ARGENTINEAN AFFAIR
Summer Group Show
FEATURING:
Daniel Fiorda, Chaval, Santiago Fuentes Bo, Jose Landoni
August 13 - September 4, 2014
- PRESS RELEASE -
- INSTALLATION VIEW -
Lilac Gallery New York is pleased to present "Argentinean Affair" a group show of Argentinean artists exhibiting paintings and sculptures by Daniel Fiorda, Chaval, Jose Landoni, and Santiago Fuentes Bo.
Lilac Gallery is proud to have some of Argentina's finest painters and sculptures exhibiting together for the first time in their new and exciting gallery. All artists have worked and lived in New York at some point in their carriers, today they are living and working around the world. With each artist displaying unique expressions and different stories to tell, the gallery is offering an eclectic taste of art to New York City here on 5th Avenue.
Daniel Fiorda will be showcasing new works from his White Box Series. Taking objects such as old typewriters and 35mm cameras, he transforms these objects into high-end art. The objects are placed in concrete, creating an altered composition. He then encases the subject in a white wooden box, affecting the composition along with elements of perspective and proportion. The change of color from utilitarian to artistic is spotlighted to great effect. The new white color enhances the form. This is also aided by the isolation of the object. The moving parts of the old piece are now stilled making the motion implied, thus creating an affect completely different and unique in every possible way. Daniel Fiorda lives and works in Miami, Florida.
The Art of CHAVAL & Santiago Fuentes Bo
Small worlds, multiple connections
Perfect mates and partners are also in a state of tension. They run in opposite directions and use different resources in order to show different perceptions of the world. Similarly, the works of these two Argentinean artists are like batteries charged with multiple meanings, references to diverse cultures, art history, popular iconography, and a vast inner world.
Figurative art created with an almost photographic hyperrealism, eye-level focal points that allow us to see images from a clear and serene frontality, and a multiplicity of narrative elements and portrayed subjects, establish a strong link in the works of both artists. However, when they take different paths, their results can be quite different.
Chaval constructs his images from a purely pictorial perspective, for painting is his only tool and resource to build his images and display his poetry: figures, landscape, and mood created with only brushes and color; in his work, even spills and blank spaces are eloquent, and they serve a good faith narrative and aesthetic. Light is also key, and the artist always portrays it as ideal, almost apocryphal: a light of dusk, flat, melancholic, the light that makes everything look golden and a bit more beautiful, precisely because it’s about to fade into darkness.
Fuentes Bo displays a more graphic style as he starts creating with gloss paint, pencils and pens on wooden tables or PVC, connecting the world of street art and graphic design that he comes from, and creating fantastic and delirious images with an urbane and contemporary sense of humor. His hallucinatingly refined depictions of animals remind us of Frans Snyders’ portraits; that’s how we have a Dutch still life in the midst of chaotic graffiti, randomly annotated supermarket receipts, slogans, pixels, and coffee spots.
Both artists are also connected by their marked sense of humor, but, while Fuentes Bo is pop, irreverent and frivolous, Chaval prefers the unnerving, sardonic, subtly off-centered, in the midst of a reality that, while perfect, lurks menacing.
-Mariano Soto, Art Historian
Jose Landoni's sculptures function as objects of contemplation that are far removed from any representation of violence. By doing so his intention is to create a state of peace in the mind of the observer. One constant aspect Landoni maintains throughout his work is its austere character: the use of simple forms and the purity of the line in space, representing an entity of physical and spiritual union in the treatment of light and shadow. Even if in some instances his artwork alludes to some specific themes of life, the main objective of his work is purely aesthetic, and has no political, social or ideological purpose. His main purpose is for peace and tranquility. Something that is very hard to find in our ever changing and complex society. Jose Landoni lives and works in New York City.
“The Debut”
Richard Shaoul
Additionally, Lilac Gallery will be debuting American artist Richard Shaoul. Richard will be showcasing works from his “Maps” collection. These works are depictions of the worlds and places that exist in his mind, and can only be expressed through highly detailed drawings of maps designed for others to experience. Shaoul lets us discover a whole different urban landscape scene through his eyes and experiences. These maps are extremely magical, with a childlike essence. By looking closer, you will see how these pieces of art are highly detailed with an extremely intense correlation between fantasy and reality.
