Your visit to an art exhibition (some NSFW)
 

Cyn's thread asks about what's on at your local museum.

I wanted to share with you art exhibitions that are not necessarily in museums, but instead in small galleries, or even locations that are not your conventional exhibition space.

A week ago I went to an art show in a photography gallery (of which there are only two in Lisbon!). The show was by a Mexican photographer, Flor Garduño.

I am not a great expert on photography but I do appreciate it and this was a nice show.

The imagery of Flor Garduño's photographs reminds me very much of the Mexican culture, particularly the literature. There is something very, earthy, yet sensual about it, and that is translated in these works.

The show was called Mujeres Fantasticas. So of course women figure heavily in the work. The works are very carnal and down to earth. but there is something spiritual to them as well. The photographs celebrate the human body (particularly that of women) but also nature, and the inextricable link between them.

Here are some photos of works in the show (sorry for the quality, some I scanned from the show catalogue):

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/559-fga.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/561-fg1.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/563-fg3.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/564-fg4.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/566-fg6.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/562-fg2.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...rt/565-fg5.jpg

And here is a video of Flor talking about her work, shot in the gallery. There are more if you're interested - just follow the links in youtube. (It's in Spanish, sorry!)

Thanks for sharing her work...always great to know about artists like her. Love the peacock image, pic 2, and pic 4. Great addition of the video as well.

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

Here's something Skogafoss and I stumbled upon on our way to a going away party in the village. We both were scratching our heads as we walked through what we thought was a new store, only to discover it was an art exhibit of some sorts. I only discovered that it was Banksy's first NY show.

Banksy

If you are in NYC, I urge you to see it as it is only open until Oct 31.

Here's his exhibit.

Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

That looks pretty awesome Cyn.

Can't wait to go check it out.

Wish I could go see it too. Banksy has some amazing ideas - a great creative mind.

All I can say is that the Banksy exhibit was absolutely insane.

Insane.

I saw some beautiful art work yesterday in an art gallery.

I liked it so much I almost bought something. That would be a first for me. To buy a piece of art work by an another artist, for myself. I could start a little collection, I was thinking. Tempting.

It would have set me back $900.

Here it is:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...-her-dress.jpg

Detail of a similar piece:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...s-floated2.jpg

Here is the artist's statement about her "Text Works":

"For the past several years my work has addressed historical events as seen through the lens of news media. Through my first-hand visits to, and subsequent renderings of, my visual experiences at 100 historical disaster sites pictured in news photographs, I have worked to address a sense of grief. While researching each site for this project, I have scoured many old newspapers for written information. Along the way I have noted many poetic passages that conjure graphic images of their own. In Text Work, I have removed several quotes, including eyewitness testimonies and first-hand accounts, from single sheets of paper. What is left is a lacey absence."

The artist is Canadian and I love her work. Her name is Michelle Forsyth.

Here are some more of her pieces I saw, with captions:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...int-bridge.jpg

Point Ellice Bridge Collapse, Victoria, BC, May 26, 1896

"Shortly after 2pm on May 26, 1896 during the height of the annual Victoria Day celebrations, an electric streetcar plunged from the iron-trussed Point Ellice Bridge into the cold waters of the Gorge Waterway. Loaded with 140 passengers, the streetcar was far heavier than the bridge was designed to handle and was pierced by crashing timbers and ironwork as it descended into the water. Fifty-five people drowned as a result.This drawing depicts a cloud floating over the site of the accident."

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...c6-1917-01.jpg

December 6, 1917*
(#5 from Ostinatos)

"At 9:04 on the morning of December 6, 1917, the Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship inbound to Halifax, NS for a brief stop before heading off to the war in Europe collided with the outbound Imo, a Belgian reef ship. Due to the fact that the Mont-Blanc was carrying a load of gun cotton, TNT, and picric acid, the impact caused the ship to catch fire and blow up. The explosion had a devastating effect. It leveled much of northern Halifax and Dartmouth and caused 1,963 people to perish. Evidence of the disaster can still be found in Halifax including a broken window pane and a piece of wreckage that was driven into the wall from the blast. My piece documents some blooms on a tree above the site where the explosion took place."

