Rabindranat Díaz-Cardona, Hábitat, installation view Two separate solo shows will open this week at METRO: plataformaorganizada in San Juan; Habitat by Rabindranat Díaz-Cardona and El pah-pay lone by Héctor Madera-González. Both artists live and work abroad, Díaz-Cardona in Madrid and Madera-González in Brooklyn, New  York. For Díaz-Cardona, this is his first solo presentation in over four years.[...]

It’s interesting to read an in-depth conversation with an artist that really gets to the core of their practice and the choices that lead to their relevance in art history. Entertaining and informative, Jac Leirner in Conversation with Adele Nelson describes Leirner’s personal background, process and work. Born to a family of collectors, Brazilian-born Leirner was one of the first contemporary artists from Latin America whose work was acquired by the MoMA.[...]

Guillermo Rodriguez Saturday, December 10th La Loseta, a year-long exhibition program initiated by artist Radamés "Juni" Figueroa, closed its exhibition cycle with Tropico Abierto, Gran Bienal Tropical, a project curated by London-based curator Pablo León de la Barra. Transforming the conventional sterile white cube into a jungle 'green cube,' de la Barra and friends staged a series of works and interventions at the beach in Piñones (Puerto Rico) and the area surrounding Kiosko La Comai; a typical beach front kiosque serving local food and drinks.[...]

Red, white and blue… these three colors when combined elicit multiple significations and visual connotations. They can be associated with a specific country, a patriotic sentiment, or a consumer brand, but in Omar Obdulio Peña Forty’s work they embody a practice of everyday life; the barbershop and its long-standing history as a place of congregation at the intersection of differing trades. La brega plural, Peña Forty’s most recent exhibition at METRO:plataformaorganizada, gathers a selection of recent videos, sculptures, paintings and photographs that approach the barbershop as a plural space of creation and transformation, appropriating its aesthetic values and reconsidering it in an artistic context.[...]

Katinka Bock was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1976. She studied in Berlin, Dresden, Paris, and then at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, before coming to Paris in 2007 for a residency lasting several months at the Cité des Arts. Although she was based in Berlin, circumstances have led her to stay on in the French capital. Sculpture has always been at the heart of her studies and interests, though she has also experimented extensively with video, performance art and projects for public spaces. Since coming to Paris, she has ceased to work on collaborative projects, and she finds that the most fertile place for her is not her studio or house, but her mind itself

Carla Acevedo-Yates: Hi Steve, it’s a pleasure to speak with you once again! During our last interview, we spoke about the reasons that lead you to depart from painting and move to other mediums such as sculpture and performance. Since 2002, you have titled these works HORROR, but your recent work marks another departure with different and more complex titles, even though they also convey a sense of mystery and irony. Can you explain the reasons for this choice? Steve Schepens: Dear Carla, the pleasure is completely mine! Indeed, the HORROR works form a very important and vast cluster within my oeuvre, also the new titles are rooted in there. The sculpture THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE IS A FRAUD which was first presented at the Art in the City exhibition during the ARTBRUSSELS art fair in April and the exhibition BLUE MUSSEL BINGE DRINKING at Marianne Friis Gallery in Copenhagen in June both mark the start of the new period. The art-works can be seen as anchors for future creations. [...]

Nothing like a Summer Storm, 2010, oil paint, acrylic paint, spray paint, plastic bags, fabric, glitter and color pencil on canvas, 48"x60" Wavering between figuration and abstraction, Sebastian Vallejo’s paintings are precise but expressive exercises in light, form and color. In them, bright colors collide with defined forms and structures that, combined with a mixed media approach provide an engaging visual experience that rests in conflicting polarities.[...]

This past May the Fundación Juan March in Madrid closed the survey exhibition Cold America: Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934-1973). The exhibition gathered over 300 works by more than 60 artists, taking as a point of departure two very specific return trips from Europe that offered a chronological structure to the show; Joaquín Torres-García’s return to Uruguay in 1934, and Jesús Rafael Soto’s return to Venezuela in 1973. The exhibition’s strength lies in showcasing a comprehensive visual tracing of the complex histories of geometric abstraction in Latin America in an European institution; a legacy grounded on the aesthetic language of the European constructivist project which, renewed and transformed, thrived throughout Latin America well into the 1960s and 1970s. The title of the show, Cold America, alludes to the tradition's rational and objective forms which revealed chromatic structures and experiments in a diverse array of mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography and architecture.[...]

