Viking Funeral Opening at Fredric Snitzer Gallery
Opening Reception: Wednesday October 5, 2011 6-9 pm
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
2247 NW 1st Place
Miami, FL 33127

PROJECT SPACE
Viking Funeral
DARK AGE AHEAD

October 5 – November 5, 2011

About Dark Age Ahead:
Dark Age Ahead is an exhibition based loosely on Jane Jacobs’ 2004 book “Dark Age Ahead”. In this book, the author characterizes a dark age as a “mass amnesia where even the memory of what was lost is lost.”
Taking Jacobs’ text as a starting point, sculptures and works on paper have been fabricated to further explore the themes of decay and abandonment in contemporary media and culture.

About Viking Funeral:
Viking Funeral engages with social conventions and meets pop culture with a counter gesture, when rejection and refusal merge with forms of chaos and defacement. Their media and products evolve from pop societies and their determining social systems of order. These social systems do not only serve as conceptual starting points, but also as artistic tools. Materials and objects from the everyday cultural production like newspapers, magazines, TV, video, Internet, spray paint, tape and markers play a central role in their language.

David Castillo Gallery presents Fabian Peña’s Subliminal, Reception
Thursday, October 6, 6-10 pm
David Castillo Gallery
2234 NW 2nd Avenue
Miami, Florida 33127
www.davidcastillogallery.com

October 6 – November 5, 2011

David Castillo Gallery is proud to present Subliminal, Fabian Peña’s first solo show with the gallery. Centered in his locus of collage, sculpture and painting, and navigating his rhetorical milieu of organic and found materials, Peña argues for an entomology that is also anthropology; a mysticism that is also realism; a microcosm that is also infinity.

On observing nature, Hegel writes: “But the boundary line of what, like elephant, oak, gold, is markedly distinctive, the line of demarcation of what is genus and species, passes through many stages into the endless particularization of the chaos of plants and animals, kinds of rocks, or of metals, forms of earth, etc. etc., that only force and craft can bring to light.” (1)

Add to this exulted litany Peña’s splintered eggshells, fragments of cockroach wings, and crushed houseflies shattered like glass. Manipulate them with the force and craft of an artist who is also a trained observer. Combine the meticulousness of scientific classification and the raw impact of materiality. This aptly describes Peña’s four large-scale paintings in Subliminal. Peña’s paintings are consumptive in their visual effect and their ontology in sources the artist personally ingests, including newspapers, fashion magazines and pornography. Like the wings of a moth, Peña’s painterly pastiche yields cumulative subjects, such as a track-and-field athlete in the climax of a high jump. The trajectory of the jump will differ relative to the spacetime of the viewer and their association with Peña’s referential materials.

Peña meets the viewer in mid-air, where one is vulnerable to transience and desire. In mid-air, it is possible, like Schrödinger’s cat, to be both dead and alive. It is possible, like Turing’s infamous test, to be both human and machine. Peña’s work is premised on grasping binary dualism. This struggle is evident in Peña’s series of light boxes. It is also clear in Modern Society, a sculpture that borrows the interface of a compact disc so that, peering through the CD’s circular center through hundreds of pages of historical texts, the viewer encounters a video of ants devouring a scarab beetle alive.

Peña’s materials and process give form to a fecundity of all that is, seen and unseen. Peña displays awe that is a fascination with nature itself, regardless whether the genesis lies in mythology, scientific inquiry or the Freudian notion of the artist as godhead. When Peña micro-mosaics a human skull with cockroach fragments, he references mysticism and natural order. By synthesizing seemingly divergent materials, Peña transforms, for example, the American Dollar and the Chinese Yuan into symbols of immeasurable value.

Peña’s artistic practice is layered with cockroach wings and egg membrane, paint and shreds of celebrity rags. Peña’s depiction of flesh becomes an intermediary between human and animal, natural and manufactured, self and other, the artist’s material and the material world. Subliminal is the quiet disrobing of the viewer, an emperor in new clothes, a sovereign of all that is, seen and unseen.

Fabian Peña was born in Havana, Cuba and lives and works in Miami, Florida. He studied at Superior Institute of Arts in Havana. Peña’s work has been shown extensively throughout the US, Europe and Latin America. His work has been featured in notable publications, including The New York Times, and The Miami Herald. Recent exhibitions include Dead or Alive at the Museum of Art and Design in New York and New Work Miami at Miami Art Museum.

(1) Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, “The Phenomenology of the Mind,” 2nd ed. Trans. J.B. Baillie. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2001, page 141.

