YES ANNOUNCES ARTIST GRANT JURY
ROSINA CAZALI, NAAMA TSABAR AND MIGUEL A. LÓPEZ
APPLICATIONS OPEN MAY 15
The 2019 YES Artist Grants will be juried by an international team of experts. The jury includes art curator, critic and writer Rosina Cazali whose contribution to the Guatemalan art scene includes numerous exhibitions, books and Prince Klaus supported research and scholarship; Israeli New York-based artist Naama Tsabar whose solo exhibition Propogration (Opus 3) was shown at the Museum of Art of El Salvador in 2014; as well as Miguel A. López, the Co-director and Chief Curator of TEOR/éTica in Costa Rica who visited El Salvador in 2016 as a guest of the Museum of Art of El Salvador.
Read more about Miguel A. López here.
Read more about Naama Tsabar here.
Read more about Rosina Cazali here.
Applications will open on May 15 at yescontemporary.org/grants
Photo credits: Naama Tsabar by Ebru Yildiz; Miguel A. López by Daniela Morales Lisac.
YES ONLINE STUDIO VISIT
MAY: STEPHANIE SEIDEL AND VERONICA VIDES
Stephanie Seidel is the Associate Curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in Miami. Seidel has curated a number of exhibitions for ICA Miami, among others solo presentations of Thomas Bayrle, Tomm El-Saieh, Diamond Stingily, Sondra Perry, Louise Bourgeois, Edward and Nancy Kienholz and a survey for artist Judy Chicago.
Salvadoran artist Veronica Vides works with three-dimensional media including installation, sculpture using both industrial and organic materials to explore the relationship between humanity and the environment. Currently, Vides lives and works in Patagonia, Argentina.
See more of her work here.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR YES GRANTS
YES WRITERS GRANT DEADLINE: APRIL 30
YES ARTISTS GRANTS OPEN MAY 15
yescontemporary.org/grants
INTERNATIONAL
GUADALUPE MARAVLLA AWARDED GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP
Guadalupe Maravilla has been awarded a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts. Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Each year 175 fellows are awarded out of approximately 3000 applications. The fellowships are aimed at providing artists time and creative freedom. See more of Guadalupe's work here.
BEATRIZ CORTEZ AT SOCRATES PARK, NEW YORK
Beatriz Cortez participates in the exhibition "Chronos Cosmos: Deep Time, Open Space" opening at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York on May 5. The exhibition will also feature work by Radcliffe Bailey, Alicja Kwade, Eduardo Navarro, Heidi Neilson, with new commissions by Miya Ando, William Lamson, and Maria Rapicavoli, that consider space, time, and matter in relationship to celestial entities and earth-bound processes. The exhibition is on view until September 3, 2019.
Read more about the exhibition here.
Beatriz Cortez, Tzolk'in, 2018. Steel. Courtesy the artist.
PABLO RAMIREZ AWARDED CPPC/ICI TRAVEL GRANT
Congratulations to YES alumni, curator Pablo José Ramírez for being awarded the 2019 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) and Independent Curators International (ICI) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean. Starting this Spring, Pablo José Ramirez will travel to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Roatán Island in Honduras, Belize, and Livingston Island in Guatemala to learn about the history and culture of Garifuna.
Read more about the award here.
Image: Alberto Galvan
ERICK ANTONIO BENITEZ AWARDED BALTIMORE CITY ARTIST TRAVEL PRIZE
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City awarded Salvadoran Baltimore-based artist Erick Antonio Benitez a Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize, along with artist Erin Fostel. Benitez will use the award to conduct research on the Amazon city of Iquitos, exposing him to a vast biodiversity landscape and the native culture.
Read more about Erick Antonio Benitez's work here.
Image: Detail. Courtesy the artist.
MURIEL HASBUN AWARDED BY MARYLAND STATE ARTS COUNCIL
Salvadoran artist and arts professional Muriel Hasbun has been awarded a 2019 Individual Artist Award in Media by the Maryland State Arts Council. The awards recognize the contribution artists make to the cultural fabric of the state, supports their creative potential and strengthens the impact of their work.
