Artists
United States of America
Joseph Kaplan
Ties
06.08.12 17.08.12
Joseph Kaplan is an artist that from an early age was linked to the work in laundries, as his family did for generations. In this way his background with laundry work is what inspires his work as an artist. The clothing industry is no stranger to him and in the new series of works he carried out at ´ace, he brings together this two activities.
Taking the shapes and colors from the clothing, Joseph creates a universe where the tie, in this case, becomes the symbol of a discourse on relationships and ties; about the bodies and the links that are generated between them.
ARTIST’S TESTIMONY
Ties is a series of monotypes on medium-sized paper, which were created from the use of ties as matrices.
I have been working with objects related to the laundry industry for many years as that is my daily environment and a point of inspiration. From a familiar and simple object my intention is to generate complex images in their construction through an engraving technique, the monotype, creating a spontaneous and visual tension.
The monotype allows me the freedom to play with different strokes and layers of visual information to achieve my goal.
BIO
Joseph Kaplan
1967 | Paterson. New Jersey, USA.
Lives in Bogotá, Colombia.
STUDIES
1987 | Fine Arts at the University of Miami. Miami, USA.
1988 | Studio Art Center International. Florence, Italy.
Modern Art Seminar. Oxford Polytechnic. Holland / Germany.
1990 | Bachelor of Painting. Maryland Institute College of Art. Baltimore, USA. Extension in Painting, Universidad de los Andes. Santa Fe de Bogota. Colombia.
1996 | Master of Arts. Hunter College. New York, USA.
EXHIBITIONS
2012 | Iron Figure, Synchrony Art Fair. Bogota Colombia.
2007 | Over Shirts Classic Laundry. Bogota Colombia.
2003 | Superior Academy of Arts of Bogotá. Colombia.
2001 | Italian Institute of Culture Bogotá. Colombia.
2000 | Parent Association Gallery University of Maryland, Washington, USA.
Related Activities
Exhibitions
Retazos (Patchwork)
Joseph Kaplan
20.05.15 08.08.15
Joseph Kaplan is an interesting and original artist – born in the United States and lives in Colombia – who has completed a residency at Proyecto ‘ace in the year 2012. During is second time in the residency program, we have been able to exhibit Retazos (Patchwork), a polyptych made in mixed media on paper. The work was exhibited during Memories, the ´aceNITE that took place on May the 20th. His work was displayed until August the 8th.
ABOUT THE ARTIST’S WORK
“There are many artists who have explored the symbolic burden of clothing, but few of them have had a relationship as close as it is the case of Joseph Kaplan, whom for a huge part of his life has combined the work carried out by artists with the profession that his family has carried for generations with the industrial processes of clothing. It is through this duality filtered by the artist’s sensitivity that Kaplan exercises to deprive it of its use to turn it into a series of compositions of lines and colors.
Clothing in itself, made of fabrics with abstract motifs, is a universe of shapes that adapt to our personality and to the way we identify ourselves with them through intuitive aspects such as our affinity with color, with size, its silhouette, the temperature and the sensation to the skin. They are an extension of the way our brain wants to project us or the way it is assumed to be. More malleable than our own body, clothing manifests itself as other skin that portrays the colors of the soul in its most natural and undeniable superficiality. Therefore, by dispensing with its function, Kaplan turns the garments into abstract compositions that in turn are very human portraits (…).
Kaplan, as a draftsman and engraver, has explored numerous experimental processes to fix his images, some of which resemble the processes of industrial washing of clothes (pressure, temperature, drying) and the very elaboration of the garment and its matrices. That would explain the duality of Kaplan that seems to represent himself autobiographically in his work: the artist who uses a family tradition in order to construct an image and fluctuates between the intimate and the impersonal.
Christian Padilla
Historian and art critic
National Award for Colombian Art History Essay 2007.
Related artists
´aceNITE, Exhibitions
Despojamiento
Shin-Nicholson
22.07.15
We wanted to thank the public, colleagues and friends who attended Despojamiento, the ´aceNITE that took place in July. During this event we were able to exhibit the work that artists Hye Young Shi (South Korea) and Anna Nicholson (Puerto Rico) produced during their June-July residences.
In the Poliglota Room, the Young Shin Hye’s work seeked to create spaces in order to share experiences with the public. Blessing is an installation of large-scale drawings that was entirely produced while he completed his residency in ´ace. He reflected on the experience of disease. The installation consisted of 4 pieces of 6 meters each, which reflected different psychological stages of human beings when confronted with different diseases. Graphite drawings on Mylar paper (having some transparency) are highly expressive while are embodied with exquisite technical quality.
Anna Nicholson, an artist who works with expertise with all of the printmaking techniques, in In Icarus’ Skin, she recreated the myth of Icarus. Where his wings were melted by the sun when he desired to fly higher than he could. The metaphor makes a strong allusion to the economic problems that Puerto Rico faces.
Finally, the public had the opportunity to enjoy the exhibitions of artists in residence from May to June and Joseph Kaplan Zorica Vasic well as Portfolio Ccycles before its closure.
Related artists
ABOUT ´aceNITE
Is an event that occurs periodically, on Wednesdays from 7pm to 10pm.
During this time ´ace opens its doors and exhibition spaces to the community to show projects made by the artists in residence as exhibitions, installations and audiovisual presentations, art works of Argentine and Latin American artists selected in a free way, present books, art critics, hold performances or to do everything together!
