English
Rodrigo Valenzuela:past | Present
“Past | Present”, Rodrigo Valenzuela’s third solo exhibition at Upfor, is comprised of two parts: in September, a selection of prior work from major series in photography, video and painting; and in October, the debut of a new body of monochromatic photographs. Valenzuela’s works often involve narratives around immigration and the working class. Rooted in contradictory traditions of documentary and fiction, his staged scenes manipulate codes of representation to affect viewers’ perception of logic and reality.
Fernando Bryce:the Decade Review
In Bryce’s review of the decade what is implicit is that world diplomacy was a game played expertly, and exclusively, in the Northern Hemisphere, while the South was dealt and tampered with, most frequently without any political etiquette. Thus one can surmise that the seeds of what we now know as de-colonial thinking were being sown simultaneously in the minds of individuals, all over the globe, living in precarious and unstable locations where a multiplicity of experiences and experiments in the form of nascent post-imperialistic democracies or, more often than not, dictatorial regimes.
The Recent Paintings of Gus Van Sant
Admired internationally as a filmmaker, painter, photographer, and musician, Van Sant received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1975. Since that time his studio painting practice has moved in and out of the foreground of a multi-disciplinary career, becoming a priority again over recent years. Van Sant’s work in different mediums is united by a single overarching interest in portraying people on the fringes of society. In this exhibition, dreamlike hybridized scenes depict male nudes in shimmering, fractured cityscapes—obscure objects of desire whose presence suggests a mythological dimension hovering within the everyday world.
CRISTINA TUFIÑO: DANCING AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Her ceramics, in particular, render cuteness—or, pose as ruminations on cuteness. Cute meaning not just a thing we say about things, but a thing (lodged in things) that says something about how we talk about ourselves as homo sapiens, about commodities, and about aesthetics.
Blanton Museum Names Vanessa Davidson as Curator of Latin American Art
The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is pleased to announce the appointment of Vanessa Davidson as its new curator of Latin American art. She was previously the Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art at Phoenix Art Museum. Davidson succeeds Beverly Adams, who was named the Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art at the Museum of Modern Art this spring.
AIMÉ IGLESIAS LUKIN APPOINTED DIRECTOR AND CHIEF CURATOR OF VISUAL ARTS AT AMERICAS SOCIETY
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Aimé Iglesias Lukin is an art historian and curator based in New York since 2011. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at Rutgers University specializing in modern and contemporary Latin American Art. «I am honored to join the Americas Society and look forward to working toward a Visual Arts Program that will expand audiences, highlight the rich cultural production of the region, and promote dialogue in the Americas,» said Iglesias Lukin.
New Museum Presents The First Major New York Solo Museum Exhibition by Mika Rottenberg
Employing absurdist satire to address critical issues of our time, Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976, Buenos Aires, Argentina) creates videos and installations that offer subversive allegories for contemporary life. Her works interweave documentary elements and fiction, and often feature protagonists who work in factory-like settings, manufacturing goods ranging from cultured pearls («NoNoseKnows», 2015) to the millions of brightly colored plastic wholesale items sold in Chinese superstores («Cosmic Generator», 2017). The New Museum presents Rottenberg’s first New York solo museum exhibition, «Easypieces», which premieres a new video installation, «Spaghetti Blockchain» (2019), alongside several of her recent video installations and kinetic sculptures.
Paulo Nazareth:melee
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA Miami) presents the first solo US museum exhibition for Paulo Nazareth (b. 1977). «Melee» spans Nazareth’s work across mediums, including monumental and ephemeral sculpture, photography, video, and installations. Drawing on his Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous heritages, Nazareth brings the histories of marginalized groups into focus in an exhibition that is relevant to both the global and local Brazilian diaspora, while speaking to broad political conversations on issues of injustice and oppression.
Cross Currents/intercambio Cultural
“The story of Cross Currents in many ways reflects recent changes to the social and political landscapes in the United States and Cuba. When it was first proposed in 2016 by the National Museum of Mexican Art, the exchange embodied a moment of excitement and renewed openness. Relations have since chilled: the US Embassy in Cuba has closed, a new administration in Washington is intent on hardening borders, and in Cuba, Decreto 349 subjects artists to new forms of censorship and governmental regulation. The original mandate of opening artistic dialogue remains essential, now more than ever.”
Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold:a Postcolonial Paradox
«Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox», an exhibition on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), looks at the legacy of European colonialism in the Caribbean through the work of ten contemporary artists. Whether connected to the Caribbean by birth or focused on the region by choice, the exhibiting artists use their work as a means of examining the relationship between the power structure, those who are controlled by it, those who benefit from it, and those who actively seek to liberate themselves from it. With roots in a variety of Caribbean countries including the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, participating artists are Firelei Báez, Leonardo Benzant, Andrea Chung, Adler Guerrier, Lucia Hierro, Lavar Munroe, Angel Otero, Ebony G. Patterson, Phillip Thomas, and Didier William.