Celebrated Venezuelan-born cellist and composer Paul Desenne returns to his painting roots in “Pictures of the Lost World”, a series of works on canvas depicting the imaginary scenes of El Dorado. The exhibit, opening Tuesday, Dec 11 from 6-8 pm at La Esquina (203 Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan) depicts the fabled lost world of gold and riches, documented by Spanish conquistadors in South America in the 16th century. Curated by Natasha Stefanovic of Beautiful Things Curated, Desenne’s artistic debut in New York City pays homage to the tales of the wealth and riches attributed to native peoples in the path of conquistadors traversing South America. El Dorado is considered by some to be hidden deep in the heart of Venezuela, and Desenne – born in Caracas – evokes the mythologies of this treasured legend. Desenne draws from this storied mythology to envision a world of expressive natural imagery as seen through the eyes of the indigenous folk who called the lands hiding El Dorado home.
Yopotime by Paul Desenne, oil on canvas. Image courtesy Beautiful Things Curated
Recently celebrated in performances at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Desenne extends his celebrated flair for capturing delicate details in these lush, colorful works. The artworks are not only rooted in a strong sense of color, but also express the emotion of figures depicted in these figurative works. “I started a series of pictures adding layers of geographic realism and fictional narrative to the fantastic creatures imagined by European illustrators,” notes Desenne. “The maps and publications of this period depict all kinds of monstrous creatures springing from the medieval imagination, spurred by the unbelievable accounts of the newly explored continent.” In addition to careful research imbuing his paintings with re-imagined histories rooted in actual geographical formations, Desenne dissects the misunderstandings of Spanish conquistadors to pay homage to the actual citizens of South America, particularly his native Venezuela. Notes Desenne, “I represent the strikingly visual aspect of this New World: [a] land of projections, where the Eldorado is nothing but a hallucination of conquerors… I also work on the representation of possible scenes in familiar settings, such as the natives in the Yopo ceremony in front of the mountains in the valley of Caracas.” Desenne notes the significance of reclaiming native viewpoints in his works, observing, “the layers of landscape, narrative and speculation overlap and integrate on these thinly yet colorfully treated canvases, bringing the strangest lost worlds back to life.”
Don’t miss the debut of Paul Desenne’s “Pictures of the Lost World”, curated by Natasha Stefanovic, at La Esquina, 203 Lafayette Street, on Tuesday, Dec 11 from 6-8 pm.
The cold, muted winter sky doesn’t hold a candle to Ice Pores, the upcoming exhibit by innovative rising star artist Julia Sinelnikova. The artist’s interactive holographic environments entice visitors to engage with sudden temporal realities created by installations of Sinelnikova’s Fairy Organ sculptures. Curated by Brian Shevlin, visitors to Ice Pores are invited to the exhibit on view Dec 13-21 from 12-6 pm at Lazy Susan gallery and to interact with a dazzling array of light-reacting, immersive sculptures. The exhibit opening on Dec 13 from 7-10 pm will include a performance by the artist and spoken word performance that will entrance the opening night crowd.
Detail from Chlorophycaea by Julia Sinelnikova
Sinelnikova notes of this new series of Fairy Organ sculptures on view at Lazy Susan the importance of engaging individual visitors to the exhibit, remarking, “Interaction with the audience is my primary
artistic focus, in an age when art is increasingly presented in 2D and digital formats”. The artist presents a multi-sensory feast of temporal pleasures, with shifting viewpoints resulting in mutable fantasies, environments of light and shadow enveloping the viewer. This changing sensibility reflects the mutable sensibility of fairies in Russian folklore, which the artist grew up with during a childhood in Russia. Beauty and illusion lure the visitor in, yet this experience is both dazzling and deceptive. When interacting with the work, Sinelnikova takes on a character called “The Oracle”: this alternate person is comprised of an otherwordly Sinelnikova, whose persona translates the artist’s installations through a handmade costume and alchemical processes.
