JaZzArt en València

This was pre-pandemic Aegean Coast Turkey (2019). Things have changed…

CHEERS

Turkey is like my second home. I live part of the summer on the Aegean coast close to Izmir, and I have been coming to this area for about 25 years. I love the area and the people, what I do not like is the stray dogs that populate our streets here. It is dangerous and a public health problem. In 2019 I travelled about some of the small towns and took these pictures and created this video to exemplify the problem. Hopefully it will be resolved soon and these poor animals will be sheltered appropriately. The only dogs one should see on the streets should be on a leash and walking with their owner.

CHEERS

El pintor aragonés, Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz nació en 1848, fue director del Museo del Prado… Doña Juana la Loca fue uno de sus cuadros más famosos. Aqui os dejo este vídeo para que lo conozcáis mejor. El pintor murió en Madrid en 1921.

Omnia Caelum Studios started in Miami, Florida, June of 2003. That year I exhibited professionally for the first time in a gallery in Istanbul, Turkey. I did not think my paintings would go too far and I knew nothing about Turkey or about their culture. Much less did I know about their likes and dislikes when it came to choosing or collecting paintings. All I knew was that I would be a foreign artist, a European artist coming from the United States who painted bright, colourful scenes of jazz, dancers, movement and bodies, many bodies… But the show went very, very good for me. I sold three paintings out of the five I exhibited and it helped me to establish my presence overseas.

I came back to Miami (my home base at the time) and I started working on a new project. I chose Manhattan. Of course, New York, exhibiting in the Big Apple is obviously the dream of many artists and I was a dreamer. So I headed off north on the Interstate 95 in my Jeep Cherokee with ten paintings, the largest ones I had painted at the time. I had negotiated a contract with a gallery in Brooklyn which was also owned by a Turk, and I had been given a one moth show. The show went well but I did not sell…

So I stayed in New York. I moved my show to SoHo to a gallery called Amsterdam-Whitney and I exhibited there for 15 days. The vernissage was an authentic blast. One of the artists, it was a mixed show, was the wife of actor Christopher Walken and he was at the opening. One of the other guests was the «Prince of Darkness» a rather intriguing character who dressed like an English Lord but with a kilt. I kept looking at him wondering if it was true, that he really was a vampire. I sold one large and very expensive painting during that show, but it helped me establish my presence and I met many people.

I had a third New York exhibition in that year at the New World Gallery, also in SoHo. I only exhibited four large paintings but I did sell one of them…

In any event my experiences abroad gave me many ideas and when I returned to Miami I set my eyes on the developing local scene. This landed me a spot at the coveted «Cultural Fridays» events sponsored by the city of Miami. I presented my work and was selected artist of the month (October) in 2005. That year I searched and found new ways to express my painting and digital work…

Little by little, at times and with giant steps other times, the perfect combination of fast and slow, I started to develop my talent, (through hard work) and my abilities to create. I started to make something of my university education. I recall one of my professors who said that now that we were graduating we should forget all the academic learning and just go out there and create. I took that to heart…

I have to say that life as a working artist for me has been (and certainly still is) a rewarding endeavour and a lot of fun. And one of the best perks is travelling and sailing…

CHEERS

She died a few days ago… She was born on November 11, 1929, in the Bronx, (New York). Her name is Ida Applebroog, daughter of Orthodox Jewish parents, she studied graphic design in Manhattan, stating that she did it because she needed to earn money… She was a feminist, a painter, designer, illustrator of children’s books, and a prolific writer… After moving, with her husband and four children, to Chicago, she enrolled in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and devoted herself to making jewellery and costume jewellery for the family to sell at art fairs in the city… In 1968, the family moved to California and she began attending art classes at the California Institute of the Arts, which is when her painting style began to develop. Her first exhibition (mixed) was in 1972 at the Long Beach Museum of Art (California)…

It was in 1974, and after relocating back to New York, when she changed her name and became «Ida Applebroog,» (her paternal last name was Applebaum). There she fully developed her style, which consisted of creating figurative artwork resembling comic strips to convey her ideas about feminism, social justice, and domestic violence. In 1977, she wrote a series of books that she self-published and distributed by mail. She also joined «Heresies,» a feminist magazine that addressed topics of art and politics.

