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'''[[Carla Arocha]]''' ({{IPA-es| ˈkaɾ.laˈro. a.ˈɾo.ʧa}}; born October 30, 1961) is a Venezuelan artist recognized for her work dealing with modernity and modernism and her pattern drawings, paintings, and installations produced in mirrored plexiglass. She lives and works in Antwerp. Her work has been exhibited internationally since the mid-1990s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pirotte|first=Philippe|url=|title=Carla Arocha: Dirt|date=2006|publisher=Kunsthalle Bern|location=Bern|author-link=}}</ref>
'''[[Carla Arocha]]''' ({{IPA-es| ˈkaɾ.laˈro. a.ˈɾo.ʧa}}; born October 30, 1961) is a Venezuelan artist recognized for her work grounded in Minimalism, design, and geometric abstraction, specifically examples from her native Venezuela (think Carlos Cruz-Diez’s public commissions in Caracas from the '70s). She lives and works in Antwerp. Her work has been exhibited internationally since the mid-1990s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pirotte|first=Philippe|url=|title=Carla Arocha: Dirt|date=2006|publisher=Kunsthalle Bern|location=Bern|author-link=}}</ref>

⚫
Her concern does not solely deal with art but [[visual culture]] as a whole. As artist and curator [[Michelle Grabner]] wrote, Arocha "approaches abstract painting and sculpture via the culture of design and high fashion, creating objects that simultaneously reside in both the [[Mass market|mass]] and [[Luxury goods|luxury markets]]. Her work is sophisticated and vernacular, urban and female. If design can turn ideas into fashion, Arocha turns fashion into painting and sculpture."<ref name="Frieze">{{Cite web|title=Carla Arocha|url=https://frieze.com/article/carla-arocha|last=Grabner|first=Michelle|date=May 5, 2000|website=frieze.com|publisher=Frieze Publishing, Limited|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=August 18, 2019}}</ref>


[[File:Carla Arocha Then 1994.jpg|thumb|263px|right|alt= Then by Carla Arocha |<small>Carla Arocha, ''Then'', 1994, Latex on muslin and stretched flannel, (274 x 643 cm) 108 x 253 in.</small>]]
[[File:Carla Arocha Then 1994.jpg|thumb|263px|right|alt= Then by Carla Arocha |<small>Carla Arocha, ''Then'', 1994, Latex on muslin and stretched flannel, (274 x 643 cm) 108 x 253 in.</small>]]
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[[File:Carla Arocha Tremor 2006.jpg|thumb|263px|right|alt= Tremor by Carla Arocha |<small>Carla Arocha, ''Tremor'', 2006, Cubic structures, plexiglass, and mirror, Coll. Fonds régional d'art contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon. Installation view of the exhibition ''Carla Arocha: Dirt'', [[Kunsthalle Bern]], Bern, 2006.</small>]]
[[File:Carla Arocha Tremor 2006.jpg|thumb|263px|right|alt= Tremor by Carla Arocha |<small>Carla Arocha, ''Tremor'', 2006, Cubic structures, plexiglass, and mirror, Coll. Fonds régional d'art contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon. Installation view of the exhibition ''Carla Arocha: Dirt'', [[Kunsthalle Bern]], Bern, 2006.</small>]]


⚫
Arocha first made her mark in the mid-1990s with a series of works borrowing from [[art]], [[fashion]], and [[biology]]. For example, her drawing ''Aqua Trace'' (1998) presents the visual melding of two distinct [[Pattern|patterns]]: [[Leopard|leopard spots]] and [[Blood cell|blood cells]]. Rendered in a bright shade of aqua, the two converging patterns are reminiscent of the [[Animal print|animal prints]] found on [[Textile|fabric]]. ''Aqua Trace'' relates to an installation by Arocha entitled ''Hide'' (1997) for the [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago]], and which featured [[Leopard pattern|leopard-print patterns]] created with mirrored [[Plexiglas]]. The mirrored Perspex patterns comprising ''Hide'' adorned the walls of [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago|Chicago's Museum of Contemporary]] Art like a spectacular jewelled accessory, clusters of reflective plastic shimmering and swaying in the white gallery.<ref name="Frieze" />
Arocha's work is clearly influenced by the [[Constructivism (art)|abstract–constructivist]] tradition that prevails in both [[Chicago]] and [[Venezuela]] since the [[Post-war|post-war period]]. Critic and curator Philippe Pirotte has written that "Although the influences of modernist movements such as [[Constructivism (art)|Russian constructivism]] and [[Bauhaus]] vary immensely between Venezuela and Chicago, Arocha's work is a case study as it assesses both contexts critically."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pirotte|first=Philippe|title=Carla Arocha: Dirt|publisher=[[Kunsthalle Bern]]|year=2006|isbn=|location=Bern|pages=}}</ref>

