1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts)
Washington, DC 20009
on July 22, 2011 had a good turn-out of people. Although I do not know how many pieces sold I think the Boys Be Good Collective is here to stay with another show coming this fall.
I think DC is great need of a Queer based Art Collective that poses questions and opens a dialogue of the gay identity. Considering the size of the queer community, we need it. Despite Washington's quite conservative undertone...there is growing resistance to this conservative leanings with liberal, artistic bent individuals aimed to create change and an open-mind.
Boys Be Good is made up of: Nicholas Abriola, Armando López Bircann, Christopher Cunetto, René Mauricio Medrano, Jason Edward Tucker, and Chris walker. More detail can be found out about each Artist at the Boys Be Good Website: http://www.boysbegood.com/
I got a chance to get some comments post show from two of the artist: Armando López Bircann and René Mauricio Medrano.
Bircann expressed that the inspiration for his work is about exploring the creation of "personal religion through icons that are personal." His medium is video and though video creates moving portraiture. Rather than in a painting where the components are still, video provides a different kind texture along with real-time movement.If you are interested in a Video Portrait, Bircann can be contacted via email at arlobi@hotmail.com.
Bircann goes further to say that his work is about "interrupting day to day life with something magical and real for the individual." The video compositions are "visual responses to emotion there to serve as a focus for feelings and thoughts." The term"Visual Poetry" is used to help create an understanding and context for how the work can be better understood.
The process by which this is all done is by documenting performances that are enhanced by using video. When is making the video portraits he tires to engage the other person.
Here is an example of one of Bircann's works...not a video portrait but a piece that I interpreted as capturing the feeling that going out in the night life offers...using Gaga looped backwards:
cardnial conjure from arlobi on Vimeo.
Some Photos of from the show:
A still of a video portrait done by Bircann:
René Mauricio Medrano was the other artist I manage to get some input on his process and inspiration between his work. Medrano sent me a beautiful breakdown of his work. Here is the directo quotes straight from the mouth of Medrano:
"[explanation of concept] Superficia makes evident the struggle between spaces and the defining power of spaces on prevailing realities. Through this investigation I have been able to develop a fascination for the superficial and its capability to determine certain truths. The reduction of this concept as an investigation of space, reality, judgement, existence, truth and arguably art-making validates the power of superficiality as it becomes the notion that connects each investigative point of interest to one another.
[formal/visual explanation] What Superficia as a piece does to satisfy its originating concept is by existing as both exterior and interior spaces simultaneously. The struggle is made apparent in that both “invisible” and superficial exist harmoniously in a illusionistic instance in time. The projection of this superficial ephemera as vomit makes evident that these objects which determine the makings of visuality have at once point existed internally and invisibly. "
Some Photos of Medrano and His Work:
I have always enjoyed conceptually charged pieces that open up a dialogue and hopefully give some new insight to the audience. I am eager to see what other works Medrano has in store for us.
I really enjoyed Christopher Cunetto's sketches that had a homo-erotic and also fantasy like feel. I asked if there was any influence of perhaps James Bidgood or Pierre Gilles and he said there was.
Here are some photos of his work:
I fell in love with this portrait. I thought it was beautiful...and I noticed a red dot next to it towards the end of the reception.
Jason Edward Tucker exlpored photography with two different sets of work with different themes. The first was a series black & white photographs of models in panty-hose with ballons stuffed in odd shapes. It was interesting to see how Jason was exploring ideas of the body and gender. Tucker goes on to use a quote by Judith Butler to help reflect the concept behind what the photographs are trying to explore:
“Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts with a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being”
To get a better sense of what his process and inspiration here is what Tucker had to say about his work:
"My final project is based around the body and the way we perceive anatomical form. By altering the way in which you view the body, I aim to create abstract shapes and shadows without allowing the viewer to focus on the identity of the model. Using pantyhose to equalize the body, and balloons to distort; I try to remove traces of gender and outward identity. I want the modifications to the body to remain looking organic and natural, yet at the same time causing the viewer to question not only who they are looking at, but also what they are looking at. We live in a culture that is entirely obsessed with body image and gender roles; I hope to reach into the murky disconnect that exists between humans and their bodies and play with the circulating themes and theories involved. If I am able to separate gender identity from a body as a form, I will be able to change the “gaze” of the viewer to focus on the anatomy and shapes created by distorting musculature and pose."
[Discussion of the second series of photos by Jason will be added to this post soon
]
A Photo of Jason Edward Tucker:
[Photos of work coming soon]
Nicholas Abriola explored photography with an interesting context. The intense, gestural, and emotive black white photographs of a male figure were intense to absorb. What I found interesting was the context and inspiration behind them; the process of coming out. I found this to be an interesting way to explore perhaps the harshness and mental strife one can go through in coming out in an unconventional manner. Abriola gave mequite a well-thought explanation of what his work is exploring:
"Untitled' depicts the powerful transformative experience of coming out of the closet. This triptych, focusing on three forms of this process: the body, the mind, and the spirit, is telling of the triumph over struggle and emergence into the light of personal freedom."
"The body is the tangible carrier of transformation; the mind is the machine that is elevated to a new level of consciousness; and the spirit is the essence that is always true.
"It can be said that any personal struggle is processed through these three pillars of our being. Perhaps our many different struggles, whatever they may be, are more similar than we know; although we are changed in different ways, it is the strength and courage to persevere that unites us all."
Photos of Abriola and his work:
Here are some other pictures from the show:
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