Torrance Art Museum SUR:Biennial 2015
SUR:Biennial > 2015 > Torrance Art Museum
Exhibition Installation, Torrance Art Museum, 2015.
ARTIST INTERVIEW
with JUAN BASTARDO, ANIBAL CATALAN, and ISMAEL DE ANDA III
Ichiro Irie
The interview took place on September 12, 2015. Juan Bastardo and Anibal Catalan replies
were translated by Ichiro Irie For the 3rd SUR:biennial, artists Juan Bastardo, Anibal
Catalan, and Ismael de Anda III exhibited together in the main gallery at the Torrance
Art Museum (TAM). These three artists work across a variety of mediums and platforms,
including installation, painting, sculpture, drawing, and video, to produce unique
and disparate visions of art emerging from Mexico, or in de Anda’s case, Mexico’s
geographic and cultural nexus with the U.S. Bastardo was born and raised in Guadalajara,
Mexico, studied art at Universidad de Guadalajara, and still maintains his practice
there. Catalan, was born in the smaller provincial city of Iguala, Mexico, and later
moved to Mexico City as a teen where he still resides. He studied architecture at
the Universidad Anáhuac and fine art at ENPEG (The National School of Painting, Sculpture
and Printmaking “La Esmeralda”). Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, de Anda comes
from a multi-generational family of Mexican Americans who settled in a region whose
national borders were (and still remain to a great degree) porous and ambiguous. After
completing his BFA at University of Texas, El Paso, de Anda went to California Institute
of the Arts where he received his MFA and now lives and works in L.A. Although all
three artists share Mexico as a common link and have some common areas of interest,
their works, from my perspective, possess no obvious signifiers that might be identified
as a style or conceptual framework outside of fitting in what might be loosely defined
as contemporary practice. Although individually they may delve into, or at least touch
upon, these issues, the combination of the three artists’ works do not pretend to
convey any overarching notion of identity based on region, nationality, or ethnicity.
Instead, TAM Director and Curator, Max
Presneill, takes a less rigid, free-associative approach in showcasing their works
together, commenting that the impetus behind this grouping “was to see what happens
when three interesting artists, with a relationship
to installation as a method of presentation, are assembled together in an exhibition
that looks at themes such as politics, history, art history, and a sort of activism.”
These themes’ broad implications might apply to
any number of artists from all over the world. I interviewed the three artists independently
with nearly identical questions. What resulted was an array of thoughtful and personal
responses that at times cross paths, but more
often than not, expanded in their unique and idiosyncratic directions, intrinsically
tied to each artists’ own investigations, concerns, and most importantly work. Nevertheless,
taken as a whole, these conversations will
hopefully leave (you) the reader with even more questions, points of departure for
further dialogue, and additional insights into viewing the exhibition and each artists’
bodies of works.
II: In all of your work, what I am noticing is that the idea of mutation, deformation, transformation, and reconfiguration might play a strong role. If this is true, can you elaborate on how these ideas function in your work?
JB: The notion of hybridity has always played a very important role in my production. I consider it the times we live in (hybrid times), and that in some way we always change reality through our actions (in this case with objects). Doing this, we become reacquainted with ourselves and become aware that others are ourselves when we reconsider the condition of the individual.
AC: You can find mainly the concepts of reconfiguration and transformation in the sense that the majority of my work is related to the formal investigation of landscape and the intrinsic relationship it has with architecture and space, and how this affects the individual. It is based on historical references to the avant-garde of the early 20th century. To analyze, and yes, reconfigure a current context in relation to how I live and interpret the idea of space. In this manner, we can also speak of the mutation and transformation of space as an entity in constant shift both aesthetically and socially.
ID: I started exclusively using the concept of the mutant in my work as a means to
forge the culture that I grew up in, a fusion of Mexican, American, and Tejano culture.