Zack Balber Exhibition Opening at Fredric Snitzer Gallery
Wednesday October 5, 2011 6-9 pm
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
2247 NW 1st Place
Miami, FL 33127

October 5 – November 5, 2011

The Hebrew word Tamim translates as “pure”, “unblemished”, and “complete”. Photographer Zack Balber offers his unique, incongruous twist on Tamim’s denotation in his first solo exhibition at the Fredric Snitzer Gallery. Using portrait photography as his vehicle, Balber intimately uncovers the camouflaged identity of some of Judaism’s most unfamiliar Jews.

Born and raised in gritty inner-city neighborhoods throughout the country, both the photographer and many of his subjects were void of Jewish role models. Instead of praising their ancestry, they concealed their culture behind tattoos and vanity in a pursuit to assimilate. These men portray themselves as Bear Jews, the fighters, and the Sunday-School delinquents: they are the truly unconventional Jews.

Relocated to the close-knit Jewish community in Miami, Balber began to reconnect with his roots. During his cultural rediscovery, he encountered men who were similarly unorthodox yet retained that indefinable Jewish spark. Interestingly, when approached with the opportunity to be photographed as Jews, these ordinarily recalcitrant men let go of their powerful exteriors and embraced the vulnerability of portrait photography. When the participants donned the yarmulke that Zack Balber wore for his Bar Mitzvah, each of them expressed a spiritual reconnection to their culture, captured within these photographs.

Balber’s portraits of men who are ostensibly Tamim–proud, unashamed, and whole—exquisitely reveal their insecurity, vulnerability, and fear of exposure. Although their appearances may initially distract us from their inner reality, the tattoos and bling cannot obscure their heritage of Hebrew day school, spiritual mentors, or even the Holocaust. Through the courage and trust of both Zack Balber and his sitters, the photographer developed a rapport that catalyzed his sense of community and brotherhood. In an introspective discussion on his body of work, Balber noted, “that religion is far more than skin deep and that a connection with G-d can always be reignited.” Despite his initial rejection of Judaism, Balber’s portraits led him to rediscover the culture that is now his lifeline.

Click below to read an interview with Zack Balber on his upcoming exhibtiion Tamim:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2011/09/final_how_zack_balbers_portrai_1.php

Image: Zack Balber, Pimpy Pat (Color), 2011, Lambda Print, 46 x 66 in.

Words & Wine at The Electric Pickle
10/5/11, 9p-3a
The Electric Pickle
2826 North Miami Ave
Facebook Evite

Ladies, Gentlemen, honey badgers and the like:
Words & Wine is back and being hosted at The Electric Pickle

3$ Beers 5$Wine & 5$ Shots

If you have not had the pleasure of witnessing it for yourself, this is a lovely venue that offers local and international talent. It is very cozy, well lit atmosphere where everyone can be themselves.

Very exciting stuff happening this Summer. We just celebrated our one year anniversary and let me tell you we could have not been given a better birthday gift then the Award for Best Open Mic in 2011 published by the Miami New Times!

This is just the very beginning, join us for our Open Mic Every Wednesday! Let’s get together and continue to share good vibes and creativity. Miami is redefining it’s Art scene and our movement has created a pavement for poets, musicians, dancers, thinkers, lovers, and people who just need to get away and express themselves freely.

Let’s once again get together, drink some wine, share some thoughts and be happy.

The Electric Pickle will be opening up the back patio for us under two conditions. 1) No Jamming Outside, the neighbors have been complaining. We will have intermissions between acts for the jammers to play on stage throughout the night. Take it all out of your system on stage! 2) No Smuggling Of Drinks Please! If anyone is seen with a drink purchased outside of the pickle, you will be asked to leave and not return. Please respect this event and the establishment. Thanks guys! See you Tomorrow

18+ for girls
5$ For anyone under 21 and free for those over 21
Great Drink Specials Full Bar

Please help to continue this event at this venue. Please do not bring your own drinks, they have a full bar inside. Let’s Have a great time responsibly and keep this venue clean and beautiful.
If any questions please call

Nikki Rodriguez at 786|728|4748 or
Lou Roman 305|298|8759.

www.electricpicklemiami.com

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Hidalgo’s Closing Exhibition Event With Special Guest Michael Capponi
Thursday, September 29 · 7:30pm – 10:00pm
Cafeina Whywood Exhibition Center
297 Nw 23 Street
Miami, FL

You Are Cordially Invited To Attend The Closing Party For Leonardo Hidalgo’s Exhibition
Which Opened On September 9, 2011 With The Special Attendance Of Michael Capponi.

Hidalgo Will Showcase A Special Portrait Of Michael Capponi Which Will Be Unveiled That Night In Honor For His Work And Dedication To Haiti.

