“contemporary” About 92

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  Exhibitions

  Simon Lee Gallery Opens A Solo Exhibition Of New Works By Bolivian-American Artist Donna Huanca

  Installation view of WET SLIT at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK. LONDON.-Simon Lee Gallery is presenting WET SLIT, a solo exhibition of new works by Bolivian-American artist Donna Huanca. This is Huanca’s debut exhibition with the gallery and her first solo show in London since SCAR CYMBALS, her 2016 commission at the Zabludowicz Collection. Incorporating painting, sculpture, sound and scent, Huanca’s site-specific installation immerses viewers in a total environment which synthesises her unique aesthetic with a politics of the body as it relates to space and temporality. Huanca’s practice draws particular attention to the skin as the complex interface via which we experience the world around us. Her ‘skin’ paintings – layered on magnified cross-sections of her models’ painted figures photographed during performance – refer directly to the body. During the artistic process, she layers colours and forms with paint on her models, resulting in an indexical practice that places emphasis on the interaction between the ephemerality of experiential art and the permanence of painting. This exploration of the transient pertains directly to the temporal experience of the body, invoking themes of mortality and calling to mind the fleeting connections, both corporeal and emotional, brought about by physicality and touch. Entering the gallery, viewers find themselves in a cocooned space, the walls hung with swathes of diaphanous polythene that engages with the tactility of the artist’s work. These sheets will be recycled in future pieces of the artist’s sculptural practice, further engaging with her method of reusing and extending materials in multiple iterations and forms. As though islands, two sculptures form an archipelago in the space. Coated in layers of highly textured oil paint mixed in with sand, their totemic proportions act as surrogates for Huanca’s models, who are both sheltered and observed through the negative space of their compositions during performance. By introducing her organic statements into the white light of the gallery, Huanca emphasises the primordial in her practice. All her materials refer directly to the human body and denote an engagement with the cultural traditions of her Bolivian ancestry. The exhibition continues into the basement where viewers are…

  Art Daily
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  Auction Industry

  Salle Sells for $96,000 On Bidsquare In Fine Art Weekend At Rago

  One thing is for sure, when Bidsquare bidders have their eye on the prize, they don't give up so easily. On the weekend of May 4th, Rago hosted their much anticipated fine art auctions, 'Post War + Contemporary Art' and 'American + European Art' sales. Both catalogs collectively represented pivotal artists whom, in their respective movements, ranged in styles and periods like German Expressionism and American Pop Art. Monumental works such as Milton Avery's "Girl by Harbour" brought in the highest price ever for a piece of flat art sold at Rago Auctions, selling for $564,500 and contributing towards the $3,631,406 combined total that was achieved that weekend. Online, Bidsquare bidders clicked into action securing splendid artworks in enthusiastic bidding wars, some lasting 35 turns, generating one of the strongest fine art weekends ever seen for Bidsquare at Rago. Here are some of Bidsquare's fine art wins from Rago Auction's May sales: Lot 722, David Salle, Pauper, Acrylic and lead on canvas, 1984; Sold for $96,000 The top lot on Bidsquare in the 'Post War + Contemporary Art Auction' was an acrylic and lead on canvas work by contemporary painter, printmaker, and photographer, David Salle. The large format diptych titled "Pauper" 1984, is a prime example of the collage-like works of which Salle is best known. The artist has explained his approach, “I have tried to get the fluidity and surprise of image connection, the simultaneity of film montage, into painting.” The $96,000 sale on Bidsquare is a grand new addition to the platform's roster of post-auction results.  Lot 696, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Untitled (Bananas), Oil on canvas, 1991; Sold for $32,000 Bidsquare bidders went totally bananas for a 1991, oil on canvas work by Colombian artist Ana Mercedes Hoyos. A nod to classical still lifes and Pop Art's commercial consumerism, seen here as the subject of bananas, Hoyos' well defined style made her a pioneer of modern art in Latin America. Estimated between $5,000-$7,000 - lot 696 easily peeled its way past 6x the low estimate! Lot 789, Roy Lichtenstein, Wallpaper with Blue Floor Interior, Screenprint in colors, 1992; Sold for $24,320 A key figure in the American Pop Art movement, Roy Lichtenstein, who is admired for adopting and channeling his parody themed artwork from comic books in the 1960s, also found his way to the top of Bidsquare's charts. Known as Ben-Day dots, Lichtenstein's manual method of patterning became a signature…

  Bidsquare