News/Events/Photos

May shows at Projects Gallery

Projects Gallery is pleased to announce two very different and exciting shows for the month of May. In the front gallery and lower level will be "Aqui Estamos" a group show of contemporary Cuban art curated by F. Lennox Campello. Projects space will display Caleb Weintraub's second solo show at the gallery "Things that may or may not go on in the dark, in the night"; a new series of mid-sized oil paintings continuing his ongoing narrative.

AQUÍ ESTAMOS (HERE WE ARE): CONTEMPORARY CUBAN ART

Although the work of contemporary Cuban artists has been recognized by many important museums and curators around the world, as a result of the decades-long Cuban embargo, it often remains a mystery to most Americans. Curated by F. Lennox Campello, Aquí Estamos brings to Projects Gallery and Philadelphia recent work by several important artists working out of Havana, as well as Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora. In this traveling exhibition, Campello presents narratives and imagery ranging from historical dissidence to the stark issues of contemporary Cuban life, offering a glimpse into an island nation with a powerful world presence in the arts and the events of world history.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons escaped from Cuba in the early 1990’s and had a solo exhibition at MoMA before she was 30. Recently the subject of a retrospective at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, she uses her image and body to deliver powerful biographical and observational elements of the realities of being a black Cuban woman in America; torn between her love for her new home, her angst over her lost Cuban homeland and her dreams of her African roots.

Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado) is also considered by many to be among the leading Cuban artists in the world, with work that explores migrations, the sadness of living and the reality of an island nation with major international issues. This will be his initial debut in Philadelphia.
   
Both Cirenaica Moreira and Marta Maria Perez Bravo employ their bodies as canvas for their photographs, although each with a different goal. Moreira has been called “woman as vagina dentata” for the ferocity of her depiction of themes of loss of freedom, feminism, and being a Cuban woman. Perez Bravo is considered by many to be the pre-eminent Cuban female photographer in the world; and her work addresses the fabulous rituals and images of Santeria, the unique Cuban mixture of Catholicism and African religions brought to the island by African slaves.

Sandra Ramos explores themes such as racism in her homeland, the physical and intellectual drain caused by mass migration and other austere realities of daily Cuban life. Other artists in the show include work by Roberto Acosta Wong, a former member of the acclaimed San Alejandro Art Academy in Havana and Aimeé Garcia Marrero, a young Cuban painter and digital artist considered by many to be the new leader of her generation. Additionally, the show will include Several Cuban artists represented by Projects Gallery:  Alejandro Mendoza, known for his cruciform sculpture, Alex Queral, who carves individuals from phone books, Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios presents paintings based in the sensuality of form, and Ramon Williams, who creates mixed media digital prints.

Aqui Estamos will be on display May 1- 30, 2009. There will also be an artist reception First Friday May 1st from 6 - 9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Curator F. Lennox Campello will also give an artist’s talk Friday May 22nd at 6:30 pm to expand on the issue of Cuban art and answer questions. The engagement is also free and open to the public.

PHOTO: Cirenaica Moreira, "La Libertad es una palabra enorme" (Freedom is a huge word), Gelatin Silver Print

Caleb Weintraub Wows Again at Projects Gallery - May 1 - 30, 2009

Projects Gallery is excited to announce the second solo show by artist Caleb Weintraub “Things that may or may not go on in the dark, in the night”. Showcasing a whole new body of mid-sized oil paintings, these works are the latest in the artist’s ongoing mythology and social commentary.  Weintraub presents images of mysterious, barren, tree-littered landscapes with patchy ground cover, revealing an underground of vibrant streaks of color, atop which the children enact secret ceremonies. Featuring the enigmatic motif of owls with paint-chip wings, their presence is the new focus of this chapter of the ongoing story.

Weintraub is an exceptionally gifted artist who also provides a unique visual experience in his fully realized alternative world.  The constantly progressing narrative in Weintraub’s art is one of the most arresting elements of his oeuvre. In this envisioned reality, children have rebelled against the permissiveness of their supposed protectors. The first of these paintings were shockingly graphic and violent. They evolved into more oblique sublimation of adults through ridiculous uniform and theater and the cult of children in masks and sumptuous costume. Once suitably chastened, the child subjects began constructing a fantasy world and battling a new enemy - paint itself. Wrestling and mutilating gobs of paint salvaged from the artist’s palate, the children turned from attacking their world to destroying the medium used to create the environment. In the current body of work, these children have shed the anonymity of paper masks and appear linked with a new totem, the owl. The meaning of this icon and whether they desire to raise it up or destroy it remains a mystery to be pondered by the viewer. Although, as the artist himself has stated, “in any case, the children in my paintings are not actually children. They've always represented more the future than actual beings.”

A prolific worker, the artist has mounted over 10 solo shows in the last four years, with work that appeals to knowledgeable collectors and amateur art lovers alike. He has been the recipient of dozens of awards, including a New Perspectives Grant. A MFA graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Weintraub is currently Professor of Painting and Drawing at The Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. He is the father of three boys all under the age of four.

"Things that may or may not go on in the dark, in the night" will be on display May 1 - 30, 2009. There will also be an artist reception First Friday May 1st from 6 - 9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

PHOTO: Caleb Weintraub, "Things that may or may not go on in the dark, in the night", oil and acrylic on canvas, 35"H x 36"W

Projects Gallery is located at 629 N. 2nd St. in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties section. Gallery hours are Wednesday & Thursday 4 -7 p.m. and Friday & Saturday noon to 7 p.m.  A preview of works may be viewed on the gallery’s website at www.projectsgallery.com. For more information and images, please contact Projects Gallery at 267-303-9652 or info@projectsgallery.com.