ANGEL OTERO The Dangerous Ability To Fascinate Other People
September 9th to November 12th, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, September 9th 5-8pm
Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago is proud to present The Dangerous Ability To Fascinate Other People, the second gallery solo exhibition of paintings by New York based artist Angel Otero. While much of Otero's works have been influenced by memories based in photographs and other family memorabilia combined with the gestures of 20th century painting, this latest exhibition highlights the artist's unique process as a form of narrative in itself. Otero's 'deformation' approach to painting his works, first across glass and then once dry, flaying the dried paint and reconstructing the composition anew across large canvasses, is representative of how the artist perceives the process of reconfiguring both personal and historical narratives. While one might identify nods to historical painters like El Greco or Van Dyck, one just as easily can recognize in Otero's work the urgency found in Gerhard Richter or Baselitz - artists whose use of personal subject matter was an initial means to creating a dialogue about painting as a process. Otero's work is always negotiating between the individual and art history.
Angel Otero was born in 1981, in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include El Museo's Sixth Bienal at El Museo del Barrio; Memento, a solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery New York; Misericordia at Prism Gallery Los Angeles; Chicago Cultural Center and Constellations at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Otero is also the recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Visual Arts.
Gallery 2 NATHANIEL DONNETT Holla If You Hear Me; The Vibrational Theory
September 9th to November 12th 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, September 9th 5-8pm
Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago is proud to present Holla If You Hear Me; The Vibrational Theory, the first gallery exhibition of Houston-based artist Nathaniel Donnett. Exploring how music and technology has historically been used as a tool of empowerment, Donnett's installation begs the question of what is the relationship between the accumulation and distribution of power and the creation of individual and group identity. Drawing from his own experiences as well as the recorded experiences of historical figures like Emmett Till, Donnett's work underlines how silence corresponds to oppression and how the platitude of 'having a voice' may be the only real political action.
Nathaniel Donnett lives and works in Houston, Texas. He attended Texas Southern University in Houston. Recent exhibitions include Paper or Plastic?, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York; College of Mainland, Mainland Gallery, Texas; Messin' with Texas at the Hyde park Art Center, Chicago and Black Plastic and tha Paper Bag Kids in tha Soulecistic Playground, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston. Donnett received the Artadia Grant in 2010.
For further information and/or images, please contact the gallery at 312.432.0708 or [email protected]
