Elements

 

LAND_ARTguide_web3

July 30 - August 31

The South Broadway Cultural Center and the City of Albuquerque is pleased to present "Elements" as an extension of Land Art: Art. Nature. Community

Elements, features artists Matthew Cohen, Rhiannon Mercer and Yulia Pinkusevich.

Each artist explores an unconventional interpretation of land through painting, drawing and photography.

 Curated by Augustine Romero.

Event: Reception: Thursday, July 30, 6-8pm

Location: South Broadway Cultural Center, 1025 Broadway SE, Albuquerque

Open Mon - Fri, 8am-6pm, 505-848-1320 or 505. 764-1743

Reception: July 30th from 6 -8pm

July 30th - August 31st

Review:

Sunday, July 26, 2009

'Elements' pushes away, pulls eye into landscapes

By Dan Mayfield
Journal Staff Writer
Though many of the LAND/ART pieces opening this weekend are about different ways to show art in the landscape, the South Broadway Cultural Center is opening a show that's about showing the landscape differently.
"I was trying to put a show together that would tie into LAND/ART and I wanted to highlight some artists who haven't exhibited here," curator Augustine Romero said. "I like these artists because of the way they're dealing with the landscape in a contemporary way."
The show "Elements," which opens Thursday, July 30, combines photos, drawings and paintings that look at spaces in new ways. Photographer Matthew Cohen, for example, condenses 3-D spaces to a picture plane. Painter Rhiannon Mercer takes a gritty approach to the landscape.
But the show grew out of Romero's love for Yulia Pinkusevich's paintings.
"She's the one who, when I first saw her work, I wanted to put a show together. I sought out the other two artists," Romero said. "What I liked was that it was stark in that she places darks and lights together. There's an element to her work that, because it's black and white, it distances itself from traditional landscape. Most people use a full palette. These isolate the landscape into simple form and composition."
Pinkusevich, though, said her work is more about moving through space than landscape or color.
"I'm really interested in movement," she said. "The other thing I'm interested in is placing the viewer in the space."
Her paintings, which are large, use 3-D techniques to draw you in, and push you away, from scenes that look like ships' bellies or elevator shafts to some of barren landscapes that stretch to the horizon.
"They're more of a subconscious landscape," she said. "I don't sketch from life. They come almost from visions."
If you go

Los Fantasticos Present " Days of Future Past"

June 4th - July 27th, 2009

" Solitude" www.brandonmaldonado.com Brandon Maldonado

Artist’s Statement
The visual language of art has the ability to communicate beyond the confines of spoken language. I believe this quality is the essence of visual arts and is the medium’s greatest strength. Throughout the course of humanity art has been used to inform civilizations, functioning as a powerful propaganda tool with great success. With this in mind I pick up my paintbrushes and attempt to use art as a vehicle for inspiring change. American artist Jackson Pollock stated, “Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.” The process of making a painting in itself is a meditation for me. I discriminately choose the themes of my work, making certain that each concept is ultimately something I believe is worth saying and contemplating. These are often associated with the many aspects of human experience, from life’s joys, sorrows and struggles, to the mysteries of our mortal existence. As I meditate on these concepts through the process of painting I strive to understand them and in return, bring that understanding into my life with the intention of making myself a better individual. My goal as an artist is for my work to direct the viewer beyond the technical aspects of the imagery and toward a more profound, emotional and metaphysical experience of the concepts to which the images are merely references. I hope that the end products which you see here may serve as visual affirmations of these concepts to all who view my works.
Bio
Brandon Maldonado was born in 1980. He resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an environment rich in hispanic arts and culture. As a child, he was introduced to the fantastical realm of Star Wars and the monsters of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which first sparked his artistic imagination. In his teens he turned to graffiti, an influence that still can be seen in his works to this day. Maldonado holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the College of Santa Fe with a focus in Philosophy and world religion he also holds an associate’s degree in fine art but considers himself to be a primarily self taught artist whose most essential technical development was based on the independent study of the paintings of the old masters including Jan Van Eyck and Dominique Ingres among others.

"The Messenger "www.joshuafrancoart.com Joshua S. Franco

Artist Statement

Growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, among the ghosts and mausoleums of industrial manufacturing, might have shaped me in a different way, had it not been for the influence of my mother, a talented painter who worked in oils. Endlessly inventive, unafraid of color, she instilled in me early on an appreciation for beauty and the profoundly personal understanding that, in this world, one could literally paint one’s self free - an idea that appealed to me.

It is my feeling that the great traditions live in all of us, and that alongside all of the ingenious novelties at our disposal, these traditions continue to inform art’s most imaginative and inspired experiments. Many of my paintings have a Surrealist influence. Working mainly with acrylic, I explore the complexity of relationships and the feelings that accompany them - love, desire, longing, fear - subjects familiar to us all. Of course, all of these topics are the order of the day in film, literature and music, but for me the rules of the imagination, the way chance and surprise provide unexpected twists of meaning, are what gives a painting its authentic surge, its real presence and power.

 

 

" Portrait Of The Artist with The Burning Bosque"

 

Chris Perez is an artist living in Albuquerque, NM.  His various experiences, especially his military service in Kuwait, have given him the inspirations and practicality in his approach to painting and art.  His work is direct and unadorned, revealing the essential.  It is unbelievable, but this is his first major exhibit.

His remarkable paintings reflect his growing knowledge and abilities as a classically-inspired artist.  A student of the Spanish and realist painters, his focus on the human face and body language does not limit his subject matter, but, rather, opens up a narrative with roles and characters assumed and embodied by self-portraits and those close around him.  The role of the capuchin is a case in point.  Some would attest to his faith, but it is more of the acolyte, as the student in training, in preparation for the great challenges ahead.  Playing this role is a tool to understanding, as painting is tool for exploring the subtleties of life’s secrets.  This current body of work reveals he is becoming a young master.

 

chrispyrez@yahoo.com Chris Perez

 

" The Fantastical House"

www.santiago-perez.com Santiago Perez

Santiago Pérez’s paintings offer unique and often wild glimpses into the psyches of a colorful cast of human and animal-like protagonists and supporting characters. Perez has received numerous accolades and awards for his combination of technical expertise and the keen ability to tell compelling tales on surfaces of canvas, linen and metal.

Perez’s new paintings are infused with myth, legend and comedy and have a light, colorful atmosphere reminiscent of the Renaissance and Northern European painters. ‘ The Imp’s Long Tale’ introduces us to his new character, the Imp, a storyteller who’s endless tongue spews letters, ideographic characters and symbols as he weaves his tales. Perez’s propensity for narrative imagery flourishes in this exhibition as his painting horizons are more expansive and open to new ideas and influences that bring the elements of mythology, fairy tales, popular culture and a personal history together once again in a tableau of narrative and allegorical painting.

 

La Ultima Grande

September 8 -October 20, 2006

The "La Ultima Grande" exhibition is organized around the visual interpretations of Rudolfo Anaya's acclaimed book, Bless Me, Ultima.

 

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1. "Lines & Dualities", Sylvia Ortiz Domney

2. "Being Bad" Chris Melendez

3. "Espiritu Santo Ven" Monica Vigil

4. "Bless Me Ultima" Derrick Montez

5. "Untitled" Jesus ", Cimi" Alvarado

6. " Tenorio's Eye", Eric J. Garcia

7. "Gifts For Mother and Son", Cay Garcia

8. "Know Faith/Unknown Truth", George C de Baca