BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS 2015
Denver Biennial focus on Now

Denver has been trying to put itself on the map through art and culture, and one path has been the creation of the Biennial of the Americas. The third edition of the biennial (June 14–August 30) was launched with the opening of a main art exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and a popup at a nearby “pavilion” space in downtown—that’s a pretty happening place these days with lots of new postmodern-style apartments shooting up from the sidewalk and the trendy eateries to go with them. “Now? NOW!” was the theme this year—a broadly defined theme that seemed to include Now artists, Now technology, Now issues, but with some Then issues as well.

Biennial Artistic Director Lauren Wright spent some time traveling since her appointment to the post last year. She looked for work “that engaged us in a conversation about the present, rather than telling us,” she says. She also sought a dispersed spectrum of geo-graphy, themes and media. Wright is to be commended for coming up with a refreshing complement of artists although, as always in a large group show, a few choices were especially strong—and some forgettable. (The Biennial also includes site-specific installations, as well as performances and symposia.)

One of my favorite pieces was an evocation of Then—Mariana Castillo Deball’s “Vista de Ojos,” based on a 1550 map of Mexico City, her hometown. The art installation is made with line drawings routed on over 100 black tiles laid on the floor. It fills up an entire gallery, and one explores the landscape by walking and looking, a process that makes the work especially engaging. Castillo Deball, now based in Berlin, is an artist who likes ruminating on artifacts and historical exploration. The map today is in a Swedish university library (don’t ask why) and was made 30 years after the Spanish conquest. Its naïve style is both charming and chilling—already many Catholic churches dot the town, showing how conquest was swift indeed.

So on to the Now! I found Zach Blas’ video Facial Weaponization Communiqué: Fag Face fascinating and hilarious. It is a quasi-documentary and a how-to about how far facial recognition technology has gone, and what we can do to subvert it. He has made “fag face” masks where noses and mouths are not where they should be, and these totally flummox the computers—real 3D examples hang on the wall next to the video. Also Now! were a series of Karl Haendel drawings in special frames, strategically placed in nooks and corners around the museum—each depicted a person fixated on their smartphones. Oh, very Now! indeed.
The show-stopper was in its own room, a work which used very Now! Technology—devices sensitive to lights, sounds, even wind—to create a work of art which transcends hardware. In “Unclaimed,” the center of the room is dominated by a 3D model of a city, a city made of translucent buildings that have been made with computer printers. A domed building sits in the middle of this scape, so it is sort of but not quite Denver. Sound and motion—one can blow across the piece—activates pulsations of light and also sends an overhead plastic canopy aloft, via some 200 small fans. The lights play across the city like clouds, and one gets a decidedly Godlike kick from making it all go. This complex and extraordinarily beautiful piece was created by artists Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman, who both teach new media at Denver University. “It’s very physical,” said Mehran during the preview. “It’s not all about the marvels of technology though the technology is dense; it’s about how you feel in the space.”

Gallery Moves
Goodbye POST, Hello Maccarone

Okay, POST/PØST is finally closed. Closed, closed, closed! Founded in 1995, POST as a gallery pioneered industrial downtown LA, with lots of young artists and experimental works. Habib Kheradyar (now HK Zamani) set up the artist-run space, then closed it 10 years later to concentrate on his own art career. But he couldn’t stay away, and reopened in 2008, now calling it PØST. Over the years, there were marathon exhibitions made up of a month of one-day shows, called “Kamikaze” shows. I spoke to one artist at one of these openings, and he looked understandably dazed and sleep-deprived. He admitted, “I’m not sure it was worth it, but it’s up.” The 20th-anniversary show of POST/ PØST will be a virtual one—only online.

Meanwhile, into that area this year, somewhat south of the Art District, where fairly new residents CB1 and Rosamund Felsen opened on Santa Fe Avenue, this fall on Sept. 19, New York gallery Maccarone opens a new space on the Left Coast—at 300 S. Mission, featuring the work of Alex Hubbard. The 1926 industrial building is being redesigned by Jeffrey Allsbrook and Silvia Kuhle of the LA firm Standard—with 50,000 square feet, including a 15,000-square-foot lot for outdoor sculpture. Hey, that’s the day before The Broad opens on Grand Avenue, so good timing.

Yes! The Broad opens Sept. 20! Those of us who frequent downtown have seen this amazing, honeycombed cube rise out of a parking lot. And yes, while admission will be free, it will certainly be mobbed for awhile. They’re working on setting up an online reservation system, so check their website in August.

In Memoriam
Robert Quijada
(1935–2015)

Robert Quijada was 80 years old when he took his own life on June 29. He had sustained an injury and could no longer dance like he used to, a passion he enjoyed throughout his life. He also suffered from depression and from the privations of a low fixed income.

Known around the Los Angeles art world as the guy who could out-dance anyone, regardless of age, Quijada frequented the runway in fine form at the annual fashion shows at the Tropico de Nopal near downtown Los Angeles. His love for detail-oriented art made his Day-of-the-Dead altars famous for their celebratory approach to the afterlife.

Robert Quijada, 2009

Robert grew up in Orcasitas, a Latino neighborhood in North Hollywood. After high school he studied at Otis Art Institute and Chouinard, where he was classmates with Joe Goode and Ed Ruscha. Upon graduation he moved to New York, where he lived and worked as an artist for 25 years, exhibiting his work at Ericson gallery, among others. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, Mexico, Latin America and Asia, his travels reflected in his work. In the 1980s he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, then San Diego, and returned to Los Angeles.

Robert’s art was his life. He had careers both in commercial and fine art. His meticulous artwork and exhibitions were reviewed in many publications including The New York Times, Diario de Ibiza, The Christian Science Monitor, La Opinion and Artillery. His fine art was primarily in painting and mixed media. In his later years he combined decorative and figurative elements of textile design with fundamentals of fine art. He saw his final works as “illustrated folk art,” doing what he desired toward the end of his life; he stepped away from the highly competitive and monetized art world of today. The youngest of 10 children, Robert is survived by his sister, Stella Duarte, and brother, John Quijada, and many nephews, nieces and cousins. His family will forever remember “Uncle Bobby” for his incredible love of life, always dancing, laughing and creating.

—CR