Category: - Mapanare.us Constantly.Consuming.Culture.

Rene Portocarerro Painting At Red Dot As Part Of Art Basel Week

1/15/2011

The painting above is from Cernuda Art in Miami and isn't one I saw but I liked it.

While researching Rene Portocarrero, whose painting I saw at the booth of a Lake Worth art dealer, I came across more of his art at Cernuda Arte in Miami. The picture above is from there and you can see more by clicking the link to their site (or on the picture).

Portocarrero was a Cuban artist, living and working in Havana until his death in 1985. He worked with Mariano Rodriguez, Wilfredo Lam and others.

This was the last painting I videotaped and is the last piece that I have for coverage of Art Basel week. The only exception being the one extensive interview I did, with artist Lori Hyland, which will appear in the interviews section next week.

Abraham P. Hankins' Romance Was At Red Dot During Art Basel Week

1/14/2011

Yellow Hat, another by Abraham P. Jenkins (wasn't at Red Dot) at www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4510959

Abraham P. Hankins painting, Romance, is one of the only things I taped at the Red Dot Art Show during Art Basel. Nothing against the show. It was neat, and not as massive as a couple of others. I was just tired of taking notes and shooting little videos. This one isn't terribly clever is it?

But I like the painting. I am not entirely sure what Mr. Hankin's definition of romance is but it is likely similar to mine. If you cannot smile? Why bother...

This painting is also a cautionary tale about buying at such a show or from any gallery. I noted the price of this painting I liked it so much--$2,200. I saw it sold recently (possibly before this show or possibly after) for $200. Either someone had it priced at eleven times what it recently sold for at auction or someone swooped in on an auction and knew the painting had value beyond what people were willing to bid.

If you have the money buy what you like. I would have bought this for $200! Hankins was a Russian-American artist who passed away in 1963.

Junghi Ha's Art Combines East & West, Mixed Media & Calligraphy

1/13/2011

I can hear the sharp exhalations of breath from the art-steeped pseudo experts upon seeing the works of Junghi Han; “ohh…haow…bourgeois!” (you have to say this will a William F Buckley sort of accent). Of course, those saying this would be the definition of bourgeois desperately trying to hide this under a natty beret.

Myself, I find his painting nostalgic. I find them to be true impressions of reality filtered through the mind. Obviously, I know nothing of the artist’s thought process or philosophy beyond what I read on her website but it just seems like the literal definition of impressionism.

Yes I was startled at the end of this interview (by artist Kenneth Park...you can see an interview with him earlier in this stream of Art Basel week stuff).

I SEEK TO PRESENT A SPIRITUAL CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CULTURES OF THE EAST AND WEST IN MY WORK. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS I HAVE OPTED TO USE MIXED MEDIA AND CALLIGRAPHY AS THEY ALLOW ME TO EXPLORE ABSTRACTIONISM IN A WAY THAT COMBINES EASTERN PHILOSOPHY WITH STYLES OF THE WEST. --Junghi Han

Nobuhiro Nakanishi’s “Sunrise” At Scope Might Not Fit In Your Living Room; Perhaps You Need Another Living Room

1/10/2011

Nobuhiro Nakanishi is another Japanese Artist whose piece, Sunrise, appeared at Scope during Art Basel 2010. I walked past this and around it repeatedly. Once when I first walked in and then later after I had looked around, then again after I got something to drink. Most likely I was trying to figure out if I liked it. And if I liked it…how MUCH did I like it. I think I liked it more after seeing a bunch of Marilyn Monroe related art. Can that just be banned? Please?

Sunrise is an aesthetically pleasing work, a series of positives lined up. On his website they seem to curve while in this space they are in a straight line (a shame as the curved one seems more appealing—to me anyway).

The videos, as usual do not do it justice.

“Even in looking at the same object, it is not uncommon to find that each of us notices something slightly different. For example, when we attempt to remember the shape, material and color of a single chair that we have seen, there can be differences of opinion. Yet, without touching on questions such as whether the chair was solid enough to properly support a person's weight or whether the seating surface was suitably level and smooth, it is possible to share some perceptions. In a "common sensation" of this sort, there isn't likely to be such a marked difference of opinion between one person and another.”--Nobuhiro Nakanishi Website

Tadashi Moriyama, Whose Works, Even In My Poverty, I Considered Buying.

1/10/2011

Tadashi Moriyama is originally from Japan and yes, I did seriously think about buying his work. There was an anomalous amount of money in my account that day and if I had just not paid some bills or bought food for a bit, I could have. That is how highly I think of his work.

Moriyama moved to the USA in 2001 and attended the Tyler School of Art for undergraduate and then went to the University of Pennsylvania for his MFA. His work has been exhibited all over the world.

