Compilations of Old Blogs Part 6

A July Thursday at Kulay Diwa
*** July 31, 2003

This Thursday talk was a memorable one for me as I was heartened by the small group we had. I was late, arriving at 5 pm with a debate already going on. Jonathan Castro, an artist, who was giving out invitations for his Boston show was on the hot seat. He was adamant about the aesthetics of his invitation wherein he omitted pictures of his work and titled it as ‘Collectibles’ — a misnomer. To each his own “diba?” Yet one still would like to be aware of costs and right information even in invitation details. Its quite conflicting to be quite purist on concept alone. It developed to a lighthearted discussion for a time but was redirected to a much important one when everyone settled down. We really are blessed to have gatherings and discussions yet we should all take advantage of this bounty to the fullest. It really is not permanent. We must all be strive to be stable independently as soon as we can as we have a growing responsibility to ourselves and to the community we belong to. Let us take care of our art as our art would take also care of us.
Kulay Diwa Galleries located at 25 Lopez Village, Lopez Ave., Sucat, Parañaque City is steadily flourishing in the able hands of Bobi V. and Bobbit Nolasco. We are all recipients of this great venture in the arts. This day though it was a talk that encouraged the youngest to just be resourceful with our learning, interaction and habits as we all would be potentials. The corporeal question of our existence, other pursuit and process of our fellow artists were topics too. Foremost in mind would be the role of conceptuals amidst the contemporary reality.
The complex search of chromatic expression guided by frenetic frenzy explains most of this artist’s academic and theoretical interest. Yet one cannot simply throw away the simple nuances of being human or humane, for that matter, as one becomes when an artist shares his own experiences and pursuits. Validity and contribution stood at end with humanity and inspiration as we try to describe and bring to life Jojo Lofranco at Kulay Diwa Galleries.
Why is man such a variance animal of deficiency and complications yet at one leap could be a success?
One wonders as you find yourself in this unique and surprisingly enlightening talk on what should an artist hold fast to grow and understand in this ever undemocratic yet humane profession. Where weeding out mediocrity in art is essential to survive and finesse a requisite to expound on and that when mystic and myth are taken down from most established artists the more it hounds them still. Where Art means humanized genius at work in uplifting one’s state of being and art simply a career. And being rooted to one’s patriotic pride in this case being a Filipino would be a longer road to success.
One finds dramatics a tool essential to expressiveness particularly in defending the one’s bum life. But when one is successful it is held as an esthetical success. For this case though, the truth sets one free.

We found ourselves particular about comparisons as we further delved in the coincidences of similarities and found answers and excuses on validity and integrity. Further more, sincerity of vision becomes integral only when accompanied by consistency.
Why is the Filipino’s concept of a gallery in extreme from the notion of a Filipino artist?
When we look at the majority of Filipino artists falling in line with the generic aesthetics of the mundane we accept this as a phase every one could learn from so that most are willing to wallow on this likely popular perception for most of one’s career life in the arts. Few move beyond and perhaps liking the opulence and illusions of fame they bring, influence others some more. Then we legitimize such excesses without responsibility and educated validity. A gallery is a venue and nothing more than the people behind it or the vision they bring— be they artist , curator, writer, critic or gallery owner.


Amiel Gerald A. Roldan
Mandaluyong City, Philippines


amiel_roldan@yahoo.com
amiel.roldan@gmail.com

*** visit me also at
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
www.myspace.com/amiel_roldan
www.amiel_roldan.multiply.com