For me the mutant is an entity of unexpected and evolutionary traits that exists unto
itself. Spending time in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico as a child, I would hear tourists criticize
the “incorrect” craftsmanship of piñatas that “weirdly” or “grotesquely” misrepresented
U.S. pop iconography, such as Bart Simpson or Spider-man. I later recognized this
mixed-up craftsmanship as an unrecognized emerging art form of the mutant. Instead
of trying to breakdown what characteristic comes from which culture, these traits
were already fused and activated forward into culture. I learned how to draw from
reading comic books. I was particularly drawn to the Uncanny X-men. These mutants
were outcasts, but their traits that kept them from fitting in were their super-powers.
Also I learned about agricultural mutations within livestock from my grandparents’
farm and from visiting fairs in Mexico. Artistically, I prefer the concept “mutant”
to the more
accepted “hybrid.” The mutant is ruder.
II: I also notice that your work references imagery that might be associated with
science fiction, horror, and fantasy, genres often associated with film and literature.
How much do these genres come into play in your work? Do you see the imagery functioning
on a metaphorical level? If so, what do your images symbolize? If not, how do they
or
how would you like the images to function?
JB: In my case, depending on who observes the pieces (any spectator), they could be
seen as being related to some type of literature or film for the characters or possibly
for the aesthetic. But on my part, they are not provoked by the direct influence of
any of these disciplines. Regarding metaphor, yes, in a particular manner I believe
that this
imagery is an adequate way of symbolizing or utilizing a semantic field regarding
how the notion of identity is changeable.
AC: Yes, in terms of the aesthetic that is generated in the science fiction genre,
I do see a relationship. The development of design, architecture, or landscape is
related to utopic models which can be directly linked to the
work, although these ideas are not a literal condition thereof. My work provokes a
link between the utopic-dystopic and the rational and irrational. I think it is always
at a limit or a fine line or an intersection between these
types of relationships. The relation between figuration and abstraction always exists
in the images I project. In fact, there is never a reference to scale between the
elements of composition, and there is always an interplay between these two moments:
the micro and the macro in terms of scale. I believe then that they (my works) are
closer to studies that implement descriptive geometry as methodology and mix with
direct references to formal solutions, which involve different disciplines like design
and architecture.
ID: I consider sci-fi explosions in outerspace as my first experience with Abstract
Expressionism before experiencing this concept in paintings. Subsequently, I discovered
Ab-Ex in books and then later in museums and galleries. Cinema and television has
been a big part of my visual literacy. Also recently in my work, I have been thinking
about Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. He was born in El Paso, just as
I was. Although Roddenberry didn’t grow up there, I choose to consider El Paso as
the “birthplace” of this futuristic cosmology. I am also interested in how some people
may criticize artists that create fantastical worlds. But, it’s great how the world
of Star Trek inspired young scientists to make fantastical technology from the TV
series into reality. Growing up in the Southwestern Desert in the U.S., I am reminded
of the fact that this is where rocket and nuclear technology was
first tested.
II: How do your larger scale wall works and installations relate to or fit in the context of historical references, such as Mexican Muralism or, in Anibal’s case, Russian Constructivist architecture and murals? How do you see your work relating to subsequent movements, such as Neomexicanismo, La Ruptura, Deconstructivism, and the Post-1990s Mexican Conceptualist Movement.
JB: It is inevitable to think about these antecedents of Mexican art and the relevance they had, and in some cases still have. Nevertheless, being that the art of the 90s is an immediate reference for me, I believe I maintain a certain distance from it. I try to integrate, as well as realize, my own translation of what I understand to be Art.
AC: The mural pieces, I’ve realized, have a character that is closer to the analysis
of pictorial frameworks and the possibilities of their representation in space. The
designs are representations, which act like detonators of the senses over the very
space, at times mixed with three dimensional elements that generate moments of confusion
between that which is pictorially represented and that which is physically constructed
in three dimensions. Obvious affinities exist with models of representation like Mexican
Muralism, above all with Siqueiros, where the content was not solely nationalist messages.
