F L A V O R P A P E R / Brooklyn

While enjoying a cappuccino in Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia, I read about Flavor Paper; and vibrant colors popped up into my head,… after almost a year here I am… at Flavor Paper in Brooklyn.

Rain Couture - Madame de Pe

 

A Dutch company, Madame de Pé, has unveiled a new range of rainwear for female cyclists, and with the emphasis on fashion, there’s not a trace of hi-viz material or reflective piping in sight.

Please visit: http://madamedepe.com/

Trisha Brown Dance Company at MoMa - New York

Trisha Brown Dance Company, Sticks, 1973, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Gustavo Godoy

BIOGRAPHY

Born Ontario, California, 1974
Lives and Works in Los Angeles
EDUCATION
2005
Master of Fine Arts, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT 2001
UCLA, Dept. of Arch. and Urban Design, Los Angeles, CA 1998
B.A., UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 1997
UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH Fast-formal Object: Big Blue, Prism, Los Angeles, CAFast-formal Object: Act Two, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CAFast-formal Object: Big White, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CA2007 What's the Big Idea?, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
Plentitude, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX2010
It Ain’t Fair, OHWOW, Miami, FLBaker's Dozen, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA You Can Heal Your Life, Circus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2008 L.A. Confidentiel, Centre d'art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, France2007 One Foot High and Rising, The Balmoral, Venice, CA
The Happy Lion at MACO, (site specific sculptural project) Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City2006 One of these things is not like the Other, Angela Hanley Gallery, Los AngelesSculpture, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, group sculpture showCarmada, MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles, CA Five Sculptors, Workspace @ 91 Meserole St., Brooklyn, NYYoung Americans, Chinatown Project Space, Los Angeles, CADrawing and Sculpture, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA (2-person show with Doug Crocco)2005 TBA, Angela Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, CAA Single Channel Video Show, The Glendale College Art Gallery,Glendale,CASmall Works, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VAUncontained, Wood Art Gallery, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT 2004
General Store: The Four Color Pen Show, Locust Projects, Miami, FL General Store: The Four Color Pen Show, General Store Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 2002
Public Space: Artist/Architect Collaboration, UCLA 1999 En LA Casa home takeover installation, West Hollywood, CA 1998 Gustavo Godoy: Paint/Wood, Fine Arts Gallery, UCSB
Honors Last Show, UCSB 1997 Inside Out public installation, University of California, IrvineCentered Around the Center, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA 1996 Orange Crush, Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Irvine
EXHIBITIONS CURATED
2007 Fleeing the Scene, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2010
Bedford, Christopher. "Gustavo Godoy", Frieze, Issue 131, May
Myers, Holly. "Gustavo Godoy, Fast-Formal Object: Big White", ArtReview.com, February 17
Schad, Ed. "Godoy at Honor Fraser", Artslant, February 1
Nys Dambrot, Shana. "Gustavo Godoy", Flavorpill, February 32008
Wulffson, Jennifer. “Contemporary Sculpture in Los Angeles”, Sculpture Journal, Vol. 17.1, Spring2007
Bedford, Christopher. “Gustavo Godoy at The Happy Lion”, Art in America, No. 11, December
Buckley, Annie. “Gustavo Godoy at The Happy Lion”, Artillery, June
Knight, Christopher. “Constructed Free of Tension”, Los Angeles Times, Friday, March 13
Nys Dambrot, Shana. “Gustavo Godoy: What’s the Big Idea?” ArtReview, June
Sara. “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown”, Artslant, April
Sartorius, Katherine. “Gustavo Godoy – The Happy Lion”, artUS, Issue 19, Summer 

Maria Nepomuceno-Brasilian artist

Maria Nepomuceno's woven and beaded sculptures feel entirely self-sufficient. They're at once charming and mysterious, relaxed and vivacious, like the never-entirely-gentle Rio environment that produced them. 

Holland Cotter, The New York Times

Victoria Miro is delighted to announce an exhibition of work by emerging Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno. Having recently opened an acclaimed solo exhibition at Magasin 3 in Stockholm - her first museum show in Europe - this will be the artist's first solo exhibition in the UK. Maria Nepomuceno's seductive sculptures and installations made of brightly coloured rope, straw and beads spread throughout the spaces they inhabit: they varyingly hang in hammock-like forms, drape down walls, sprawl across floors, or group together as constellations in a new and curious cosmos.