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Benign Art
December 2, 2002

I was privileged enough to be at Kulay Diwa Galleries located at 25 Lopez Village, Lopez Ave., Sucat, Parañaque City on this last Thursday of November, 2002. We started with an informal group consisting of Marc Cosico, Michael Adrao, Don Salubayba, Noel ‘Nookie’ Cuizon, Kiko Escora, Adeline Ooi, Peachy Jubon, Chris of NCCA, Bernard of UST, Jezz Genotiva, Jojo, Karen Flores of NCCA, Claire Uy , Bobbit Nolasco, Bobi Valenzuela and this writer. It was one of those afternoon talks that surprisingly stretched to a late night round-robin discussion as we delved deeper on the particular set-up of contemporary art. This afternoon habit had become a regular fare of sharing and exchanging ideas and it was quite awesome to be included among this particular highly dynamic group.
With a well-versed moderator, much topics ranging through history and contemporary movements were collated between the Philippines and Malaysia. Noel Cuizon or Nookie as most call him, has visited Malaysia on one of his rare sojourns and had anecdotes and insights about Malaysian artists and being an artist, too, had a much deeper perspective. Adeline Ooi, a Malaysian researcher and assistant curator, started with inputs on the different perspectives and the nuances Malaysians have on their art and on themselves. I grew a bit uneasy to know how awkward it was for artists to improve on their own. They have to contend with different beliefs even among themselves. As a nation, Malaysians are strong in government, language, culture and religion. The European and Western concept of arts was never really absorbed fully with the rich traditions of crafts and culture of Malaysia. One question came and argued to mind as yet another flattering yet unrealistic comparison became obvious between Philippine and Malaysian arts. Isn’t this apparent disparity a kind of success that is ideal for an Asian country to have and maintain? Even for a young nation trying to create its own niche in the context of contemporary world art? I feel puzzled with Adeline Ooi’s and Noel Cuizon’s conclusions as to the irrelevance or is it indifference in Malaysia’s explorations? A hierarchy among the established artists and the younger ones was explained and that was predominant even in the National Museum of Malaysia. Yet these lacking qualities.? If they are then they should and would breed reactionary actions among the sedentary people right.? I am now at a loss. Yet, I think there should be a reassessment and reintegration of younger artist to the Malaysian art as an answer to this vacuum. With the growing perception of global symmetry in the arts one could only marvel at this potentials. Yes, the validity of foreign learned teachers turned artists is questionable yet contemporary intrusions among Malaysian artists young or old, teachers or not, could reshape very much for a beautiful Malaysia culture.

It is sad that one’s concept of success are always assumed by estimation with other countries’. I agree with perhaps the lackluster appreciation of the earlier amalgamations and pretensions yet the challenges should still be offered to excel. Malaysian contemporary arts could grow still without or with these failures.


Amiel Gerald A. Roldan
Mandaluyong City, Philippines


amiel_roldan@yahoo.com
amiel.roldan@gmail.com

*** visit me also at
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
www.myspace.com/amiel_roldan
www.amiel_roldan.multiply.com




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The Role of the Painter Artists
December 6, 2002

The Socio-Political activities of the group “Salingpusa’ and the Neo Socio-Political representations locally and abroad of the group ‘Sanggawa” 1989- 1995 maintained the influx of socio-patriotic sentiments. For new groups and affiliations led by young artists from different institutions around Manila it opened a new perspective.
A sense of dynamism and an imminent need for consideration and acceptance for young artists grew amidst the acceptance of these same established artists from Hiraya Gallery led by stalwart curator, Bobi Valenzuela. With the initial successes of young artists of Ang Delatang Pinoy, Yes the Filipino Can! at the Main Gallery and the Discovery Series at the Mezzanine of the Hiraya Gallery collaborations and interests grew among peers and artists alike. Beginnings of groups and affiliations strengthened. Acceptance cemented it and consideration and common respect bonded it fully.
With the recognition and acknowledgement, initiatives of combining divergent and dynamic sentiments amidst a series of travelling shows and artists talks around Manila institutions garnered favorable intentions in 1996. Jorge B. Vargas Museum with help from another curator, Dr. Brenda Fajardo opened its venue for discussions and preparations of shows of this magnitude and purpose. The different artists’ orientations and discipline prove a different inclination, though. The organization tried to consider the multi - diversity of influence. A representational albeit common sentiments grew. A need for popular and copious understanding that would try to link conceptual inclinations and regalism, socio-political sentiments and representation and popular esthetics and symbolisms powered by a new sense of individual empowerment encompassed the groups and individuals involved.
Groups like Ugat-Lahi, the defunct Makiling’s Beinteng Umaaray, UP groups, UST groups, UE individuals, St. Scholastica Fine Art students and other individual artists all helped to bring this to fruition. “Mula Filibustero Hanggang kay Marimar” opened in different schools and institutions to warm appreciation. It led to further group shows like the “Xprints” and “Reprints” initiated by collaborations between Studio 1 and Jorge B. Vargas Museum and the traveling exhibit “Banderitas” spearheaded by Ugat-Lahi.



Amiel Gerald A. Roldan
Mandaluyong City, Philippines


amiel_roldan@yahoo.com
amiel.roldan@gmail.com

*** visit me also at
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
www.myspace.com/amiel_roldan
www.amiel_roldan.multiply.com




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Reinventing Yourself
November 30, 2002.