Featuring both individual and collaborative works, Josué Pellot and Héctor Arce-Espasas play upon their shared heritage with a critique of tourism’s myth of Paradise. The artists reach beyond simple autobiography by embodying histories of art, family, commerce, heritage, and nationalism in a rich visual experience in Galleries 2.5 and 3. Illuminated pineapples become the embodiment of culture, transubstantiating the subject’s body into that of a delectable fruit. Both artists struggle with the alchemy responsible for transforming culture into consumable tourist objects. Their photographs, paintings, and installations express a desire to unravel the meaning of cultural objects and the dissemination of those meanings throughout the global marketplace.[...]

Quintín Rivera Toro’s most recent exhibition titled Allafuera, currently on view at METRO:plataformaorganizada in San Juan, is comprised of a general survey of new works and a presentation of several ongoing series that the artist has been working on for several years. Although the works are presented devoid of curatorial strategies, through them, the viewer can sense a personal approach consequent to the artist’s immediate environment, that combined with political proclamations seems to evoke a sense of agitation and unrest. Ideas related to hopelessness, desire and futility prevail as relevant themes to explore within the context of Rivera Toro’s recent artistic production.[...]

Ingenious Displacements: Hope and Failure in the Works of Manolo Rodríguez Flight has been the dream of mankind for centuries. A lofty desire inspired by nature, present in most mythologies, ancient cultures and religions, from Greek mythology to Persian literature and Christianism. In these, flying suggests divinity, winged flight a province of the gods and [...]

At DaWire we have been indulging in some much needed time off. Our Summer reading list is long, but we have two gorgeous publications that we will be reviewing soon that we want our readers to keep an eye on: Jac Leirner in Conversation with Adele Nelson, published by the Fundación Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Cold America: Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934-1973), catalogue for the exhibition of the same name at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. Extended reviews to come in September. See you soon and enjoy the rest of the Summer!

Hector Madera, Untitled, mixed media, 2009-2010 (Detail) AREA arrives to the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico with a new space and an innovative program. METRO plataformaorganizada is José Hernández Castrodad's new initiative in San Juan that brings together a group of young and talented Puerto Rican artists based in Puerto Rico and abroad. METRO is a self-sustainable artist-run space to promote Puerto Rican artists locally and internationally through individual and group shows, curated projects and collaborations. Castrodad, an avid collector and art enthusiast highly respected by the local artistic community, already funds and supports AREA, an alternative art space and residency program in Caguas, Puerto Rico.[...]

Jason Kraus, 3 Gas Tanks. Courtesy of Redling Fine Art. Jason Kraus (1983, New York) is a young promising artist who recently graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. Since then, he has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York, and recently collaborated with Martin Kersels in a one-night performance at the Whitney Museum titled Jason Martin wants to be a DJ. Demonstrating an interdisciplinary approach, Kraus’ artistic practice is often the result of a private performance, where the final object produced proposes narratives meant for the viewer to construe. The experience of viewing his work invokes instances of what the artist defines as suspended disbelief, where he keeps the viewer thinking if what he sees is found or fabricated

Video Still from Untitled, Juan Pablo Macías. Courtesy of the artist. Spectroscopies was conceived as a critical response to the commemorative furor that pervaded the cultural production and consumption in Mexico (because it was imposed) during the years 2009 and 2010. Whether it was because they were included in the corresponding exhibitions of the official celebrations for the start of the struggle for Independence of Mexico (1810) and the beginning of the revolutionary struggle for the establishment of a representative democratic government (1910), participating in the institutional activities associated with it, or because their labor was required for the realization of mass entertainment, very few members of the diverse artistic communities of the country were indifferent to the "centennial fever."[...]

Adaptive Actions is a collaborative project initiated in London in 2007 by Montreal based artist Jean-François Prost, gathering a series of micro-actions developed by artists and citizens around the world within an urban city context. The project is based on an open-call available to everyone online. When submitting, each collaborator becomes an 'actor' in a series of world-wide micro scenarios and interventions that document and reveal the different ways people adapt to the urban environment, be it improvised or completely planned.[...]