Particularly in his case, there also existed a model of pictorial experimentation
with the three dimensional. In the pieces I’ve realized, I use the space itself as
support and improvise directly over the container or the exhibition space. I leave
marks or elements that make this container’s special characteristics
evident, and these characteristics integrate themselves with the interventions that
I make. When considering Russian Constructivism, the relationship with my work has
been more of a formal affinity with the idea of mixing
disciplines in visual production and content. I also believe that having had an education
in architecture has facilitated me to work and mix supports. Ideas that are born in
2D are configured in 3D and vice versa. Or, depending on the project, I generate narratives
that utilize other supports (video, photo, drawing etc.) that interact with each other
and provoke conductive threads toward themes that interest me.
ID: I consider my wall designs more as architectural interventions. While murals are
also architectural interventions, for now my wall designs are more impermanent, ephemeral
components of a temporal installation experience, which may differ from ideas by some
that art is supposed be permanent. I am proud that my wall designs could be considered
a mutation connected to murals, graffiti art, advertising, movie posters, and other
socially available imagery. My large-scale work began to develop when I made my first
trip to New York at the age of nineteen and devoured the exhibition Refigured Painting:
The German Image 1960- 88 at the Guggenheim Museum. This was the
first time that I saw the enormous paintings of Anselm Kiefer. His large-scale wall
works, integrated with the unique architecture of the Guggenheim, made a big impact
on me. During this same time, I started learning more about the Mexican Muralists
and began appreciating them as part of my Mexican roots. Later on, I became particularly
interested in the La Ruptura movement because this is one that you hear about less
in the U.S.I was interested in the fact that they were going against Muralism, a movement
that many consider as the definitive movement
of Modern Art in Mexico. I think that it is healthy to question the idea of a definitive
movement. Although conceptual art is more diagrammatic for some, when I first heard
about it, I developed a different possible definition, a “poetic conceptualism.” Influenced
by my upbringing in English and Spanish speaking environments, my interpretation of
conceptual art made me think about how Spanish is metaphorical, and how in the Spanish
language a certain phrase can point to an overall scenario or an overall kind of thought
or experience. For me, that’s what I thought conceptual art could be, a gesture or
suggestion indexing a further, deeper idea. Often, I felt when considering and discussing
ideas in English, descriptions provided more concrete specificity, yet somehow still
missed the mark. The metaphorical aspects of romance languages such as Spanish, reference
a specific, yet expansive, situation that also allows for word play and alternative
meanings. I understand that this is also possible in English, but through the blending
of my own linguistic upbringing, I started thinking about how people receive
artwork based on cultural and linguistic socialization. That is a reason that I began
including text in my work as a sculptural form. As an art educator, I appreciate ongoing
educational theories of “multiple intelligences.” For example, people may have a primary
tendency when learning, such as visual learning, aural, kinesthetic, textual,
etc., but also this primary tendency may shift to another depending on the situation.
By presenting multiple points of entry into my work, I am interested in providing
the viewer with a point of contact that may unravel into
further new considerations.
II: In both cases, Mexican Muralism and Russian Constructivism, there had been highly political and social elements that drove the work, and the artists might have seen their work as catalysts for political and social change. How do these notions fit in your work?
JB: Art can be a catalyst. Artists and the situations they generate through this concept (art) can impact and inspire beyond the walls of their own system (art). Art/artists can have an influence that provides a good shock to the social structure without directly participating in it.
AC: Both movements coincide in that they were socially and politically charged. I
believe both were given similar circumstances because of the simple fact they happened
during and after a revolution. In my work, social as well as political notions can
be found from a disposition and posture of memory and the study of these movements,
mainly Russian Constructivism. Like architecture itself, I think the idea of making
a reflection about space and architectural design could be associated with the poetics
and aesthetics of a certain kind of production, which historically has had an effect
on society as a whole. In a sense, I produce bodies of work
that emphasize the idea of destruction, invasion, contamination, and the loss of historical
memory.