We sometimes need the change to reinvent ourselves to an image that is totally new. Yet a lot of us disdain these stages of growth as unnatural and even with contemptuousness. Yet how could we consider ourselves evolving if one limits these changes that affect and effect us all.

I was with Don Salubayba and Michael Adrao at Rufus, located at Makati, checking out the evening menu of Tapsilog (tasteless! Ughh! A Tapa with sauce WF**K! Which I mistakenly ordered again!) and that Mike has been raving about for the whole time I hitched rides (whose complaining? Thanks again, Mike!). When talk started on personality quirks, character change and downright arrogance of some artists without them really being aware of it. I really had an inkling, though, as I could read some emotions from Don’s face or it was likely he was regretting his Tapsilog, too. I was in for a surprise or Mike was literally, on eating his great Porkchop with garlic rice, which I should have ordered come to think of it, as Don Salubayba went for the jugular of the problem and which happened to be me. Me? Good old me. I was offended. Me? He did comment on Adelaide Ooi as added ammunition which unsettled me a bit as fleeting white skin flashed before my eyes. What a great brain and I wasn’t looking! For the record. It was on some pissed comment she had on me and a general comparisons which literally had me fuming ( Great! Don Salubayba knows how to play this game, too, regretfully.) and which really took me by surprise. I adamantly refuse to consider since I hold her as a breathe of fresh air but I saw that Don wasn’t budging from his stance I decided two could play this game. But that’s another story that I’ll remedy as soon as I can.

As it was still early about 8:00 pm and we all were unwinding from a day at setting up at Kulay Diwa, I effected some outrageous disbelief of some sorts and denying the outrageous comment. Better kill the rumor while it was still fresh. But true to form of missionistic vigilance which I could only admire as I tried to lower my ticking eyebrow, Don launched his ammunition which thankfully I had intended really for him to be irritated about. Not that his hostility and caustic remarks, slightly covered up, of course, were not obvious too, for the whole two weeks we’ve been forced to bump to each other. But I really intended my comment to reach particular ears when I casually commented to Leslie de Chavez my comment of the lack of great individual shows of late. A simple phrase could create great havoc. Sorry Leslie ! But this time you were a harbinger of unwanted news. Promise not to do it again. I did ask you not to tell. That was before Recent Works 2 at Kulay Diwa. I received what I assumed was miffed expression from Leslie and getting him to reconsider and reconsider some more of his priorities at that time but the reaction was quite more surprisingly from Don who I believe has great temper maybe to rival my own but I don’t think so. I guess he was currently musing about his personal stand on my opinionated comment in general. Was I hinting on his shows.? Considering he is having his second one man show at Kulay Diwa. I think it is a great show but I’m not telling him as still I have work to do. Talk about pressure. Hahahahaha ! Small details are quite fun to play with but not always at the expense of good friends. But lets consider that we all are ideally and potentially are good artists and challenges coming from unexpected quarters are good litmus tests of vigilance and priorities. I was apologetic but secretly laughing because I know Don would be repeating my comment and sending other artists into a riotous anger, despite our long talk lasting till midnight as we continued to the Salubayba’s residence at Makati amidst vicious dogs B1 and B2 to which Mike was keeping eyes on throughout the illuminating conversations. Kulay Diwa has brought changes and for the better. All seems a bit prepared to risk bloopers in grammar just to get messages across. Admirable! Talk of change. Great studio though and great cabinet for your works as I was really turning green with envy at a new addition to Don’s space. Ha! I can carpenter some imitation of it as soon as I can. Sorry I’m digressing, lets go back to the comments that hopefully not aimed at me and bad as to be cruel since I could not always charge to bill of good character reference, harmless front and unassuming history even with my amiable personality. It was what I believe and intended would be a more direct tension of competition and self-analysis. Bobi V., I hope you’ll be reading this as I’m afraid I did turn up a Frankenstein. Back to Don again and despite his grudging acceptance through his nose of my deepest apologies. I know he doesn’t believe one bit or is still at end with the Tapsilog. He settled down while giving some murderous glances at me and the Tapsilog on his plate and at me again which I docilely avoided to meet while musing could I ask Mike if he would exchange food with me? Great! My appetite was gone! Keep up a bit of pretense. I guess he was getting to the point and that my comment that could be taken for a lot of negative things in generally and most against me was really not malicious in nature and that I understand them and seem formally contrite. Mike as a good old friend defended me and quite tactfully did all my convincing amidst his chewing of porkchop that kept me attentive and covetous of the piece of fat fried in deep oil. How did they get that golden color? But Alas! I discovered too, that I should be more careful as my character regression has also suffered me some shame and a bit of regret but hopefully I could remedy that and convince them of my good will and intentions when I bring out my series of paintings. Hehehehehe! Bobi V. you wait and see as I still have to document them. Ahh! Such arrogance and confidence! I really hope I don’t fall flat on my face as it is quite uncomfortable. To think that we all will be something to contend with, of course Don and hopefully Mike & Leslie would be leading the front. A good front it is as I seem a bit jealous of their talent and opportunities to come but who is counting? Hmmmmm! To wait is like eternity on hold and I know and I’m sure it will be ready. This I owe myself the knowledge and respect more than the facile rewards we all will be tempted one way or another. Now if I can get a certain breathe of fresh air in my direction it would be all accounted for. Wishful thinking! I do not want to consciously be that competitive nor others to perceive me as another competitor. To confide and be trusting. Hehehehe! I want to be approachable for my other plans, even if confrontational and goals which I would hold for a later piece. Trust is earned and I hope I would again or maybe not. Life is such a challenge and is doubled when it has you hook, line and sinker.

