contemporary art projects usa presents cosmic connections

Cosmic Connections A Juried Exhibition

Contemporary Art Projects USA

CONCEPT ART FAIR DOWNTOWN MIAMI | ABOARD SEAFAIR

DECEMBER 2 - 7, 2014



FIRST PRIVATE VIEW | Tuesday, Dec 2, 6pm - 7.30pm CHAMPAGNE & HOR D‘OEUVRES | 7.30pm - 10pm

EXHIBITION HOURS | Wednesday, Friday & Saturday, 1pm - 10pm Thursday, 1pm - 7pm

Sunday 1pm - 6pm

ART AFTER DARK CRUISE | Friday, 10pm - 11.30pm Saturday, 10pm- 11.30pm

Reservation at box office



Message from the Executive Director

This year for the first time Contemporary Art Projects USA will present a special project, Cosmic Connections, exhibiting at the Concept Fair Booth 207 aboard of the Seafair Super Yacht. It promises to be an exciting exhibition, presenting works by 20 international artists.Taking place during the most dynamic international art fair in the United States, Art Basel Miami Beach.

My mission is to promote art appreciation within the international community, to inspire and assist with the process of art collection, and to generate resources that support artists’ creative endeavors. Through this project Cosmic Connections and the collaboration of these well renown curators, I was able to fulfill my mission of giving the opportunity to challenge the artists and present their inspiration at a well-established art fair. Kind Regards,Tata Fernandez Executive Director



ROBERTA GONELLA Great artists have the ability to capture the times they live in and bring us along with them. Unfortunately, the art world of today seems to be stuck in the 1960s. Andy Warhol’s world of commercialism and five minutes of fame appear to be tenaciously hanging on. So I decided to ask the artists of our time to tackle where we are - this moment in time. We are on the brink of expanding our knowledge of the universe and ourselves; that all of mankind’s history will be nothing compared to what is coming. New technologies are here to show us wonders never imagined. My theme “Cosmic Connections“ touched a cord in many artists. New technology like digital printing has come into its own, and fits quite comfortably next to oil painting, an old media recently neglected (don‘t ever give up on the slowness of oil painting or its younger sister acrylic). Oil painting has been with us through the centuries. Its slowness and depth has always enriched us. I have included the artist’s statements for they are as poetic and deep thinking as their work. Remember we are all stardust joined together from stars that exploded in the universe. Everything is “Cosmic Connections“.

RICHARD L. TOOKE When I was approached last year by Tata Fernandez, Executive Director, Contem-porary Art Projects USA, to become involved with COSMIC CONNECTIONS, I was immediately attracted to such an International Project even before I knew all of the details. Then when I learned that Roberta Gonella, would be the presiding juror and Head Curator, that just sealed the deal. Over the past seve-ral months as the exhibition’s opening date loomed closer and closer, we were able to overcome the physical fact of my being on the West coast with Roberta and Tata are on the East coast of Florida. As the artists signed on for the exhibition and we could see images of their works of art, we could see that this would be a world-class exhibition. Our problem was not finding 22 qualified artists, but selecting 22 artists from a list of excellent art that far exceeded that number. Having never had to share the job as juror and curator, it was a unique experience to me. However, in looking over our final selections it is amazing, this give and take became a superb exhibition that any of us would be proud to claim as their own. At this time I am looking forward to the installation, the opening event and the meeting of many of the participating artists. I hope to see you there as well.Richard L. Tooke | Retired Director of Rights & Reproductions, Photographic Archives and Photographic Services | The Museum of Modern Art, New York

SILVIA MEDINA Cosmic Connection is fortunate to gather a group of artists who have captured their own individual connections with the universe from their own criteria. Developing his works in different magni-fications where new technologies prevail, artists express philosophical spiritual connections, aesthetics, materials and the world in which we live. Our feelings, joys, frustrations, uncertainties and achievements are in constant connection with the cosmos. All of these are being discussed at this unique exhibition which invites us to connect in different ways, perspectives and visions, with the poetics surrounding. Silvia Medina | Former Curator, Havana Biennial



ALENA HAGEDORN | USA

My glowing passion is fine art NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY. We feel our connection to the universe in EVERY shining star! Each night image is creatively envisioned long before I press the shutter button. Like a painter stroking the canvas with a brush, as a “photographic artist”, I am actually walking around the night-time scene in each image “painting” creative personal touches of illumination amidst the scene with flashlights! Playing such an imaginative, personal role in my photographic art is simply MAGICAL! Working with photography in the darkness of night allows subjects which may seem quite ordinary in daylight to become radiantly extraordinary! Time-lapse photos of stars leave “paths” revealing the earth’s rotation! The Milky Way stretches like a glimmering night-time rainbow arching across the dark sky! Each of my night images is heat-infused into high-gloss aluminum creating the ideal media to allow the glow in my night scenes to shine, creating a luminous 3-D effect.



