Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Art Wynwood


Art Wynwood 2017 was an excellent exhibit of contemporary art and movements from
North America, South America, Asia, and Europe.  Every important contemporary artist
was represented.  Because the work is so new, it takes some education and getting used to.
I learned a great deal from the gallerists as usual, and I am still learning to
appreciate some of the works.  "Reserve judgment"  for the time being.
The abstract aluminum  sculpture above is by Italian artist, Roberto Cavaliere.





Mr. Brainwash.  "Mickey and Minnie."  France / U.S.  Acrylic
"Mr. Brainwash" is a famous French born - Los Angeles based street artist. 
His formal name is Thierry Guetta, and he is very famous for his murals, paintings,
and advertising images.  He uses icons of American culture, for many purposes.
His work seems immediately appreciated and understood by younger viewers,
whereas the older generation finds it more difficult.  They often embody humor,
sometimes satire.





Alberto Sanchez.  "Golden Prism."  Venezuela.
This is a perfectly flat painting, painted in an illusionistic manner of Op Art
so that it looks like it projects into a 3D form.  It was definitely flat and 2D.
I was there and touched it.  It is part of the great Venezuelan Op Art movement.




Speedy Graphito.  "The Art Market."  French Pop
Speedy Graphito is a French artist in Paris who is enormously famous, successful in fine art
 and advertising, and very well known.  He takes famous images from American comics and
art history, and combines them into a dense, immediately recognizable image to anyone
who knows modern art.  Here you can see works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat,
and others.  Donald is studying the market for prices in art, which has become
extraordinarily valuable.  Spray cans for painting lie on the floor.





Ed Ruscha.  "Anchovy."  U.S.  acrylic
Ruscha paints very subtle images like this,which look as if they have volume or
stand out from the surface. although they are perfectly flat and make use of
techniques of drawing and shading to suggest space and depth. 





Frank Stella.  "The Butcher Came . . . "  Print  U.S.
Stella is one of the foremost living American artists.  This is one of a series
of prints he created based on Jewish folklore.  The forms he first drew in
this work later became wall sculptures and 3D pieces in aluminum.





Donald Sultan.  "Corten Flowers."  U.S.
Sultan creates very simple forms, often of flowers, in both painting and
sculpture.  This is one of a series in corten steel which he created.  They are
meant to be placed outdoors in a garden.




Wuilfredo Soto.  "Untitled."  Venezuela
Wuilfredo works with geometric abstraction and kinetic sculpture.
This is actually a 3D wall sculpture and those are layers
of woodpieces which create pyramids and depressions.  As you
move, the sculpture seems to move also.





Wuilfedo Soto.  "Untitled."  Venezuela.  3D Sculpture.
Again, this is constructed of layers of wood, so that the eye does
not know what is flat and what is recessed or raised/  As you walk by,
it changes constantly.  Hence, it is known as "kinetic art." 





Jaehyo Lee.  "Wooden Urn."  Korea.
Jaehyo Lee is one of South Korea's greatest artists, creating sculptures with intricate
inlaid wood or metal.  Here he carved the basic form of an urn, then burnt the surface
to create the black color, then carved into the wood and inlaid the form with many
pieces of various wood types which he sanded perfectly smooth.





Zhuang Hong Yi.  "The Four Seasons."  Chinese.  Rice Paper.
Zhuang is one of the great contemporary Chinese artists who work in the ancient
tradition of folding and dying rice paper.  Each of these forms/cones is hand rolled of
hand made rice paper and then dyed.  They are then attached to the background.  This piece
is about six inches deep.  It changes constantly as you walk by.





Zhuang Hong Yi.  Close-up showing rice paper and subtle colors.





Zhuang Hong Yi.  "Amethyst Field."  Chinese/  Rice Paper.





Salvador Dali.  "Space Elephant."  Surrealism.
This is one of a number of surrealistic elephants with long thin legs
which Dali created in limited editions.  They are images from dreams
or nightmares or the subconscious.




Omar Hassan.  "London Street."  Mixed Media.
Omar Hassan was born in Milan in 1987 with an Egyptian father
and an Italian mother.  Today he works in Milan and London.  He is 
a street artist.  This is a collection of doorbells, on pads of
colored acrylic pigment; you would see them along a London street
Or maybe in a bakery?.




Dominique Gerolini.  "Untitled."  France.  Watercolor.
Gerolini is a French geometric abstraction painter who works
with layers of color and very carefully delineated forms.





Stallman.  "I Am Light."  Canvas on Edge.  U.S.
"Stallman" is a name which combines the names of a duo of Pacific
Northwest artists - Jason and Steven.  They are a couple and they work
together on all their pieces.  They have developed a technique of "Canvas
on Edge."  They wanted the canvas to BE their work, not merely to support
their work.  So they cut canvas into 3 inch wide strips and use the strips to form
 intricate patterns.





Stallman.  "I Am Light."  Close-up.
Seen close-up or from different angles, the work changes constantly, as do the
colors, light, and shadows.






Stallman.   "I Am Light. #2."  U.S.  Canvas on edge.