Detail from Narkadine by Julia Sinelnikova
Sinelnikova lives and works in Brooklyn, and holds a BFA in Sculpture from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The artist’s installations have been exhibited internationally, and she has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE, and Artnet, among others. Huffington Post. Don’t miss the opening of Ice Pores on Thursday, Dec 13 from 7-10 pm to experience first-hand the mythical presence of the artist’s newest iteration of the Fairy Organ series.
Slightly north of the beating heart of Miami Art Week, Pulse Art Fair – anchored at Indian Beach Park, as always – continues to keep art week feeling fresh! ANTE. toured Pulse to pick out the top presentations not-to-be-missed at the 2018 iteration of the fair, open through Dec 9.
NY FEM FACTORY image courtesy Jessica Yatrofsky
NY FEM FACTORYA Tree Grows at Pulse
What happens when a booth is really a tree? NY Fem Factory observed this alternative to a white cube space as an invitation for giving visitors a moment of rest and reflection along with a healthy dose of feminism with their project Pink Privacy. Neon signs created by artist Dana Caputo depict the venus symbol and hang like strange fruit from a sea grape tree. sprouting whimsically from the fair floor. The signs are visually striking and attract attention from across the South Tent, imploring viewers to come a little closer with enticingly soft pink light. Landline phones positioned on glass coffee tables at the base of the tree play pre-recorded voices reciting each individual’s experiences as women. When asked which came first, the tree or the installation, NY FEM FACTORY elaborated on the project. “Originally, we planned on receiving a space with walls where we could create an immersive installation,” observed NY FEM FACTORY artist Jessica Yatrofsky. Pink Privacy represents a cohesive collaboration featuring female-identifying artists who have created a safe space to connect, relate stories, and express creative impulses together as a community.
installation view of Mindy Solomon gallery courtesy the gallery
MINDY SOLOMON GALLERY Florida Vibes
Step into Gallerist Mindy Solomon’s bubbly and colorful world presentation (Booth N-102), which boasts a healthy collection of ceramics and paintings highlighting an innovative array of perspectives. Established in 2009, Mindy Solomon Gallery is palpably integrated into the fabric of the Florida art scene. Where some showings by NY-based galleries cram booths with gaudy saturated palettes, pop imagery, and shiny finishes, Solomon seems right at home on her own turf. As a practicing artist, educator, advocate and collector, Solomon views her gallery as an incubator for dynamic artists who are in the process of establishing their voices. Solomon’s genuine, trained eye seamlessly integrates male and female, national and international, emerging and even established artists all within one cohesive environment. Solomon deftly utilizes color as a unitifing factor as the great equalizer, incorporating a variety of perspectives and striking a balance between artwork, race, and gender. In a gallery world held increasingly more accountable for inclusion, striking a balance between artwork, race, and gender can be a contrived quota – not so at Solomon, who offers what I can only describe as pop sincerity and vibrant, celebratory diversity exuded through a balance of color and form.
Pulse PLAY installation view, courtesy Project for Empty Space
Pulse Play Project For Empty Space The Beauty of Violence
The Project for Empty Space (PES) activates their booth with Pulse Play, screening of video-based work showcasing the perspective five artists from various parts of the world who address the theme, “A Violence”. By relying upon an open call system, Project for Empty Space founders Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol democratize an artist’s chance at showing work during one of the highest profile art events of the year: Pulse Art Fair. By boldly representing video-based work within an art fair dominated by objects, PES upholds their mission to produce instances of social engagement, education, and dialogue through art in order to encourage systemic change and cultural tolerance.
This collection of videos include striking surreal images along with audio cues that reveal how universal the impact of violence is. “So much beauty is born from so much devastating pain. What was particularly important for us in this project was to exemplify a span of subjects that ranged from the personal to the public; it was significant to choose voices that engage in nuanced and complicated understandings of systemic violence and the fallout that comes with it,” noted PES co-directors Wahi and Jampol. Pulse Play offers viewers a moment of philosophical reflection through the storytelling of video and serves as an unexpected humanitarian respite from the fair frenzy.