ENLIGHTENMENT | DIGITAL MEDIA | 20“ x 20“



ANDREA BATORFI | HUNGARYIn the video Swiss Flow (a single channel video, 60 minue loop, 2013-2014) Bátorfi transformed the astonishing gushing of the Rheinfall at Schaffhausen, Switzerland into a symbolic moving image of the timeless and endless Flow of Life that streams forever with unbroken continuity. In her meditative approach the overwhelming physical force of the Rheinfall becomes a moving corridor that leads the eye and the emotions toward the centre of the film’s space and the viewer’s body and mind alike. Thus a channel is created that evokes and generates a way of communication between the planes of earth and heaven. Letting ourselves go with this blissful stream can be like returning to the divine source within. Through my art and vision I am an active participant of creating an ever evolving new reality.My videos and photo-based compositions remind man of the inherent connection to the divine source within. I am a clear channel, a stretched rope, a stair, a gate between various levels of consciousness.Art makes you conscious.It makes one realise that man is an immortal spirit,eternal light that has moved into temporary bodily form.It invites to gradually unfold into an immeasurably larger reality, to expand.



SWISS FLOW | SINGLE-CHANNEL VIDEO | 1HOUR LOOP



ANDREA COSTANTINI | ITALY

I’ve always been curious about photography and when in art school, I was introduced to the darkroom and I was literally fascinated. Today my influences are from surrealism and architecture. I take pictures of faces and then modify them by adding images - like in a montage. I love playing with lights, shadows, tones and textures. My imaginary worlds are a mixture of architecture, objects, and animals. I use the most advanced technologies to express myself, but paper and pencil still accompany the birth of my projects - sketches and notes turn into thoughts and images. It is the power to escape the constraints of social and economic differences and the limits of space and time.

Having all this in my life in every way possible, exploring new visions and expressing myself is how I show the world how I see things.



IMAGINRIA 005 | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 20“ x 20“



ANICA SHPILBERG | USA

Cosmic Connections Images are the language of my thoughts. I am inspired by my surroundings and experiences lived. Color is integral to the story, and my aim is to make the story a personal one, yet one the viewer can enter and share. Sorting through the images that “make sense”, I weave them into fragments that tell a story. Some are printed on canvas, others or paper and mixed media. Some I leave pristine. The purpose of it all is to capture instances in time that form a narrative, one that is interpreted by the observers who add their biases as they reflect on the images. This series explores the Cosmos and the effects it has on our lives, Cosmic Connections is about exploration and learning. Where we are today and what the future will bring, the book represents the study and what was written before and how it’s changing as we have more developed telescopes and lenses. The institutions that dedicate their lives to this and the excitement and thrill of the research. Having been at MIT last week to celebrate the 100 years of the department of aeronautics and astronautics felt this was a compelling story. Anica First Place - Doral Pre-Art Basel Week



CONSTELLATION BY THE BOOK | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 28“ x 24“



CESAR SANTOS | CUBA WINNER - 1ST PRIZE

My artistic energy drives me to arrange elusive figures and objects in conceptual designs, yet rendering them in a believable and convincing way. I bring both worlds - theoretical and naturalistic - into communion: taking objects out of their natural context to create a new environment for them, a new reality or world for us.My tools are imagination and technique; they are the essence and the basis of my work.



COSMIC CONNECTIONS | OIL ON LINEN | 34“ x 27“



DONNA HAYNES | USA

I tell stories because I think it’s the soul of our existence. Meeting others and hearing their stories is why I believe we are here. We are here to form relationships, to meet, interact, make friends, love, and record a lineage. My artwork is an extension of this idea. Each piece records a point in time, a conversation, a story passed down from generation to generation. My hope is that these visual stories will reach my audience in a new way. Perhaps they will create their own story or bring back an old memory. I’m interested in telling stories and relating conversations about people I have encountered. Romantic relationships, worldly issues, and conversations with my inner self always seem to come to the forefront. Stories make history and I believe they are important in the preservation of history. Text is important in my work for I have a love of handwriting. I became passionate about this at an early age for both of my grandmothers gave me guidance in this.



