curator and scenographer of the following
PUBLIC ART & PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
JANA RENÉE — SUNSET
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Mural
April 2023
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Mural site: Presidio, TX
MARIELL GUZMAN — LA JUNTA DE LOS RIOS
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Mural
In collaboration with the Presidio Cultural District Association
August 2021
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Mural site: Presidio, TX
EXHIBITIONS / GROUP & SOLO SHOWS
A. KELLY PRUITT — AN AFTERNOON AT CIBOLO CREEK RANCH
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Solo Show
July 2021
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The Museum at Cibolo Creek Ranch
97139 US Hwy 67
Marfa, TX
OFRENDA DE DIA DE MUERTOS
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Celebration and Installation
In collaboration with Sandro Canovas and the Presidio Cultural District Association
October 31 – November 2 2020
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Herrera Building
702 W O’Reilly Street
Presidio, TX
GORSAD — SOUR PATCH KIDS
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Solo Show
November 2nd - December 9th 2017
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Galerie Dilecta
49 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
75003 Paris
Gorsad do not invite us to enter their world. They push us in there with a big kick, like the insolent kid who terrorizes the schoolyard. The childhood that they photograph has an acidulous taste: these kids have adult tastes and fantasies of independence. Their photographs are violent, decadent, and some are shocking, while others are also touching or poetic. The trio of Masha, Ulik, and Vitja ignore prohibitions - whether they are parental, social, moral, or religious. But their work is not just a visual provocation.
We find the key to their stagings in their childhood memories. Ulik remembers having crossed Eastern Ukraine by train, as a teenager, and having met a painfully shy but sweet priest there. He struck up a conversation. Then suddenly, the priest stood up and gave Ulik the order to take his clothes off. As for Masha, she explains that at the age of six, a friend’s grandfather suggested they watch Walt Disney’s Aladdin. The scene took place at a birthday party. She followed him into a room full of toys, and after ten minutes spent in front of the video, the grandfather changed the cassette to show her a pornographic version of Little Red Riding Hood. Vitjia describes having been forgotten by his parents at the family home for two days, when he was at kindergarten. He laughs about it, drawing a parallel between the young heroes of the film Home Alone and himself. This funny bone stirs our complicity: the focus shifts to imagining the thousand-and-one pranks the child could have gotten up to, rather than feeling horrified by the situation.
Confronted by the brutality of the world, the child, turned mischievous demon, has appropriated the codes of adulthood to reflect a mocking, twisted, or critical image. Gorsad thus invites us to reconsider the notion of power by removing the barriers between adult life and that of the child. They invent a playground in which no one is innocent: the adults abuse their position as dominants and the children have desires, anger, and impulses. But who is really dominating who?
For the three members of Gorsad, the winner is the individual who knows how to be free. For them, that is what truly defines youth and its power: total freedom, which the trio latches onto, making connections between childhood, games, sex, consumerism, danger, and adulthood.
Gorsad is a trio of photographers formed by Masha, Ulik, and Vitja. Born in the Ukraine in the late 1980s, they met at a Halloween party organized by the Ukraine Academy of the Arts, where they were students. It was after a night spent partying that they decided to work together – to prolong the fun, they admit.The same experiences of youth shaped the identity of the trio, those of a generation growing up in a country of the former USSR in the 1990s, in which sex, Coca-Cola, and children’s games collided. They navigate through counter-culture environments in which they confront the illusion of “freedom of choice” and discover that everyone plays a part in this illusion. This seemingly stereotypical world enchants Gorsad: “These stereotypes are all we have and we love them! That’s why we are looking for the most original, strange, authentic, and independent people alive.” Through their work as photographers and videographers, they invent a world of adults whose wildest dream is to Never grow up! Since their debut in 2012, their artworks have been exhibited in Sweden, Slovenia, Ukraine, Greece, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Denmark. “Sour Patch Kids” is their first exhibition in France.
FARAWAY
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Group Show with:
Dove Allouche, Jérémie Bennequin, Philippe Cognée, William Kentridge, Bertrand Lavier, Ange Leccia, Claude Lévêque, Théo Mercier, Valérie Mréjen, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Eric Pougeau, Laure Prouvost, Martial Raysse, Virginie Trastour.
