antillando

20 July 2013

Interworlders

The Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting one half of the Puerta al paisaje exhibit, a show organised in conjunction with the Museum of History, Anthropology, and Art of the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras. This part of the exhibit, entitled Entremundanos (Interworlders), regroups the work of established artists and further explores the relationship between the artist's gaze and the landscape.

The most notable works in this exhibit are without a doubt those by Myrna Báez, an artist active since the 50's. Báez's work is masterful; she perfectly manipulates colour and texture to create captivating visual narratives. Of all her works on display in this show there are two that stand out for their pensive beauty: Pensando en Proust (Thinking of Proust) and Mangle en las salinas (Mangroves in the Salt Marsh). Both paintings arrest first the eyes and then the mind, creating a contemplative artistic experience for the viewer.

The next most impressive piece in this show is a sculptural installation by Jaime Suárez entitled Galerías de la Tierra (Hall of Regions). This as a true delight for the senses, as the use of paper and clay sheets suspended from the ceiling gives one the very real impression of wandering through the deepest caverns of the Earth's surface layers. The monumental size and deft use of the materials provides the viewer with the approximative experience of a natural phenomenon.

Another notable contribution to Entremundanos is the series of photographs by John Betancourt, Puerto Rico: Calor. These black and white shots of landscapes and the built envrionment are technically very well executed and reflect their title perfectly; one can actually sense the heat of the day in each photograph, inspite of the cool black and white tones. There is a variety of compositions that were perfectly chosen and captured, which demonstrates the mastery Betancourt has over his medium.

These three artists are certainly some of the best in Puerto Rico and - I would venture - in the world. Each one shows a full understanding of their medium and has a sense of how to communicate with the viewer regardless of the latter's understanding of fine art. All three artists' works are a pleasure to encounter and any collection would be all the more complete with their presence.

The exhibit runs through September 2013 at the Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

27 June 2013

Stage Presence

Appropriate for a long absence from the blogosphere stage, my return is marked by a piece on another of San Juan's Art Deco treasures: the Teatro Arriví.

Unfortunately, this theatre doesn't have a website anywhere online so all I can say about its productions is that they are relatively frequent and are occasionally the work of international troupes.

The original venue was a cinema, one of the first in Puerto Rico in fact. After successive decades of use and abandonment, today the structure stands refurbished and has established itself as an important part of the ever-gentrifying neighbourhood of Santurce.

The theatre's namesake is Francisco Arriví, a prolific writer and literary figure that has been called the father of Puerto Rican theatre. He was especially active in the forties and completed a number of works in English.

As I said, the lack of a website makes it difficult to speak about Teatro Arriví's productions, but each time I pass by there seems to be a new banner advertising a new show or theatre festival. In fact, it was one of the main venues during the recent international theatre festival. Aside from hosting the vibrant theatre scene in Puerto Rico, it's also a great example of what architectural restoration can achieve for cultural preservation and urban development, something the city's leaders will hopefully be attentive to in the coming years.

22 May 2013

Arsenal

The Muestra Nacional 2013 (National Expo 2013), organised by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, takes the country's artistic pulse with a multi-generational survey of artists working in Puerto Rico. The exhibit, held in what used to be the Spanish marine's armoury, combines work from well-established and emerging artists.

Although time was short and the exhibit closed before I could see the whole thing, I can say that the work is of a very high quality, particularly the paintings, which are the high points of this show. Some of the sculptures and video works are out of place in comparison to the more refined pieces, but overall this exhibition shows that artists in Puerto Rico are producing world-class art.

While the paintings in the show are reason enough to check out the exhibit, the skill displayed in the mixed-media installations is especially striking. In the two rooms I was able to visit there were three pieces that stood out for their plastic sophistication and visual composition, all three from established artists.

One of them, by Franklin Graulau, is a three-piece sculptural installation in ceramic, enamel, and fibers entitled Jardín de media noche. Calling to mind 3D Surrealist flowers with Freudian undertones, each component has rounded edges and is a soft greyish colour, thus heightening the sense of dream-like playfulness.