Complementary Drinks Courtesy Of Cafeina From
7:30pm-8:30pm

Please Rsvp: rsvpmiamiart@gmail.com & 786-217-0130
No Entrance Cover

Bhakti Baxter: Rompelotas Opening Reception
October 7th, 7-9pm
Gallery Diet
174 NW 23rd Street
Miami, Florida 33127
www.gallerydiet.com

October 7th – November 12th, 2011
ROMPELOTAS is the first Miami solo exhibition in four years for locally based artist Bhakti Baxter. The exhibition will include sculpture, painting, collage, and installation based work.

ROMPELOTAS is a collection of work assembled through a careful balance between play and placement. Found objects such as soccer balls and office desk drawers collide with concrete and enamel to behave like irrational models of natural phenomena. Though various layers of media stack up against each other unsettlingly throughout the gallery, the work consists of very basic organic and geometric patterns such as branching, spherical implosion, vertical and panoramic support structures, both rendered and actual. Viewed as a whole, the parts function as components of an expanded portrait, with sculptures and drawings embracing the micro and macro at every junction. Working closely with the laws of gravity, density, and the malleability of mass, Baxter transforms quotidian objects into forms imbued with metaphysical propositions, further defined by the self-made aesthetic of these forces.

The word ROMPELOTAS is a play on the term rompe pelotas, which means ball breaker in Spanish.

Bhakti Baxter has exhibited at Federica Schiavo Gallery in Rome, Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris, Bravin Lee Programs, and Guild and Greyskhul in New York. He has also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, where he is in the permanent collection, The Bass Museum of Art Miami Beach, The Museum of Contemporary Art Washington DC, and The Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art. His work is also included in the permanent collection of the NOMAS Foundation in Rome. This will be Baxter’s first solo exhibition at Gallery Diet.

The exhibition is being accompanied by a 120-page hard cover retrospective publication including texts by Geir Haraldseth, Gean Moreno, and Hugh Stockton.

For additional information, interviews or images please contact Jon Handel at jon@sparkplug-pr.com or 347-742-4380.

Special thanks to Palm Breweries.

Photographs with an Audience is finally here!
Sunday, October 2nd 4 PM
Monday, October 3rd 7 PM
174 NW 23 Street
Miami, Florida 33127

Gallery Diet is pleased to present the fourth incarnation of Photographs with An Audience, a performance by artist Clifford Owens. By eliminating the boundaries between artist and viewer and engaging the audience as participants, Owens will confront viewers in a new form of performance experience. Audience members are invited into the process of creating photographs, to produce compositions that reflect the experiences – past and present-of the group. The resulting photographs, which will be featured in an upcoming solo exhibition of the artist’s work opening Gallery Diet beginning on November 17, will be presented as static objects that challenge our notion of performance documentation and the creation of photographic artwork born out of action.

Photographs with an Audience is Clifford Owens’ debut performance and exhibition in Miami. The performance has been previously shown at The University of North Carolina, The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art and On Stellar Rays in New York City.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
October 2nd 4 PM
October 3rd 7 PM
Please arrive early as space is limited

Owens brings a new perspective to the history of performance art through the act of repeating canonical works within the very different context of current era, through the incorporation of the camera, his own body, and new audiences. He also restages historical live art works by other artists, creating open-ended situations that challenge the convention of art-making. He is currently working in a studio at MOMA/PS1 on Anthology a project which encompasses the work of over 20 inter-generational African American artists. The exhibition will be on view at the Museum in Fall 2011, a catalog will be published in 2012 with a text written by the exhibition curator, Christopher Lew.

Clifford Owens holds a BFA (1998) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA (2000) from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Studio Museum Residency in Harlem, and is a recipient of the Louis Tiffany Comfort Award and the Lambent Fellowship for the Arts. Owens has exhibited at P.S.1/MoMa as part of Greater New York, the Queens Museum of Art, NY, List Visual Art Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and Para-Site Art Space, Hong Kong. Publications which have included his works are Performa: New Visual Art Performance, and The Greater New York Book. His projects and exhibitions have been written about in Art in America, Art+Auction, Newsweek, New York Times, Village Voice and other publications. Clifford is represented by On Stellar Rays and will be exhibiting with Gallery Diet on November 17.

Special thanks to the de la Cruz collection where Owens will be in residence beginning in October 2011. Work created in this residency will be part of TKTK.

Some thoughts on the work from the Fall Issue of BOMB magazine…
Nick Stillman in conversation with Clifford Owens in BOMB Magazine about the Houston Contemporary Museum’s incarnation of Photographs with an Audience
Owens: … The project is about the construction of a photograph with myself and/or the audience through simple gestures…
Stillman:… I found it to be one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. Everyone in that room was going to walk away thinking about it for a while.
Owens: … we are all responsible for each other, because we have more in common than we think… trust was established in that small room, among strangers.