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| "That Could Have Been Almost way too MTV for Tonight," Mauricio Menijvar |
They say one man's trash is another man's treasure and despite the cliché of the quote, there is something to be said about it especially in terms of art. Using found objects for the sake of creating new art work is nothing new but that doesn't take away from the uniqueness of it. One man's trash can be another man's wholly new creation, and the upcoming exhibition Vim and Vigor explores this concept on several different levels.
Vim and Vigor, which opens May 10 and runs through June 8, is a collaboration between Fresh Arts and galleryHOMELAND and features three artists, Brandon Araujo (painting), Chris Fulkerson (sculpture), and Mauricio Menijvar (installation), selected by the show's curator Paul Middendorf. While each of the artists are wildly different in their approach to creating works from found objects, there is a thread that strings the entire collection together: vibrancy.
Middendorf, who runs the galleryHOMELAND, a new-ish gallery on Commerce street, came across the three artists quite organically. He saw their work at previous shows and through the art community became acquainted with their styles. Middendorf had been toying with the idea of doing a show that exhibited this type of refashioned art, and when Fresh Arts approached him, it all clicked together.
Most of the art created for this exhibition is new, with a few exceptions. Middendorf gave the artists no guidelines, just to do their thing. Without a theme, per say, the combined variations may seem lacking continuity at first but this may be what makes the selections so successful. What emerges from these different pieces is a raw energy from three artists whose work is filled with vivacity. Each piece is a living object in its own right.
"All of the pieces are refined," says Middenhoff, "yet there is something unrefined about them."
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