Hint : I’m starting to build again my network and hopefully it would last the lifetime.


Amiel Gerald A. Roldan
Mandaluyong City, Philippines


amiel_roldan@yahoo.com
amiel.roldan@gmail.com

*** visit me also at
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
www.myspace.com/amiel_roldan
www.amiel_roldan.multiply.com




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iscp open studios december 2003 artists / curator
June 29, 2009, 11:19 pm

about iscp
a visual arts residency unlike any other

Like many visual arts residency programs in New York, the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) is a microcosm of the city’s cultural diversity: multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-faceted. Unlike others, however, ISCP makes a concerted effort to connect its artists and curators to the local art community, while connecting the local art community with contemporary art practice from all over the world.
While New York may well be the world’s epicenter of contemporary art practice and market, the glut of resources and opportunities, which attract the art immigrant, are precisely the factors, which can be alienating and frustrating.
ISCP is a residency tailored to suit the practical needs of the visiting artist/curator by providing space in which to produce as well as addressing the magnitude of the world’s art capital. The program prides itself on providing an infrastructure, which accelerates integration and interaction with the host culture and in the course of its development, has become a catalyst for introduction, presentation, connection, exposure and dissemination.

The dynamic of ISCP is a programming hybrid conceived to facilitate genuine exchange, specifically its Guest Critic Series and semi-annual Open Weekend Exhibitions. The Guest Critic Series enables one-on-one studio visits for dialogue and critical feedback with distinguished professionals from the New York and international art worlds. The Open Weekend Exhibitions attract not only professionals, but a wider audience of art enthusiasts. In addition, a continual flow of international art traffic passes through the program, making impromptu studio visits and meeting with the artists and curators.
As a direct consequence of connections forged at ISCP, many of the over 500+ artists and curators who have participated in the program since its founding, are now represented by New York galleries and have been included in numerous group exhibitions and projects throughout the United States and abroad.

The raison d’être for an artist is to make art. The raison d’être for a curator is to communicate art. The paradigm fostered by ISCP enables these two inter-dependent professions to cohabit, cross-fertilize and interact, while both groups at the same time, inject our host culture with the vitality of the visual language they import to the United States.
Floor 6

610. ROBERTO COROMINA was born in 1965 and received a B.F.A. from Facultad Sant Jordi, Barcelona in 1989. He lived in New York from 1994 until 1998. He received the Casa de Velazquez Grant for a two-year residency in Madrid in 1998. Coromina has had solo exhibitions at the Fernando Serrano Gallery, Huelva, Spain; Guido Carbone Gallery, Torino, Italy, and the Monasterio de Veruela, Zaragoza, Spain. His work has also been featured at ARCO Madrid since 1998. Over the last seven years, he has been working from Old Master paintings by taking fragments, distorting them, and re-painting them. Recently, Coromina has been using art books as his source — painting and cutting out illustrations from second-hand books and assigning them a new life as objects. coromina@lycos.com
Floor 7