⚫
Her concern does not solely deal with art, but design, fashion, and [[visual culture]] as a whole. As artist and curator [[Michelle Grabner]] wrote, Arocha "approaches abstract painting and sculpture via the culture of design and high fashion, creating objects that simultaneously reside in both the [[Mass market|mass]] and [[Luxury goods|luxury markets]]. Her work is sophisticated and vernacular, urban and female. If design can turn ideas into fashion, Arocha turns fashion into painting and sculpture."<ref name="Frieze">{{Cite web|title=Carla Arocha|url=https://frieze.com/article/carla-arocha|last=Grabner|first=Michelle|date=May 5, 2000|website=frieze.com|publisher=Frieze Publishing, Limited|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=August 18, 2019}}</ref>

⚫
Arocha first made her mark in the mid-1990s with a series of works borrowing from [[art]], [[fashion]], and [[biology]]. For example, her drawing ''Aqua Trace'' (1998) presents the visual melding of two distinct [[Pattern|patterns]]: [[Leopard|leopard spots]] and [[Blood cell|blood cells]]. Rendered in a bright shade of aqua, the two converging patterns are reminiscent of the [[Animal print|animal prints]] found on [[Textile|fabric]]. ''Aqua Trace'' relates to an installation by Arocha entitled ''Hide'' (1997) for the [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago]], and which featured [[Leopard pattern|leopard-print patterns]] created with mirrored [[Plexiglas]]. The mirrored Perspex patterns comprising ''Hide'' adorned the walls of [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago|Chicago's Museum of Contemporary]] Art like a spectacular jewelled accessory, clusters of reflective plastic shimmering and swaying in the white gallery.<ref name="Frieze" />


Conversely to her sharp opulent Plexiglas installations and [[Kinetic art|kinetic mobiles]], Carla Arocha's paintings are flat and pale although the artist’s constant preoccupation with ornament lies beneath the minimal framework. For example, Arocha filled the hard-edged contour of a simple pitched-roof dwelling with bold, meandering loops in ''House'' (1999). Two large vertical paintings on canvas made by artist in 1999, entitled ''Blind Folded'' and ''Flare'', perfectly echo the artist's passion for pattern, glamour and the superfluous. In these pieces, [[monochrome]] fields [[camouflage]] dots, [[Diamond|diamonds]] and [[organic]] patterns are combined. Carla Arocha’s innate flair for extravagance is only hinted at through subtle shifts in the reflective character of the paint.<ref name="Frieze" />
Conversely to her sharp opulent Plexiglas installations and [[Kinetic art|kinetic mobiles]], Carla Arocha's paintings are flat and pale although the artist’s constant preoccupation with ornament lies beneath the minimal framework. For example, Arocha filled the hard-edged contour of a simple pitched-roof dwelling with bold, meandering loops in ''House'' (1999). Two large vertical paintings on canvas made by artist in 1999, entitled ''Blind Folded'' and ''Flare'', perfectly echo the artist's passion for pattern, glamour and the superfluous. In these pieces, [[monochrome]] fields [[camouflage]] dots, [[Diamond|diamonds]] and [[organic]] patterns are combined. Carla Arocha’s innate flair for extravagance is only hinted at through subtle shifts in the reflective character of the paint.<ref name="Frieze" />

Revision as of 03:28, 15 May 2020

Carla Arocha
Carla Arocha
Carla Arocha
Born
Carla Giomar Arocha Bello

(1961-10-30)30 October 1961
Caracas, Venezuela
NationalityVenezuelan
Alma materSaint Xavier University, Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
Known forPainting, drawing, installation art
MovementContemporary art
Spouse(s)
David Preiss
​
(before 1999)​

Luc Tuymans
​
(m. 1999)​
Websitewww.arocha-schraenen.com

Carla Arocha (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾ.laˈro. a.ˈɾo.ʧa]; born October 30, 1961) is a Venezuelan artist recognized for her work grounded in Minimalism, design, and geometric abstraction, specifically examples from her native Venezuela (think Carlos Cruz-Diez’s public commissions in Caracas from the '70s). She lives and works in Antwerp. Her work has been exhibited internationally since the mid-1990s.[1]

Her concern does not solely deal with art but visual culture as a whole. As artist and curator Michelle Grabner wrote, Arocha "approaches abstract painting and sculpture via the culture of design and high fashion, creating objects that simultaneously reside in both the mass and luxury markets. Her work is sophisticated and vernacular, urban and female. If design can turn ideas into fashion, Arocha turns fashion into painting and sculpture."[2]

Then by Carla Arocha
Carla Arocha, Then, 1994, Latex on muslin and stretched flannel, (274 x 643 cm) 108 x 253 in.