Ann Lewis, One in Five image courtesy the artist
ANN LEWIS One in Five
From afar, Ann Lewis’s booth looks like a minimalist contemplation of space and light immediately conjuring references to the lineage artists such as Eva Hesse and Ruth Asawa. Get a little closer and the hanging garments reveal themselves to be underwear: twenty pieces of underwear, in total. A sharp pang of revulsion floods the body as one can’t help but notice a considerable number of the undergarments are soiled, stained, and ripped. This visceral reaction, a moment of disgust, is something Lewis employs in her work as a means of addressing the topic of rape culture in America. “I created this work during the Brock Turner hearings back in 2016,” Lewis explains. She goes on to explain that the title One in Five directly references a statistic published by the CDC that one in five women will experience sexual abuse in their lifetime. “I base many of my works on accessible data as to give the viewer unencumbered access to the facts of these issues through visual representations.” As a multi-disciplinary artist and activist, Lewis focuses on creating work in public spaces in order to address American identity, power structures, and social justice. Lewis’s work is visually and emotionally striking, yet pensive and refined standing as a powerful statement within the fast paced commercially driven environment.
Knot Expected: Elevating the Everyday with artist Windy Chien image courtesy Sunbrella
Knot Expected: Elevating the Every Day The Odd Couple
The pairing of artist Windy Chien and Sunbrella, an outdoor textile manufacturer, seems like a relatively unlikely duo to find at Pulse. However this unexpected collaboration offered something that most highbrow commercial booths overlook: the importance of the human touch. For Chien, this is just the latest in a series of collaborative outlets that allow her to express her creative impulses. After stepping away from an executive position at Apple, Chien submerged herself in the ancient, nautical craft of knot making – learning a different knot each day for one year. Her intense level of intrigue and dedication to a medium which is often only valued for its functionality caught the PR eye of Sunbrella. Large canvas bags containing small bundles of cords in neutral earth tones were positioned in the middle of the booth amidst an installation of various knot types the artist had created. “Would you like to tie a knot?” a Sunbrella representative asked, coaxing my curiosity with an invitation to touch. Within the setting of the art fair, a place that commercially epitomizes the artistic hand the intimacy of touch and the ability to encounter a material is a rare and meaningful experience. Chien’s desire to elevate the mundane knot and share the joy of textiles allowed for a less conceptual and more intimate moment of interaction and storytelling to take place in the most unlikeliest of settings.
Miami Art Week is nothing if not overwhelming: a comprehensive survey of the contemporary art market on an international scale, there is something to distract and enthrall even the most casual visitor. For fans of fashion, fine art and sustainability, however, one exhibit is paramount: RE-THINK, theArcadia Earth-curated project taking place at Istituto Marangon Miami (IMM). Featuring thrilling installations and immersive art experiences, RE-THINK is a fearless, vibrantly contemporary showcase of artists whose works demonstrate aspects of re-using, re-purposing and upcycling materials.
After a VIP opening December 3rd, the exhibit kicks off Dec 4th and will remain on view through December 16th at 3700 – 3740 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami, Florida. An exhaustive survey of artists including Tamara Kostianovsky, Cindy Roe, Samuelle Green, Etty Yaniv, and more work across recycling and conservation in partnership with Arcadia Earth, Oceanic Global and IMM. These organizations have joined powers in support of these artists to produce sweeping vistas of recycled paper in cave-like rooms and vibrant banquet tableaus crafted with upcycled objects.
