Trash. That’s one thing all human beings have in common.  For artist Renata de Andrade it’s the one thing she chooses to make art about and with, on two continents, South America and Europe. More specifically, within Brazil and The Netherlands.  With exhibitions in galleries and museums as well as street interventions in multiple Brazilian cities, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Renata’s art practice takes form in both public and private space.

(Newsface43, 2008, acrylic and latex on cardboard by Renata de Andrade)

Through murals, assemblage, sculpture, graffiti, photographs, two and three dimensional painting, drawing, and installation, garbage is re-configured, re-used, re-purposed and believe it or not, made quite beautiful.  The natural trajectory of trash from public space, where it is purchased as a product, to private consumption, to it’s ultimate voyage back into public space, the trash dump, ends for most of us in a mystery.  However, for Renata, this is where trash becomes a subject of inquiry and her artwork becomes a glaring metaphor for what it means to consume, generate waste and recycle.

(Marp2, 2006, spraypaint, garbage bag filled with plastic bottles by Renata de Andrade)

Renata has exhibited work in galleries and museums including, Museu de Arte Moderna (São Paulo), Museu Victor Meirelles (Florianópolis), Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Ceará (Fortaleza), Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Museu de Arte de Londrina, in Brazil, and Jan Cunen Museum (Oss) and Arti et Amicitiae (Amsterdam), in The Netherlands. To view more of Renata’s work click here.

(Renata de Andrade (left) and Streetpiece01, 2008, cardboard boxes (right))

For more on the trajectory of our consumption and the mystery of garbage when it’s not made into art click here.

South African born artist, Thomas Mulcaire’s 2007 video piece, Study for Solaris, is a sublime visual voyage across planet earth’s southern most continent overlying the South Pole, Antartica. The piece was filmed between Dec 2006 - Feb 2007 onboard the South African research ship SA Agulhas en route from Cape Town to Neumayer Bukta and RSA Bukta, and on surface and air transport in Dronning Maud Land within 200km of SANAE and TROLL bases.  Study for Solaris is stunning in it’s composition and movement and offers a deep meditation on sound, silence, water, land and sky - a stark contrast to the human drama of city life.

Study for Solaris debuted at the Govett-Brewster Museum in Taranaki, New Zealand, in an exhibition called New Nature curated by Rhana Devenport. It’s next screenings will be during the inaugural Johannesburg Art Fair from March 13-16, 2008 and as part of the Arts Unlimited show, which will take place during the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, June 2008. Watch the video!

Study for Solaris is an ITASC production for the International Polar Year.  Email Thomas.

(Gloria, 2008, by MUCK) Installation at the Bronx Museum’s Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community exhibition (see Art + Culture Diaries, below, for details). Who is Gloria?

From 3/2/08 - 8/4/08, Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community will be on view at The Bronx Museum of the Arts.  The exhibition highlights the response of women artists to the Feminist Movement of the 1970’s and their subsequent use of collective artistic production to engage communities and address social issues. “Artist teams and groups have become an increasingly fashionable mode in recent years,” says guest curator critic Carey Lovelace. “Feminist Art laid the groundwork for this, challenging ideas about authorship, particularly the myth of the solo male artist.”  Pictured below is the work of Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz, whose landmark, multi-part event, Three Weeks in May (1977), was at the forefront of the movement against sexual violence. For 2008 work with a graffiti twist, contemporary graffiti artists Toofly, Lady Pink, DONA, and MUCK created an installation, at the entrance to the Museum, that includes paintings of four women activists. Toofly’s portrait is of Elvira Arellano, a Mexican mother and immigrant who was deported, while her son Saul was left in the United States because of his American citizenship. Elvira has since become a voice for immigrant rights. The installation also includes 70+ names of various historical women activists. Toofly told Cultureserve, “It’s a big collaboration. It looks like a graffitied up wall with realistic images and facts about women’s issues and fights throughout the years.” (See the FLAVOR section to view MUCK’s portrait of Gloria Steinem.)

(Three Weeks in May (1977), Performance by Suzanne Lacy, with Leslie Labowitz. Photo courtesy of Lacy/Labowitz) 

Bi-coastal artist Adia Millett has found a new space in which to create that lies somewhere between her signature miniature houses and museum comissioned installations, a garage.  The project, Change, is an ongoing installation that changes every week inside a 10′ x 14′ garage space in Southern California. Designed to house memories, dreams, stage sets and beyond, the installations are meant to push thought outside the box we call “reality”. The works take on a second life on-line where a photographic representation of them accompanied by wordplay by Adia can be viewed by the public. Click here to view Change.

(Garage, 2008 by Adia Millett)

Canary Island born and London based artist Karina Beltran has exhibited work in London, Madrid, Dakar and the Canary Islands.  Pictured below is her work APARICIONES. Launderette., one example of a style that embodies the experience of human reflection and the inevitability solitude.  Her work will be on view at CIRCA Puerto Rico in April 2008 with Galeria Raquel Ponce.  View more here.

(APARICIONES. Launderette., 2006, by Karina Beltran)

Judy C. is at it again.  Ms. Chicago along with her non-profit, Through The Flower, is launching her first juried New Mexico Feminist art show. The exhibition entitled, New Mexico Feminist Art: Feminists under 40, will be on view on-line and at the galleries of Through the Flower and the Belen Hotel in Belen, New Mexico, 3/3/08-5/30/08.  Whether you appreciate Chicago’s aesthetic sensibilities or not, there is no arguing the fact that she compiled a priceless archive of western women’s history in her controversial landmark work of art, The Dinner Party, now housed at The Brooklyn Museum.  Kudos to her for efforts to restore the Divine Feminine to its rightful place in human consciousness!

(Untitled by Anonymous, 2008, by Diana McClure)

Founded by Fernando Afable, Foto Baryo brings the art and pleasure of photography to children in the Philippines. Although raised in the Philippines, it was Afable’s tenure as an employee at the International Center for Photography in New York that provided the backdrop for his growth in knowledge and love of the medium.  During this time, over 10+ years, as he moved from Security Guard to Darkroom Manager, Afable collected discarded books, enlargers, cameras and film, and built a school on his family’s land in Manila. The result of his efforts is Foto Baryo, a venue where cross-cultural and cross-class dialogue thrives and exposes young people to the diversity of planet earth.  The school is heavily involved in outreach to Philippine youth living in Manila, squatter communities, and autistic children.  Images and exhibitions in galleries and public community spaces are produced by the children year-round. Foto Baryo’s most recent work will be exhibited at the Philippine Consulate in New York on June 5th, 2008.

(Fernando Afable, photo courtesy of PhilippineBusiness.com)

What is equally amazing is the fact that all the work has been produced by discarded equipment and expired film!  Read more on Foto Baryo here or for more information contact Cres Yulo or Amor Rodriguez here!  (Special thanks to Lauri Lyons for this post.)