701. The video works of FIORENZA MENINI are like UFOs, mysteriously floating above the art world. Her videos are metaphysical in the strictest sense of the term: they go beyond what is simply physical. They can also be termed sublime, if we understand the term from Schelling as something which ‘remains secret and suddenly manifests itself’. The artist states: ‘I will show neither video, nor photography; my open studio will be empty.’ Menini presented the performance, Pure Beauty, at Gallery Yvon Lambert, Paris, 2001; Waiting People for the opening of Le Plateau, Paris, 2002, and Falsa Innociencia, at Fondacion Juan Miro, Barcelona, 2003. mylittleplanet@hotmail.com

702. NADIA COEN was born in Zimbabwe, where she lived until moving to New York City in 1979. Coen was actively involved in the East Village art movement of the eighties, conceptualizing and creating significant collaborative book and poster projects, which have been exhibited and collected by galleries, art collections, and museums in the United States and Europe. Her recent work has evolved into site-specific minimalist installations, incorporating scale, architecture and light. THE INCLINING EXPERIMENT installation at ISCP is an architectonic light experience. By transforming the studio into a trapezoidal environment the viewer steps into a series of light projections, which accentuate the experience of light as an ephemeral substance that exists through elongated space and prolonged time. nadiacoen@earthlink.net

703. PENG HUNG-CHIH was born in 1969 in Taiwan and lives and works in Taipei. Dogs are the recurring protagonists in Peng Hung-Chih’s sculpture and video works. Because of our empathetic relationship with these creatures, they serve as human surrogates. Peng also suggests that the ambiguity of mixed-breed dogs is a telling symbol of the cultural identity of Taiwan - its territorial status remains contested and its cultural conditions testify to the heterogeneous elements of indigenous cultures, Chinese immigration and complex economic ties to the West. In Face to Face, the viewer fuses with the animal as he looks into the head of a fiberglass dog to watch a video recorded from a dog’s eye view. One Black/One White cleverly expands Peng’s investigations, employing the dominant/submissive relationships between two street dogs to create a dance resembling the oscillations of a metronome. p2195@ms19.hinet.net

704. AMIEL ROLDAN’s body of work represents an inward look at how one can be an idealist in an ever-besieged population and is explored through a contemporary context. Some of the recurring themes in his past work revolve around politics, religion and the plight of individuals - regression, denial, faith / faithlessness, courage and wit. ‘I work largely on cultural issues in my paintings, installations and mass prints. I gain insight to create from popular convictions, lifestyles and Filipino practices.’ Roldan has worked in a variety of media and capacities: documentation and photography as well as coordinating and organizing exhibitions for institutions, such as the Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Kulay Diwa Art Galleries and the Hiraya Gallery. As one of an independent group of young artists in The Philippines, he has also collaborated with ARS (an artist-run-space) and several exhibition projects, which showcase emerging artists. Roldan has exhibited extensively at home and abroad. See www.amiel.tk

705. CHRISTOPH WEBER was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1974. A working grant from the Austrian Ministry of the Arts, enabled Weber to study Fine Arts in Leipzig, followed by Sculpture in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Conceptual Art in Vienna. According to curator Alexander Koch: ‘His work is equally inspired by the dispositions of American Conceptualism as well as by art-theoretical aspects, media-critical analysis and the formal and material confrontation with sculptural issues. With acute intellectual creativity and joy in experimentation, he succeeds in investigating the media with the expressiveness and poetry of sculptural proceedings.” Christoph Weber’s first solo show will take place in Gallery Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, in February 2004. tov@lo-res.org

