From April 11, 2014 through May 15th, 2014
Aluna Art Foundation is pleased to announce an important exhibition of works by Angel Vapor, one of the premier Cuban artists of his generation, curated by Ricardo Paul Llosa. A distinguished sculptor who has worked in myriad media—cast bronze and steel as well as carved and assembled wood and stone, clay and ceramics—Vapor has also mastered painting, drawing, and various modes of printmaking. Works in these mediums are all on display. The exhibition title, Labor, emphasizes several ambiguities and themes in Vapor’s work: the importance of craft, the focus on the working man (industrial laborer, farmer, soldier, fire-fighter, among others), and the fusion of time-honored techniques in art with the intellectual rigors of conceptualism. The title also evokes the act of giving birth. All of the exacting activities of the human psyche—from the menial to the transcendent (samurai and meditating monks are recurrent themes) share equal status in Vapor’s view of labor as the primary joy, not the burden, of life. Mere intellectual play on aesthetic notions, onerous technical skill and brute toil are not, by themselves, art because they are not Labor—the activity that unifies thought, beauty, discipline, and skill are, thus, the only consistent and trustworthy paths to personal fulfillment.
Throughout, the overriding theme in his work is the same: only through the fusion and intersection of disciplines and activities (falsely assumed to be disparate) can the imagination create original works of art whose meaning and significance may be considered universal.
Vapor was born in Cuba in 1970. A graduate of the San Alejandro Academy and the ENAP (National School of the Visual Arts), both in Havana, Vapor left Cuba for Spain in 1994. In 1999, he emigrated to the United States, living in South Florida for the last 15 years. His previous solo exhibition was curated by Ricardo Pau-Llosa at Miami’s Farside Gallery (2011), who is also the guest curator of Labor. Vapor’s work was highlighted in Pau-Llosa’s article “Four from Miami: McKnight, Sardi, Thiele, and Vapor” in Sculpture Magazine that same year. Vapor’s activity as an artist spans monumental sculpture, ephemeral installation and major construction/remodeling projects of important residences in South Florida.
Opening Reception: Friday, April 11, 2014 from 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Curated By Ricardo Paul Llosa
Aluna Art Foundation
172-b West Flagler Street
Miami, Fl 33130
305.305.6471
[email protected], attn: Willy Castellanos
www.alunaartfoundation.com
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