Juan Antonio Baños
Artist resident in the gallery: from february 17th to march 30th.
Exhibition: from march 31th to april 16th
Opening: march 31th at 18h
JUAN ANTONIO BAÑOS was born in Linares – Spain, in 1980. Currently lives
and works between Madrid and London.
He is graduated in Fine Arts by Faculty of Fine Arts – University of Granada,
in Spain and, at the present time, he combines his artistic activity with the
doctorate in painting.
En los últimos años, el discurso pictórico de Juan Antonio Baños (Jaen,
España, 1980) ha ido desplegando una inquietante escenografía barroca
sobrecargada de formas destructivas, de visiones espectrales y oníricas, de
fantasmagorías que, de modo insoslayable (pues siempre es tarde para la
tragedia) se ciernen fatalmente sobre nosotros, crédulos espectadores de la
ficción representativa. Sus pinceladas, sueltas y dinámicas, producen en el
espectador un efecto desasosegante que, en asociación con la violencia
cromática y la brusca aplicación de los pigmentos sobre la superficie
pictórica, se incrusta en nuestra sensibilidad con la potencia visual de lo
terrible y su belleza implícita. Sin embargo, el dinamismo generalizado de
sus
composiciones contrasta y se equilibra con ciertos motivos simbólicos
recurrentes cuya presencia estática en la escena los convierte en testigos
distantes e impasibles. Gracias a ello, su obra ha dado en instalarse en un
espacio intermedio o, mejor dicho, de mediación conceptual cercano a la
figuración simbólica o connotativa. Si antes asistíamos al caos y la amalgama
compositiva, resuelta armónicamente, ahora se nos impone un orden nuevo,
una nueva espacialidad de lo real, cuyo cuestionamiento juega un papel
preponderante en la conformación de su imaginario pictórico. Figuras pálidas,
estáticas —formalmente siniestras—, aparecen de pronto recortadas sobre el
blanco absoluto de la tela y desprovistas de fondo, demandando la
intervención salvífica del espectador. Como ondas expansivas, sus imágenes
despliegan toda su carga simbólica a nuestro alrededor, poniendo en pie,
desde un enfoque desacostumbrado, una aguda reflexión acerca de la
muerte y la resurrección de la carne de la que salimos horrorizados y
purificados a partes iguales, con esa rara conmoción en la médula espinal,
pero también con ese escalofrío, que nos causan las grandes experiencias
estéticas.
Javier Vela
(Escritor, traductor y articulista.)
Xuhong Shang "When Night Falls"
From december 16th.Opening friday 16th at 17h
Xuhong Shang
Born in Shanghai, China. He received my M.F.A degree in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1992. For the past twenty years,
He has exhibited my work in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Geneva, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Kumamoto, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai. He has exhibited at such venues as Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut; Contemporary Art Museum in Baltimore; Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan; Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art; Kumamoto Fine Arts Museum; Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago; Leda Fletcher Gallery in Geneva; Contrasts Gallery and Stir Gallery in Shanghai. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Art Federation Regional Visual Arts Fellowship (1995); and Art Matters Fellowship (1993). Articles have been written on his work in Sculpture, Art Papers and Asian Art News magazines as well as in such newspapers as of The Atlanta Constitution, Nashville Scene, etc.
His art work has been included in books and catalogs such as New American Paintings (Vol.16); International Young Art 2000, Sotheby’s; Euro Art 2000, BCN Art Directe's of Barcelona, Spain; and Mapping The Self, Telfair Museum of Art; also a book/catalog titled Representation / Reality, Xuhong Shang published by Plum Blossoms International Ltd., in the spring of 2001. A catalog titled Xuhong Shang/Momentary published by Mitchell Museum at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in May 2007. He maintains studios both in USA and in Shanghai, China. Please visit his web site at www.xuhongshang.com
商徐宏簡介:
商徐宏出生于中國上海, 1984 年獲得上海師范大學油畫本科學位. 于1989 年獲美國伊利諾州立大學油畫与素描碩士學位, 并于1992年獲美國費城泰勒美術
學院職業藝術家碩士學位.
