DaWire

Another great article from our West Coast friends over at DailyServing written by Catlin Moore. Have fun!

Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo credit: Brian Forrest

In a former life, Walead Beshty may have rubbed elbows with Patti Smith. Flaunting her contemptuous disregard for the cautionary advice of her peers, Smith famously denounced words as mere “rules and regulations” in her rendition of Van Morrison’s “Gloria.” In one unruly, titillating performance, Smith flipped the good ol’ boys’ fraternity of rock and roll on its ear by lampooning the muffled sexism of the music industry, exposing the frivolous laws that command its economy. In other words, let’s not shy away from the fact that sex sells in this game, kiddo.  Similarly, the art world has its own rulebook.  And Beshty has a shredder. Read the rest of this post »

Recently, during the month of April, Mexico City has been the seat of an international contemporary art fair: Zona Maco. Even though the fair has changed its name several times, it has grown to currently become the most successful art fair in Latin America. A great deal of society in Mexico City is always excited by this event. Many artists, collectors and people related to art from abroad come to the city. Parties, dinners and gallery openings are abundant, museums have special events, and bars in Polanco, Roma and Condesa districts, and the historical downtown are full of people talking about art, artists and collectors. Artists, cultural managers and agents, gallerists and curators gather together in order to widen their public relations and magazines publish special issues on contemporary art. Everybody has some kind of fun! Read the rest of this post »

CIMBRA, installation view

An assemblage with concave and convex elements by Thomas Glassford prepares the viewer for a distortion in their perception about the indiscernible limits and differences between established, procedural, formal, abstract or conceptual in contemporary art. Artists working within the context of Mexico, free of the historical and social imperatives, provoke an anamorphosis of vision located in the fold of Being and matter. Much like an erotic act, they speculate through an intimate relationship of art and artist. Matter and intelligible code field converge recreationally as a reflection of the Self. Some features, discovered by the curator Josefa Ortega, operate as a common thread that bring together works by artists from many different lands and ages: analytical construction, unveiling of the quality of material, structural game, time investment, non-referentiality and minimal use of materials. Looking for an evolution in form, the artists here described delve into the archives of abstraction and trends since 1945 such as pop, minimal forms, Arte Povera and conceptualism, using a wide range of media from painting, video, sculpture and object art. Read the rest of this post »

José Luis Cortés-Santander - Installation view and Detail at Galería The Goma, Madrid

For this commissioned project, José Luis Cortés Santander (Mexico, 1980) has specially developed a series of artworks that constantly refer to a time and space beyond themselves. Geheimnisse sind die Knoten, die die Welt zusammenhalten, secrets are the knots that bind the world, emphasizes the power of artistic creation as a medium for the circulation of ideas which far from being considered affirmations act as propagated rumors. At the same time, the artworks presented in this show gaze in a subtly ironic manner the power attributed to the artist of unveiling mystic truths. Read the rest of this post »

Anri Sala, Intallation View

As I walked into the interior patio that gives way to the gallery space, I came across an old barrel organ player, an instrument considered by today’s standard as ancient technology. The instrument’s surface is scared by the passing of time, but its pipes can still harmonize a tune. On its sides, the barrel organ player had a series of keys. I proceeded to play the keys on the barrel organ shortly after a gallery attendant -possibly disrupted by my melody- approached me to teach me how to play the instrument. He explained that the card keys were the invitations of the art exhibition I came to see. The card keys were left behind the night of the opening, when guests had the opportunity to play their invitations in the order they pleased. Suddenly, on the other side of the gallery I recognized a familiar disrupted song. This is how I began the process of engaging with Anri Sala’s first solo show at the Kurimanzutto Gallery in Mexico City, by playing The Clash’s Should I Stay of Should I Go, which echoes throughout the gallery space and at other places in the city intervened by Sala as part of the exhibition. Read the rest of this post »

Risk and Tension. It seems that Alejandro Almanza likes to keep viewers on their toes. Working mostly with construction materials and domestic interiors, Almanza creates situations of stress through sculpture and installations; a house of cards that precariously threatens to fall or break. Danger seems to be a constant in his work, as well as the exploration of materials and our perceptions of them. How can a set of light bulbs hold a cinderblock? Through his work we realize that the most fragile materials, can also be the strongest ones. Read the rest of this post »

Tania Candiani & Regina José Galindo, Battleground, Live performance and streaming, El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua

Tania Candiani reveals and confronts head-on in her work the pressures that women face in society, the insistence on being stick thing, crazy fad diets and a combination of junk-food ad wars and fitness fanaticism, and much like a warrior, uses everything that is most typically associated with conventional women’s ‘work’, from cooking utensils to needle and thread to address it. In all this, the body is the main subject that allows her to call these issues into attention, that although considered somewhat trite, still concern women today. Read the rest of this post »

The saying goes that ‘the 30′s are the new 20′s’ and if we consider this in light of ARCO’s 30th anniversary this year, we find that the Madrid-based fair is as youthful as ever. After last year’s controversial edition (many galleries boycotted the fair due to its unbridled growth), ARCO seems to have regained its old-time mystique. Stricter parameters for the fair’s gallery program translated to more spacious stands, a more relaxed viewing experience and reportedly more sales. Read the rest of this post »

Titus Kaphar, This place never felt like home

There is no question that nuances of power are central to the work of Titus Kaphar.  However, in today’s world, to dis-empower, overpower, or empower is dépassé. To play with power is the name of the game.  To cut off the head of power, exploit it, expose it, erase it, deflate it, reveals its fragile construction. And, this is precisely what Kaphar does in his current exhibition, Classical Disruption. Read the rest of this post »

Biospheres is the term used by Saraceno for his floating, transparent globes. Taking a metaphorical, poetic approach to serious subjects such as the overpopulation of Earth, environmental issues and migration, Saraceno attempts to create new relations between culture and nature. The biospheres of this work are inspired by careful scientific studies of e.g. the formation of clouds, soap bubbles and the geometric principles in spider webs. Several of the spheres contain plant-based ecosystems, while the largest of them invites spectators to step inside. Read the rest of this post »