ID: As a teaching artist, I lead art making workshops in schools and libraries throughout Los Angeles where funding has been cut and families and young people are being starved from training in the arts. The U.S. is a young country and is gradually learning to appreciate its artistic value, but there is much ground to be gained. One of my interests in creating installations is to present the viewer with potentially newer ways to experience a work of contemporary art by providing the opportunity for social interaction, sensorial stimulus, conceptual consideration, and pleasure.
II: What role does personal identity or Identity, in the greater sense of the word, have in your work? Please specify.
JB: Identity plays an important and central role in my work. The actions (works) I
do and the questions that are generated through this ongoing search wouldn’t be present
without these ideas about identity going around in my head. Included in this is the
search for the identity of today’s art. I don’t refer to the idea or notion of identity
merely from my geographic location. In
reality, I do not look for a notion or an idea of nationality. Through my work, I
look to reflect upon identity as a product of fusion and to examine how we recognize
ourselves through objects and actions, how we try to define or establish ideas or
approaches that allow the understanding of our reality (what we are), and how this
allows for experiences of self-recognition.
AC: Identity as an individual? I identify with my context, with where I contribute, where I was born (Iguala, Mexico), and with my culture (Mexican). I believe my work is not that overt, or perhaps I don’t perceive it as such. There are, however, many other areas that may have no direct or visible relation with the work itself, where issues of identity inform who I am as a person. Nevertheless, I believe that situations like improvisation play an important role in my production, and in a way, it is a mode of operation that has been socially learned in my daily life.
ID: I was born and raised in the midst of two countries (Mexico and the U.S.) and three states (Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua). El Paso, where I was born, was once El Paso del Norte, the Pass of the North, a single city that straddled the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo that is now divided into two cities and two countries, El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. My grandparents had a farm that had been in our family for generations and sat directly on the banks of the Rio Grande in Presidio, Texas next to Ojinaga, Mexico. While my work doesn’t necessarily have an intended border agenda, experiences from being raised there certainly has informed me as an artist along with my experiences as an artist now living and working in Los Angeles.
II: All three of you have made large-scale sculptural installations. How much does the idea of site or site specificity play a factor in your processes and decision making? What are the main things you consider when you are making an installation in regards to a site?
JB: I believe whatever incidence (location) in whatever space has great repercussions, be it a gallery or museum context or surrounding. Therefore, it is a factor of great significance to define the types of proceedings and processes to follow in order to control the causes and effects produced for the spectator.
AC: The notion of site specificity plays an important role with respect to human scale. It is possible to measure a space and the relationship we have with it. If the scale of an installation or constructed objects is not specifically defined as I have mentioned, in terms of visual sensations, the body and the mind are the ones who dictate these parameters. Although there exist pieces that I have formally and visually repeated in different shows, the concepts usually have variants given the conditions of the exhibition spaces.
ID: I enjoy the performative component that happens when the time comes to install
a large-scale work. Before that time, there is a theoretical design as to how it will
work. Once you are in the space, there is an artistic moment and dance when you are
choreographing this architectural intervention. Since personal memory is another theme
that I revisit in my work, I consider my installations to be, to a certain degree,
a movie set that is not filmed, only enacted by the performers or viewers as they
live through it. There also has been an important element when I have made projects
in other countries. When I interact with a new audience, an improvisational exchange
happens that allows my work to grow/mutate in
unexpected ways.
II: Please tell us about the works you are producing for SUR:biennial. How has this specific site and the general thematic of the biennial influenced your concepts and/or decisions? How does the work compare or contrast to your greater body of work?