Etty Yaniv’s SIRENS, part of RE-THINK
Etty Yaniv‘s installation, “SIRENS”, recreates an ocean wave out of plastics and fragments of artworks that deeply impact visitors to RE-THINK as to the overwhelming sense of the scale pollution plays in our planet’s oceans. Directly in conversation with nature while simultaneously referencing the power and impact of Hokusai’s graphic woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Yaniv produces a powerful composition simultaneously evoking the power of nature and the increasing amount of plastics and other trash and debris comprising the oceans. Created mainly of plastic remnants, for SIRENS at Arcadia Project in Miami Yaniv accentuates the push-and-pull drama extant between nature and man-made artifice, a complex co-existence which has resulted in unprecedented pollution of our oceans and rising sea levels. Balancing the organic and the artificial, Yaniv’s “SIRENS” provides a subtle yet impactful elegy to the power of the Earth’s oceans and our role in creating a new a natural environment, whether for better or for worse. In addition to “SIRENS”, nearby “Manifestation of the Paper Cave 2” by Samuelle Green and “Alchemy” Tamara Kostianovsky align with the exhibition themes of sustainability and environmental protection. Tamara Kostianovsky’s site-specific work draws attention to the need to up-cycle everyday objects, and eyeing new means of regeneration and sustainability while Samuelle Green’s “cave” creates a visual dialogue with art forms present in the natural world. Overall, these environmentally friendly installations work as a cohesive whole, and are supplemented by mindful panels related to sustainability efforts which take place in the center of these massive art environments.
detail, SIRENS by Etty Yaniv for RE-THINK
Visit RE-THINK soon – before December 16, 2018 at 3700 – 3740 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami – to experience this limited time immersive exhibit thoughtfully highlighting environmental issues and the simple daily solutions available to create a more sustainable planet through augmented reality, experiential installations and curated educational talks and panels.
Installations by – Left to Right – Etty Yaniv, Samuelle Green and Tamara Kostianovsky
Vertiginous folds of fabric climb in an ambitious ascent, weaving the identity of its creator into every stitch. Basil Kincaid’s voluminous “Love As Patient As the Hillside” (2018) anchors Jenkins Johnson’s spacious first-floor gallery space for “On the Road: Caroline Kent, Basil Kincaid and Esau McGhee”. Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, this exhibition, on view through Jan 12, marks the first installment in the exhibition series by the curator. Referencing Jack Kerouac’s influential On the Road, Ossei-Mensah applies the concept of documenting a cross-country journey toward charting the contemporary African-American experience – beginning here with a specific lens on the Midwest. The cohort of artists on view in Jenkins Johnson’s debut “On the Road” work in St. Louis and Chicago, and have lived in and worked throughout the region.
Works by Basil Kincaid including “Love As Patient As the Hillside” (2018) (on right) Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Projects
“Approaching Kerouac’s On the Road, on this cross-country art journey I found myself asking: where are the black and brown bodies?” Ossei-Mensah, Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit (MOCAD), reflects on his curatorial approach leading up to “On The Road”. In introducing the exhibit and its artists, he mentions being inspired by works by Derrick Adams and Ebony G. Patterson who exalt black bodies, portraying these figures in states of leisure and celebration. These scenes recurred to the curator as he initially viewed works by St. Louis-based Basil Kincaid. Standing in front of Kincaid’s portraits of a picnic, family members relaxing on the grass in the sun on the same quilt on view in “On the Road”, Ossei-Mensah recounts Kincaid’s emphasis on incorporating his family’s history and his own personal memories into these quilted works. This soft sculpture anchors the space, the folds of the fabric softly outlining an absent human figure, anticipating the edges of a subtle form. Kincaid’s works both reveal and conceal the human form and memories, his own and those in his immediate social circle. “Kincaid creates quilted works as portraits of his own family and markers of memory, and his collages and drawings taken in consideration alongside these quilted works express a variety of modalities. It’s important for audiences to be exposed to the breadth of his practice,” Ossei-Mensah elaborates.
