Alquimia

Studio Lenca

“Alquimia”

A show curated by Maria Brito at Finca Cortesin Gallery in Malaga, Spain

Jose Campos’ artistic monicker Studio Lenca pays homage to both his ancestors, the indigenous Lenca or “jaguar people” of his native El Salvador and to a “studio” where he moves across disciplines. Studio Lenca fled his country at the age of five in the 1980s to escape the violent civil war that had claimed more than 80,000 lives in El Salvador.

Crossing the Tijuana border from Mexico to the United States by land with his mom has been one of the most impactful experiences of his life and one that has profoundly influenced the direction of his practice.

Living as an undocumented immigrant in the Mission area of San Francisco afforded Lenca the possibility of a strange freedom: on the one hand, undocumented aliens are nonexistent; on the other hand, being able to move around in a big city without the threats and perils of a civil war felt liberating.

By the time he was 13, Lenca had asked a dance studio in his neighborhood if he could join the lessons for free, which they readily accepted. The freedom of movement and the encouragement from teachers to lean into his identity proved cathartic and alchemical. Something had forever changed in him.

Dance was the door that introduced Lenca to art. He danced on tour in other territories, even as far as England, where he is now established as a British citizen and where he received two art degrees.

For his first solo show in Spain, Campos reflects on the history of Andalucía and the commonalities that tie the region with his origins.

The word “Alquimia” (or “Alchemy” in English), comes from the Arabic Alkimia. The al- is the Arabic definite article, “the” and kimya meant the search for the philosopher's stone or the elixir of life. This concept entered Europe via Arabic Spain, which is where Finca Cortesin Gallery is located.

Alchemy was the “chemistry” of the Middle Ages and early modern times, involving both occult and natural philosophy as well as practical chemistry and metallurgy. After the 1600s, “Alquimia” became the pursuit of the transmutation of baser metals into gold and the search for the universal solvent and the panacea.

Like this alchemical transmutation, the figures represented in Lenca’s work are thriving in a difficult situation, trying to make something out of nothing. Much in the same way that Lenca has conducted his life and artistic practice.

In Studio Lenca’s paintings for this exhibition, the figures are dressed in saturated colors that remind us of the hues of the South of Spain, always sporting hats and claiming space and attention. They must be seen. They are either running or staring back at you with confidence. The patterns are alive and in motion, they connect us in our humanity and are inspired by the Hispano-Moresque wares introduced by the Spanish Moors around the year 711.

Emerging victorious from a precarious situation has been Studio Lenca’s alchemical superpower, which is imbued in his work. Hope, resilience, and joy are present for all of us to reflect upon and transcend.

XXI

XXI

Maria Brito curated XXI, a retrospective commemorating the the 40th anniversary of Enriquillo Amiama’s career, presenting 73 paintings organized in a thematic way at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from June to October 2022.

As a consummate communicator, voracious student of art history and sharp observant of current events, the perspective of Enriquillo Amiama stands on both the universal and the local, which he mingles seamlessly in his work.

In his practice, which started in 1982 with a postmodernist approach that is anti-hierarchical by nature, Amiama moves with ease from abstraction, to still lifes, to landscapes, to figuration, refusing to be boxed in any single definition.

Often mixing different styles and media, he has created his own tropical pictorial language and blended it with a range of genres from the past and the present.

Obsessive with composition and technique, it’s possible to find paintings in Amiama’s body of work that combine the use of letters, words and graphic elements with hyperrealism and abstract shapes.

Being one of the most celebrated and prolific contemporary Dominican artists, Amiama has captured the essence of the Caribbean and unapologetically fused it with pop art.

The evolution of his work from the geometric forms of 1980s to the social media inspired paintings of the present, shows his insatiable curiosity for the world around him and his willingness to explore it with rigor in composition and elasticity in subject matters.

The project was featured in:

The Art Newspaper

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Muse

Maria Brito conceived and curated “Muse”, Shona McAndrew ‘s first solo show in New York City, presented at CHART Gallery in Tribeca from September 6 to November 2, 2019.

The artist created 9 new paintings and 5 new sculptures based on the idea of women as muses and owning their surroundings physically, mentally and emotionally.  McAndrew used the canvas to convey freedom for women to own their private spaces and extend them beyond conventional norms of what they are supposed to or not supposed to do in domestic realms. When are women able to be honest with themselves, and what do they do when they are? 

In this body of work, McAndrew investigated art history references rooted in paintings from Neoclassicist, Romanticist and Orientalist French male artists from the mid-1800s. Physically recreating the postures the women in those paintings hold, she then photographs herself naked and creates a digital collage, thus reappropriating a sexist and male-gaze driven period in art history. The “nudes” of herself are then sent to her muses, whom the artist asks to send back their own versions. Through this, McAndrew is exercising her own feminist approach to the “send me your nude” stereotype most women encounter today. 

Each painting re-enacted well-known stances or incorporates scenes taken from historical paintings.  For example, in Daniela, the model is portrayed in the same pose as Ingres’s “La Grande Odalisque” (1814). However, instead of an elongated body reclined on a sumptuous velvet chaise, a curvaceous woman is resting on a bed on top of a pile of colorful pattern-on-pattern laundry, sporting a couple of tattoos including one of “Ghost World,” Daniel Clowes’s cult classic graphic novel.  

Tied to the idea of women’s personal spaces, harems are a constant explored by the artist in this body of work.  The etymology of the word “harem” derives from the Arabic root ḥaram, ḥarīm, which literally means “prohibited place” “sanctuary” and “women's quarters”.  Under the Byzantine Empire, Ancient Greece and Persia, harems served as private spaces for women of the upper classes with the purpose of keeping them protected and secluded so they could tend to the needs of one another without having to resort to men.  However, a very different image of the harem emerged in the 17th century when Europeans found out that Muslim cultures housed women in private quarters. 