從1992至今20年, 作為一個藝術家, 畫家, 裝置藝術家,商徐宏在世界各地努力展
出其作品. 他曾經在美国的紐約城的Robert Pardo畫廊, Z畫廊, 万玉堂畫廊, 芝加哥
的 Richard Gary 畫廊, 蘇富比畫廊, 亞特蘭大的當代藝術中心, Kiang 畫廊,
邁阿密南佛羅里達藝術中心, 費城的S.S. White大厦/瞬间艺术, Temple 畫廊, 479 畫廊,
Tyler 畫廊, 康洲阿屈历曲当代美术馆, 巴尔得磨现代美术馆, 伊利诺州蜜秋尔美术馆, 密西根墨斯克根美术馆, 奥地利維也娜 蘇富比畫廊, 以色列塔拉維夫蘇富比畫廊, 西班牙巴塞羅那 Sala Marques de Comillas of Drassanes城堡, 香港 万玉堂畫廊, 新加坡万玉堂畫廊, 熊本美朮館 及上海对比窗画廓, 东廊, 稿画廊等地展出. 他曾于1995年獲得美國國家藝術基金會及美國南方藝術聯合會的視覺藝術獎金, 及1993年紐約Art Matters藝術獎金. 1993年至1999年曾任教于美國薩凡訥美術學院.
1999 年至2004年任美國堪莎斯州立大學繪畫終身教授及繪畫專業主任. 2004年至今,
任美國南伊利諾大學卡本代爾美術學院繪畫终身教授及研究生导师. 商徐宏多年来
一直在上海及美国俩地的工作室从事创作活动. 请访问他的艺术作品网站: www.xuhongshang.com.
When Night Falls
At nightfall, obscurity can lead to revelation. As dusk descends, objects that appeared so clear and determined in the light of day disintegrate into the folds of a gathering gloom, causing convictions about the nature of reality to waver, perhaps even dissolve along with the contours of a physical world immersed in night. As darkness creeps over forests and meadows, suburbs and skyscrapers, our little Earth merges with the velvety blackness of a vast and mysterious universe, rendering what seemed finite suddenly infinite. As objects yield themselves up to the dark lamp of revelation that is the night, a thousand small epiphanies prompt Socratic wisdom – a knowing that we do not know – and plunge our world of experience into a realm of shadows.
When Night Falls is the latest of Xuhong Shang's exhibitions to conjure the elusiveness of absolutes and the ultimate ambiguity of definitions. Small paintings of the Random series hang haphazardly on two sides of the gallery, like wet, wind-blown leaves adhering momentarily to a garden wall. Their images – black forms against monochrome gradients – defy the mind's grasp, even as they suggest objects that one ought to recognize. Elusive, too, are the cryptic texts scrawled across the irregularly shaped canvases of the Moonbeam series, which suspends suggestions of the night sky tenuously from pushpins.
Night in the guise of a black butterfly, its sheer wings as impalpable as the surrounding air, floats on an unseen current, while a layer of darkness encases the buildings of a silent city, removing them from the compass of the inquisitive eye and mind. On the gallery floor, eight works from the Virtual series, created by squeezing black acrylic paint through the threads of blank canvases, suggest the surface of the earth photographed in black and white from a satellite or an outpost on the moon. Darkness, distance, indistinctness and ambiguity are devices more fundamental than forms in Shang's When Night Falls, and the results are meanings as elusive and infinite as the night itself.
Glen R. Brown, Ph.D. Art Critic, Art Historian (U.S.A)
当 夜幕降临时，模糊不清的黑夜有着意想不到的启示。黃昏之时，所有在白天光天化日之下所呈现的及所界定的如此清晰的一切，将脫变并被聚集在艨胧的黑暗之中。 因此而相信现实的自然己被夜幕所取消，或许尽管现实世界的轮廓还未能在夜色中完全溶解在一起。当夜幕悄悄地盖住了树林，草地，郊外及城市的高楼大厦。 我们微小的大地似乎穿上了一层来自神秘宇宙的巨大黑色， 演示出了从有限越至无限之中。 当事物在夜色之中放弃了原本的状态，那些无数个在夜色中闪动的物体及灵智，那是我们所不能获知的。 但是把我们对世界的体验推向了阴影的王国。
“夜幕降临”是商徐宏最新的实验装置个展，它施展着绝对魔幻般的最终无法明确的意义及界定。小型的“无由”系列绘画作品在展厅中无秩序地挂在墙上， 就象是那些潮湿的被风吹动的树叶瞬息粘符于花园的墙上，它们黑色的图像呈现在简单的色调之上，违背于思维的正常捕捉，尽管似乎在建议图像应被确认。同样难以确认的是那用晦涩的英文字潦草地划在不规则形状并被剪破的黑色画布之上的
“月光” 系列作品，它们被悬而未决地用几个小图钉悬挂在墙上，以此暗示着夜晚的天空如此的薄弱及不确定性。
有一个黑色的物体在黑暗的笼罩下漂浮着，它几乎透明的双翼就象它周围的空气难以捉摸，漂浮于不可见的现在瞬间时空之中。同时夜色己将城市及大地套入其中，
并把它们拖离于好奇的目光及思维的规范之外。在展厅的地面上一组“几乎”
系列绘画作品被并列成一张大型作品，作品运用了颜料挤压与画布的纹理产生的抽象视觉效应。似乎在提醒近似卫星或遥远的月球上所拍摄的地球表面黑白图像。比较商徐宏的“夜幕降临”的形式，其中的夜色，距离，非距离感，模棱两可及意义的不明确性是一种更为重要的策略及手段。其结果产生的意义是难以被确认的及无限的。就象是晚上的夜色。
格伦. 勃郎博士，艺术评论家，美国堪莎斯州立大学艺术史终身教授
"Presence -Absence" New visions of the Self in contemporary art
From November 19th to December 20th , Vernissage Saturday november 19th, 5pm to 8 pm
Collective show, Artists:
Berto Martínez, Makode Linde, Nick Gentry, Jonatan Moreno, Piacha, Conrad Roset, Keflione
Contemplating Art is like looking out of the window. That way we see the world, we encounter something that is beyond our space and brings us to a different location.
