Spotlight 2017
Solo presentations by 20th-century pioneers
Solo presentations by 20th-century pioneers
Liliane Lijn, Time Forces Split, 1965. Letraset on cylindrical oil filter, plastic, painted metal, motor 17 x 26 x 17 cm. Courtesy: the artist and espaivisor, Valencia
Curated by Toby Kamps (Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston), the celebrated Spotlight section returns with 21 solo presentations by 20th-century artists from Asia, Europe, and North and South America.
‘Spotlight continues to reveal extraordinary, under-recognized figures and, in the process, to question traditional canons and shed new light on recent art history.' -Toby Kamps
- Pop Art’s international manifestations and resonances—in Brazilian artist and army officer Décio Noviello’s emblems of urban alienation (Galeria Berenice Arvani) and in Greek-Italian Laura Grisi’s nightscape ‘Neon Paintings’ (P420)
- Assemblage and its echoes--in the bold abstract painting on found wood by American artist and dealer Betty Parsons (Alexander Gray & Associates) and in the mysterious assemblages of Polish-born Erna Rosenstein (Foksal Gallery Foundation)
- Experiments with photography – in the works of Italian theorist and artist Vincenzo Agnetti (Zero) and in the politically charged composite images of Chilean Alfredo Jaar (Galerie Lelong);
- Women artists interrogating identity via the camera, for example Californian Eleanor Antin’s staged photographs featuring a host of her alter-egos (Richard Saltoun) and the collage works of Tomaso Binga, also known as Bianca Menna, symbolizing her quest for liberation from the constraints of gender and male domination (Galleria Tiziana Di Caro).
- The work of an influential cultural connector, Maryn Varbanov a Beijing-based, Bulgarian textiles artist whose influence on Chinese contemporary art can still be seen today (Bank);
- and the brilliant self-taught James Castle , a deaf-mute artist from Idaho whose drawings on found paper manifest an extraordinary vision of the world (Fleisher/Ollman).’
