Barton Lidice Benes "Archive"
Pavel Zoubok Gallery
This event has ended.
ARCHIVE brings together works from the past two decades including; large-scale “Museums” – collaged shadow boxes containing thematic groupings of relics ranging from material evocations of death and destruction (e.g. a drapery tieback from Saddam Hussein’s Bagdad palace in Iraq, or lead from the coffin of Cosimo de’ Medici from 1574), to objects that playfully point to our collective obsession with fame (e.g. the mattress tag from Barbara Streisand and James Brolin’s honeymoon suite, and a tile from John Gotti’s indoor swimming pool). Never one to shy away from painful or controversial subjects, Beneš’ art has also served as an instrument of political and social resistance. This is best demonstrated in his infamous series of “Lethal Weapons” – found objects filled with the artist’s own HIV-positive blood and framed behind safety glass – which was exhibited internationally during the 1990s. What emerges from this intimate survey of Beneš’ work is an artist and activist who has taken a life-long passion for collecting and created a uniquely personal “Museum,” filled with all the triumphs and tragedies of our collective experience.
[Image: Barton Lidice Benes Jars, 2010 Mixed media 10 3/4 x 30 1/4 in.]
Media
Schedule
from January 05, 2011 to February 07, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-01-07 from 18:00 to 20:00