Stallman.  "I Am Light #3 - Green."  U.S.  Canvas-on-edge.





Stallman.  "I Am Light #3 Green"  seen from the side.  U.S.





John Henry.  "Cathedral Column."  U.S.  Steel.  Chattanooga, Tenn.
Henry is one of America's most famous sculptors, creating huge abstract 
steel sculptures for many American cities.  Henry's sculpture has been described
as huge welded steel drawings.  He arranges linear and rectilinear elements that
appear to defy gravity and float.  This is a small indoor piece.




Nelson de la Nuez.  "Monopoly Wall Street."  Pop Art.
Nelson is known as the "King of Pop Art."  He was born in Havana,
but was brought to California at the age of 7; today he is American.
He was fascinated with American tv, comic books, games, and
advertising.  He combines all of them in his work.  Michael Jackson
was a regular buyer of his work.  Monopoly figures are some of his favorites.





Roberto Behan.  "Instant Happiness."  Silk Ribbons.





Charles Koegel.  "Who Knows Us?"  New York.
Koegel paints in the style of geometric abstraction.






Edgar Negret.  "Gran Mariposa."  Colombia.  Aluminum.
Edgar Negret was Colombia's most famous sculptor. His works are usually
abstract forms, industrial in appearance, and painted in a bright solid color.  On a 
large scale, they make excellent outdoor public sculpture.





Francisco Zuniga.  "Two Women."  Mexico.  Bronze.
Zuniga was one of Mexico's greatest sculptors, and his  favorite subject was
one or two native women talking or walking. 





Speedy Graphito.  "Pop Still life."  French
The work combines images from Haring, Wesselmann, and
others.





Michael Moebius.  "Marilyn Pink Bubble Gum."  German-American.  Oil Painting.
Michael was fascinated by the pin-up paintings of Alberto Vargas, realistic yet  perfect
figures.  When he reached the U.S. he determined to paint in the same manner, but of
different subjects.  He chooses famous figures chewing bubble gum.  Original oils
sell for $100,000; multiples in a photographic process for $20,000 each.  Two Marilyns
had sold by the time I saw them.  The size is large 48x68 inches.





Michael Moebius.  "Beatles Bubble Gum."  German-American.  Oil on Canvas.






Michael Moebius.  "Audrey Tiffany Blue Bubble Gum."  German-American.
Giclee print.  48x68  Edition of 25.  $20,000 each.
A giclee print is a fine art digital print made with an ink-jet printer.






Henri Matisse.  "Creole Dancer."  French.  1952  Paper-cut-outs.
Late in life, Matisse suffered a number of ailments which prevented
him from holding a pen or a brush.  And so he took a large pair of
shears and sheets of construction paper, and he cut forms out of the paper
and had an assistant assemble them on the floor in a certain pattern.
Copies were than printed by his favorite printer.  These are prints
which were made from various works during the period and sold as a set;
they are now being sold individually 




Henri Matisse.  "Escargot / The Snail."  Paper cut-out.
This is a very small version of a very famous and very large work
which Maisse made and is now in the Tate Modern Museum in London.






Henri Matisse.  "Zulma."  Paper Cut-out.
This is a very small edition of a much larger work also,
of a model standing in a robe beside a table.






Ms Laurence Jenkell.  "A Piece of Candy"  Marble.  French.
Laurence has made this wrapped piece of candy her signature piece.  She makes them in bronze, 
in marble, and in plastic;  She makes them in many colors.  The form is simple and yet defined.
This piece, of white marble, stands about four feet high.





Lie Nay Tjien.  "A Large Sphere and a Small Sphere."  Indonesia.
The spheres are made of thousands of small pieces of stainless steel which are welded
together.






Lie Nay Tjien.  Close-up of "Sphere."  Welded Small Stainless Steel Rods.





Sophie Ryder.  "Hare Man."  England.  Bronze.
Sophie Ryder is one of the foremost British contemporary sculptors.  She often uses
figures combining human and animal characteristics.  Although they are made of bronze,
she gives them a heavily oxidized patina of gray-green.







Bernie Taupin.  "Fragment."  British born American artist.
His works are often commentaries on contemporary life and
nationalism.  He currently lives in California.





Norman Mooney.  "Golden Sun."  Irish.  2012  Bronze





Antonio Segui.  "Every Morning."  Argentina.
Segui's works are often sardonic views of modern life in the city, in this case,
a very busy city.





Claire Shegog.  "Blue Circle."  England
At this distance, the piece looks like concentric circles of blue.  But if you go
closer, you will see that Claire takes tiny cake decorations and paints each carefully
by hand.  The tiny figures are then aligned in their patterns.





Claire Shegog.  Detail.  "Ladies in Blue Dancing."




Rafael Barrios.  "Purple Cubes."   Flat Sheet of Iron.  Argentina.
Painting on the surface gives the illusion of 3 dimension and space,
but it is actually a perfectly flat sheet of iron.
Rafael now works in Miami. 




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1 comment:

  1. Thanks again. The close-ups add real clarity to the images. Lots of nice pieces.

    ReplyDelete