Amadeo Azar

Computer 2011

My work revisits the historical journey developed by the great utopias and ideologies of the 20th century and their transformation into fears, skepticism and  “no future” for contemporary life.

I am interested in History, Sociology and Architecture.  I am curious to explore the notion of ideologies and politics as aesthetically enrooted phenomena. I am looking at monuments and projects which embody a particular vision of the world and the game of power, the tension between what could have been and what finally wasn’t.  There’s a longing for the ideal of a fair and equal society, an idea of nation, repeatedly ill-fated.

I seek, therefore, neither to transform my investigations on architecture or social phenomena into conceptual projects, nor into a mere illustration of ideas, but to use them as fertilizer for developing poetics.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             - Amadeo

 

Artist influenced by: Raul Lozza, Gyula Kosice, Imi Knoebel, Roberto Aizenberg, Gustav Klutsis, El Lissitzky, Mark Manders, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

 

Bio

Amadeo was born in Mar del Plata in 1972 and is currently based in Buenos Aires.  He graduated from M. Malharro School of Visual Arts and continued his studies with scholarship by Fundación Antorchas. For the past decade Amadeo has participated in numerous individual and group exhibitions both in private galleries as well as institutional spaces in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and United States of America: the Queens Museum (NY), Drawing Center (NY), the MAMBA (Buenos Aires), MAAC (Ecuador), Premio Fundación Itaú and Premio Fundación Andreani, as well as a considerable solo exhibition at the Cádiz Provincial Council in Spain. Azar’s work is part of many private and public collections in the United States, Europe and Latin America. In 2014 he was selected  to be Artist in Residence at Fountainhead, Miami, FL.

 

Selected Solo Shows 

2014:  Patience is a Mine Field - Alejandra Von Hartz  Gallery, Miami

2013:  When I arrived all was White - Haroldo Conti Museum of Memory, Buenos Aires

2012:  The Blank Stare - Ricardo Rojas Culture Center for the Arts, Buenos Aires

2012:  When the Things becomes in Kilograms - Nora Fisch Gallery, Buenos Aires

2011:  31512 - Recoleta Culture Center for the Arts, Buenos Aires

2010:  Cordiality and Another Way of Comfort - Nora Fisch Gallery, Buenos Aires

2008:  The Limits of the Fog - Diputación de Cadiz, Spain

2005:  nervous - Alberto Sendros Gallery, Buenos Aires

 

Selected Group Shows 

2015: Open Sessions group 4 - Drawing Center, NY (upcoming fall 2015) USA

2015:  the Rests of the triumph - Federico Klemm Foundation, Argentina

2015: Open Sessions: Drawings in Context/Field - Queens Museum, USA

2014: The imaginary worlds museum - MAR, Argentina

2013: Roberto Aizemberg. Transcendence and offspring - Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Collection Argentina

2012: Last Trends - Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2012: About the space and continuity - Casa de la Cultura, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2012: Against the Progress - National Endowment for the Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2012: Abre Alas - Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2011: A friend of the devil is a friend of mine - Diablo Rosso Gallery, Panama

2011: Campo de Asociaciones, dialogues and silences between drawing practices - MAAC, Ecuador

2011: Volta Art Fair New York (Latin Américan Proyects) - Nora Fisch Gallery, USA

2010: Acquisitions and donations - Contemporary Collection of Cadiz, España

2009: Klemm Prize - Federico Klemm Foundation, Buenos Aires

2009: Andreani Prize - Caraffa Museum, Cordoba

2009: Calm before the storm - Praxis Gallery, Buenos Aires

2008: Condominio - Standard Bank Foundation, Buenos Aires

2008: Discursos Narrativos (curated by Kevin Power) - Centro Cultural Auditórium, MAC Salta

2007: El fulgor - Blanca Soto Gallery, Madrid

2007: Rancho - MAC Bahia Blanca

2006: Tautology - Jacob Karpio Gallery, Costa Rica

2005: Vision on Contemporary Landscapes - Jacob Karpio Gallery, Costa Rica

2005: Temporada - C. C. Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2004: Open Studios 2004 - Edificio Barolo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2004: Object and Representation - Museo ECA, Mendoza, Argentina

2000: Telecom Prize Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

Selected Publications

2014: Fukt Magazine for Contemporary Drawing 

2013: Abstracciones Significativas/ Meaningful Abstractions. Art Nexus, Cecilia Fajardo Hill

2012: Ultimas Tendencias 2. Museo of Modern Art, Buenos Aires

2012: Rooms. Art magazine, London

2011: Contemporary Poetics. Itineraries in the visual arts in the Argentina of the 90 to 2010. National Endowment for the Arts

2010: Utopias and Distopías in Watercolors / Revista D MAG. Buenos Aires

2009: The Painting as a Craft. Maximo Jacoby, Diario Crítica

2008: Fake Magazine for the Musac in Frieze Art Fair,Tolo Catello, London

2008: The Limits of the Fog,  Laura Revuelta, España

2006: Tautology, Jhon Nadador. Diario La Nación. Costa Rica

 

Amadeo's technique includes some or all of:  watercolor, collage, folding paper, stainless steel, analog and digital photo 

ARTIST PROFILE ON OUR BLOG: AMADEO AZAR