ABDUCTION IN BLUE | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 36“ x 24“



EDOUARD MORTEC | FRANCE

Two ideas out of the quantum theory:

1. The laws of Classical Physics are not true for fundamental particles; rather than points in space, the particles are represented as clouds of probability.2. Raw measurements are impossible because the measuring device influences the particle; it is particularly similar to a fact inherent in photography:

The photographer influences the subject.It inspired me to elaborate a process that represent people rather as a presence in time than a frozen expression of an instant.I asked people to pose naked without explaining my project. I settled my camera to shoot them continuously during 17 minutes.I didn’t give any instructions for the pose and left them alone with the camera to be sure I would not influence them. I finally had 3000 photographs of each perosn. I assembled them with a computer program, which I wrote.It takes randomly enough pixels on each of the 3000 files to produce a single image: a cloud of dots that translates a presence.



CLOUD SERIES, PAULINE | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 83“ x 36“



FERMIN FLEITES | CUBA

Cosmic Rose is a view of our place in the universe, a place conditioned by our own notion of time, certainly a relative notion in contemporary physics, but even so determined a general view of our species.The video takes the rose as a latent symbol for the great religions known to man to denote symbolic associations linked to our existence and which resist a certain simplification by time.Cosmic Rose is a timeless mystique of the universe to which we belong looking through one of its most simple objects - THE ROSE What’s in a name? that which we call a rose…By any other name would smell as sweet…

William ShakespeareRomeo and Juliet



COSMIC ROSE | VIDEO - IN STEREO | 1920 x 1080 FULL HD



FERNANDA DE BARROS | BRAZIL

Today we are used to perceiving imposing forms, but don’t give much attention to what is subtlety given by the surroundings. Therefore, this image presents tenuous glances, as the reflection of lights in the wall, captured from the quotidian. These are perceptions, which could be casual connections with the cosmos.



UNTITLED STILL ABSTRACTION | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 32“ x 24“



JORGE DE LA TORRIENTE | USA

Jorge blurs the lines between painting and photography, art and science and the deliberate and serendipitous. His approach to his work is calculated yet unstuctured. And his results are simultaneously minim alistic and majestic.Heavily influenced by his study of architecture, de la Torriente injects his viewpoint into each piece, always in an effoet to create meaning. His photographs are creations instead of replications. His camera takes a picture but he executes a vision.

„My goal is not to create what looks unnatural but to create something the viewer can believe in.“

Method + Investigation + Interpretation = Vision An image is always created and never just taken.



RING OF LIGHT | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 60“ x 40“



MAGALY BARNOLA-OTAOLA | VENEZUELA HONORARY WINNER

A vibrant, intuitive woman from Venezuela, directs her interests towards a search for the cosmic truth, in order to offer us, through her art, a vision of how she interprets the opening words of St. John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the word (…) All things were made through by him (…) In Him was life and the life was the light(… ).”A painter of vigorous strokes full of radiance and life, whose palette is rich in pure and warm colors, she leads us into a universe where the mythical and symbolic dance an unending waltz, beginning with the “Cosmic Cloud,” pristine expression without beginning or end, to continue its rhythm with the succeeding order of our planet Earth, and closing the circle with “Man – technology.”Precursor of a new astral chaos?



THE ASTRONAUT 1 | ALUMINUM | 26.5“ x 32“



MARCUS JANSEN | USA

My inspiration to explore universal contact and energy starts with the question of who we are and what we consider “it must be.“ What allows us to experience ourselves and other things in the Universe in the man-ner that we do? The painting may be much more an ongoing question then and answer to our Universal connection, existence an possibilities.



THE TIME TRAVELER | OIL, ENAMELS ON CANVAS | 48“ x 48“



MARIA FERNANDA LAIRET | VENEZUELA WINNER - 2ND PRIZE

“Letting go“, “reconnect“, “liberation“, “openness“, the alignment process of “upgrading“ to the internal system of the body, the heart and the energy with the rhythm of the cosmos.Changes in the flow of breath, energy, peace and love. These stars and their planets are connected worldwide for its constellations where the currency of the cosmic world are aligned in a single integration - we are one!