Maria Nepomuceno allows her materials to obey their own organisational logic, weaving them together in a process that presents seemingly infinite possibilities for the spiraling, circling and multiplying of forms. Inspired by ancient traditions and complex indigenous craft techniques, Nepomuceno pushes these into a wholly contemporary engagement with space and structure, form and concept. That the sculptures appear anthropomorphic and organic is essential to a reading of her work: the spiraling central to her process relates to the spirals occurring naturally throughout the universe, giving shape to entire galaxies as well as the blueprint for existence, DNA. 

Biographical details:

Born in 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Nepomuceno studied painting and drawing at the prestigious Parque Lage visual arts school before studying industrial design at the University of Rio de Janeiro and art and philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro.


References:
Victoria Miro: Gallery London

TATE MODERN MUSEUM-LONDON

CONTEMPORARY ART 

Artists since Impressionism have often proclaimed a separation of art from literature, the breaking of a relationship that was certainly close to the heart of Classicism. A looser affiliation with music has often been offered in exchange. Music, it was said, reaches deeper levels of response than could be reached by an art dependent on learned interpretation. The abstract elements of art - color, form, scale, their deployment in hard, soft, rhythmically assertive or quiet ways - would strike through man´s beneath. 

Histories of modern art conventionally stress the road to abstraction as the essential course of modernism- as a race course even, since there is much talk of who got there first to produce the first abstract work. In the nineteenth century avant-garde painting proceeded mostly by means of landscapes and still-life painting. The painters known to history as the Post-Impressionists they were not a group, but shared the impact of Impressionism and an urge to move beyond its emphatic objectivity to something more obviously constructed and significant - provided many of the starting points of twentieth century art. Gauguin was the most openly primitivist of them and other artists as Monet, Manet, Van gogh, Cezanne.

Expressionism - was first used to imply the reverse of Impressionism, to indicate the rejection of Impressionist priorities in French art. We can find echoes of the work of Matisse, Munch, Mondrian. The objective with this movement, was to move the spectator emotionally an spiritually through a markedly personal vision of the world, communicated through anti-naturalistic forms and colors. 

In the works of Picasso and Braque, especially their paintings of about 1909 to 1911, the issue of figuration versus abstraction first becomes a conscious matter. This work is called Analytical Cubism, and though the term like most such shorthand labels is misleading it permits us to refer to that phase o kind of work quickly. It is generally true to say that their work were done without reference to models. This has to be stressed because Cubism is said to have sprung from the art of Cezanne and to involve the representing of objects from several different viewpoints. What they say about Cubism is far from conclusive except on one point: they were working within the tradition of painting and they were doing something new - ¨seeking a new expression, as Picasso put it retrospectively in 1932.

Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists had in their different ways asserted that it was the job of painters to represent the real world directly and exclusively. Seurat and Cezanne had found it necessary to process reality through a controlling method or an intuitive process of integration in order to arrive at a pictorial wholeness they found essential. Gauguin is the best known artist associated with this tendency, which is Symbolism, but he is not typical of it: most Symbolist painting aimed at hyper-sophistication, not primitivism. As Cubists, Picasso and Braque belong to the Courbet-Manet-Impressionism tradition of taking the ordinary world as subject. 

Bibliography:

Lynton, Norbert - The Story of Modern Art - Phaidon 1992

How can we empower Colombian Artisan women with sustainable textiles, and handcrafted techniques?

I believe that contemporary designers face complex economic, environmental, social, and technological systems that influence societies’ cultural behaviors and experiences. My ideal designer is one that has the capacity to manage dissimilar point of views, is able to construct clear messages, and communicate environmentally sustainable ideas, practices and experiences to our future generations.

My biggest goal is to challenge the textile discipline through innovation, imagination, craftsmanship and exploration with all kinds of materials. These, as well as other of its goals, are the areas I am interested in pushing forward to discover and develop new ways of understanding textiles. Throughout my B.A. in Industrial Design and my minor in Textile Design, I was able to explore all the areas of concentration, I am intrigued to explore and experience textiles through Mixed Media and develop new approaches to “craftivism”, by transforming, juxtaposing and weaving re-usable fabrics as a final project. So my big question is, what to do with all of the surplus, and how can we re-use and transform all wastes into wearable conscious garments? 

