A photo tour of Super A (Aka Stefan Thelen) debut solo museum exhibition ‘The Other Way Around’. An absolutely stellar show and a must-see this summer.
‘The Other Way Around’ is on view through August 21 at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California.
Thank you to our friends over at BOOOOOOOM for featuring Cinta Vidal’s ‘Concrete,’ showing now through December 26th at the Lancaster Museum of Art & History.
“Inspired by concrete architecture, Vidal’s latest show, “Concrete,” explores functionalism and elimination of conventionalism and ornamentalism.”
CINTA VIDAL
Concrete
Curated by Thinkspace Projects
On view October 2 – December 26 as part of Structure:
Museum of Art and History (MOAH)
665 W. Lancaster Blvd.
Lancaster, California 93534
Opening Reception:
Saturday, October 2 from 4 to 6 pm
The Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is pleased to announce the opening of Structure, a series of solo exhibitions featuring artists HK Zamani, Kimberly Brooks, Chelsea Dean, Mela M, Matjames Metson, Jim Richard, and Cinta Vidal. Additionally, pieces by Coleen Sterritt from MOAH’s permanent collection will be on display. Structure explores the various ways in which humans organize their mental and physical spaces through art and architecture. Throughout the exhibition, time operates as a unique type of structure, itself — a river flowing from past to present to future — from which these artists draw inspiration.
About Concrete from Cinta Vidal:
Multidisciplinary artist Cinta Vidal illustrates new perceptions of city landscapes by detaching and reimaging the architectural formations that function as the backdrops of life. For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrate the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population. Having grown up with an affinity for drawing, Vidal became an apprentice at Taller de’Escenografia Castells Planas, one of the most prestigious scenography ateliers in Spain and across Europe. There, she learned the trades of scenography, painting large-scale scenes and settings for theatre and opera backdrops. Utilizing this experience, Vidal uses acrylic paint on canvas to create what she describes as her “un-gravity constructions.” She paints each artwork with close attention to detail, fully realizing each structure and the unfolding scenes within. Vidal’s combination of saturation, detail, and balance work together to allow the viewer’s gaze to absorb these various and often intersecting viewpoints.
Cinta Vidal’s architecturally-inspired paintings encapsulate the concrete formations that enclose the day-to-day turbulence experienced at the personal and community level. Too often people are focused on individuality instead of commonality, leaving little room to observe the surrounding hustle and bustle of city-life. Vidal challenges viewers to look beyond the self and broaden their perceptions of the physical and divided structures humans frequently occupy. By depicting individuality within an arrangement of occupied spaces, she captures the conflict between the multifaceted nature in which society experiences the world, internal perceptions of reality, and the inflexible architecture people inhabit. Vidal’s unrelenting yet inverted constructions symbolize the “mental structures” of the individual. Thus Vidal’s unconventional portrayal of metropolitan architecture elevates these self-revolving structures, reminding viewers that they are not alone and to pay closer attention to the many pathways of life existing amidst the masses.
The Lancaster Museum of Art and History is dedicated to strengthening awareness, enhancing accessibility and igniting the appreciation of art, history, and culture in the Antelope Valley through dynamic exhibitions, innovative educational programs, creative community engagement, and a vibrant collection that celebrates the richness of the region. MOAH is open Tuesday – Friday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m. For more information, please visit: www.lancastermoah.org.
Artist Statement:
“Concrete architecture pursues functionalism and the elimination of conventionalism and ornamentation. Durable and versatile, cement protects the fragility of the life that passes through it with hard and rough shapes.
In the uncertain times we have had to live, our refuge has been our home. Astonished, western civilization have discovered its collective vulnerability and revalued the sense of family, neighborhood and community.
The lights that shine from inside the homes are the reflection of everyday life inside each house in contrast to the darkness and uncertainty that is beyond. I love those mysterious moments between day and night, which invite rest and reflection.” – Cinta Vidal
About Cinta Vidal:
Cinta Vidal Agulló (b. 1982) has been drawing since she was a child. She studied at Escola Massana in Barcelona and at 16, she started working as an apprentice in Taller de Escenografia Castells Planas in St. Agnès de Malanyanes where she learned from Josep and Jordi Castells to love scenography and the backdrop trade. She currently lives and works in a studio located above her family’s toy store in Cardedeu, a small town near Barcelona, Spain.