COSMIC LAIRET | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 27“ x 59“



MARK TAYLOR | USA

Energy! It surrounds and saturates every atom of our being and the world in which we live. Filling all things with the life force required to thrive, both in the vast universe in which we live and in the minute existence that we call life. Green is a unique energy, bringing balance and healing to all it encounters. As the center of the color spectrum, it represents perfect peace and balance of body, mind, and spirit. As powerful waves of green energy emit from the spirit of this enlightened being, all those it touches are brought into perfect health and enlightenment….balanced. As we allow our spirits to be drawn into the source of this incredible green Energy, disharmony and disease (dis-ease) are replaced by perfect peace, health, and harmony. Energy! Second Place - Doral Pre-Art Basel Week



GLOWING GURU | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 24“ x 20“



MOBY | VENEZUELA

All human beings are connected to the Universe, the Cosmos. Our energies transport and connect from one space to another intertwining themselves to create a specific point in time, where we love, reproduce and evolve. Emotions are but a mere vehicle that transports positive or negative energies. To which the Universe can only answer in the same way. This freedom can be felt through each architecture, gravity and curse of space defying images, each weaving line of this work on photograph that are superimposed and provide indicators on the main idea that lies behind our emotional and reference values of the timeless unconscious. This image could have taken place at any point in time where there are networks of tension that lead to emotional sensory influences. My line of investigation is based on the understanding of my indelible memories, where we find structures, construction elements that are incorporated through visual channels. Another one of my investigations aims to search for 3D illusion within the photograph, where the components that I added through my intervention are visually at arm’s length. The space created by the ropes add transitional spaces full of energy, arguments over the concept behind the project, weaving on air, the body, suspension lines. Now the question is: “Don’t we already live that way?” And from there we can reflect on the meaning of love….emotion, feeling and the most important value of human beings. Another element here present is the feather, as an element of freedom, in its flight and suspension light, it is the need that every being has with the magnetic encounter of our cherished the Cosmic Universe.



CONTACTO SUSPENDIDO I | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, ON METALLIC PAPER | 28.5“ x 44“



NICOLAS BERDYSHEFF | GEORGIA

Since an early age my life has been focused around art and the drive to create it. In my work, I combine my passion for photography and the skills of digital imaging techniques, in order to create a world that appears habitual, yet obviously an interpretation of the physical reality that encircles us.



ANOMALY 2 | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 28“ x 28“



PABLO PRO | SPAIN

What is Oxygeme about?Oxygeme is an audiovisual project: 80 photographs, video and sound. I use bubbles as a life metaphor. The bubble travels an upward path until it reaches the surface. It is a journey that culminates when the life cycle stops to restart.Where does Oxygeme come from?Oxygeme is a journey to the origin of life that arises from my need to discover forgotten feelings. It could be a poem, a hymn, where each of the photographs would be a stanza about the origin, where the light of the myth still illuminates the creative act.How important is this work nowadays?Oxygeme is a series of visual metaphors. The depthsof the sea becomes a huge placenta where life originates. I establish a parallel between the bubbles and ourselves as a unit, we are made of thousands ofparticles. Our mental barriers constitute the difficulties each human being, each bubble, may find on their ascending way.



UNCONSCIOUS V | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 60“ x 40“



PEDRO AVILA GENDIS | CUBA

In this work I have tried through texture, color, and lines to reflect how it is springtime in the Cosmos.



SPRINGTIME IN THE COSMOS | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | 47“ x 51“



REYNIER LLANES | CUBA

If you are reading, thinking, or internalizing the meaning of what I write, it is because you are part of this very moment. We are all influenced by the constant ebb and flow of energy around us. We are all part of the ever expanding universe. Everything around us has an influence in converting one form of our energy to another that effects our surroundings as well. In my art I strive to reflect upon the internal energy of human nature and its relationship to flora and fauna of other life forms. I slip into the labyrinth of my mind, as well as others when we create inner worlds based on our memories, experiences, feelings, and other fields of our subconscious. It is a discourse that tends to seep into a magical parallel universe of our own selves. Everything that lives is interconnected as we send and receive signals constantly and respond to the effects. Through a process of meditation and dialogue with my imagination, I endeavor to portray moments full of energy to reflect interpretations of ideas and manifestations. It is a simulation of an unearthly state which is closely connected to my subconscious bringing forth ideas for the composition of the work. I’m always seeking to establish the message and symbolism in the context of surrealistic expressions which allows me to replace the reality with an imaginary world that projects different facets of our being, like the past, present, future, emotions, desires, energy, and spirituality. This painting “The Thinker’s Utopia” is a coffee on paper portraying a man with numerous gifts and talents who has the strength to overcome numerous obstacles. He is contemplating his future options to achieve what he would consider utopia. The universe has an energy force that assimilates energy that can be incorporated into concrete forms such as bricks, boats, and buildings. The same force can influence the never ending creative processes such as imagination, passion, and focus through the avenues of medication and contemplation. This is the challenge of mankind to understand this universal integrative energy to enhance the quality of life.



