tengucho paper, 19” x 26”, Courtesy of the artist, Jeannette Stargala.
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Margarita Cano.,"Being Free", 2016. Gold wallpaper, inserts, illustrations, aphorisms. Courtesy of the artist.
Artists at the exhibition: Margarita Cano, Rosemarie Chiarlone, Rafael Domenech, Diego Gutierrez, Lisa Haque, Carlos Macia, Lydia Rubio, Donna Ruff, Nicole Salcedo, Claire Jeanine Satin, Onajide Shabaka, Jeannette Stargala, Carol Todaro and Purvis Young
