Reviews
CANVASES THAT SPEAK
The exhibition Claro que sí (Of course it is) by Mariana Ferrari (1975, Tucumán, Argentina) is on display at Tomás Redrado Art.
GOLDEN PRISM. WEALTH AS A TRAP
Fundación PROA presented a reflection on the myth of "El Dorado" in the American continent, with a selection of works by artists from different countries and times to rethink the impact and meaning of one of the most influential legends in history.
THE ARBITRARY CREATING THE NECESSARY
Mateo Lopez (b. 1978), a Colombian artist with an outstanding career, has his first solo exhibition in Lima. Pasado futurista (Futuristic Past) is the title of his exhibition, curated by Maria Wills and Julien Petit, and comes with the Miguel Urrutia Museum in Bogota's seal.
SER PALLAY IN GALLERY ICPNA LIMA CENTER
Ser Pallay is a "collaborative textile project'' that bet on an artistic praxis that critically responds to the ambivalent valuation of the extraordinary Andean textile tradition in the art narratives of Peru's cultural history.
TO DRESS GODS: ABOUT PURPLE SPELL BY SANTIAGO PAREDES AND BRIGITTE HOFFMAN
In March 1985, a breakthrough in filmmaking was released in United States’ theaters. Signed by Woody Allen and titled "The Purple Rose of Cairo", the search for the purple rose is nothing more than a way of approaching the impossible.
BETWEEN LAYOUTS, COLORS AND VIBRATIONS – JUDITH LAUAND: CONCRETE DETOUR
"Judith Lauand/Walking into the future". In that way Profilograma Judith (2000), by Augusto de Campos, one of the main names of concrete poetry in Brazil, celebrates the art of Judith Lauand (1922-2022). The São Paulo artist, a female figure almost isolated in the country, was given a long retrospective with 124 works and extensive documentation, opened before her death at the end of last year, at São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP).
THE INFLUENCE AND CONTINUITY OF PRE-HISPANIC TEXTILE ART IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
The first part of an essay by Adriana Herrera Téllez on the tradition and heritage of textiles in Latin America and its impact on contemporary art.
HUMANS AND NATURE: ARE THEY PART OF THE SAME LANDSCAPE?
As a way of closing 2022 and give a way to 2023, Rolf Art, curated by Francisco Medail, presented Eso que estalla no es el sol, a group show in which several artists talk about the conjunction nature-humans.
DESIRE, TRANCE AND SHAPPER – JONATHAS DE ANDRADE IN ‘THE WORLD IS THE THEATER OF MAN’ AND ‘POUNCE AND BOUNCE’
This is one of the unique moments of the most recent contemporary art in Brazil. The final tracking shot of Olho da Rua, a video by Jonathas de Andrade now on display at Inhotim, one of Brazil's leading visual arts centers, is one of those happy moments in which the artist manages to capture with such precision the zeitgeist of his country (in this case, on a continental scale).
ABALOS AUSTRALIS - 13TH MERCOSUR BIENNIAL - TRAUMA, DREAM AND ESCAPE
The 13th edition of the Mercosul Biennial, anchored in the Trauma, dream and flight tripod and finished last November, had encouraging developments, especially due to the outstanding presence of emerging artists, the strong contact with the public and the resumption of powerful spaces and traditional attractions of the event, such as the Cais do Porto. However, there were problems in the organization of the exhibition, the most serious episode of which was the '(dis)invitation' of names to exhibit works, and a certain frustration with pieces that would have a technological appeal.
THE EPHEMERAL IN THINGS - MARTINA SERVIO OLAVIDE IN 1+1
In her first solo exhibition, the artist from Córdoba moves between and beyond the limits of what can be said, from words and beyond them, with curatorship by Agustina Rinaldi.
ANTONIO SEGUÍ AT GALERIE CLAUDE BERNARD, PARIS
The Claude Bernard Gallery is dedicating an exhibition as a tribute to the master Antonio Seguí, who passed away in February at the age of 88 in Buenos Aires.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF MEANINGS BY ANNA MARIA MAIOLINO
MALBA presents a panoramic exhibition by Anna Maria Maiolino (Scalea Italy, 1942) with more than fifty years of works that include paintings, drawings, woodcuts, sculptures, photographs, videos, sound pieces and installations in an attempt to capture the prismatic spirit of the artist.
GABRIELA AYZA ASCHMANN: HER CALL TOWARDS WILD (LIGHT)
The Spanish-German artist Gabriela Ayza Aschmann (Cologne, Germany, 1991) presents in Tomas Redrado Art a series of paintings created in 2022, as an experience of inquiry into the expanded borders of portraiture that strengthens her. It is a sustained practice that she carries out advancing against the background of the history of the avant-garde, but above all she acts as if she were tearing pages from her own life, to add them to art.
NARRATIVES: FROM META-STORIES TO POSTART
The rise of the philosophy of language in the middle of the last century impacted all areas of humanistic culture, especially theoretical thought and the arts. The notions of discourse, story and narrative are part of that linguistic turn in which culture is perceived as a text. This approach has also influenced the conceptualization, appreciation and evaluation of the visual arts, even in the face of the programmatic reluctance of art-purism and its rejection of the anecdotal. Basically, the discursive subjects, the story and the narration displaced the old leading role of the "retinal" aesthetics. Since then, a large part of the artistic questions are aired in the verbal sphere and not in the strictly sensible plane.
16TH BIENNIAL OF LYON - MANIFESTO OF FRAGILITY
Conceived between a pandemic and a war in Europe, the 16th edition of the Biennale de Lyon "Manifesto of fragility", affirms fragility as intrinsically linked to a form of resistance initiated in the past, in tune with the present and capable of facing the future.
