Art Madrid'23 – BRUCE CONNER THE MIRROR OF SOCIETY

Bomhead,1989

 

 

Bruce Conner (1933-2008) was an American artist, notable for the use of techniques such as Found footage (narrative technique used in horror films and false documentaries) and assembly. Pioneer in the realization of experimental cinema, Conner also stands out for the realization of other techniques like the drawing, the painting or the sculpture, without forgetting the photography or the collage.

 

 

Child, 1959

 

 

In addition to a track record that supports him, Conner was one of the motivators of the music video genre. He also stands out as a reference for the underground scene of the 50s and 60s. This exhibition presents, over 250 works spanning 50 years of his career. His work begins in the Californian artistic scene, refers to the culture of consumption, to terror before the nuclear apocalypse and to the fears of American society of his generation.

 

 

 Couch, 1963

 

 

One of its main characteristics is the adaptation of different techniques to his personal style, hybrid pieces alternate painting and sculpture, cinema and performance or drawing and engraving. Early in his career, he began with the reuse of objects for the creation of facilities, these achieved great recognition from the beginning. Do not forget your films, which pioneered many new techniques such as the incorporation of 16 mm film.

 

 

PORTRAIT OF ALLEN GINSBERG, 1960. Wood

 

 

Conner is an artist who knew how to capture the essence of the work to such an extent that today they can be considered contemporary. His political messages, approach him to denounce social problems such as violence in American culture or the assimilation of the female body, as an object of consumption. Curated by Rudolf Frieling, curator of Multimedia Art and Gary Garrels, senior curator Elise S. Haas of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. You can enjoy this experience until May 22nd.

 

 

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.