Education

After training as a biologist at the Saint Xavier University (1986), from which she obtained a Bachelor of Science, Carla Arocha radically changed course and steered her path to an artistic career, first studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts, SAIC School of the Art Institute (1991) before pursuing her studies for a Master of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago (1994).[3]

Work

See also: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen
Tremor by Carla Arocha
Carla Arocha, Tremor, 2006, Cubic structures, plexiglass, and mirror, Coll. Fonds régional d'art contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon. Installation view of the exhibition Carla Arocha: Dirt, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, 2006.

Arocha first made her mark in the mid-1990s with a series of works borrowing from art, fashion, and biology. For example, her drawing Aqua Trace (1998) presents the visual melding of two distinct patterns: leopard spots and blood cells. Rendered in a bright shade of aqua, the two converging patterns are reminiscent of the animal prints found on fabric. Aqua Trace relates to an installation by Arocha entitled Hide (1997) for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and which featured leopard-print patterns created with mirrored Plexiglas. The mirrored Perspex patterns comprising Hide adorned the walls of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art like a spectacular jewelled accessory, clusters of reflective plastic shimmering and swaying in the white gallery.[2]

Conversely to her sharp opulent Plexiglas installations and kinetic mobiles, Carla Arocha's paintings are flat and pale although the artist’s constant preoccupation with ornament lies beneath the minimal framework. For example, Arocha filled the hard-edged contour of a simple pitched-roof dwelling with bold, meandering loops in House (1999). Two large vertical paintings on canvas made by artist in 1999, entitled Blind Folded and Flare, perfectly echo the artist's passion for pattern, glamour and the superfluous. In these pieces, monochrome fields camouflage dots, diamonds and organic patterns are combined. Carla Arocha’s innate flair for extravagance is only hinted at through subtle shifts in the reflective character of the paint.[2]

In 2006, Carla Arocha started working in collaboration with Stéphane Schraenen. Today, the artist-duo Arocha & Schraenen continues to produce pieces, exchange ideas and works in progress, before completing the final artworks together.[4]

Exhibitions

After moving to Chicago, Arocha had her first American solo museum show at the El Museo del Barrio museum in New York in 1996. In 1997, Arocha first showed her work in a gallery at Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman Gallery.[5] From September 1997 to March 1998, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Art Museum  (Michigan) organized Arocha's Carla Preiss: Somewhere. In 1997, when the MCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago commissioned a solo project for its main entrance hall, Carla Arocha produced a piece made up of clusters of leopard-print patterns created with mirrored Plexiglas that can be reconfigured upon each installation. In 2001-2002, Arocha created a new artwork entitled Rover for the café windows of the MCA within the context of the Hide installation, then already part of the MCA Collection.[6]

In Europe, Carla Arocha’s work has been shown in major solo exhibitions in various renowned institutions, including Antwerp’s Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA) in 2005–2006, and the Fonds régional d'art contemporain d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand in 2006.[7] In 2006, Bern’s Kunsthalle (Switzerland) organized Arocha's first major retrospective in Europe: Carla Arocha: Dirt, which was on show from April to May.[8] Curated by the then director of the Kunsthalle Bern, Philippe Pirotte, and Jesús Fuenmayor in close collaboration with the artist, this major retrospective shed light on the various facets of her work. On the occasion of this show, Carla Arocha asked Stéphane Schraenen to produce a number of artworks. This exchange of ideas would mark the starting point of a long term collaboration that continues to this day.[9]

Since 2006, pieces resulting from Arocha's collaboration with Stéphane Schraenen are exhibited under the name of Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen in such museums as London’s Wallace Collection (2011),[10] Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Caja de Burgos (CAB) in Spain (2012);[11] Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethaniën (2012);[12] and Mechelen’s Cultuurcentrum in Belgium, (2014).[13]

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • Carla Arocha: Chris (in collaboration with Stéphane Schraenen) at Fonds régional d'art contemporain Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, 2006[7]
  • Carla Arocha (in collaboration with Stéphane Schraenen) at Koraalberg, Antwerp, 2006
  • Dirt at Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, 2006[8]
  • Smoke at Galería OMR, Mexico City, 2004
  • By chance at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, 2003
  • Rover at Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp, 2002
  • Underground at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, 2001
  • Zipper at Dorothée De Pauw Gallery, Brussels, 2000
  • Hover: New Work at Kavi Gupta Gallery (formerly Vedanta Gallery), Chicago, 1999
  • Somewhere, at Cranbrook Art Museum, Blomfield Hills, 1998
  • Hide & Rover at MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1997, and 2001-2002
  • Gate at Hermetic Gallery, Milwaukee, 1997
  • Carla Preiss: New Work at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, 1996-1997
  • Portrait: A Site-Specific Installation by Carla Preiss at the El Museo del Barrio, New York, 1996