Always pushing her craft forward, Vidal is also an avid muralist with murals in Hong Kong, Atlanta (Georgia), Barcelona (Spain), Vancouver (British Columbia), Kobe (Japan), Valencia (Spain), Calgary (Alberta), Honolulu (Hawaii), Culver City (California) Long Beach (California) and the Napa Valley region of Northern California.
Vidal was also recently commissioned by Facebook to paint their new headquarters in Northern California.
Thinkspace Projects in partnership with MOAH Cedar presents Julio Anaya Cabanding’s ‘Past and Present.’
Julio Anaya Cabanding channels his personal concerns and experiences through his vast knowledge and love for the medium of painting and materializing it through impeccable conceptual and technical ability. ‘Past and Present’ comments on the relentless passage of time, its impact, and the constant change have been explained by classical philosophy through the concepts of the “past”, the “present”, and the “future”. It is their linear interchange that generates the unstoppable stream we all experience as life, an ongoing process which we had a chance to reexamine to great extent in the past year and a half of the global pandemic.
We connected with Julio Anaya Cabanding in anticipation of his museum exhibition at MOAH Cedar to discuss this moment, an art movement he’d like to live in, and a dream collaboration.
What was the most challenging piece in this exhibition, and why?
The sculpture. I didn’t know if it would work, because I had never done anything like it. So it was the last piece I did, if it worked that would go to the exhibition otherwise it would not go, and it worked. I am very happy with the result.
What do you think art historians centuries from now will say about this art movement?
Some would say that we have not invented anything new. Everything we do has its origin in history. The artist uses what exists, changes it, transforms it, exaggerates or minimizes it, decontextualizes or appropriates it. And yes, the result may be something new, but the origin, the seed, is previous.
If you had a time machine and could travel to any point in art history, what movement would you travel to, and who would you want to hang out with?
buf.. I would go to many places. I would love to visit Ancient Greece, Italian Renaissance, Spanish and dutch Baroque, French impressionism, Montmartre in 1900 and go to a party at Andy Warhol’s The Factory in the 60s, for example
What is an obscure fact or something unique about the local culture of where you grew up?
I grew up in a neighborhood in Torremolinos called Bajondillo. If I had to say something, it is a very famous town on the Costa del Sol from the 70s, the first luxury hotel in the world was opened here and it was the main tourist destination of the celebrities of the moment. Lots of parties, sun and beach bars. Today Torremolinos wants to continue living from those times, but that tourism and those times will never return. So we could say that I grew up in that decadence
When did you start working with cardboard? What inspired that choice of medium for your work? Do you have criteria for the cardboard you select?
I use the cardboard depending on the painting that I am going to make. The reason why I use cardboard is because I was making interventions in abandoned places and one day after painting a picture I took the plasterboard with me so later I thought of objects from those places that I could use as a medium and cardboard is one of the most, they abound and I like them a lot because they show the passage of time and deterioration.
What does a day in the studio look like? Do you have any pre-studio rituals that help you tap into a creative flow?
Now I have my study at home. So a normal day would be to get out of bed, do some exercise and stretching, eat breakfast, clean the house and go to the study. In the studio I have to paint with the window closed because otherwise I am distracted. I’m so distracted. And I usually put music on the speakers, lectures or some documentary.
If you could collaborate with any artists (from any artistic medium, i.e, film, music, writing etc.), who would it be? And what would you make?
With many. With film director Paolo Sorrentino or Quentin Tarantino, as singer Jay Z, Method Man … and as many artists. And I couldn’t tell you what I would do. I would have to see and study it
Do you remember the first piece of street art you created? What did you make, and where was the piece located?
Of course. I remember like it was yesterday. It was a painting of Monet’s water lilies and it was in Malaga. It already disappeared, a graffiti artist painted on it
Does having an exhibition at a museum feel different than showing work at a gallery?
Yes, the museum has a historical burden that the gallery does not have and the artist feels greater respect or responsibility when working there. Not in the gallery, the white space allows you to experiment freely, in the museum it is more difficult.
Thank you to LA Weekly for the kind words and featuring the upcoming exhibition ‘The New Vanguard III‘ at MOAH Lancaster in their piece on by-appointment viewing.
“For many years now, L.A.’s Thinkspace Gallery has operated at this intersection across exhibitions, institutions, installations, conventions, and festivals. Likewise, for the past few years, the Lancaster Museum of Art and History has embraced the vibrant, popular appeal of mural-based works and through collaborating with the global phenom of the POW!WOW! mural festivals, brought exciting public art to the Antelope Valley” – LA Weekly