706. YUKARI EDAMITSU is a Japanese artist, who works with painting and photography. She has received an MFA from Kyoto City University of Arts. The laws fascinate Edamitsu, which govern human beings and nature, leading her to pursue the spiritual power, which forms the being, as opposed to the materialistic. She is influenced by Buddhist philosophy. y.edamitsu@k9.dion.ne.jp
707. ISABELLE ENG is a French painter, who lives in Manhattan. She originally hails from Paris and was educated both in France and in the United States. Her love of Native American Indian Art brought her to the United States, where she came to teach and paint. She enjoys living in New York, the crossroads of all the world cultures, which endlessly replenishes itself with new arrivals. isabelleng@aol.com
708. INES PAIS (Lisbon, 1975) lives and works in Lisbon, Berlin and New York. She is the founding director of The IP Foundation, which, since 1999, has been collaborating with art-spaces from various countries (Lisbon, Oporto, Madrid, Berlin, New York, Strasbourg, Randers, Paris, Vienna, Nantes, Brest, Kiel, Turin, Glasgow a.o.). Inês Pais is also the founder of Chixuania, a fictive nation of artists, established in 2001. www.theipfoundation.org
709. YANGAH HAM. In her recent video project, More real than this world, which employs a subjective documentary style, YANGAH HAM deals with the fantasies of people who live in different parts of the world. During the period of documenting a certain person or a group of people, she shares their experience and waits for the moment their fantasies rise to the surface, capturing them through her own senses. More real than this world is an open-ended project, consisting of various short stories produced through this process. Yangah Ham was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived in New York City from 1994 to 2002. She participated in Gwanju Biennale (2002) and exhibited in ArtPace, San Antonio (2000), De Appel in Amsterdam (2003). Ham’s work can currently be seen in the Walsh Gallery in Chicago. afnature@yahoo.com

710. PETRA LINDHOLM was born in Finland in 1973 and studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm from 1996 until 2001. In Lindholm’s video work, the artist forms a close connection between image and sound, by employing her own composed music and voice, which adds an idiosyncratic dimension to both the visual and auditory material. Her films construct multi-layered dreams and memories, eliciting an emotional response. Her work is in several public collections such as the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Lindholm’s next solo show will be in January 2004 at Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden and she will be represented in the Armory Show, NYC, in 2004. petralindholm@soon.com
711. CECILIE DAHL works in diverse media such as photography, video, sound, performance, canvas and installation. In the body of work titled, Suckers, the artist explores the notion of oral consumption as it relates to various foods and sweets, human relations, an urge, a taste of and for something, with underlying ambiguities. Hard Candy, Still Lives and Short Stories stress the psychological aspects, merging the contested zones and the dynamic balance between indulgence, appreciation and compulsion. Clothes For A Summer Hotel, renegotiates and examines the uncertainties of a communicative situation, raising questions about proximity and issues of illusion and reality. The integration and fusion of color, sound and imagery in Dahl’s work as a whole facilitates an evocative visual language with multi-layered connotations and fields of association. Dahl was awarded residencies at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and P.S.1. New York. She currently works and lives between New York and Oslo. Ms. Dahl has had several solo and group shows e.g.: Malmø Museum, Sweden, 1999; Gallery F-15, Norway, 2001; Velan, Torino, Italy, 2001; Egizio?s Project, New York, 2001. cecid@bway.net

712. FAHRETTIN ÖRENLI was born and raised in Eastern Turkey and has been living and working in Holland since 1991. He graduated in photography from the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, 1998, and attended the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam from 2000 until 2001. According to the artist: ‘What we call reality can be seen as a relationship between the social sphere and the surreal, a ‘hyper-reality’, a socio-surrealism, a new reality, a creation represented through diverse media that comes into existence because different elements merge with one another. I stand at the intersection of these different and interrelated spheres. I work with photography, painting, video, installation and poetry, using these different disciplines to represent, on another level, the inter-relationship of a variety of subjects.’ Curator and critic, Gerardo Mosquera, states that: ‘Örenli is exploring the symbolic and expressive possibilities of painting to tackle contemporary subjects. Also a poet, Örenli combines literature and visual arts to deal with the complex human, social and political issues of our times.’ f_orenli@yahoo.com

713. MARKUS WETZEL sometimes calls himself an island maker, since he works in a field one could call virtual land art. Building one’s own island implies certain prerequisites, such as weather, shelter and studio, some boats, a beach, bad dreams from a big storm and so on. The artist has been working on an idea about the longing for a fictive quietness, a desire unrequited and impossible to achieve in life. Wetzel employs computer animation, installation, video and architectural elements. Two and a half years ago he came to New York on a one-year fellowship and has divided his time between New York and Switzerland since. He has shown extensively in venues throughout Europe. Wetzel’s next solo show will be at the James Nicholson Gallery, San Francisco. markuswetzel@compuserve.com
714. Over the past ten years, HANNES KATER has developed a personal iconography of drawing by producing made-to-order drawings, based upon short written anecdotes submitted to the artist by viewers. He, in turn, ponders the stories and reinvents them, the aggregate of which is an individual 2-D semiology or ‘pictionary’. Hannes Kater thus names himself a drawing generator, whose large 3-D installations, as in his studio, are a dynamic macrocosm of constellations of thought and interpretation already produced on paper, drawn directly on the walls and augmented by styrofoam cut-outs. Quote: ‘I am an embedded draughtsman.’ www.hanneskater.com
Floor 8