JB: Taking into account the line of thinking regarding how SUR:biennial functions,
the condition of those underrepresented, their effervescence, and the appearance of
something new from its misunderstood geography (say structural, corporal, spatial)
is visible in reference to my work. When I refer to the condition of the underrepresented,
this could be about
the relegated, those who find themselves in “bad conditions” (outsiders, freaks, the
deformed, the alienated, the marginalized) without the need to show their condition
as is. Thinking about these fusions has allowed for the appearance of something “different”
and new from its place of origin. With this something, I refer to Its geography (Its
own body, Its medium), Its structure (Its condition, Its system), Its corporality
(Its genetics, Its transformation), and Its space (Its context, Its quotidianity)
with the purpose of trying to reveal the notion of identity.
AC: For SUR:biennial, I will present a series of videos and a drawing over one of the walls of the museum. The videos are a triptych with a very abstract nature where one can observe a sort of journey through space. The images are in high contrast, and therefore it is difficult to recognize anything in particular. The idea is precisely in relation to this moment where the situation of place/border fades, where one can understand these functions, although at times they become difficult to recognize. The drawing is a metaphor about the idea of line. Through improvisation, the line occupies the two dimensional space of the wall like a vector map resolving itself in the same abstract manner as the videos. In reality, I don’t consider the theme would be a thing that provokes change in my production. I believe the concept I regularly work with adjusts themselves to the themes, in this case to the idea of place, mobility, and its energies. These elements organically, not literally, complement each other with the concepts of the show.
ID: For the SUR:biennial, I will be presenting an installation which includes a series
of
new abstract paintings called Binarynversion that are based on explosions in outer
space.
These paintings will come in identical pairs, but with inverted colors. Along with
my paintings, I plan to exhibit two sculptures, which take the form of glider swings
that the viewer can touch and ride with a partner. The swings squeak when ridden.
I consider them to be my first experience with sculpture. My grandfather had a swing
like these on his farm in Presidio, Texas. The swings have a protective awning. When
riders are in the swing, they are in an intimate shelter that may also be considered
an alternative permutation of architecture.
II: I’ve noticed that both Ismael and Anibal’s work, particularly with their painting,
has a
very flat, design oriented, formal quality, not unlike the constructivists or someone
like Franz Ackermann. Juan’s paintings, in contrast, are considerably more gestural
and emphasize illusionistic representation. In both cases, how have you come to these
conclusions, and how do you feel these formal qualities serve your work?
JB: Design as a formal quality, in the case of my paintings, maintains a certain relationship with gesture because this method manages to give the spectator an approximation of what they should analyze in order to find and uncover what is contained within themselves.
AC: The idea of the formal in my case derives from the premise that whatever project
I develop has to have an aesthetic, visual, and material solution that generates sufficient
experiences in order to approach a concept. I am not interested in other types of
solutions because then my practice would be philosophy, literature, or science. Since
my education was in architecture and fine arts, I have always been interested in the
studies of forms. The potential of describing aesthetic moments in space and their
relationship to context occurs from the use of basic elements, such as flat planes
and their morphologies. One never knows where one will end up, however. For the moment,
I continue producing from this model, which
relates more to the processes of modernity. Considering the relations that are generated
between the study of a historical past and current social conditions continues to
fascinate me.
ID: As a teen, I was into computer programming and simple computer graphics. I also think imbedded within me are neon colors from the 80s, hanging out in clubs in Juarez, and sci-fi design. My upbringing, with comic books as a source of artistic instruction, as well as my interest in Asian art, has something to do with this. I spent much time in Marfa, Texas, near where my family lives, looking at and learning about the works of Donald Judd. I have worn glasses since I was a child, so my sense of depth perception may also have something to do with this. My work still has some painterly gestures from when I made more expressionistic work.
II: How do you feel your work has, or hasn’t, changed since the beginnings of your careers?
JB: Across 13 years of labor, my work has changed in terms of formal solutions and has strengthened in terms of concept/idea/theme/content, not only in the recurring methods of my production, but also in the most relevant elements and interests that have provoked me (fusion/hybridity/deformation/transformation).