Then in 1981, she presented «Applebroog: Silent Stagings«, her first exhibition at the Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York, where she continued to exhibit for over twenty years. The theme of this artist has always been to demonstrate the dynamics of «power,» let’s say, of men over women, parents over children, healthcare professionals over patients, and the government over the people…

In 2020, Applebroog’s work was included in a group exhibition at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, Florida, in a presentation titled «My Body, My Rules.» The exhibition showcased the works of women artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Ana Mendieta, Wanguechi Mutu, Mickalene Thomas, and Francesca Woodman. We will feature all of these artists on this blog.

Ida Applebroog passed away at the age of 93 in Manhattan.

CHEERS

GRACIAS

Todos hablan del calor que estamos sufriendo, y nadie parece acordarse del calor del verano pasado, que fue igual de insufrible…

No cesan de hablar…y alucinar…del cambio climático, pero es que a través de la historia siempre han habido cambios climáticos…

Ahora les ha dado…a no se quien…por manifestarse en las calles, o en las universidades, a favor de las supuestas causas perdidas, pero a nadie se le ocurre profundizar un poquitín para determinar si la causa merece la pena o es una farsa total…

Tambien a la gente…mare meua…le gusta pedir derechos para aquellos que ellos suponen que no los tienen, pero ¿Acaso no estamos todos amparados por la misma ley? ¿No tenemos todos los mismos derechos? A mi me parece que si…

Parece que ahora estamos rodeados de ateos. Pero, tío, ¿Si niegas que hay un Dios, eso no implica que sabes que hay un Dios al cual negar? Hipócrita, el ateísmo no existe como doctrina o creencia. Es una postura, como ser anti-capitalista, o anti-democrático. Una tontearía más…

Hoy en dia estamos siendo guiados por supuestos «expertos»…ah, los expertos…que nos revelan los misterios, nos explican los orígenes de la vida, nos enseñan, nos protegen, nos aconsejan sobre lo que debemos comer, beber o no. ¿Serán la nueva casta sacerdotal?…

Los telediarios todos dicen la misma cosa, dan la misma noticia, y lo que no dicen, o sea, la noticia que no dan, es porque no existe. Todo lo demás lo censuran. Y ya la falta de información veraz nos lleva a ser cada vez más esclavos de estos supuestos controladores ¿Quiens son? Ni puta idea…

¿Conclusión? Les contesto a todos estos con solo tres palabritas: «Que os den». Si a vosotros, los expertos, los sabios, los asesores, payasos y bufones de palacios, consejeros, etcétera, etcétera. Iros a guiar, enseñar, engañar, criticar o pensar a la gran p…

Y os mando, como decía el gran genio de la comedia, José Candelario Tres Patines, «¡A la reja!» y para que bailéis un poco y se os quite la mala leche:

GRACIAS

«Los Los» es una obra que mide 35 x 50 cm, acuarela en el fondo abstracto y tinta india en el primer plano creando la figuración. Sin dudas es expresionismo-surreal y JaZzArT. Forma parte de la Serie VII de acuarelas.

Me han preguntado si pinto lo mismo durante el verano que en invierno y siempre contesto que para la pintura, aunque muchas cosas influyen lo que uno pinta, las estaciones del año no son una de ellas. Ahora, quizá durante estos días cuando hace un calor, o «una caló», como dicen mis compatriotas andaluces, uno se dedique mas bien a refrescarse con una cervecita debajo de una palmera… A pintar? Si tío, ya pintaré, pero ahora no me jodas que este paisaje vale más que mil telas en blanco… 🌴 🍺🌞

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«Los Los» measures 14″ x 20″. The background is abstract done with watercolour. The figures are painted with India ink in the foreground. This creates a figurative painting. Undoubtedly, it’s surreal-expressionism and JaZzArT. It’s part of the Series VII of watercolours.