801. SO-YEON CHOI was born in 1968, in Seoul, Korea and now lives and works in New York. In her most recent project, Collapsible Museum, she plays with the image of prestigious museums. The artist wishes to present museum iconography from a different standpoint. Collapsible Museum is a new kind of paper sculpture. In one piece, a cut out image of the Metropolitan Museum disappears when folded, leaving the figures of camera-clicking visitors against a foreground of an empty wall. This image of the Metropolitan Museum suggests a vestige of ancient Rome. Choi walks around the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Museum and the American Museum of Natural History meticulously taking data. She would like to reverse our perception of symbols. Even if the Metropolitan Museum doesn?t fall, her effort to conserve is remarkable. She has also created a small organization, which encourages viewers to become members of Collapsible Museum. soyeon_choi@hotmail.com

802. JUDY RADUL lives in Vancouver, Canada. A consideration of forms and conditions of performance informs her practice, which includes video, installation, photography, live actions and audio works. Several recent installations have focused on observing actors and directors in rehearsal. Recent exhibitions include: The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The Belkin Satellite, Vancouver; YYZ Gallery, Toronto; The Institute of Contemporary Art, London (performance). Her critical writing has been included in several publications, most recently: Just Try It: Thoughts on Art and Science Experiments, Public, #25, Ed. Susan Lord, Gary Kibbins, Art Is All Over, Ed. Karen Henry, 2001 and Live at the End of the Century: Aspects of Performance Art in Vancouver, from December 13 to March 7, 2004. jradul@shaw.ca

803. MARIANNE THERESE GRØNNOW is a Copenhagen-based Danish artist who trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Grønnow is primarily a painter, but has employed other media e.g. printmaking, wood/paper stencils and drawing. Grønnow is dedicated to one particular motif: the flower. While an almost ritualistic repetition is significant, repetition does not imply one and the same painting. On the contrary, Grønnow constantly subjects her flowers to different technique, styles and symbolic significance. In earlier works, themes were vanity, impermanence, the mysterious and the secretive. Recently, the artist has been more interested in the dreamlike hallucinatory settings of enchanted artificial landscapes in bright colors. Grønnow has lived in Paris, Rome and Madrid and has been awarded residencies at Djerassi Foundation, San Francisco, USA; Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Spain and ISCP, New York, USA. Grønnow is represented at The National Danish Gallery, Malmø Museum of Art, Sweden, The Swedish Endowment for the Arts, Sweden; The Danish Endowment for the Arts, Denmark and NY Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark. groennov@mobilixnet.dk

804. KJELL BJØRGEENGEN is an artist from Norway, who works with digital and analog image processing. His works deal with the conditions of visual representation and meaning, including the borderline, where video images produce an oscillating flicker. Kjell Bjørgeengen is currently performing live video with Evan Parker?s Electro Acoustic Ensemble, while preparing a major exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo. kbjorgee@notam02.no

805. LAURENT MONTARON is a French artist, who was born in 1972. He lives and works in Paris. He graduated in Fine Arts from Nantes in 2001. Montaron’s work presents the viewer on first encounter with familiar subjects. Although the situations are arranged and subsequently photographed by the artist, they appear as ’stills’, or frozen moments of beauty and calm. Generating a feeling of doubt, their remoteness encourages the viewer to search for clues through identification and the experiences and memories triggered by association. Montaron works in mixed media: sound, video and photography. He has had solo exhibitions in the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris and in FRAC Champagnes-Ardennes, Reims. His work was recently shown in London at FA Projects Gallery and in Subréel at the Mac of Marseille. He is represented in several public and private collections. laurentmontaron@hotmail.com
8TH FLOOR BAR. CHRISTINA LUCAS’ work deals with the idea of power. The artist introduces her discourse by humorously embracing topics such as the art world, sexual identity, the role of woman, education, and super-heroes. Lucas defines herself as a philanthropist woman, who would like to find a way of making the public show their teeth, because she maintains that people show their teeth not only to smile, but also to fight. Born in Spain in 1973, Lucas studied Fine Arts at Universidad Complutense, Madrid and received her MFA from the University of California at Irvine. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, among which are: Monocanal, Reina Sofia Museum Madrid, 2003; Otros incluidos, House of America, Madrid, 2003; Magazine, Sala Amadís of Madrid, 2002; 33.3, Deep River Gallery, Los Angeles, 2000; Downtown Video, The Bradbury Building of Los Angeles, 2000; Concrete Lab, Laguna Art Museum of California, 2000; Video/Art, Sala Rekalde of Bilbao, 1999; Doméstica, La Panaderia, Mexico D.F., 1998; and La ceguera, Girona Art Museum, 1997. gatamelatta@hotmail.com

