Buenos Aires & Havana in L.A.
Buenos Aires - Havana: Political Expressions & Aesthetic Choices, is an exhibition of paintings by Atilio Pernisco and Ivan Abreu held at the ANDLAB gallery in L.A’s Brewery arts complex. The curator of the show is Shervin Shahbazi, a colleague of mine and a former staff person at East L.A’s celebrated, Self Help Graphics. Originally from Iran, Shahbazi is a progressive minded thinker and internationalist who always surprises me with his depth of knowledge regarding world events - his awareness of the cultural intricacies of L.A., plus his political savvy, is sure to deliver an interesting exhibit. Here’s what ANDLAB wrote about the show:
"The political, social, and cultural realities of Atilio Pernisco’s Argentina and Ivan Abreu’s Cuba are worlds apart. The open contemporary society of Buenos Aires, colored by its dark history of militarism, and the influence of European artistic forms, spurred Atilio Pernisco to create his own history. His images of generals and politicians comment on the absurdities of state power unsupported by the masses, and of ideology void of human reason. Pernisco’s history urges a younger generation to look back at the past in order to understand the roots of their society, and he counters the fear-mongering of contemporary politicians by clothing their ilk in magical, absurd garments.
Havana, in contrast, has been a more closed and politicized society, with heavy influence from its African heritage in art and culture of the island. This cultural intensity has turned Ivan Abreu’s reality into an abstract world of forms and textures. They are the forms and textures of an ever present nostalgia for his decaying city by the sea. Ivan was born in Manhattan, where he lived until the age seven. The next two formative decades were spent in Havana, followed by his return to the United States. Being from both Cuba and the U.S. automatically places a person into a politically conflicted state of being. Is it then surprising that this sensitive artist moved away from this reality towards the textured and magical abstractions of his remembered Havana?
It is to these aesthetic differences that we speak in this exhibition. Contrasts that make the vast Latin world so rich and colorful are found in the works of Atilio Pernisco and Ivan Abreu. Through the recognition of their individual political voices, and the realization that their aesthetic choices mirror their life experiences, two seemingly disparate Latin artists find common ground. "
Political Expressions & Aesthetic Choices opens with an Artist’s Reception on Saturday, May 6, 2006, from 7 to 9 pm., and runs until July 1, 2006. ANDLAB is located at 600 Moulton Ave., #303, Los Angeles, CA 90031. Phone: 323-222-2225. For more information on the exhibit, visit the ANDLAB website.
[ Left: "Mariano’s Purgatory" - Atilio Pernisco. Right: "Piezas" - Ivan Abreu. ]
"The political, social, and cultural realities of Atilio Pernisco’s Argentina and Ivan Abreu’s Cuba are worlds apart. The open contemporary society of Buenos Aires, colored by its dark history of militarism, and the influence of European artistic forms, spurred Atilio Pernisco to create his own history. His images of generals and politicians comment on the absurdities of state power unsupported by the masses, and of ideology void of human reason. Pernisco’s history urges a younger generation to look back at the past in order to understand the roots of their society, and he counters the fear-mongering of contemporary politicians by clothing their ilk in magical, absurd garments.
Havana, in contrast, has been a more closed and politicized society, with heavy influence from its African heritage in art and culture of the island. This cultural intensity has turned Ivan Abreu’s reality into an abstract world of forms and textures. They are the forms and textures of an ever present nostalgia for his decaying city by the sea. Ivan was born in Manhattan, where he lived until the age seven. The next two formative decades were spent in Havana, followed by his return to the United States. Being from both Cuba and the U.S. automatically places a person into a politically conflicted state of being. Is it then surprising that this sensitive artist moved away from this reality towards the textured and magical abstractions of his remembered Havana?
It is to these aesthetic differences that we speak in this exhibition. Contrasts that make the vast Latin world so rich and colorful are found in the works of Atilio Pernisco and Ivan Abreu. Through the recognition of their individual political voices, and the realization that their aesthetic choices mirror their life experiences, two seemingly disparate Latin artists find common ground. "
Political Expressions & Aesthetic Choices opens with an Artist’s Reception on Saturday, May 6, 2006, from 7 to 9 pm., and runs until July 1, 2006. ANDLAB is located at 600 Moulton Ave., #303, Los Angeles, CA 90031. Phone: 323-222-2225. For more information on the exhibit, visit the ANDLAB website.
posted by Mark Vallen at 7:48 PM
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