Read more about the Award here.
PATRICIO MAJANO SELECTED FOR CURATORIAL MODELS WORKSHOP, COSTA RICA
Patricio Majano, YES's coordinator, has been selected to participate in the "Curatorial Models" workshop led by Daniel Garza Usabiaga, and hosted by the Museum of Art and Design in Costa Rica, in collaboration with the Spanish Cultural Center in San Jose, the Cultural Institute of Mexico, Residencias Artisticas, and more. From April 23-26, Patricio will join more than 20 emerging curators from the region in this professional development workshop focused on uncovering different models and circuits of curatorship.
Read more about the conference here.
A. STAHL AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND DESIGN, COSTA RICA
Salvadoran artist, based in San Jose, A.Stahl, is participating in the group exhibition “Este paisaje sí lo puedo entender” at the Contemporary Museum of Art and Design in Costa Rica. The exhibition features work by 29 artists which rethink the tradition of the Costa Rican landscape. “Este paisaje sí lo puedo entender” is on view until May 25, 2019. See more of A. Stahl here. See more about the exhibition here.
Image: A Stahl. "Faux Landscape", 2018. Courtesy the artist.
EL SALVADOR
ORLANDO VILLATORO AT LUIS POMA THEATER
On April 11, Orlando Villatoro opened “Hiperrealidad” in Luis Poma Theater lobby exhibition space. The exhibition features Villatoro’s augmented reality work, interactive installations and paintings, and is curated by Antonio Romero and Mauricio Kabistán.
Image: Orlando Villatoro "Neo Mario", Oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist.
“SERIAL 7x7” EXHIBITION AT THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
The Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Embassy of Ecuador in El Salvador hosts the exhibition “Serial 7x7”. Featuring sculptural work by seven Salvadoran artists and seven Ecuadorian artists, the exhibition includes media such as ceramics, metal, stone and assemblage. Salvadoran artist participating include Titi Escalante, Beatriz Deleón, Negra Álverez, Ana Bessy Salguero, Sara Boulogne, Óscar Pérez, Alfredo Guillén. The exhibition will be on view until April 26, 2019. Read more about “7x7” here.
Image: Beatriz Deleón, “Soberbia 6/6” (detail), Aluminum, 2002. Courtesy the artist
ROMEO GALDÁMEZ AT EL SALVADOR'S INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
On March 8 Salvadoran artist Romeo Galdámez opened the exhibition “Identity in the Global” in the Cultural section of El Salvador's International Airport, San Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez. The exhibition is a survey of the artist's work, and includes screen prints, installation, videos, photographs and mixed media collages that explore the artist's position of living both in and outside of El Salvador. See Romeo Galdámez's work here.
Image: Romeo Galdámez, "Reflexiones de identidad" (detail), 1992. Silkscreen print on paper. Courtesy the artist.
EXHIBITION REVIEW OF
“Open System”
ORLANDO VILLATORO
The Museum of Art of El Salvador
October 2018
BY PATRICIO MAJANO
“Open System” was an intervention by artist Orlando Villatoro which took place during the 2018 SUMARTE Art Auction at the Museum of Art of El Salvador. Villatoro developed the augmented reality project independently and introduced it during the event.
The artist had asked people to send photographs of objects from their day-to-day environment, with the requirement that there be some kind of value to them. The augmented reality experience featured images of these artworks, which are commonly used to decorate homes. These included prints, stock paintings and crafts representing standardized and stereotypical themes, often mimicking original artworks from Western art history.
These representations of still life, landscape, and religious scenes) can be considered kitsch in their recurrent use in present day.
Then, using a mobile app, the artist overlaid photographs of these artworks on top of many of the artworks in the auction.
The act of introducing these kitsch objects to an institutional event of a commercial nature, raised two vital points. First, it questioned the nature of the objects that are considered "art" within the museum and art market which lent the works legitimization. Secondly, the intervention emphasized the decorative function of art, and the role of art in different social groups. The objects decorating many homes in El Salvador were compared to the objects valued by the institution and art collectors questioning notions of value assigned to each one.