Certain ecological actions today do not respond to a true awareness of waste production or suggest ways to counter it. Recycling for instance, far from being just an environmentally conscious sub-culture movement, is already part of the marketing engine of big corporations and an integral component of hegemonic economic and social structures. Its formal attributes (symbols, forms and colors) as well as prescribed actions (recycle, reuse, reduce) are repeatedly filtered through the mass media and packaged to the public as a form of social and cultural responsibility.[...]

Expanded Window, 2011. Site-specific installation. Acrylic, cable, aluminum. Rectangular amber filters catch spectators unaware, forming an untouchable structure of lights and shades over the ramp at the entrance of this exhibit curated by Itala Schmelz. Reflecting plexiglas panels form geometric relations, the beam of yellow light fills the room with sparkling reflections, and the color of the sky changes when watching towards the zenith through the filters.[...]

María Fernanda Plata. Measurement related drawings. Length. 333, 333... m of a single thread on paper, 22 x 29 in, 2007. María Fernanda Plata's (Bogotá, Colombia 1978) Measurement-Related Drawings examines notions of length, weight and area in a visual exploration of architecture that involves measuring and delimitating the material used for each piece. The process can be described as the elaboration of three types of drawings: thread on paper, paper on paper and oil on paper.[...]

Another great article from our West Coast friends over at DailyServing written by Catlin Moore. Have fun! Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo credit: Brian Forrest In a former life, Walead Beshty may have rubbed elbows with Patti Smith. Flaunting her contemptuous disregard for the cautionary advice of her peers, Smith famously denounced words as [...]

Recently, during the month of April, Mexico City has been the seat of an international contemporary art fair: Zona Maco. Even though the fair has changed its name several times, it has grown to currently become the most successful art fair in Latin America. A great deal of society in Mexico City is always excited by this event. Many artists, collectors and people related to art from abroad come to the city. Parties, dinners and gallery openings are abundant, museums have special events, and bars in Polanco, Roma and Condesa districts, and the historical downtown are full of people talking about art, artists and collectors

  An assemblage with concave and convex elements by Thomas Glassford prepares the viewer for a distortion in their perception about the indiscernible limits and differences between established, procedural, formal, abstract or conceptual in contemporary art. Artists working within the context of Mexico, free of the historical and social imperatives, provoke an anamorphosis of vision located in the fold of Being and matter. Much like an erotic act, they speculate through an intimate relationship of art and artist. Matter and intelligible code field converge recreationally as a reflection of the Self. Some features, discovered by the curator Josefa Ortega, operate as a common thread that bring together works by artists from many different lands and ages: analytical construction, unveiling of the quality of material, structural game, time investment, non-referentiality and minimal use of materials

José Luis Cortés-Santander - Installation view and Detail at Galería The Goma, Madrid For this commissioned project, José Luis Cortés Santander (Mexico, 1980) has specially developed a series of artworks that constantly refer to a time and space beyond themselves. Geheimnisse sind die Knoten, die die Welt zusammenhalten, secrets are the knots that bind the world, emphasizes the power of artistic creation as a medium for the circulation of ideas which far from being considered affirmations act as propagated rumors. At the same time, the artworks presented in this show gaze in a subtly ironic manner the power attributed to the artist of unveiling mystic truths.[...]

Anri Sala, Intallation View As I walked into the interior patio that gives way to the gallery space, I came across an old barrel organ player. At times considered ancient technology, the instrument’s surfaces were scared by the passing of time, but its pipes could still harmonize tunes. On its sides, the barrel organ player had a series of keys. I proceeded to play the keys on the barrel organ. A gallery attendant -possibly disrupted by my melody- approached me to teach me how to play the instrument

Ahead and beyond of everyone's time, space and rhythm, 2009. Table, Silverware, chinaware, candles, cutlery, flowers, napkins, cups, vase, table top, chandeliers, disco ball. Risk and Tension. It seems that Alejandro Almanza likes to keep viewers on their toes. Working mostly with construction materials and domestic interiors, Almanza creates situations of stress through sculpture and installations; a house of cards that precariously threatens to fall or break. Danger seems to be a constant in his work, as well as the exploration of materials and our perceptions of them