Exhibitions

Artistas venezolanos en PINTA NY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DOUZ AND MILLE ANNOUNCES ITS PARTICIPATION IN PINTA NY 2010 WITH ARTISTS ANGELA BONADIES AND JUAN JOSE OLAVARRIA

The Tower (from the outside)
a collaborative project by artists Ángela Bonadies and Juan José Olavarría
at PINTA NY 2010
November 11 – 14, 2010
Pier 92
New York, NY

Douz and Mille is delighted to announce that it will be participating in PINTA NY for the first time with a collaborative project by Venezuelan artists Ángela Bonadies and Juan José Olavarría. The artists will present The Tower (from the outside), which focuses on an emblematic skyscraper in Caracas that has become a meeting point for the tensions and contradictions of Venezuela’s social and economic reality.

Dealing primarily with the facade of the imposing tower, Bonadies and Olavarría’s works call into question its quest to denote optimism and social ascent. Originally built as a symbol of the economic progress that characterized the 1980s, by the banking crisis in 1994, construction work to the tower was stopped and from then on it has become an icon of bankruptcy and truncated projects. Since 2008, homeless groups and families have squatted in the skyscraper, building their precarious dwellings inside this urban shell.

Using a variety of techniques –that range from manipulated photographs, to drawing and sculpture– Bonadies and Olavarría’s works deal initially with the tower’s facade. However, their enquiries ultimately aim to question an iconography of national identity rooted in the urban landscape and especially manifested by a city whose modern architecture has ever sought to symbolize the nation’s dreams and aspirations. Accompanying the project will be texts written by Félix Suazo, a Cuban curator and artist who works at Venezuela’s Periférico Caracas / Arte Contemporáneo and is Director of El Anexo Arte Contemporáneo (www.elanexogaleria.blogspot.com), and Caracas-based British researcher, Lisa Blackmore (www.lisablackmore.net), whose work focuses on themes concerning visual culture, narratives of the state and space in Venezuela. The project will also include a special collaboration will be made by Mikel Murugarren, invited by the artists to take part in the project.

About the artists:
Ángela Bonadies was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1970; she lives and works in Caracas. She studied architecture at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and photography at the Estudio de Arte Manoa. Significant solo exhibitions include People and Things (2010) at The Private Space, Barcelona, Spain; People and Things (2009) in Periférico Caracas, Caracas and La Gran Congelación (The Great Freeze) (2002) in Galeria 491 Art i Recerca, Barcelona. Among her most recent group exhibitions are in 2010, Miradas a Europa: reflexiones digitales (Looks at Europe: digital reflections), Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas; Didácticas (Didactics), Periférico Caracas, Caracas; Pedazos de país, Oficina #1, Caracas, Venezuela, Loop Festival, general program, Barcelona, Spain; Labyrint 09, Writings and Observations. Botkyirka Konshall, Tumba, Sweden; Arte D, Periférico Caracas, Caracas. (2009) Dwell1, Douz and Mille, Washington, DC; Space Unlimited, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC; in 2008, No sabe/No contesta (Doesn’t know/Doesn’t answer), Galería ArtexArte, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Havana Biennial, 2006; Madrid-Procesos-Redes, Madrid, Spain, 2005; Madrid Abierto, 2005. She was the recipient of the Premio a la creación contemporánea (Grant to contemporary creativity) from Matadero Madrid in 2008; and the Premio Latinoamericano de Fotografía Josune Dorronsoro (Latin American Prize in Photograpy Josune Dorronsoro) in 2004.

Juan José  Olavarría, was born in Valencia, Venezuela in 1969; he lives and works in Venezuela. His most recent solo exhibitions include: MATA QUE DIOS PERDONA, El Anexo, Caracas (2010); CENTRO DOCUMENTAL (work in progress) Sala Mendoza, Caracas; and ME CAMBIO EL NOMBRE (I CHANGE MY NAME), Periférico Caracas, Caracas (2008); DISingABLE (exercise 2), i.d.art, Miami, FL (2006); DISeñoCAPACITADO. Proyecto de accesibilidad para personas discapacitadas motoras (Access Project for the handicapped.), 2003-2006. Among his most recent group exhibits: DIDACTICA. Periférico Caracas / Arte Contemporáneo, Galpón 1. Caracas; ID Performance 2010. La unidad en lo múltiple,  Centro Cultural Chacao / Museo de Arte Popular de Petare Bárbaro Rivas, Caracas; ARTE D, Periférico Caracas, Galpón 1.  Caracas; Venezuela Acciones Locales, La Caja, Espacio de investigación visual. Centro Cultural Chacao. Mayo / junio 2010 JUST MAD, Douz and Mille, Madrid, Spain. He participated with the Grupo Provisional  in AGUA ALTA (HIGH WATER) and PABELLON HUMEDO (DAMP PAVILLION)  (Grupo Provisional “Por Este”) as part of: “Per la costituzione di una rete fra organismi d´arte independienti”. dAPERTutto, Space A. Italia Pavillion, 48th Venice Biennial. In 1999, he received the prize X Edition of the Eugenio Mendoza Prize, Sala Mendoza. Caracas, Venezuela.

Rody Douzoglou established Douz and Mille to promote independent curatorial efforts and exhibition projects focused on presenting contemporary art in context.

Contact: Rody Douzoglou at rody@douzandmille.com or at 646.957.2970
Visit: www.douzandmille.com or www.pintaart.com

Tags: Angela Bonadies, arte, Caracas, Douz and Mille, Félix Suazo, Juan Jose Olavarria, Lisa Blackmore, PINTA NY, venezolano