I’ve been asked if I paint the same during summer as in winter. And I always answer that for painting, although many things influence what one paints, the seasons are not one of them. Now, perhaps during these days when it’s hot, or «una caló,» as my brothers from Andalucía say, one might rather dedicate oneself to cooling off with a beer under a palm tree… To paint? Yeah dude, I’ll paint later, but right now, don’t bother me, this landscape is worth more than a thousand blank canvases… 🌴 🍺🌞

GRACIAS – CHEERS

En Miami me empapé de la cultura de Cuba, de la verdadera Cuba, la española, la libre, la prospera, la que construyó un país que en la década de los años 50 tenía una economía igual a la de Italia y muy superior a la española. Un país que tenía una capital, La Habana, que fue considerada entre las cinco ciudades más bellas del mundo…

En Miami los cubanos hicieron todo lo que en Cuba el régimen le negaba a sus súbditos. Progresaron, crecieron, hicieron de un pueblo de campo una megalópolis internacional que hoy es una de las ciudades más grandes de EEUU y un hub internacional para deportes, cultura, política y economía. Eso es Miami…

Pero mi Miami fueron los recuerdos del Colegio Belén de los Jesuitas (claro, todos españoles) y de la buena gente que me hicieron sentir como en casa, o mejor. De criarme en Coral Gables y en Miami Beach, de estudiar, de hacer arte, de casarme, tener hijos, de vivir con aquellos iguales a mí que querían lo mismo, que amaban a su patria pero que sabían que la patria que anhelaban ya no existía…

Por esto, y por mucho mas, digo, junto a Willy Chirino (ese gran orgullo de Miami): “Yo Soy Cubano.”

Neo-expressionist, sculptor and painter… He studied in Düsseldorf, no less than with Joseph Beuys, a German artist from the Fluxus group. Following in Beuys’ footsteps, he began making installations, performances, and happenings, and in the 1970s, he began painting… This German, who has exhibited at the Venice Biennale (1980) and the Paris Biennale (1985), has a good series of paintings in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao since 1990… He was born in Donaueschingen, Germany on March 8, 1945… His works are gigantic, full of elements and thick layers of paint that he applies and removes several times to suggest the passage of time. He initially focused on Germanic themes, but in the 1990s, he began to travel the world and was inspired by more universal themes, although with references to religion, symbolism, mythology, and history. He paints the shadow of spirituality that falls upon the human mind… In 1993, he moved to Barjac (France) near Avignon, where he lives and works, creating new artistic experiences.

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Neo-expresionista, escultor y pintor… Estudio en Düsseldorf nada menos que con Joseph Beuys, artista alemán del grupo Fluxus. Siguiéndole los pasos a Beuys, comenzó haciendo instalaciones, performance y happenings y en la década de los años 70 comenzó a pintar… Este alemán que ha expuesto en las Bienales de Venecia (1980) y de París (1985), tiene una buena serie de cuadros en las colecciones del Museo Guggenheim de Bilbao desde 1990… Nació en Donaueschingen, Alemania el 8 de marzo de 1945… Sus obras son gigantescas y repletas de elementos y gruesas capas de pintura que hace y deshace para insinuar el paso del tiempo. Primero se basó en temas germánicos, pero en los años 90, comenzó a viajar el mundo y se inspiro en temas más universales, aunque con referencias a la religion, a la simbología, la mitología y la historia. Pinta la sombra de la espiritualidad que cae sobre la mente humana… En 1993 se traslada a Barjac (Francia) cerca de Aviñón, donde vive y trabaja creando nuevas experiencias artísticas.

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GRACIAS – CHEERS