Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art, Coleccion Mercantil
February 22 – May 21, 2005
Americas Society
680 Park Ave @ 68th St
New York, NY
T 212-249-8950
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat, 12:00-6:00 PM
Free Admission
Alexander Apostol, Juan Araujo, Carla Arocha, Emilia Azcarate, Aziz + Cucher, Mariana Bunimov, Sigfredo Chacon, Eugenio Espinoza, Jose Gabriel Fernandez, Magdalena Fernandez, Hector Fuenmayor, Alexander Gerdel, Ali Gonzalez, Jose Antonio Hernandez Diez, Arturo Herrera, Juan Iribarren, Diana Lopez, Luis Molina-Pantin, Roberto Obregon, David Palacios, Alfredo Ramirez, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Luis Romero, Javier Tellez, Meyer Vaisman, Sandra Vivas, Alfred Wenemoser, Julia Zurilla
The Americas Society announces the February 22 opening of Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art, Coleccion Mercantil. This exhibit features twenty-eight Venezuelan artists, including Arturo Herrera, Jose Antonio Hernandez-Diez, Javier Tellez, Carla Arocha, and several U.S. debuts. These works are drawn from the contemporary art section in Banco Mercantil’s extensive art collection in Caracas, Venezuela.
The concept of the exhibit draws on Jean Luc Godard’s use of the jump cut, a cinematographic term that refers to the editing of film shots causing a disjunctive and visible break in the film’s continuity, camera position, or time. The work of Venezuelan artists in this exhibit highlights dialogues with the past and present reflecting a break from Kinetic Art, and the idea of modernity as a concept in crisis. Thematic groupings within the exhibition are: Art-Thought, Necrophilia, The Modern Vernacular, and From the Object to its Representation. These are the jump cuts in the history of Venezuela’s visual art from the 1970s to the present.
Jump Cuts is organized by the Banco Mercantil and the Americas Society. It is curated by Tahia Rivero, Curator of the Coleccion Mercantil; Jesus Fuenmayor, Independent Curator; and Lorena Gonzalez I., Colección Mercantil, jointly with Gabriela Rangel, Director of Visual Arts, Americas Society.
A public reception will be held on February 24 in the Americas Society Gallery at 7:00 PM. A panel discussion related to the exhibition will be held at the Americas Society on April 19 at 7:00 PM. The panel discussion will be followed by activities and performances celebrating Venezuelan culture.
Jump Cuts represents the latest project in the Americas Society’s ongoing mission to promote understanding of the social, political, economic, and cultural issues that define and challenge the Americas today. The exhibit inaugurates the Americas Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations and runs through May 21st, 2005.
For further information, contact Angela Herren at aherren@as-coa.org).