SLEEPING EMBAR - 37TH PANORAMA OF BRAZILIAN ART
Somewhat fused forms, in a dismantling that seems continuous, signaling a kind of tired geometry. The banal brilliance of a chromatic automotive cover in what could have been the label of a crumbling and volatile language typical of large urban agglomerations, in a tenuous cross between street art and graffiti.
SKIN (NOTES ON THE DISAPPEARING PAINTING)
During the last years painting has continued its course in permanent metamorphosis, adapting to the times, reviving from its previous deaths, stripping itself of accessories, undressing and even disappearing. A part of this process has focused on the mechanisms of production; the other, has been accompanied by an intense reflection that goes beyond painting and meditates on the status of image.
RURAL INSTALLATIONS - GUILLERMO SRODEK HART IN UNGALLERY
In his first exhibition since 2019, the photographer returns to deep Buenos Aires in search of reflections of our present through a documentary and poetic reading of the past.
THE INSEPARABILITY OF ART AND POLITICAL ACTION – LEÓN FERRARI AT THE POMPIDOU
The Centre Pompidou hosts for the first time the sculptures, collages, artist's books, drawings and assemblages by the artist León Ferrari (1920-2013), considered one of the most influential in Latin America.
MEAT: NOTES ON SACRIFICE, POWER AND DESIRE
In 2010, the American singer, actress and producer Lady Gaga (New York, 1986) scandalized the audience at the MTV Awards by appearing at the gala in a dress made of beef, designed by Franc Fernández and styled by Nicola Formichetti. The press at the time reviewed the controversy triggered by the extravagant outfit, which for some was offensive and for others a declaration of creative freedom.
'INHOTIM IS ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE,' SAYS JULIETA GONZÁLEZ
An institution that is more attentive and permeable to public debate, that has its own collection as a living witness to the changes. This could be one of the guiding axes of the work of the Venezuelan Julieta González at the head of the artistic direction of Inhotim, one of the main centers of contemporary art in Brazil and one of the most inspiring open-air museums in the world.
THE “BIENNIAL WITHOUT PUBLIC” (2020) IN SANTA CRUZ AND AN OUTLINED PATH (PART 2)
If the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil once had what was called the “Biennial of the Void” (2008), it could be said, bridging the gap, that Santa Cruz de la Sierra involuntarily experienced the “Biennial without public” (2020).
THE “BIENNIAL WITHOUT PUBLIC” (2020) IN SANTA CRUZ AND AN OUTLINED PATH (PART 1)
If the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil once had what was called the “Biennial of the void” (2008), it could be said, bridging the gap, that Santa Cruz de la Sierra involuntarily experienced the “Biennial without an audience” (2020).
AL DÍA (WITH ART)
I ask myself what it means to be Al día (up to date) with art, when it has already been decreed that we live in posthistory and that the present is now postpresent. The question I propose is not theoretical, but of a practical nature, since many decisions depend on its answer: which exhibitions to visit? what works to see? which artists to recommend? With these initial questions come others, also important, although not easy to answer: how much information is needed to be up to date? where can you get up-to-date information? Who has the news of the day?
NFTS AND METAVERSE: COLLECTORS OR INVESTORS? (PART II)
Although traditional art collecting includes an investment component and a business perspective, it still invokes a sort of romanticism aura that builds around an artist. A classic collector tends to follow an artist's trajectory, supporting his work. The new wave of NFT collectors stand out for not belonging to traditional art environments. Most of them are young aged and have never set foot in a museum or gallery, and therefore prioritize the finance aspect to NFT collecting to the emotional one. Generally, they are folks whose field of expertise is related to fin tech – they come from and drive the crypto world. And yes, they are mainly men.
NFTS AND METAVERSE: A CUBIST VIEW ON THE NEW DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM (PART 1)
As a conceptual artist working in the crossroads of art, science, and technology, with a corporate past and a social communications baseline, I am deeply interested in the new digital ecosystem raised by blockchain technology, NFTs and the Metaverse, from a perspective that addresses this realm as a sociological phenomenon, as a new business field, and as another one of the many mediums I utilize to express my ideas.
DEAD TREE IN THE FRONT YARD
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid, Spain) contains the world view of the American people. Almost four centuries of American painting are on display in rooms 46 to 55 on the first floor of the museum. To name but a few names: Peale, Cole, Heade, Church, Hopper, Burchfield, Shahn, Rothko, de Kooning, Pollock, Estes... Probably the most complete collection of American art in Europe, and a must-see exhibition for anyone who wants to understand the history and thougt of the Western country.
PARIS - CINETIQUE! THE SCULPTURE IN MOVEMENT
Welcome to the fascinating world of kinetic art! The Espace Monte-Cristo, the Parisian headquarters of the Fondation Villa Datris-Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, presents to celebrate its fifth anniversary "Cinétique! La sculpture en mouvement" (Kinetic! Sculpture in movement). The staging of this exhibition allows us to discover the creations of 25 French and international artists; kinetic sculptures from the 60s to the present mixing historical and scientific references. Static, dynamic or mechanical, these works play with our perception and evolve according to our movements. A colorful, sonorous, rhythmic and moving journey opens up before us.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: ART AS A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT - BEATRIZ CHACHAMOVITS IN ART AND CULTURE CENTER, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA
Review about the exhibition Into the Great Dying: (The Steps We Take), on view until June 2022
AN AVANT-GARDE IN LOCAL COLORS - ONCE UPON A MODERN TIME
On the occasion of the centenary anniversary of the 1922 Modern Art Week, a key event for the artistic avant-gardes in Brazil and which consolidated what would become known as modernism in the country, several exhibitions throughout the year (and also in 2021) revolved around, discussed, explained, replaced and 'cancelled' such an initiative. Considered a milestone in the cultural renewal of Brazilian art, the week was about to turn around in its already canonical grave.