THE THINKER‘S UTOPIA | PAPER | 44“ x 28“



SHEILA ELIAS | USA

The aesthetic experience is difficult to analyze and by attempting to define it, one gives expression to the intangible. The art should consist of inventiveness, creativity, and originality, not perfection. Inventiveness consists of shifting attention to aspects that were previously not perceived. We must constantly expand ourselves and our work. Artist’s have an element of the explorer within them: they discuss mystery in another dimension. An artist’s existence encourages the search inside oneself. Honing in on certain aspects of their experiences, they find a point where the idea surface’s to ones consciousness. Mark Rothko stated, “I think of my pictures as dramas. The shapes in my pictures are performers. They begin as an unknown adventure in an unknown space. It is at the moment of completion that in a flash of recognition they are seen to have the quantity and function which was intended.” I don’t paint like Rothko and yet I have this same feeling when I work.



WONDER | ACRYLIC | 20“ x 57“



TOM BOLLINGER | USA

My curiosity - What is the connection? What is the betterment, what is the mutual reason?By way of making and working and creating I am seeking to discover the origin - the spark - that what makes us keep going.

What is this connection to the universe?My work ultimately evolves to forms that are upward and optimistic, and in the center of all for this that is my belief that there is something greater than ”the us” a force, a drive, the driven. This leads me to think about my relationship to and with the environment the Eco-centric life.

I will continue to explore form and the inter-world of what drives me.



SPIRAL | BRONZE, STEEL, ACRYLIC | 78“ x 33“ x 50“



Adrian Dominguez Drums

Alexander Berdysheff Terra I

Anna Galassini Cosmic Connection

Arrachme Art Invisible Sea

Sabrina Armitage Lost

Beth Carter Bell My Home Address Is The Universe

Betty Newman Loco Lotus

Bill Snyder Cosmic Sampler

Bonnie RzM Shapes

Bruce Pollock Meristem 3

Carolina Ruiz Contemplation of the Universe

Cesar Aguilera In Our Hands

Christian Perez de Carvajal Star Maker 3 All Connected

Daniel Fiorda The Man in the Moon

Elizabeth Baez Helix

Eva Rimsky Balance Cosmic Connection

Francisco Jose Pia Izquierdo The Cosmic Connection Perception

Gary Johnson Jr Tremet

Jason Woodberry Icarus

Jennifer Brewer Stone Fire of Night

Jill Schwartz Empower

Juliana Ferreyros Flow

Ileana Collazo Reconstructions- 23

Lennette Newell Cosmic Definition

Luis Edel Wave of Fury

Luisa Mesa Moving Up

HIGH DEFINITION WINNERS



Marina Malvada Kisses of the Stars

Marvin Gralnick We are not Alone

Michael Miner Atmospheres

Mimi Botscheller Passing Through Time Again

Mi-Young Choi Space Between 2

Naz Shahrokh We’re all Connected

Ninel R. Miaja Men Universe

Orlando Castro Cosmica

Peter Treiber Ethereal Luminescence 27101

Philip Gleason Trip To the Mini Bar

Pilar Benitez Ice

Rossana Kelton Pioneer men and aliens

Ryota Matsumato The Intersection of Infinite Planets

Sergio Cervantes Thinker

Simona Petrauskaite If I would be a Star

Stephen` Poling Within Without

Tania Bakalarz Cosmic Connection

Tashi Norbu Indonesia

Traci Shipley Alien Autopsy

Wendy Figg Water Dragon

William Villanueva Inner Birth

Winifred Helton-Harmon Miami Spirit 2

Yulia Altas Memorial, September 11

HIGH DEFINITION WINNERS



Cosmos by Antonio Guerrero

A Special „Thank You“ to All of our Sponsors


Tata Fernandez | Executive Director 786.262.5886

[email protected]

contemporary art projects usa presents cosmic connections

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