But it is also a mirror that allows us to see ourselves and, at best, further understand our human condition.
PRESENCE-ABSENCE invites us to rethink the trace of humanity in contemporary art, from the perspective of several artists who, from a fresh eye and without prejudice, attack head-on the notion of identity.
In this case, the trace of humanity is not only limited to the portrait, as a track of a presence suspended in time. Nor is it an inquiry into its psychological root, which struggles to find an identity from an existential perspective. Now, the rules of the game have changed and what it is suggested here is a distant view of the human spectrum covering both surface symbols with which we build our identity and the traces that human presence has left in the past.
Do we really see what they are when we look at the others? When we look in the mirror, do we really see us the way we are? When we contemplate a work of art, do we see the trail of the human being? Do we really question behind the façade of appearances?
Behind every absence there is a presence.
Matias Krahn.
Painter and Doctor of Fine Arts
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Tina Zimmerman "River Calligraphy“ Video Installation
From october 30th to november 6th
TINA ZIMMERMANN "River Calligraphy“ Video Installation
Water in all its endless variety of structure, texture and dynamic is Tina Zimmermann's most coherent reaccuring creative theme over the last ten years.
She films the waters of the seas, the rivers, and lakes, of puddles and waterfalls, tiny drops and majestic ocean waves, fascinated by the everchanging formal manifestation of the liquid element, that make up 80 percent of our body and the planet.
By seperating the recorded footage from its natural surrounding, by changing its perspective and adding effects with digital video tools, she transforms the natural and common phenomenon of water in motion into an abstract and purely aethetic experience.
In her newest work she treats water in a very minimalistic way- inspired by traditional Chinese calligraphy she transforms the water motions recorded at a mountain creek in Fujian province into a transient flowing progression of black and white abstract shapes – reflecting closely on the ancient yogi saying: „the contemplation of water is the oldest from of mediation“
Tina Zimmermann is a media artist from Berlin, Germany. She is currenty in China teaching "Public Art“ at Jimei University in Xiamen.
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Jochem Rotteveel
Septiember - October 2011 in La Pan Stage Vernissage Solo Exhibition, 8th October 18.00h
For eight weeks ( September and October ), a part of the gallery will be transformed into studio space for the artists Jochem Rotteveel. The Dutch artist investigates the picturesque qualities of tape and is happy to give additional information on his artistic research.
Pantocrator Gallery invites the public to interact with the artist, experience the work in progress and watch the dynamic of the gallery space as it changes during his residency program.
For more information, please visit: www.jochemrotteveel.com
Visit Jochem Rotteveel on line shop
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Patsy McArthur
The artists from Scotland, was visiting Pantocrator Gallery in Shanghai to work on the gallery producing a new art work, you can visit and enjoy it.
Visit Patsy McArthur on line shop
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Jonathan Mármol Moreno
Specific site installation
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Women's lines
2nd-30th september. Opening friday 2nd at 18 h
Lore Vanelslande (Belgium - China)
Sonia Carballo "Socatoba" (Spain)
Carmen Garcia Huerta (Spain)
Stephanie Costello (New York)
Patsy McArthur (Scotland)
Freya Douglas-Morris (UK)
Marta Blasco (Spain)
Alejandra Alarcón (Bolivia)
Ji Hong-Yan (China)
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Landa Ruen
July - August 2011 in La Pan Stage
Exhibition August 25th to 31th
Opening August 25th at 18h.
Elmur (videoart)
Only on May weekends
elmur.net was created by the Fundacion Ferrereuela Sanfeliu and zzz on 2007 in Lleida (Spain) as an on street video installation where zzz, a young creative collective, screened images to inspire citizens with positive imagination and ideas. Since then and thanks to our supporters and collaborators we have grown up. From April 2009 elmur has become a network: elmur.net where citizens from around the world contribute to build up an infinite container of positive imagination proposals.