AC: I believe that in my work the same interests continue to exist in relation to
architecture
and certain (historical) moments or periods that have affected my production. However,
there exists, or there has manifested with time, other elements that have led me to
more reductionist models of representation. For example, more recently I have started
to incorporate linguistic or text-based elements. These elements demonstrate a semantic
analysis, not only formally, but also conceptually in a manner that remains encrypted
in the work. On the other hand, the images that I am currently developing have a direct
relation with real contexts and with very identifiable and existing, architectonic
elements. In some cases they not only reference architectonic forms, but art. In fact,
gestures that relate the work with
other historical moments and contexts deal as much with pictorial representation as
they
does with architecture.
ID: In the past, some works may have initially seemed as individual, whimsical works. The longer that I make work, the more these seemingly individual ideas are starting to interconnect with new pieces, creating a more comprehensive body of work. When I created my first installation in Chihuahua, Mexico at La Estación Arte Contemporáneo, I used an icon of a mule deer to represent the culture of my grandfather, who respectfully subsisted off his surroundings. A man who saw my installation was haunted and excited to see the images of the deer transform around the space. He was struck by the unusual representation of this icon, because he was someone that hunted deer his whole life. He claimed he stopped hunting to become a local shaman who would take peyote for rituals. He told me that the slang term for peyote was venado, the Spanish word for deer. The more I connect with audiences, the more I learn about how different people respond to art.
II: In recent years, I’ve noticed a lot of gestural abstraction in the galleries and
fairs and a lot
of art that leans towards public practice and social intervention at the major biennials.
Do
you agree with this statement? What do you think is the current zeitgeist? How do
you feel your work fits or doesn’t fit within the
current artistic/cultural landscape?
JB: My work probably fits within the parameters or narrow definition of current artistic production. I don’t want to say I belong to this “style,” and I don’t think these definitions would apply as a global, cultural vision. We are speaking about a spirit of the times that has possibly been misinterpreted. In what ways has this been evident, and for whom? In order to give account to what? In order to sustain what? What function, for the interest of a few, does this serve? The conscience of this (art) does not have much significance. I don’t know scientifically what the truth is behind all of this. I simply know that I continue searching and trying to understand what, how, and where is that which we call art.
AC: I think all types of production have their moments of greater visibility, although
underneath this first and thin layer of visibility other permanent models exist. In
many
occasions, a particular model of production is given more prominence, not only because
the
themes being talked about are more relevant, but structures allow the market to exercise
a tendency. In my case, abstraction works because I can approach themes that interest
me. On the other hand, practices where socio-political relations are integrated within
artistic production have always existed, even if they are not as popular now. But,
I think
these are momentary trends. Varying themes have always existed, and particular forms
of
production, for a determined period of time, are more present than another and generate
tendencies.
ID: In terms of galleries and fairs, it seems that more of them are becoming increasingly
aware and interested in art that is generated from Latin America and its culture,
especially
coming from here in Southern California. SoCal is a nexus of Latin American and Asian
culture. Countries which neighbor California provide an example of the artistic possibilities
not yet following current socio-geographiccultural changes.
II: Any final thoughts?
AC:
ID: It is my pleasure and honor to be invited by Max Presneill and the Torrance Art
Museum
to participate in the 2015 SUR:biennial and to exhibit with Anibal Catalan and Juan
Bastardo, two leading and exciting artists from Mexico. I believe with future SUR:biennial
events, the public will continue to become further aware and engaged by the innovative
artistic voices that are coming from Latin American culture.
Born in Tokyo and raised in Los Angeles, Ichiro Irie is a visual artist, curator and
director of the artist-run- space JAUS in Los Angeles. Irie received his B.A. from
University of California, Santa Barbara and his M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University.
