„Titties & Tea“

  The artist Roland Schauls (*1953 Luxemburg) creates in his new paintings a theatre for his enactments and interpretations. From his flamboyantly colourful works of art emerges an interplay of figures, interior and landscape.

  As for content, Schauls refers to the history of art and lines up various quotations in order to reinterpret them. Every picture turns into a drama, a stage, a production of irony and ambiguity. The viewer assumes the playgoer’s role for whom it is difficult to follow what is happening. Schauls’ exuberant abundance of pictures and ideas, which manifests itself in numerous colourful details of his paintings, invites the viewer to engage with the imagery and to find his own interpretation of it.

  China has galvanized a powerhouse economy, and its contemporary art is now in a state to deliver a Viagra effect to the contemporary art world at large. When Andy Warhol transformed Mao into a pop art icon through his larger than life portrait, Mao entered the international art scene and became a timeless symbol of what New York-based artist Anton S. Kandinsky calls "China-ism.

  "China-ism" is an artistic interpretation of contemporary China - its culture, politics and economy coined by Kandinsky, a non-Asian artist. It also serves as a way for the international art community to reflect on contemporary China via art. The first China-ism exhibition was curated by David Rong and Alex Demko in October of 2009.

  While China's economy has changed dramatically over the last twenty years, the state of democracy in the country has not changed at all. Merely an artist seeking and defending his freedom of speech, Ai Weiwei was detained on April 3, 2011 and was held in an unknown location by the Chinese government for 80 days. Just over a month into the artist's arrest, Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian art at the Guggenheim Museum, spoke at the opening of Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads in New York City (an opening the artist was formerly scheduled to attend) stating that if there is no freedom of speech, there is no modern art and that the world is not challenging the Chinese government but that the Chinese government is in fact challenging the world.

  The exhibition, China-ism II: Democracy or Economy?, asks the question: "If China is already changing the world, will the world change China?" The exhibition presents 13 oil paintings by Kandinsky as well as one original photograph, Guard, Seven Frames (1994) and video art I'm walking on the road to Dead Land (2010) by Ai Weiwei.

  If Wassily Kandinsky's works are representative of revolutionary change in the early twentieth century, Anton S. Kandinsky has upheld the tradition begun by his forefather. Well known for his "Gemism" paintings, begun in 2004, these works are composed of naturalistic images of gemstones intermingling with flags, ideograms, political figures and celebrities as well as historical and social iconography from China, the former Soviet Union as well as American pop culture.

  White Box, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, provides a unique site for curators and artists alike to present exhibitions and explore non-commercial, innovative ideas via projects that range from aesthetically exciting to provocative.

press conference September 15, 2011 at 5pm
VIP reception September 15 from 6pm-8pm
Opening reception September 22, 2011
Panel discussion, "Democracy or Economy? China-ism in the Contemporary World" with academics, economists, and artists September 29, 2011

Press can contact press@whiteboxny.org

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Carmen Calvo returns to Michael Dunev Art Projects with DNI

  Carmen Calvo’s interventions on anonymous photographs, either by changing the face of the character with the application of everyday objects or with painterly manipulation, alter our reading of our identity, who we are, and how we are perceived. The individual, isolated from any context, compels us to reconsider the role of our cultural heritage and the effect it has on the definition of our own sense of being.

  A small porcelain sculpture of a child reading a book, unquestionably kitsch in a nineteenth-century bourgeois style, serves as a key to enter into the cosmography of Carmen Calvo. The artist has blindfolded the boy, forcing him to read blindly, thus implying that only the blind can see the truth. A lack of eyes is not an obstacle to understanding, and indeed, many of the characters that inhabit the world of Carmen Calvo are missing eyes. Their attention is internal, toward a world of impressions and memories that cannot be interpreted by ocular sensations. Nevertheless, these absent eyes appear disembodied in several drawings on paper, observing innocuous and anonymous characters in neutral spaces that evoke exhibition halls where the works gaze upon the viewer. They are works of a teeming sexuality loaded with a powerful life force and an intimate connection with the subconscious that make a discreet nod to the chance encounter between the sewing machine and the umbrella of Count Lautréamont whilst challenging our perception of the Self. 

  Since her early influences of Pop Art and Post Minimalism, Carmen Calvo (Valencia, 1950) has developed a uniquely singlular identity based on a visual language that is characterised by the appropriation of objects, often with deep connections to the historic memory and in danger of disappearing, that she recovers and manipulates employing a heterogeneous combination of mediums. Using rubber, collage, drawing, gold-leaf, diverse objects or anonymous photographs, enlarged and manipulated, Calvo presents us with her own particular vision of the human condition with the figure as the main protagonist. They are anonymous personnages that evoke an irrecoverable past of our history while commenting on contemporary reality.