Here is what the artist has to say about her work:

"(...)I consider my work to be a reflection on, and a reaction to, the onslaught of images of suffering in our contemporary world.

All of my work is made in response to an extensive collection of images of trauma culled from television, newspapers, and the Internet. From horrific scenes of disaster captured by our contemporary news media to the smaller scale depictions of personal tragedy, images of peril and demise have permeated nearly every aspect of contemporary life.

(...) As I find myself confronted by this onslaught, I mourn our tolerance of violence in our media and our inability to express a sense of grief.

(...) As a humanistic response to these kinds of tendencies, I transform images of abjection and spectacle into glittering surfaces that shroud the images of pain with layers of beauty. Quiet and contemplative, my work bears traces of its making. From thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes or cut-out paper flowers, to diluted layers of watercolor, the value of my time spent becomes just as important as the final product. Color functions to conceal and hide the images in a protective coating, which creates a distance that I hope will empower viewers with a greater ability to bear witness to the complexities of our mediated experience."

her work looks like a spin on Chuck Close. Not terribly original, but beautiful nonetheless

umm...people were creating pointillistic images long before Chuck Close. I have to say I think there is a degree of originality in her work, though of course things tend to always reflect on what has been done in the past - and that's not a bad thing IMO. There are other more crazily original artists out there, but I don't think I've seen her particular pointillistic style before and especially her text works. Regardless of originality though, the works are delicate and tense, poignant and beautiful to me. I value that in this work.

they are definitely beautiful....wasn't meaning to slander her work. The could picture just screamed Chuck Close to me (specifically the technique of gridding out the canvas and addressing each square on it's own to create the larger image).

I schlepped my way crosstown yesterday to check out Sean Fader's new exhibit in which he digitally manipulates photographs of people so that it appears as if he's zipped himself into their bodies. I know it sounds weird so:

http://www.seanfader.com/Main_files/...n,%20Irene.jpg

He essentially shoots nude portraits of people in their natural settings and superimposes his head and a bit of his chest onto their bodies along with a metal zipper so that it looks as if he's wearing their skin like a suit.

His facial and chest hair along with his play on proportion make for work that is striking and uniquely his own but I couldn't help but to wonder exactly what function or purpose his work serves. Perhaps I'm entirely too reliant upon formal analysis in my understanding of artwork but as I stood there staring at his prints (while consuming the complimentary absinthe and cupcakes), I couldn't help but to wonder exactly what he was trying to say.

At least the drinks were good. Here's a link to a video in which he explains his process.

ok, first I'll throw out some ideas, prior to doing any reading on the artist or his work.

At first glance, this looks like a man, in a rather feminine pose. There is something slightly gay about it. Then, I see that the female body is like a suit the person in the photo is wearing. Like he wants to embody someone else. He wants to be confused with the woman. Or he wants us to be confused, sexually. Also, it makes me think about other people, and what it may be like to be them, to be in their skin. It's almost a literal interpretation of "I've got you under my skin". It's a snapshot of an ordinary moment in someone's life and we get to be in their life, in their body. It could be seen as a self-portrait of some sort. It could be saying something about how the artist views himself.

Reading this short interview with the artist,

Interview with Sean Fader

and browsing through some of his other work, it seems that some of my thoughts are not too far off.

The fact that he has worked as an actor explains some of the theatricality of his works. The clearly posed for photographs, where every detail has been carefully arranged. He calls what he does in his work "queering". Queering is about creating something different or odd, that is against the white-hetero norm. It is also, according to SF, about creating a more inclusive view of the world. I don't see this inclusiveness though I understand what he's trying to do. I think it brings attention to exclusion instead. Visually, I quite like the work. It's clean and sharp.

The first thing that comes to mind, from Silence of the Lambs:
Maybe he should play the song "Goodbye Horses" in the backround at his exhibit.:)