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Zhang’s ash painting, as it was being produced. (Photos by C-M.)

Photos from the opening of Zhang Huan’s show at Pace Wildenstein. It was totally over the top. In a good way. His most prominent piece was a giant ash painting, which was created on the surface of adjoining six-foot tall concrete blocks. You have to climb several steps, up onto a scaffolding, to see the piece, which was being touched up by a young woman in white, who would float over it and flick little piles of ash on various strategic locations. I was afraid to sneeze.

More pix after the jump. Click on images to see ‘em big.
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Embroidered piece by Steve Macdonald, aka the Ramblin’ Worker. (All photos courtesy of Paper Boat.)

Artists Steve MacDonald and Rachel Budde came together for a new exhibit last week at the Paper Boat Gallery, an independent arts space in Millwaukee. The folks at the gallery were kind enough to put up a very nice Flickr set that shows opening night proceedings. If you’re in Milwaukee, this looks like it’s definitely worth checking out. The show runs through the end of the month.

Money shots after the jump. (more…)

A view of Canonge’s Idolatries/Idolatrías, with Sarita Montiel on the screen.

At the closing party for the CINE-REAL exhibit at MediaNoche, in NYC, I spent some time playing around with this seriously rad interactive sculpture by multimedia artist Hector Canonge. The piece consists of an array of 16 Latin American food products - from pickled jalapeños to condensed milk to pork rinds - each of which features a Latina on the packaging. There’s a virginal-looking milkmaid, mother-figure types, and, of course, fiery ladies - like the woman on the La Morena tin, who is just bursting with attitude. (Love her.)

Viewers can then scan each of these products with the grocery scanner (on the wall, to the right) and it launches a clip of vintage Spanish or Latin American cinema, which features a woman that resembles, in look and demeanour, the image on the grocery product. It was an innovative exploration of the whole virgin/mother/whore archetype in Latin American culture. I’m just bummed that I didn’t make it to the show’s opening, so that I could have touted this sooner…

See more pix after the jump. Click on images to see ‘em large.

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