Next to Graulau's work is a large-scale installation by Daniel Lind Ramos, Guardacosta(s). I will unreservedly admit that this was my favourite piece in the entire show (at least what of it I saw). An assembly of painted wood panels, palm fronds, pots, pans, machetes, and hoes, it sweeps the viewer away with its game of visual seduction and then invites them to consider the significance of each of the components. Referencing the name of the work (which means "coast guard") are the palm fronds, a bag of sand laid at the foot of the piece, and a background painted to recall the sea's horizon, all of which bring Ramos' biography into play since he is from Loíza, one of the country's oldest towns and located on the northern coast.

In the same corner with Graulau and Ramos' works is a piece by Spanish artist Luis Ivorra, who has been in Puero Rico since the late seventies and studied at the prestigious Escuela de Artes Plásticas (School of Applied Arts) in San Juan. His mixed-media sculpture Tránsito combines metal work, wood work, and ceramics to produce an austere and surreal effect. The apparent minimalism of this sculpture belies the skill necessary to produce such a clean but large-scale work.

All three of these works hearken to the Arts and Crafts Movement and take as a given the place of craft in contemporary art. They demonstrate that traditional techniques such as ceramics and wood working can be used to achieve a contemporary artistic vision without wallowing in a more traditionalist past.

The exhibit runs at the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina until 8 October 2013.

24 April 2013

Poster Child

If you thought the concept of the Renaissance man was dead, you have not heard of Antonio Martorell. He is an artist who has produced not only visual art, but has also written extensively and worked in theatre. The image accompanying this entry is of a poster he created for an academic conference in 1996 and I came across it in the Department of Translation at the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras (a campus where art is everywhere - and quality).

Martorell is one of many very, very talented poster artists that have worked - and are still working - in Puerto Rico. Aside from representing the tradition of the cultured gentleman that the island still maintains to some extent, as a graphic artist Martorell is also a standard-bearer for what can arguably be called the country's national art form. Serigraphy has a long history here and the medium has been worked from every possible angle and then some. So integral is poster art to Puerto Rico's artistic heritage that the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico has dedicated an entire wing of its current survey exhibition of national art to the medium. It's the really the kind of stuff theses are made of (for all of you art history researchers looking for a topic) and Mr. Martorell even has an extensive archive to help you along the way.

For a wider look at his oeuvre, there is an exhibit opening on Wednesday, April 24th and running until June 29th at the Universidad de Sagrado Corazón.

17 April 2013

It's the law.

Santurce, Santurce es ley. This street-art festival took place in what is certainly San Juan's hippest neighbourhood (an area complete with cafe book-signings and (a) chic Indian restaurant(s)): Santurce. The area has been getting a lot of press for its extremely high concentration of artists, designers, and general manifestations of the hipster ideal. At any rate, it is the perfect location for a street-art festival that brings together musicians, artists, museums, and galleries to both showcase and revitalize this particular barrio.

I have to admit that I was too busy with textual analyses and the finer points of Spanish syntactic conventions to make it out - obscene, I know, but the work is still up and there is always next year. However, I can say that street-art is a particular gem among the city's artistic offerings. The work seen on walls in this city is the most vibrant I've seen yet (even compared to New York, Montreal, or Los Angeles!); it is of a quality and, above all, ubiquity that so far I haven't noted anywhere else I've lived. Even before the festival (and continuing now) there are new murals going up all over the place, in every neighbourhood. There is enough very good work to merit a blog - or even a fancy Taschen/Phaidon publication - all its own. There also appears to be a consensus among Sanjuaneros that this is a vital part of the city's civic life, much to the benefit of the seeing public.

It would be remiss not to mention that at least one writer took issue with how this event, in its fourth edition, took form this year. Apparently that old trope of a disadvantaged neighbourhood at the mercy of a hipster invasion is rearing its head, as outlined in this article from El Post Antillano. Essentially, the writer says the artists (an admittedly well-off bunch) just kind of went in, cans ablaze, and did not really involve the area's residents, who are primarily immigrants and not financially privileged. A valid complaint, if it is actually true.

Whatever the case, I think this festival is a good reason in and of itself for anyone to visit Puerto Rico - the work is that good! Before long this is going to get the kind of attention that drives up the cost of real estate and hotel rates, so book your tickets in advance.

