From Oct 3rd, 2009 through Feb 21st, 2010
Chicago- based artist Dzine (b. Carlos Rolon, 1970) appropriates elements from popular culture, Baroque design, and the Arts and Crafts movement, to develop his own language, which translates into sculpture, painting and large-scale installation. Drawing in large part from Chicano lowrider culture and his own Puerto Rican background, Dzine creates ornate handmade lowrider bikes and plaques to explore the relationship between culture and beauty, the studio and the street and the cross section of high and lowbrow forms of creating art.
His paintings and installations highlight materials and textures he favors such as neon, Swarovski crystals, and 24-carat gold. His sculptural works employ tropes of Chicano “kustom kulture,” a form of vernacular art developed in the 1970s by Mexican Americans, which Dzine reinterprets to develop his own ornate lowrider bikes, cars, plaques, and boats, resulting in some of the most definitive masterworks of the genre. He continues to introduce a fresh new language that is finding its place in our contemporary art discourse.
Bass Museum Executive Director Silvia Karman Cubiñá states “Dzine’s work blends extreme aesthetics: 70s retro chic, culture kitsch and modern design, while executed with the precious craft found in medieval illumination or Tibetan mandalas.”
For his exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art, Dzine will present a new custom lowrider tricycle inspired by the concept of “Ghost Bike” memorials. Installed in the entryway of the museum, will be a unique custom sculptural form of light and audio in the shape of a classic chandelier. The audio elements of this piece are prepared just as they would be for a typical car system, but re-contextualised in an unlikely pairing with the decorative light object. In addition, a hand- painted installation in the Bass Museum Café will allow visitors a remarkable perspective of the artist’s painting practice.
Dzine is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation award for Painting and Sculpture. His work has been included in exhibitions and in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Collection Vanmoerkerke, Oostende, Belgium; Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev; Museo del Barrio, NY and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan. He has participated in residencies at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom and Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao Centre For Contemporary Art. In 2007 Deitch Projects, NY presented Barrio Dreams, introducing the new sculptural work influenced by the Chicano lowrider culture at Art Basel Miami Beach. This followed the success of his presentation at Poem of an Inland Sea, Ukrainian Pavilion, 52nd Biennale di Venezia. His customized powerboat, La Perla, was exhibited in his first solo show in New York in the fall of 2008 at Deitch Studios in Long Island City.
Bass Museum of Art |
2121 Park Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139
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www.bassmuseum.org
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