809. ROSE HSU was born in 1963 in Taiwan and received her MA in Art History from Queens College, CUNY, in 1990. In 1991, she completed a post-graduate program in Museum Studies at New York University. After working at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hsu became a curator for the L’Orangerie International Art Consultant Co. Ltd., based in Taipei, Taiwan, where she is today. Hsu organized an international touring exhibition with Musée de Louvre, Paris, in 2000 and conceived an Artist-in-Residency program in Taiwan from 2000 - 2003. In addition, she has curated several public art projects in Taiwan. Hsu’s tenure at ISCP allows her to spend three months in New York researching Public Art and Artist-in-Residency Programs in the United States. lorang.art@msa.hinet.net

810. FERNANDO VARELA was born in Mexico City in 1969. He studied visual arts and photography at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas (National School for the Plastics Arts) in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He specialized in interactive installation and multimedia production at the Centro Nacional de las Artes, where he has also ran workshops on digitalization and new technologies. In 1994 and 1996 he was awarded grants by the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes de Mexico and the Fundacion U.N.A.M. Since the mid-nineties his group exhibitions have included the II Bienal de Monterey, Museo de Monterey Mexico, Encuentro Nacional de Arte Joven, Museo Carrillo Gil Mexico and 10 Mexican Photographers, DuBois Gallery in Lehigh University Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Varela has worked as the coordinator of the digital graphics workshop at the Centro Multimedia of the Centro Nacional de las Artes Mexico since 1994. stvarelac@yahoo.com.mx

811. SYBILLE RATH is a German artist, based in Munich. Extensive travel in Central America and a DAAD grant to live and work in Mexico in 2000, enriched the artist’s chromatic vocabulary. The experience of the region’s unique cultural mix — pre-Columbian art, Spanish architecture/religion, modern art and lifestyle influences from North America — all combined to charge her canvases with new energy and elements. For Rath, the process of painting acquires importance not only from technical expertise, but conceptually too. Experience is the impetus for her to challenge her potential and its limits. syrath@gmx.de

812. DAVID KRIPPENDORFF: ‘I am half-German, half-American, grew up in Rome and studied in Berlin. Because this is so culturally confusing, I chose a more abstract place within which to operate i.e. Hollywood. All of my work incorporates images and footage from Hollywood movies, which I use to express my own stories. My work has been shown in Berlin NGBK, Gebauer Gallery; ICA, London; Massimo Audiello and White Columns, NYC; Rotterdam Film Festival and Scope, L.A. and Miami. A one-minute video piece was included in the ‘ Concert in Cape Town as part of the One Minute of Art to Aids benefit event. dkrippendorff@thing.net

813. MAIDER LOPEZ was born in Spain in 1975 and studied Fine Arts at the Basque University, followed by an MFA from Chelsea College of Art, London. She has been exhibiting since 1999 throughout Spain and Europe. Lopez’ work overlaps between art, architecture and design by making objects from everyday life e.g. tables, lamps, or elements of architecture such as false walls or floors. For her Open Studio presentation, Lopez has conceived a site-specific installation, based upon the reflections of her work in the studio window. maiderlo@lycos.com

814. ANDREA PESENDORFER studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. The basic formula of aesthetic methodology, namely to acquire aesthetic information by the controlled destruction of known qualities of perception, is apparent in Pesendorfer’s early works. Here, materiality articulates conceptuality and vice versa, due to the basic understanding of textiles that opens up multi-layered connotations, arising from text and texture to the so-called Boromean Knot. Pesendorfer deals with surface, body and identity, while concentrating on the important issues of covering, veiling, exposing and making visible. Different media are employed, for example: working with fabric, painting and photography. The artist has had solo exhibitions in Vienna, Cologne, Berlin and New York and has participated in group exhibitions in Europe and New York. andreapese@to.or.at



Amiel Gerald A. Roldan
Mandaluyong City, Philippines


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