EXHIBITION

Juggler & OLÉ

Casa Triângulo, 02/08/2014 - 03/15/2014

ABOUT

Casa Triângulo is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Stephen Dean. Reverencing the last Francis Picabia's abstract paintings, Dean fills the gallery spaces with dots and spots of saturated hues. Internationally known for his vibrant large scale videos, Dean has elected one key element of painting: Color, and turned it into a medium of it's own - that also override his works on paper and various installations.

14 works on paper entitled Juggler (2013) spread over the walls in the ground floor gallery. This new series employs of dichroic glass disks -a material that was originally designed by NASA for the visors of its space suits- mounted on brown kraft paper or aluminum black foil. These misleadingly simple compositions of geometric configurations resemble at times masks of an archaic period, at times minimalist expressions of a hidden reality. The almost rectangular works present the spots arranged in combinations of 3, the dichroic glass disks change hue according to both the light and the movements of the viewer, as if they were small windows that connect us with the world of color. Already familiar with the qualities of this material, Stephen Dean explores the possibilities of the technical mean by juxtaposing these complex changing glass patch with everyday packing paper. Thanks to the contrast of materials, the viewer's attention is directly pointed to what looks like a mirage of tones and the gaze is trapped in a hypnotic arte-fact of an unstable quality with just one steady thing left: color. 

On the first floor of the gallery, the celebration of color continues with the video Olé, part of a series of videos entitled Fever (2009–2013). The artist, who always shoots situations that have a strong connection with celebratory rituals, edits images taken at the San Fermines bullfights. The thermal cameras used by the artist are the same ones used by medicine and military; with the rise in anxiety about pandemic as well as terrorism, thermal cameras have made their appearance enabling detection of the presence of fever in bodies. In the age of globalization these cameras are also instruments of war, repression and surveillance, doubtless because they are first and foremost tools for "pushing back spatial borders" and increasing knowledge by "making the invisible visible"; the same tools that allow Stephen Dean to make art–and even abstract art. Under these lenses, the images lose their figurative quality and become moving spots of red, yellow, green and blue, pure artistic material.

Both with the Juggler series and the video Olé, Stephen Dean hints at an otherness of colors that we rarely see on its raw state. 

For More Information

APT ARTISTS ON VIEW

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