9 April 2013

Comic del arte

Complete with a quote from Buddha (Siddharta Gautama -the original) and a recreation of a Christian witchcraft altar (designated in this way to prevent religious mislabelling), this exhibit of Sergio Vázquez's work is a nice blend of pop culture, Freud, and Joseph Campbell. Entitled Santos, Deidades y Titanes (Saints, Gods, and Titans) the pieces do not create the kind of dark mood this combination could otherwise produce and end up being very light and funny, albeit in a very gothic way. Overall Vázquez demonstrates amazing technical skill, as these are paintings on wood panels that have been carefully pieced together and sanded down; they actually remind me of the wood panels depicting the Passion of Christ in many churches, which intensifies the mystical theme of the exhibit. It is refreshing to see this kind of style executed without recourse to digital techniques and goes a long way to complementing the primal nature of the subject matter.

The gallery hosting the show is Galería Candela, located in Old San Juan (110 Calle San Sebastián - blink and you miss it, so look carefully). The space is amazing; the exhibition space is on the second floor and spread across three rooms. While the exhibit is up you have the chance to buy the Vázquez's comic and some t-shirts that he designed. This art and design initiative is part of a series of exhibits of similar work from an independent publishing house called Pernicious Press, who also have a host of other creative projects going on.

Santos, Deidades y Titanes runs until April 11th - and I believe there is a closing party.

24 March 2013

Roccoco Loco

Ah, the Roccoco, or Late Baroque as some would prefer. The irony and frivolity of this French movement bridged the gap between the remnants of the Renaissance and Neoclassicism, that other French contribution to art history. While examples of Roccoco from Europe easily come to mind, it is sometimes forgotten that the movement was in full force during the colonisation of the Americas and particularly marked the early visual culture of the Caribbean nations. These historical interconnections all come together in the person and work of Luis Parét y Alcázar, a Franco-Spanish artist that spent a very short time in Puerto Ricoin the late 18th century. One of his works is currently on display at the Museo de San Juan, a small municipal museum that presents free exhibitions that tell San Juan's story from an artistic point of view. The current exhibit, Obras Maestras, also includes work from two superstars of Puerto Rican art history, José Campeche and Francisco Oller and is a great way to get introduced to both artists, especially if you do not have the stamina for a full museum visit.

Parét y Alcázar was a court painter in Spain before he was exiled to Puerto Rico because of his libertine ways. Although only in the country for under three years, he apparently produced quite a bit of work, most of which did not survive to the present day.

What has made him well-known in Puerto Rico is his Self-Portrait (c. 1776), in which he portrays himself in full jíbaro regalia. The jíbaro is (and was considered at the time) a folkloric representation of Puerto Rican culture; the archetype springs from the early colonists who worked the land and created an agricultural plantation society on the island. Needless to say, none of these people would have worn the fine fabrics portrayed in Parét y Alcázar's portrait, nor would their hats have been quite so decorative.

This self-portrait exemplifies perfectly the European use of portraiture to create a rapport with (and co-opt and mock) the newly formed/discovered American cultures that so amused and amazed them. This is so in that the irony of a peasant farmer posing for a portrait would not have been lost on 18th century viewers, with the luxurious accoutrements Parét y Alcázar wears deepening the sense of irony even further. This tongue-in-cheek kind of play-acting was typical of Baroque and Roccoco culture, especially in France where the nobility would go out for day-long picnics in which they would wear costumes and engage in a very theatrical role-playing game that required them not to break with character until the picnic/play was over. Needless to say, this type of carnivalesque tradition allowed an otherwise conservative society to act out any manner of secret desires and forbidden impulses and it is not surprising that Parét y Alcázar would have thoroughly enjoyed such an activity.

Considering the incongruency of the portrait's subject matter, this portrait participates in the aforementioned European tradition of making the exotic familiar and can be compared in some ways to John Verelst's series of portraits of Native American leaders for Queen Anne in the early 18th century.

I am not sure when the exhibit will end, but if you happen to be in Old San Juan and need a break from the vigorous architectural sight-seeing the area offers, the museum offers a tranquil respite and some of the most valuable art treasures of the Americas.

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