Works by Esau McGhee (L and R) flank a work by Basil Kincaid (Center) for “On the Road”, Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Projects
Nearby mixed-media works masterfully contort inside their custom-built frames, wrestling against the weight of anticipated right angles with their calculated curves and bends. Wooden frames and compositions both bear witness the masterful range of Chicago-based Esau McGhee‘s practice. Working from his studio in East Garfield Park, McGhee takes his initial training in photography through the filter of working as a street artist to construct complex compositions, some with a graffiti mark-making tool, in vivid patterns and hues. Applying an intimate repetition of found pattern, McGhee combines a balanced approach to construction and composition to exquisite effect. These collages flatten notions of ownership: referencing found imagery as a diagram of public space, McGhee integrates patterns, colors and printed materials found within the mass-produced and the everyday. McGhee observes, “This collective experience that we all share with public spaces… it’s not my space, it’s not your space, it’s really ours: it’s going through an evolution as dictated by us.”
“Summer Love” (2018) and “Star Gazing” (2018) by Basil Kincaid, Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Projects
Approaching Jenkins Johnson’s lower gallery space, Ossei-Mensah expounds on his initial approach when formulating this inaugural iteration of “On the Road”. “As a curator, it’s key to find ways to challenge myself to not subscribe to a particular style,” reflects Ossei-Mensah. We take a moment to gaze around at the show before he continues, “As a project space and commercial gallery, Jenkins Johnson is the perfect place to mount “On the Road” – I’m thankful that they were willing to take a risk on a show of artists whose work audiences here may have never encountered, providing a platform for these artists in an accessible, domestic space where diverse audiences can feel a sense of belonging.”
Ruminating on the importance of crafting inter-regional dialogues with diverse artists whose work may not (yet) be featured on Artforum or headlining Christie’s auctions, Ossei-Mensah presents a measured viewpoint on why he began this series with Midwestern artists. In addition to his role building a platform for artists from across the region (and the US) at MOCAD in Detroit, he observes the area is full of sometimes overlooked talent. “Artists in the Midwest are making interesting work, and can be diamonds in the rough whose work merits new platforms. These are artists whose work shouldn’t lie undiscovered: there is a narrative guiding each artist’s body of work. These artists are all committed to their practice – what they will produce next will be truly remarkable.”
“To Summon the Objects in the Room, Pt. 2” (2018) and “Alterior Motives” (2018) by Caroline Kent Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Projects
The final gallery yields exquisite works by artist Caroline Kent, whose work spans text and abstraction. Ossei-Mensah identifies what first caught his eye about her abstract works: the forms placed within a black ground. “Using a black ground in these works asserts her position,” notes Ossei-Mensah. Our conversation centers on the relative dearth of black women artists working in abstraction, and how by foregrounding these works within a black space the artist subtly re-orients the context of these compositions. Meanwhile, two text-based pieces nearby include the artist’s own written work, placed in dialogue with monochrome hues of paint created by the artist’s finger marks. Aspects of Kent’s identity intermingle in these works, while her larger abstract compositions evoke disparate actions and forms. Taken comprehensively, Kent’s body of work absorbs a multitude of influences while incorporating her own precise palette: what Ossei-Mensah refers to as a “a pictorial index she sees built into the world of gestures around her.” We stop in front of two works by Kent, “Carmicheal and Eloise” (2016) and “I Would Call…,” (2016), before Ossei-Mensah continues. “Kent’s work demonstrates her commitment to pushing the limits of abstract language, with her focus on building a syntax and toolbox: a reservoir of forms and colors placed upon a black ground. When taken in context with her text-based works there exists a variety of aspects in her practice, a remarkable plurality.”
Reflecting on Kent’s practice, Ossei-Mensah inadvertently observes the power propelling “On the Road” forward. “This work pushes the visual language to its breaking point,” he observes. Works on view by Kincaid, Kent and McGhee push the envelope, breaking boundaries across mediums in a well-balanced survey of formidable contemporary artists living and working in the Midwest.
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