All images by Kathleen Dolan and Sean Ongley
On Thanksgiving Eve it was a cool and cloudy afternoon shared with Kathleen Dolan as we ventured out from my parents’ home in Tuscon, AZ to find local arts shows. To our surprise, a compelling collection at el Consulado de Mexico en Tucson (the city’s Mexican Consulate) featured sculpture, paintings, and graphics from eighteen Mexican artists. The work spanned from early modern surrealism to contemporary. There was also a children’s show in the lobby area with some highly stylistic stuff.
We had only about an hour after this to see MOCA-Tucson (Museum of Contemporary Art). It was my first time there although it’s been on my bucket list for every holiday visit. The staff was kind enough to admit us and provide a complete tour of the work. At the end of it, their weekly yoga session was soon to be underway in one of the more spacious gallery rooms.
The building opens first to an expansive room which Alex Von Bergen’s installation sparsely occupies. Von Bergen is a notable Tucson-based graphic designer and a humorous contemporary artist. Several rooms featuring his work are to be explored branching off to the hallways and smaller rooms of the museum’s east wing. For this photoset, we only display the indoor portion of his exhibit (he also displayed banners on the exterior walls of the museum.) The work of jewelry artist and silversmith Alex Streeter, fills up the remaining rooms surrounding the gift shop with knick knacks and art from his Tuscon home and work examples from his long career in design.
Graphic design was the common thread between these shows, because in terms of style, there wasn’t much overlap. At the consulate, two shows overlapped in space: Expresiones Multiples de la Grafica Mexicana (Multiple Expressions of Mexican Graphic Art) and Escultura Mexicana en Tucson (Mexican Sculpture in Tucson). In some way, all of these artists are designers at the root. But I think it goes deeper than that. Perhaps they all find something strange about existence; a fascination with incongruity.
Please enjoy the photo gallery below to see highlights of all these exhibits, read the captions for credits and further notes, and follow the links at the end to learn more about the exhibits.
Escultura Mexicana en Tucson – Various Mexican Artists
Ariel Diaz (center), Gonzalo Espinosa (right), Lester Aguirre (left)
Lester Aguirre (Chihuahua, b.1991)
Ariel Diaz Martinez (Mexico City, b.1973)
Lester Aguirre (Chihuahua, b.1991)
Ariel Diaz Martinez (Mexico City, b.1973)
Gonzalo Espinosa (Acapulco, b.1954)
Expresiones Multiples de la Grafica Mexicana – Various Mexican Artists
Kazuya Sakai (left), Ariel Diaz (center), Manuel Felguerez (right)
Manuel Felguerez (Zacatecas, b.1928) “Untitled”
Gunther Gerzso (left), Arnoldo Coen (center), Leonora Carrington (right)
Leonora Carrington (Mexico City 1917-2011) “Sin Titulo” (untitled)
Gunther Gerzso (right), Jose Luis Cuevas (center), David Alfaro Siqueiros (left)
Close up of Jesus Figure by David Alfaro Siqueiros
Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexico City b.1931) “Sin Titulo” (untitled)
Este es Mi Mexico – Various Youth Artists
Next Time – Alex Von Bergen
Alex Von Bergen lives near a police recruiting station, and this is a recreation of its aesthetic (somehow)
Wide view of the open entrance to MOCA-Tucson with Alex Von Bergen’s installation in place
“asdfjkl1 prints” is a collection of photographs featuring a sort of best of from his Tumblr blog. It is a whimsical pursuit of pointing out the strangeness, the bizarre, and the hilarious.
Baby barcode was my favorite expression in this
I had to use this image again because of its reflection in the wide angle.
Engraved stone presents a contradiction. Check out the Youtube video.
Initially innocuous on first glance, upon learning that various tanning sprays on canvas was his medium, the viewer is confronted with a toxic evolution of color that perhaps never belonged on the body.
This short video loop highlights the absurd and the homogeneity in daily life.
The details are as compelling as the whole.
Photo of curved ramp framed in curved glass and placed against concrete. Kind of surreal.
This upsets viewers, somehow until they learn that he recreated these designs from scratch, as if to point out that someone had to design this, probably an artist. Note that some of these companies no longer exist.
Best Dressed Pirate – Alex Streeter
First world to be sucked into is the Buffalo Room. It evoked a sacred space and living room at once.
Close up of the parallel cross.
In the gift shop, some jewelry designs are for sale. His primary occupation and claim to fame has been original jewelry design.
Here is a close up of a piece worn by Madonna. His shop at 152 Prince Street NYC was founded in 1971.
Crosses definitely appear frequently in the mix.
He seems to find his own themes. He held a party for MOCA personnel in a sense to showcase the starkness of his home after clearing out so many bits for this show.
Glitz and icons.
Standing in front of his own shop in the 1970’s.
Letter of expulsion from Rhode Island School of Design 1967
Interesting illustrations
A mask.