He currently loves in Brooklyn painting, drawing and doing mixed media animation.

I liked These Paintings And Apparently Took No Notes On Who They ARE

1/9/2011

Not only did I like these paintings and find myself unable to find any notes, cards or brochures from the gallery I KNOW I actually spoke to the people at the booth.

I felt my incompetence should not prevent me from posting this short video. If anyone knows whose art this is...feel free to edify me. I very much liked the self consciously naive art here. It makes you feel like you could do it. You couldn't but you feel like you could.

Peter Sarkisian's Colorful, Multimedia Pieces Lit Up Art Miami

1/8/2011

First of all, you have to check out Peter Sarkisian's website, www.petersarkisian.com. Now that you have done THAT, you may sort of get what Sarkisian’s art looks like in person.It is colorful, intricate and thoughtful. The videos here don’t capture this but there are better ones you can find on Youtube.

I didn’t shoot these, which is why they are marginally steady-handed (Marcela Aguero shot them with my Flip). I took rather limited notes excepting to write the artist’s name and that Marcela shot the videos.

The works were part of Art Miami.

Sarkisian lives and works in Sante Fe, New Mexico. He is originally from California. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts and the American Film Industry. Unsurprisingly his resume includes work in the film industry. His works are visual, even when they are not videos.

Martin C. Herbst's Macabre Beautiful Globes, Part Of A Larger Aesthetic

1/7/2011

Martin C. Herbst at Christopher Cutts Gallery

I first saw Martin C. Herbst’s globes in Chicago either at Next or Art Chicago. I immediately recognized them and recalled his name as soon as I saw them at Scope Miami (one of those I saw during Art was titled, Brain, but given my admittedly poor note-taking I am not sure which one…my handwriting looks like a 1st grader riding on a bus through the Andes).

These pieces were part of Christopher Cutts Gallery’s exhibit at Scope Art Show. I tried to videotape the backs of these. The front are globes with faces but the backs, in the interior are skulls. These are the sort of art that, I believe, will impress art lovers and folks who are less into art. My 12 year old, for instance, was suitably impressed by these in Chicago (boys like creepiness).

Herbst lives in Vienna and is a native of Salzburg. He has exhibited regularly over the past 8 years and has several upcoming exhibitions in 2011. These include exhibitions at Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie in Zürich and at Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José in Costa Rica. It isn’t all about the people’s visages on orbs but represented in different ways that bend figuratively and change in mood. You might look at a piece from one angle and find its mood changes when you move to another.

Australian Artist Andrew Rogers Photographed Sculptural Wonders

1/7/2011

Rhythms of Life by Andrew Rogers

I am not going to begin this by writing that my video doesn’t do this justice. These are photos of massive structures built by Andrew Rogers. Many books and art book stores have the photographic collections of these remarkable works. Not only are they architectural but the photographs are captivating in and of themselves. These were part of Scope at Art Basel.

When I went to his website and saw that many of his works are in private and public collections I was startled. How do you own a sculpture that is the size of a locomotive? You would really need a big yard for that.

In truth these sculptures are not in anyone’s yard (that I know of) but are part of a massive bit of land art called, Rhythms of Life. This consists of 47 massive stone sculptures all over the world. Rogers’s website states that nearly 7,000 people in 13 nations and on every continent participated in the project. Thousands of years from now archeologists will be looking at these wondering; who the hell built these? I love the idea. It is Herculean.

Gallery Sejul Handles Up-And-Coming Korean Artists Such As Lee Kyung Ho & Chae Sung Pil

1/6/2011

As usual my videos do not do justice to the pieces pictured here; especially Lee Kyung Ho’s Somewhere, a photograph of a plastic bag far above a city, carried on the wind. Those photos are large and quite haunting. The word that appears most in explanations of his work is “indeterminate.” I saw these two photos as brilliant examples of the beauty of the mundane. A plastic shopping bag floating like a sentinel above a city strikes me somehow. I have seen them, twenty stories up, blowing out to become, well, garbage, after their flight is complete.

While I was looking at them the representatives of Gallery Sejul (of Seoul, Korea) came and talked to me and gave me information on their artists and gallery. I tried to talk to them but I think I was largely not understood. People whose first language is English often do not understand what I am saying. They were very gracious.

They also handle Chae Sung Pil whose textured paintings caught my eye at Booth D33 first. His abstracts call to mind the sea, despite the completely different color schemes, but then everything calls to mind the sea to me in a certain mood. Be sure to check out the gallery website at www.sejul.com.

These pieces were part of the Scope Art Show during Art Basel week.