Marco Hafid Lopez is our featured artist. Depicting everyday vanities and political issues through use of symbols in his work, Lopez simplifies his composition in this collection to represent the literal images that still draw our attention. “We intake information ad nauseam, rapid fire, to the point where we are developing smaller rates of retention. Now everything has transformed into icons. Landmarks of culture.” says Lopez. “Regardless, the undistorted images of tragic beauty make us stop and think.” In this collection, Lopez explores how self destruction manifests in different purposes, highlighting how one’s destruction is used to achieve, while another’s is used for decadence and excess.
Baltazar Castillo’s work focuses on the “is and is not” of imagery and verbiage. The dominant whites and sheers in the collection form the serene and almost religious experience, yet his work has teeth. Each piece was created by meticulously weaving thin strips of canvas to transcribe bodies of text- an excerpt from a 1970’s soft-porn novel titled "The Story of O", for example. The pieces are then placed on a canvas so that they are illegible and covered with sheer cloth to further expel the literal voice of the piece transcribed. The combined aesthetic and concept of this collection captures the state of mind when it first awakes from a dream.
Marilyn Henrion’s work reveals the indigenous soft side of the city, extracting the corporate involvement. Henrion offers a perspective on her hometown, New York City: “Once Gotham’s hard unyielding surfaces are peeled back, the beautiful and complex patina of each facade is illuminated.” Her Ancient needlework techniques are combined with digitally manipulated photography and inkjet printing. The presence of the hand stitching both animates the surfaces of the works and, at the same time, softens and humanizes the urban geometry by the irregular qualities of texture inherent in the materials and construction.
Jean-Noel Chazelle’s work discusses the evolution of time. “We, artists, defend the essence of human beings throughout their journey” says Chazelle. He continues “We do not have sufficient distance to reflect on art today. Observation is done from retrospect. What we do know is that the contemporary art will show future historians how cynical this ‘democratic industrial society’ really is.”
Leo Caillard’s work draws attention to the struggle for power from countries working on building armies that can conquer to herds of animals marking territory. He discusses how power manifests itself into war and then into our daily lives: “War is everywhere. We see it in Newspaper, TV, Video Games, Movie, like a military rain."