Collections

Arocha's work is part of several the public collections of various museums in the United States, Europe, and South America, including New-York’s MoMA;[14] Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art;[15] the Art Institute of Chicago;[16] Antwerp’s Museum of Contemporary Art;[17] Bern's Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland; the Fonds régional d'art contemporain d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand;[18] the Fundación Banco Mercantil, Caracas; and Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton in Florida, US.

Personal life

Born in Venezuela (Caracas), Arocha grew up in a family of lawyers whose passion for the humanities and culture strongly influenced her education. Moreover, the rich legacy of modern and contemporary art of her home country and plethora artists such as Jesús Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Alejandro Otero, to name just a few, left a profound mark on the artist, who was enthralled by the architecture and public artworks scattered through Caracas. In December 1979, Arocha moves Chicago, where she studies biology and art and married to David Preiss. In 1995, a year after graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago, she meets Belgium painter Luc Tuymans as he was preparing his first American show at Chicago’s Renaissance Society. In 1999, four years later, Arocha moved to Belgium and married Tuymans. The couple lives and works in Antwerp.[19]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Pirotte, Philippe (2006). Carla Arocha: Dirt. Bern: Kunsthalle Bern.
  2. ^ a b c Grabner, Michelle (5 May 2000). "Carla Arocha". frieze.com. Frieze Publishing, Limited. Retrieved 18 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Staff writer (30 November 2005). "Carla Arocha". De Morgen. DPG Media. Retrieved 12 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Gesprekken met Hedendaagse Kunstenaars". Hildevancanneyt.blogspot.com. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Carla Preiss". art-list.online. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Collection: Carla Arocha, Hide, 1997". mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/1997/Carla-Arocha-Hide-1997. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Carla Arocha, Chris". FRAC Auvergne (in French). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Carla Arocha". kunsthalle-bern.ch. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  9. ^ "Gesprekken met hedendaagse kunstenaars". hildevancanneyt.blogspot.com. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  10. ^ "Carla Arocha · Stéphane Schraenen". www.wallacecollection.org. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  11. ^ Staff writer (2012). "Carla Arocha y Stéphane Schraenen". CAB de Burgos.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "KB | Caraota von Moules". Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  13. ^ "Welkom - Cultuurcentrum Mechelen". www.cultuurcentrummechelen.be. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  14. ^ "Collection". www.moma.org/. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Collection: Carla Arocha, Hide, 1997". cachicago.org. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  16. ^ "Aqua Trace". www.artic.edu. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  17. ^ "Screens". www.muhka.be. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Carla Arocha". www.frac-auvergne.fr. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  19. ^ "Kunstenares Carla Arocha kijkt met bang hart naar situatie in haar geboorteland". www.demorgen.be. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
Bibliography

For information about the work of Carla Arocha see:

  • Molon, Dominic; Chavoya, C. Ondine; Herández, Eloy J. (1995). Carla Arocha: Orchid. New York: University of Rochester.
  • Hofmann, Irene (1998). Carla Preiss: Somewhere. Bloomfield Hills: Cranbrook Art Museum.
  • Peeters, Wim (2000). Carla Arocha: Zipper. Brussels: Dorothée De Pauw Gallery.
  • Vergne, Jean-Charles; Vermeiren, Gerrit (2006). Carla Arocha: Chris. Auvergne: Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Auvergne.
  • Pirotte, Philippe; Vermeiren, Gerrit (2006). Carla Arocha: Dirt. Bern: Kunsthalle Bern.

For information about Carla Arocha's work in collaboration with Stéphane Schraenen see:

  • Arocha, Carla, Schraenen Stéphane, and Kate Christina Mayne. (2014). Persiana: Carla Arocha - Stéphane Schraenen: Cultuurcentrum Mechelen . Antwerpen, Belgium: Ludion.
  • Fuemayor, Jesús. (2016).Flujo Disperso / Blurry Flux: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen Colectión Mercantil . Caracas: Mercantil Arte y Cultura A.C.
  • Pratt, Ken, Helen Anne Molesworth, Irmgard Hölscher, Katharina Pencz, Magda Walicka, Carla Arocha, and Stéphane Schraenen. ( 2013). What Now? Carla Arocha - Stephane Schraenen . .After: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen . Burgos: Obra Social De La Caja De Burgos.
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