Through hearsay and imagination, male artists depicted opulent interiors with voluptuous odalisques, mistresses and female slaves.  Hence the pose adopted by McAndrew, which is reinterpreted by artist Cheyenne Julienne in Cheyenne and the reproduction of a detail of the painting on the background, both of which replicate the scene in French Orientalist artist Jean-Léon Gérôme’s  “The Stork in the Harem Bathhouse” (1889). McAndrew adds “I like the idea of these women not realizing that they are just as beautiful or worthy of art history as the women painted in the reference pictures. Casually enacting these historical poses in a domestic space.” 

The papier-mâché sculptures, for which the artist is known, comprise a group of 5 women in different poses, all of them of different body shapes and ethnicities with their flesh partially exposed, granting the works a quality of both vulnerability and strength. They force viewers into a physical confrontation that painting cannot accomplish.  Rather than seeing women from a more voyeuristic vantage point, the viewer must deal with them in real space, even when they are doll-size. Though the sculptures are created from the artist’s imagination, they are inspired by and named for real women who have greatly influenced McAndrew. As with the paintings, McAndrew is offering the viewer a glimpse into the spaces and moments where women are truly engaged with themselves on their own terms, not societal ones. 

Additionally, the poses are drawn anywhere from art history, like Lyza who is represented in the same form as Bernini’s twisting figures, or from the artist’s own experience of trying to cool off on a particularly hot and sweaty day. McAndrew is inviting the audience to move around and discover the sculptures from multiple perspectives, some flattering and some not. The goal is to represent women from not just from their best angle, but in their entire complexity.

The Thousand and One Nights

Allison Zuckerman for The One Thousand One Nights at Artual Gallery in Beirut, Labanon.

“The Thousand and One Nights” was the inaugural show of Artual Gallery, the first of its kind in Beirut.  Conceived and curated by Maria Brito, the exhibition is comprised of seven American contemporary artists who will make their own interpretations of the famed “The Thousand and One Nights” collection of Middle Eastern folk tales. The show opened on March 15, 2019 and ran until May 1, 2019

The seven artists in “The Thousand and One Nights” exhibition were: Rosson Crow; Allison Zuckerman; Holly Coulis; Jamea Richmond-Edwards; Jonathan Chapline; Monica Kim Garza and Canyon Castator.

Dating to the early 9th century, “The Thousand and One Nights” (sometimes referred to as “Arabian Nights” or “The Nights”) is one of the most important and relevant pieces of literature of the Middle East. It follows the brilliant Scheherazade, who volunteers to marry King Shahryār, despite his pattern of killing his wives in retaliation against his old wife’s unfaithfulness. Scheherazade tells the king a story each night for 1001 nights until the king has a change of heart. Some of the tales commonly associated with “The Nights” are “Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “The Magic Carpet” and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”.

The stories have become important cultural touchstones in the Middle East, and Scheherazade is also a symbol of female strength, freedom of speech, creativity and eloquence that continues to be relevant today. Each artist in the exhibition will be creating all-new works inspired by these stories, giving their own interpretation on their relevance and meaning.  

Throughout art history, several important painters have created works based on “The Nights,” including Eugene Delacroix, Rene Magritte, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Emile Bernard, Ferdinand Keller and Edouard Frederic Wilhelm Richter.

“Beirut is one of the oldest cities in the world with a tumultuous history, having been a part of the Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, and under French mandate following World War I until it became independent and the capital of Lebanon in 1943, yet despite this, Beirut has remained an intellectual and cultural center in the Middle East.  In most recent years, the literature and other contributions of the Middle East to the Western Worlds have been obscured and forgotten. “The Thousand and One Nights” is Maria Brito’s attempt to begin an intercultural dialogue that show otherwise.

This project was featured in:

Vogue Italia

Artnet

Libne News

The Arab Weekly

The Daily Star

Greek Gotham

Greek Gotham

“Greek Gotham” was the first show ever to have happened in Greece comprised solely of New York-based artists. Conceived and curated by Maria Brito, “Greek Gotham” opened in the summer of 2016 at Dio Horia on the island of Mykonos and ran for five weeks. Dio Horia is a contemporary art gallery dedicated to the exploration of the dialogue between contemporary art and culture in Greece and around world. Maria Brito took over 4,000 square feet comprising the entire building of Dio Horia and presenting more than 45 artworks created by 16 of the most relevant emerging and mid-career New York-based artists including: Assume vivid astro focus, Nina Chanel Abney, Greg Bogin, Mira Dancy, Raul De Nieves, Michael Dotson, Sebastian Errazuriz, Nir Hod, Todd James, Misaki Kawai, KAWS, Robert Lazzarini, Austin Lee, Taylor McKimens, Matthew Palladino and Erik Parker. Mira Dancy and Austin Lee created site-specific murals for the show.

The exhibition drew parallels between the Ancient and Classical Greek Civilization and New York City as it is today. Greece constituted the cradle of Western Civilization and became the most important center for art, architecture, philosophy, literature, theater, music and many other disciplines whose enormous influence continues to be relevant 2,500 years after its decline. New York, as of today, enjoys a rare and privileged position as one of the most influential and culture-centric capitals in the world. The show was accompanied by a lush, full-color book written and designed by Maria Brito with an introduction by Jeffrey Deitch.

This project was featured in:
The New York Times “T” Style Magazine
L’Officiel
The Observer
The Economist
Goop
Yatzer
W Magazine