Opening reception on Friday, July 27, 2012 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Last Friday Art Walk in the Railyard Arts District.
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Contemporary Art from Latin America, the first of a two part series on Latin American art. The second show features contemporary Cuban artists. Part One will feature blue-chip artists such as Roberto Matta (Chile), Antonio Segui (Argentina) and Rufino Tamayo (Mexico) among others and highlights the extraordinary variety of art on the continent. The show opens on Friday, July 27th, 2012 and will continue through Friday, August 24, 2012. The second part of the series, Message from La Havana, will open on August 31st and run through September 21st, 2012. Both openings are at the gallery, 435 South Guadalupe Street, across from the rail station, from 5:00©\7:00 pm to coincide with the Railyard Arts District Last Friday Art Walk.
The renowned poet and art critic, Ricardo Pau-Llosa writes in his book, The Mastery Impulse, about the themes of consciousness and the imagination. It is in these realms that Latin American art flourishes and offers us a world that has been ignored for too long by many in the art world. Pau-Llosa describes Latin American visual thinking as theatrical with the understanding that the artists "consciously put images in play, in action among themselves" so that the work of art dramatizes ideas of social and political significance. It is this impulse that can be seen in works by the famous Argentinean painter and printmaker Antonio Segui (b.1934).
Segui's alter ego, the recurring figure in his paintings and prints, is always dressed to the nines with a hat and tie; he is an everyman, struggling with the absurdities of modern life in the big city. The situations in which Segui's Everyman finds himself challenge the assumptions that we take for granted and show us how ridiculous life can be. Segui inserts humor and a mischievous spin on the tales of contemporary life - the drama we all search for today.
Carlos Rojas, Colombian (1933-1993), known as an abstract painter and sculptor, studied at the School for Fine Arts at the National University in Bogot¨¢, Colombia. He was recognized by the government and received a scholarship to study in Rome where he majored in design at the School of Fine Arts in Rome in the late 1950's. His exposure to the European art scene enabled Rojas to integrate abstraction, the environment and his design visions into a geometric world that defined his idea of the Divine. Rojas' love of music influenced his work, and while geometry's minimal parameters dominates his abstractions, a contrasting use of vibrant color speaks of the cultural contradictions in the Latin American spirit.
Rufino Tamayo, Mexico (1899-1991) painter and printmaker. Orphaned as a young boy, Rufino Tamayo went to live with relatives in Mexico City. At the age of 18 years, his aunt enrolled him in Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas at San Carlos to study art. He was recognized early on by Jos¨¦ Vasconcelos who he worked for, at the Department of Ethnographic Drawings (1921), and was later appointed head of the department by Vasconcelos. Tamayo leaves a world famous legacy with his original "Mixografia" prints. In collaboration with Luis Remba, Tamayo developed a new medium in printmaking that they called "Mixografia" which allows for creating three-dimensional texture in the fine art printing process.
Also showing will be Pablo Atchugarry (Uruguay), José Bedia (Cuba), Roberto Matta (Chile), Frederico Herrero (Costa Rica) and Engels (Haiti).
For further information, please contact:
Meg Hachmann, Administrator, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art
505‐982‐8111, x1014; megh@zanebennettgallery.com
www.zanebennettgallery.com