As a curator, he has organized over 40 exhibitions in venues such as Tiger Strikes
Asteroid, New York; 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica; Axis Gallery, Sacramento;
Art & Idea, Mexico City; Gallery Kyuubidou, Tokyo; and Steve Turner Contemporary,
Los Angeles. In 2001, Irie went to Mexico City on a Fulbright fellowship, and between
the years 2002 and 2007 he founded and edited the contemporary art publication RiM
magazine. As an artist, Irie has exhibited his work internationally in galleries and
museums such as Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, Hendershot gallery in New York,
CSW Museum in Warsaw, and Museo Carrillo Gil in Mexico City. Solo shows include ones
at Sam Francis Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, Yautepec
Gallery in Mexico City, and eitoeiko gallery in Tokyo. Recent group exhibitions include
Revision Glocal Review at CECUT, Tijuana; Joshua Treenial 2015, Mexicali Bienial 2013
at VPAM, Los Angeles; Chockablock at UAM, Long Beach; The Crystal Jungle at Museo
del Chopo, Mexico City; and SNAFU at Kunstverein Neckar-Odenwald in Germany.Irie currently
teaches at Oxnard College and Ryman Arts, and is an artist in residence at 18th Street
Arts Center.
Ismael De Anda III, Lazaro / Fantasmas No Lloran (Phantasms Don't Cry), Dimensions
Variable, 2008-2015.
Ismael De Anda III
(b. El Paso, Texas) lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Ismael de Anda III received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2000. Using mutant practices including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, installation, and site-specific projects involving viewer participation, de Anda’s work focuses on re-interpretation of memory, inhabitation, and cultural history inspired by the pluralistic existence he experienced growing up on the U.S./Mexico border.
De Anda was awarded the 2010 Japan-United States Arts Program Fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council to observe Japanese Obon, and participate in contemporary art activities throughout Japan.
His selected exhibitions include Museo de Arte de Sonora MUSAS, Hermosillo Mexico; La Estación Arte Contemporáneo, Chihuahua, México; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; Museo de Arte Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, México; Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, Japan; Las Cienegas Projects, Los Angeles, CA; The Marfa Book Company, Marfa,Texas; and has participated in various group shows held at Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Fellows of Contemporary Art, Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA; Shoshona Wayne, Santa Monica, CA; Sumida Riverside Hall Gallery, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan; Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; and Wintergarten, Vienna, Austria.
Juan Bastardo, De Los Hibrido (Of The Hybrids) 14 - 19 & 23 - 34, Mixed Media, Dimensions
Variable, 2015.
Juan Bastardo
De Los Hibridos (Of The Hybrid) explores different approaches to the concept of the Other, of subject and history, through the selection and mutation of objects and images that enhance the structures of collective imagination. This thematic line leads to the link between form and concept, disciplines and art processes. In this project I am interested in showing the mythical manifestations of Otherness and its relation to a process of merge and appropriation of the alien, of separation and difference. Hybridization, otherness, fusion, and aspects that relate to the transformation of the individual comingle to explore the gaps between things.
Visual artist, Graphic designer, Musician and Art professor. Lives and Works in Guadalajara
working in independent
pedagogical projects, in Public and Private Institutions, teaching courses and contemporary
art production workshops. His art work is developed principally on painting, drawing,
sculpture, photography and new genre. He was member of Momento de Experimentación
Artística in Guadalajara City from 2002 to 2005 and Pánico Colectivo with three locations
between Leon, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Jalisco y México D.F. from 2006 to 2008. He
obtained an artistic production fellowship at Vermont Studio Center in USA on 2006,
his work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in different cities of Mexico
and North America, he has received Honorific Mentions at Bienal Nacional Diego Rivera
of 2002 and 2004 editions, as well as at Triennial Majdanek from Poland in 2004, has
been selected and recognized with Honorific Mentions in 2006 and 2007 at Fellowship
Award of MoLAA (Museum of Latin American Art of Long Beach, California), he obtain
a grant and a Honorific Mention at MexiCali Biennial at Los Angeles, California 2010
and selected in the edition 2013 of this same Biennial. His artwork was published
on Replicante Magazine and OMAG (OTIS College of Art Magazine). At this time is coordinating
and curating The Exhibition of Students of Art (MAAP4) at the University of Guadalajara,
he curated the exhibition “Report of various topics, the travel of Astronaut ...”