  One of the most recognised of Spanish artists, Carmen Calvo, has enjoyed a broad international museum exhibition programme. She represented Spain at the Venice Biennale (1997) and has been the focus of important retrospective exhibitions in museums such as the IVAM (1990, 2007) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Reina Sofia (2002), amongst others. Her extensive exhibition record and an unequivocal commitment to experimental work have served to place the work of Carmen Calvo amongst the most significant within Spanish Art of today.

  The opening reception will take place on Saturday, 20 August at 7:30 PM.  The artist will be present.  We hope you can join us for a cold glass of cava.

17257 Torroella de Montgrí (Girona)
T 972 75 9492
info@dunev.com
www.dunev.com

  Michael Guidry: The Son and The Heir features a series of paintings that skirt the edges of abstraction and representation by Guidry of Houston.
  Informed by melancholic music, dystopian sci-fi films and a disconnected relationship with the natural world, Guidry uses his camera and computer to generate compositions which read as both virtual landscapes and geometric abstractions, evocative of fractured, virtual alien landscapes. His palette includes unexpected combinations of hot and cold, yet muted, colors (matte acrylic paint mixed by this local Home Depot) which the artist applies in precise, clean lines and hard-edged planes that suggest both flatness and depth.
  Historically, Guidry's work has been informed by his interests in pattern, decoration, early abstract painting, music, order and structure. While earlier paintings dealt with the environment around the artist, the current series, started in 2005, address the artist's place within the landscape. "I have this ambivalent feeling toward nature," the artist writes. "I like to look at it, appreciate it from a distance but have no interest in being in it. Part of me wants to control it, sculpt it, and clean it up. I'd rather swim in a chlorine-filled pool than the ocean, or sit on pavement rather than grass." The current series of paintings are psychological "landscapes," inspired by photographs of the artist in different environments. Guidry then digitally manipulates the image, breaking the surface into flat planes so that the figure becomes invisibly blended into the new landscape.

Someone Like You, 2010, latex on canvas over wood panel, 54 x 38 inches

  
Join us for a gallery talk with artist Michael Guidry and curator Clint Willour during the ArtWalk reception on Saturday,

June 11, at 6:30 pm.
  

Galveston Arts Center is proud to partner with Del Papa Distributing. Each ArtWalk, selected locations will offer a sampling of a particular artisanal beer.

  Nothing says "summer" like the smell of cut grass, so this month, we're featuring St. Arnold's Fancy Lawnmower Beer, a true German-style Kolsch. This beer is crisp and refreshing, yet has a sweet malty body that is balanced by a complex, citrus hop character. Fancy Lawnmower Beer is a world-class brew yet light enough to be enjoyed by Texans after strenuous activities, like mowing the lawn (or looking at art!) Cheers!

  Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present Karen Brasier-Young: Fragment/Ornament, a one-night only event at the 1878 First National Bank Building located at 2127 Strand at 22nd Street. The event will take place from 5 to 8 pm during the June 11th ArtWalk. GAC executive director Alexandra Irvine will lead a gallery talk with the artist at 5:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
  Combining her interests in architecture and sculpture, Brasier-Young has created a selection of architectural jewelry intended to serve as ornament to decorate the building. These embellishments are, in turn, created from fragments of construction materials, including discarded parquet wood flooring, plastic window blind slats, and lighting fixtures. Her stylistically modern forms, constructed from contemporary materials, are installed in stark contrast to the exposed masonry and structural steel, decorating and calling attention to the beautiful craftsmanship of the historic building. "My training in architecture has interested me in the objects and elements that create space-primarily materials, scale, structure, and surface," writes the artist. "By directly investigating the relationship between art, architecture, and visual representation, I have created interdisciplinary objects that examine the penetration of art into all kinds of thinking, cross-referencing the fields of art and architecture."
  Suffering substantial damage caused by Hurricane Ike in 2008, the 1878 First National Bank Building has served as the home of the visual arts in Galveston for over 40 years. In the three years since the storm, the Galveston Arts Center has raised and spent over $2,000,000 addressing structural issues, refurbishing the original cast iron façade, and making improvements that will bring the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Currently, the interior of the first floor has been stripped down to exposed masonry and stud walls and plywood subfloor. An additional $1,000,000 will be needed to complete the renovation of the building and restore it to a functioning non-profit venue for the presentation of contemporary art.
  A native of Galveston, Brasier-Young received a BS in 2007, and MA in 2010, in architecture from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. She is currently completing graduate studies in sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. Other architectural interventions of her work have been mounted at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center in Cincinnati, and Diego Rivera Gallery in San Francisco. The artist currently lives and works in Houston.

  The artist and staff of the Galveston Arts Center wishes to sincerely thank Gilbert Robinson and Chris Harrison of the Galveston Fire Department for their assistance in making this event possible. 

Saturday, April 9 // 2pm