Reviews

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.

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 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.

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.

"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 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.

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.

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).

The 13^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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?

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.

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.

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.