DaWire

Featuring both individual and collaborative works, Josué Pellot and Héctor Arce-Espasas play upon their shared heritage with a critique of tourism’s myth of Paradise. The artists reach beyond simple autobiography by embodying histories of art, family, commerce, heritage, and nationalism in a rich visual experience in Galleries 2.5 and 3. Illuminated pineapples become the embodiment of culture, transubstantiating the subject’s body into that of a delectable fruit. Both artists struggle with the alchemy responsible for transforming culture into consumable tourist objects. Their photographs, paintings, and installations express a desire to unravel the meaning of cultural objects and the dissemination of those meanings throughout the global marketplace. Read the rest of this post »

Quintín Rivera Toro’s most recent exhibition titled Allafuera, currently on view at METRO:plataformaorganizada in San Juan, is comprised of a general survey of new works and a presentation of several ongoing series that the artist has been working on for several years. Although the works are presented devoid of curatorial strategies, through them, the viewer can sense a personal approach consequent to the artist’s immediate environment, that combined with political proclamations seems to evoke a sense of agitation and unrest. Ideas related to hopelessness, desire and futility prevail as relevant themes to explore within the context of Rivera Toro’s recent artistic production. Read the rest of this post »

Ingenious Displacements: Hope and Failure in the Works of Manolo Rodríguez

Flight has been the dream of mankind for centuries. A lofty desire inspired by nature, present in most mythologies, ancient cultures and religions, from Greek mythology to Persian literature and Christianism. In these, flying suggests divinity, winged flight a province of the gods and the powerful. But he who dares to fly we are advised, much like Icarus, might be destined for failure. This myth in particular has influenced generations of experimenters and inventors, as they struggled between optimism, speculation and defeat, fashioning ornithopters and flying apparatuses in their search for knowledge and perhaps a mystical experience. Read the rest of this post »

At DaWire we have been indulging in some much needed time off. Our Summer reading list is long, but we have two gorgeous publications that we will be reviewing soon that we want our readers to keep an eye on: Jac Leirner in Conversation with Adele Nelson, published by the Fundación Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Cold America: Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934-1973), catalogue for the exhibition of the same name at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. Extended reviews to come in September. See you soon and enjoy the rest of the Summer!

Hector Madera, Untitled, mixed media, 2009-2010 (Detail)

AREA arrives to the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico with a new space and an innovative program. METRO plataformaorganizada is José Hernández Castrodad’s new initiative in San Juan that brings together a group of young and talented Puerto Rican artists based in Puerto Rico and abroad. METRO is a self-sustainable artist-run space that promotes Puerto Rican artists locally and internationally through individual and group shows, curated projects and collaborations. Castrodad, an avid collector and art enthusiast who is highly respected by the local artistic community, already funds and supports AREA, an alternative art space and residency program in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Read the rest of this post »

Jason Kraus, 3 Gas Tanks. Courtesy of Redling Fine Art.

Jason Kraus (1983, New York) is a young promising artist who recently graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. Since then, he has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York, and recently collaborated with Martin Kersels in a one-night performance at the Whitney Museum titled Jason Martin wants to be a DJ. Demonstrating an interdisciplinary approach, Kraus’ artistic practice is often the result of a private performance, where the final object produced proposes narratives meant for the viewer to construe. The experience of viewing his work invokes instances of what the artist defines as suspended disbelief, where he keeps the viewer thinking if what he sees is found or fabricated. But with so much talk lately of the hyperreal and the simulated in our visual landscape, does it really even matter anymore? Read the rest of this post »

Video Still from Untitled, Juan Pablo Macías. Courtesy of the artist.

Spectroscopies was conceived as a critical response to the commemorative furor that pervaded the cultural production and consumption in Mexico (because it was imposed) during the years 2009 and 2010. Whether it was because they were included in the corresponding exhibitions of the official celebrations for the start of the struggle for Independence of Mexico (1810) and the beginning of the revolutionary struggle for the establishment of a representative democratic government (1910), participating in the institutional activities associated with it, or because their labor was required for the realization of mass entertainment, very few members of the diverse artistic communities of the country were indifferent to the “centennial fever.” Read the rest of this post »

Adaptive Actions is a collaborative project initiated in London in 2007 by Montreal based artist Jean-François Prost, gathering a series of micro-actions developed by artists and citizens around the world within an urban city context. The project is based on an open-call available to everyone online. When submitting, each collaborator becomes an ‘actor’ in a series of world-wide micro scenarios and interventions that document and reveal the different ways people adapt to the urban environment, be it improvised or completely planned.  Read the rest of this post »

Expanded Window, 2011. Site-specific installation. Acrylic, cable, aluminum.

Rectangular amber filters catch spectators unaware, forming an untouchable structure of lights and shadows over a ramp at the entrance of this exhibit curated by Itala Schmelz. Reflective plexiglas panels form geometric relations, the beam of yellow light fills the room with sparkling reflections, and the color of the sky changes when watching towards the zenith through the filters. Read the rest of this post »

María Fernanda Plata. Measurement related drawings. Length. 333, 333… m of a single thread on paper, 22 x 29 in, 2007.

María Fernanda Plata‘s (Bogotá, Colombia 1978) Measurement-Related Drawings examine notions of length, weight and area in a visual exploration of architecture that involves measuring and delimitating the material used for each piece. The process can be described as the elaboration of three types of drawings: thread on paper, paper on paper and oil on paper. Read the rest of this post »