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October 5th - 28th 2017
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Galerie Dilecta
49 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
75003 Paris
MELANCHOLIA
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Group Show with:
John Baldessari, Michaël Borremans, Léonard Bourgois-Beaulieu, Abel Llavall-Ubach, Robert Longo, Sarah Moon, Max Passadore, Yan Pei-Ming, Rasmus Rosengaard, Julian Schnabel, Virginie Trastour, Luc Tuymans, and Jeff Wall.
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May 4th - June 17th 2017
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Galerie Dilecta
49 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
75003 Paris
COLORS
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Group Show with:
Rina Banerjee, Jacques Floret, Yves Klein, Bertrand Lavier, Théo Mercier, Anne and Patrick Poirier, Martial Raysse, Lee Ufan, etc.
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April 2017
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Galerie Dilecta
49 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
75003 Paris
PAOLO CANEVARI — MONUMENTS OF THE MEMORY
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Solo show
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May 2016, Sans Titre 2016, Paris — France
February 2015, The High Line Hotel, New York — USA
This project speaks to the gothic, poetic, and melancholic daydreamer inside of us. Originally, Monuments of the Memory is Paolo Canevari’s monochromatic abstract series of paintings. Together, we conceived (a melody of) monotype etchings deriving from it, now part of a new body of work by the Italian artist.
Each of the 22 aquatint etching is composed of a number of seven different shapes, appearing on paper with the most intense and full shade of black there is. The work, though all in contrasts, touches all the nuances and contradictions we can, one day, face. It is then our decision, as viewer, to either make sure the shapes don’t dissolve in one another, or to happily let go and let blur take over. Monuments of the Memory is dense, rich, inviting and strange, and the world it depicts is black. And, blissfully in the greys too.
I wanted to create a different kind of experience for the viewers. One where they could fully be absorbed by everything that once was, all that could soon be. I decided to build a world where your senses wouldn’t be your way out, but instead, your way within. That’s when French composer Christine Webster joined us, and imagined a soundtrack inspired by the works. Then, well, we had to have a scent. And we designed one that would capture you even more.
Last but not least… My dear friends Carol and Felix (aka Harlan & Weaver) opened up their studio, and offered the project all their care and knowledge for the prints to be masterfully produced by Johee Kim.
The etchings can be purchased here
MARIPOL — MARIPOLA X
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Solo show
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May 2015, Art Miami NY, New York — USA
June 2014, 10 Corso Como, Milano — Italy
May 2014, Bookmarc, Tokyo — Japan*
March 2014, Bookmarc, Los Angeles — USA*
February 2014, Bookmarc, New York — USA*
December 2013, Bookmarc, London, UK*
December 2013, Bookmarc, Paris — France*
*in collaboration with Marc Jacobs Bookmarc
MARIPOLA X is an invitation to Maripol’s kaleidoscopic creative heart. This project is all about self-discovery, friendship, and dare. As Maripol said it, « I would never have published such personal work had Adele Jancovici not been such a close and trusted friend. » This friendship allowed me to be presented to the most intimate and private boxes of the artist’s studio: her collection of erotic polaroid photos and lots and lots of poetic diaries. Our project was born.
Alongside, we worked on re-composing the story of her youth, where love, playfulness, and hope were so strongly pursued. A lot of hours were spent negotiating on which images would find their way inside the pages, and long afternoons on deconstructing the original structure of the poetry in order to give it a more contemporary and spoken-like rhythm.
This allowed for a wonderful surprise, which then became another component of the X adventure. On the day they met, Leonard Lasry, a close friend, read the poems and offered Maripol to write songs based of her words. That’s how we recorded MARIPOLA X Songs. Soon after, I reached out to another precious and very talented friend, Thalia Mavros. It only took her half a Bloody Mary to say yes, and so, she created and directed a book-trailer/music video. We were on fire.
And with yet another incredible friendship, that of Jennifer Baker, the project received the support of Marc Jacobs to launch in five cities over the world. So that initial crazy idea of publishing X-rated content took us to Bookmarc Tokyo, London, LA, New York and Paris.
Since its launch, MARIPOLA X has been acclaimed by The New York Times, Vice, Opening Ceremony, Hyperallergic, L'Oeil de la Photographie, and many (many!) more.