at the artist Pablo H. Cobián in the Juan Soriano Gallery, and coming soon in May,
will be curated by him, the exhibition "Stories of creation, destruction and deliberation”
at the North American sculptor Joe Meiser at the Museum of Art of the University of
Guadalajara (MUSA) and the “Portraits” exhibition of the artist Carlos Torres in Ex
Convento del Carmen, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.
Anibal Catanlan, Morphological Zone, Wall Mural and Three Videos, Dimensions Variable,
2015.
Anibal Catanlan
Anibal Catalan’s multi-faceted practice is a striking fusion of architecture, sculpture, painting and installation. Through his hybrid production Catalan has developed an allencompassing sensibility of architectural interconnection. There is an interactive dialogue within his instinctual, yet highly calculated attention to spatial detail. Catalan provokes tension between a state of uncertainty and organizational balance within his meticulously structured delivery of raw intuition. Morphological Zone is a series of videos and a sitespecific Wall painting. The videos are a triptych of a very abstract character, where you can see a kind of travel through space, architectonic elements and solid color shapes where the images are produced in high contrast so it is difficult to recognize something in particular. The idea is just in relation to that point where the situation of place and border vanishes as a concept and where performances can be understood, but is sometimes difficult to recognize as a real or tangible form. The use of drawing-painting is a metaphor concerning the concept of line, limit and border, through improvisation onsite, the pieces will occupy the two-dimensional wall space as a vector map that reflects the idea of occupied space and land.
Anibal Catalan lives and works in Mexico City. Catalan is a current recipient of the
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2015-2016, the National Fellowship FONCA Sistema Nacional de Creadores 2015-2017.
His most recent solo exhibitions include “The Land, The Space, The Square” (2014)
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; “Su-premat”(2012) at Yautepec Gallery, Mexico
City; ”Reading the Space”(2011) at Space CAN, Beijing; Recent group exhibitions include
“eva International Biennial of visual art” Limerick City, Ireland (2012) “An Exchange
with Sol LeWitt” at MASS MoCA; “Cimbra Formas Especulativas y Armados Metafisicos”
at Museo de Arte Moderno MAM, Mexico City (2011); “Light Art Biennale” Linz, Austria;
“1st Land Art Biennial Mongolia”, National Mongolian Modern Art Gallery, Ulaan Baatar,
Mongolia; “Les Rencontres Internacionales Paris-Berlin-Madrid,” Centre Pompidou, Museo
Nacional Reina Sofia and Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW; “Shangri L.A.: Architecture
as a State of Flux,” 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA(2009); “XIV National
Biennial Rufino Tamayo,” Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; “I Moscow Internation- al Biennial
for Young Art,” MMOMA, Moscow, Russia.
Emillo Garcia Plascencia, Oblivious, Bronze, 94" x 55" x 55", 2015.
Emilio Garcia Plascencia
Emilio Garcia Plascencia was born in Mexico in 1974. He studied along with Phillip
Bragar and Mario Torres Peña in
Barcelona, Spain in the Mazzana School of Arts and Crafts. He was an apprentice of
Daniel Argimon in the discipline
of Graphics in the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona, Spain and studied architecture
for two years in the Universidad
Iberoamericana, Mexico City. He worked as an apprentice of smelting for Lorenzo Galindo,
studied the Anatomy of the Human Body in the Medicine School of Universidad Anahuac,
was an apprentice of the maestro Kyoto Ota in sculpture and of Lorenza Zozaya in print.
He was granted the Young Creators’ scholarship of the National Council for Culture
and Arts and in 2001 he won the scholarship Mex-Am at the Vermont Studio Center.
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