Friday, December 30, 2011

| ENTERTAINMENT | 11

Giant spiders, teddy bears and old souls

Louise Bourgeois, Cortina Abierta and Elas Santis best of 2011 for Herald s Carla Harms
BY CARLA HARMS

Herald staff

ARTS YEAR-ENDER
With more art openings than even the most enthusiastic gallery-goer can get to, BA offers no shortage of exhibitions to see. And amidst all those exhibitions, which take place pretty much seven days a week throughout the year, not all of the shows are memorable, or even all that good. However, there are always a few that simply stand out. What makes an exceptional show? It may be the opening that is memorable, with its artsy crowd adding to your experience of the works in the exhibition, or it may be the fact that the art makes you think about the world around you in a different way. Other times still, you can simply be blown away by the sheer talent of the artist. Ive picked out my favourite three exhibitions from the year 2011, which not only cover all three of the reasons I mentioned above, but show that, in order to move you, art doesnt have to be exhibited in the biggest and most famous institutions. Sometimes you can find inspiration in the most unexpected places. Early on in the year in March, I was absolutely delighted to attend Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed at Fundacin PROA. Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, the retrospective on the renowned French artists work was not only the first ever show of her work in Latin America, but the exhibition, which explored her relationship with psychoanalysis and art, was a perfect fit for psychology-obsessed Buenos Aires. The multimedia show of 86 pieces included everything from her famous large-scale spider sculpture Maman (1999), installed in front of the PROA building, garnering plenty of attention to her hanging sculptures and installation works such as The Destruction of the Father (1974). I loved the exhibition not only because the works provided an insight, albeit at times disturbing, into her ideas regarding femininity and sexuality, but also because it was an amazing opportunity to see so many of her works at once right here in BA. And it was an important reminder, as Bourgeois herself declares in one of her works, that Art is a guarantee of sanity. Later in May, I went to perhaps one of the most interesting openings on the premises of the year at Canal 7 TV Pblica, where a roster of artists from Cortina Abierta, a home/gallery hybrid set up in a house in Villa Luro, opened a group exhibition entitled Zona Expuesta. James Rizzi applied his playful, cartoon-like art style to unusual projects worldwide, from Volkswagen Beetles and Japanese train ads to cow sculptures in New York and the front page of a German newspaper. His creations included images for German postage stamps and a tourist guide to New York published this year. He was the official artist for the 1996 Summer Olympics in

Mars attacks? No, its Louise Bourgeois gigantic sculpture Maman outside PROA.

Elas Santis old soul shows in his 21st-century Baroque oil paintings. There, a fabulously arty crowd mingled and drank wine around a mix of works so wild it could only have been put together by Cortina Abierta. Given my penchant for sculpture, I was taken in by everything from A short story-fabuloso, Ramairas Alvareidas scented light-up sculpture that employed both a teddy bear and a bunny wearing a crown, to Sergio Lamannas gigantic moveable sculpture of a knight on a horse made of translucent materials. And I was taken, as I always am, by the soft and sequined sculptures made by Soledad Rithner, which remind me, in many ways, of the works of Louise Bourgeois. From its humble beginnings of the founders living room, this gallery continues to surprise and delight. I look forward to see what Cortina Abierta has in store for 2012. And, finally, I was absolutely blown away by Argentine artist Elas San-

Ramairas Alvaredas lighted sculpture Fabuloso. tis solo exhibition rbita Prima at Mite, which closed in mid-December. He must be an old soul, for he paints in a Baroque style you rarely see in someone so young. And he does it, as he did in this show with his first-ever oil paintings, in a way that simply wows. Depicting a world both mysterious and magical, Santis somehow manages to balance a contemporary world of youthful subjects in hipster clothes with stillmounted on top of the other using wire. Rizzi stuck with the novelty, nurturing it when he returned to New York, where he made a name as a street artist with a mural. Rizzi ventured into surprising aesthetic areas. In New York, he created a limited-edition of the MetroCard subway. His designs also appeared in CowParade. Rizzi enjoyed some of his biggest life objects painted with a precision that harks back to the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish still-life masters. What results is a strange place in space in time that leaves you wondering, long after you have left the show, what it is that you have just observed. And while the mystery of the figures in Santis paintings is indeed compelling, it is his painterly genius that makes him my top pick of 2011. He is definitely one to watch. successes in Germany and Asia. There, he designed the ring coat for boxer Henry Maske, china for the Rosenthal company, the front page of a newspaper in Hamburg and some vehicular art a toy-size fire engine and three versions of the 1999 Volkswagen New Beetle. In 1996, Lufthansa airlines commissioned him to decorate a jet with stars, birds and travelers.

BELOVED POP ARTIST JAMES RIZZI DIES

Atlanta, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and soccer World Cup games in France. Rizzi, a native of Brooklyn, died Monday at his New York studio at age 61. He had a heart condition. Rizzi studied art at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where his groundbreaking techniques began with three-dimensional constructions that evolved from a youthful failure. For his classes in painting, printmaking and sculpturing, he had to hand in work for grades in all three subjects. But Rizzi had time to complete only one: a twice-printed etching, with parts of one cut out and