My undergraduate academic work covered courses such as: Introduction to Textiles, Knitting, Weaving, Dyeing (with natural and artificial dyes, explore ancient techniques such as Shibori and Batik), and Print Design, where I advanced my skills and consolidated a strong interest in textiles as a means for sustainable fashion and accessories. Art in all dimensions, especially abstract and geometric have always influenced my creativity and inspiration.  This academic formation gave me a broad view of the ways in which designers can approach their work in order to satisfy our societies’ needs.

While pursuing my B.A in 2004, I started a design brand under my own name LAURA DAZA, dedicated to creating accessories, mainly patchwork belts with different textures and colors. In 2008, I launched a ready-to-wear and swimwear collection YUXTAPOSITION, inspired by Kandinsky´s geometric art. Amo-Aurum, was my latest collection inspired by Pre-Colombian artcraft and Gustav Klimt´s art, making it a unique limited edition collection.

As a passionate Colombian, I attach a stamp of HECHO EN COLOMBIA (MADE IN COLOMBIA) to every product with the meaning of being 100% Colombian, and to promote conscious design and inspire environmentally sustainable communities. RECYCLE-TRANSFORM-CREATE is one of the ideals of my studio, where I transform waste materials and remnants, into wearable objects mainly accessories reflecting crafts, colors, and artistic inspirations. I am interested in exploring and working on this as well as many other environmental ideals focused on offering different design experiences and creative solutions in apparel, fabrics, and accessories to empower contemporary woman.

In 2007, I started working as an adjunct professor at Universidad del Norte, in the Industrial Design Concentration. There I was able to develop innovative teaching methodologies, by focusing on motivation as a key tool to reach college students. I worked as a lecturer for more than three years (2007-2010), and taught courses such as Design Theory, Composition Studio, Trend Forecasting, Intercultural Design, as well as developed new course electives including, Apparel and Accessories Design, Textile Finishes: Print Design and Dyeing, Weaving techniques. In addition to my courses, I was the graduate director of a number of undergraduate students’ thesis projects in the Industrial and Textile Design program. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I created and led the first-ever organized design exhibit by the Design School, UNINORTE EXPOSHOW, where students had the opportunity to show their final projects to all of our campus. The goal with this exhibitionwas to show the whole campus the Future Design for 2050, based on environmental and sustainable apparel and textiles.

In line with this leadership experiences, I also worked for three years as a High School Art Teacher at Marymount School Barranquilla, and was able to offer and guide many students with their own processes of discovery and creativity. Through my teaching experiences I was able to strengthen my skills as a critical designer, with unique abilities to interact, motivate and communicate my ideas clearly.  

I went on sabbatical leave last year to develop an independent project in conjunction with New York University’s Tisch School of Arts. There I was able to work in conjunction with the artistic director and juxtapose design and yoga, to develop the FREE-FLOWING Apparel, a versatile apparel for yoga. Using Lycra we created a creative and multifunctional garment that flows differently in each body; it twists and turns to create a continuously evolving surface. Springing from one same pattern, getting a seamless garment. Our ultimate goal was to inspire a healthy environmentally conscious community. For the 2010 holidays, Carolina Daza (www.ecocozina.com) and I, developed the TEAccessories, a new concept of eco-friendly accessories .  that fused design with the romanticism of drinking loose leaf tea. Each accessory was thought as an artwork with pleated and origami-shaped scraps, which wrapped the tea bags.

How does an international prospective MA Textile Design student comes all the way from Colombia in pursuit of her dream?

Colombia is a developing country where education is a not a human right, but is a luxury only accessible to few. There are few design programs and some very expensive are starting to pop-up,. Only few have the access to develop and potentiate their creativity and artistic talents.  We Colombians are constantly striving to "educate our educators" and to pass on all the knowledge, design, and research taking place in the developed world.

My biggest challenge will be to positively impact our societies and be able to make a difference by using all that I have learned with the Mixed Media Textiles, and creating new sustainable ways of utilizing traditional Colombian handcrafted techniques, and weaving recycled fabrics and second hand textiles, to ultimately empower our people. I dream of breaking many of our entrenched paradigms and exploring all the innovative ways of creating textiles, and making clothing. I believe that the democratization of fashion and the empowerment of women is a key to make social change. I believe that designers should start thinking about contemporary textiles as a means to strengthening societies’ cultural identity. 


I firmly believe that education empowers human beings to use their personal motivation, dedication, and passion as key tools to our present and future’s progress, especially in developing countries like Colombia.


- Laura Daza

Narciso Rodriguez's Fall 2011 Show