#aurel weaver. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pinkparse · 7 years ago

Text

Quick & Dirty RP Info | Valris

Biological Family

Father: Valris’ father, Drowsy Inferno, is a towering, hulking, and serious-natured Hellsguard. He’s a very well renowned sellsword(axe) across Eorzea, with a specialization in bodyguarding. He is often sought after by members of the Syndicate, their relatives, and their extended parties. Growing up in poverty on the streets of Ul’dah, Drowsy acquired his claim to fame by taking up an axe, and much like many other Hellsguard, gradually building up merit by selling his brain and brawn to families, then merchants, then lesser nobility, and so on and so forth. It wasn’t until his mid-twenties where he truly became known around the realm as part of an adventuring duo--the Two Eyes (this is because, in a weird twist of fate, both he and his partner each lost sight in their left eye). Eventually, one job led him to the Azim Steppe to protect a Doman noble while striking a lucrative trade offer (mostly on the Doman’s part) with the members of the Olkund tribe. The next year, he came back to Eorzea with a Xaela baby in his arms. He then settled in Limsa Lominsa for almost a decade, completely outside of the limelight, content with just being a father--but the rush, the glory, and naturally, the gil, called him back to his old trade once more. at the age of 12, Valris joined his father, and begin learning the family business.

Mother: (IC) Valris’ mother, Qadan Olkund, is largely unknown to Valris. All he knows about her is her name, and that she hails from the Olkund tribe. No more, no less--he has absolutely no recollection of her. (OOC) Qadan Olkund used to be an outgoing, energetic, happy-go-lucky warrior from the Olkund tribe, most proficient with a spear. Valris is actually the spitting image of her--it would be unthinkable to say the two are not related when comparing them side-by-side. During Drowsy’s escort mission in the Azim Steppe, Qadan and Drowsy an insanely cliche, but intensely passionate and short-lived relationship. After a year, once the magic had worn off and the two realized they were just lusting after one other, they decided to call the relationship off. Shortly after Valris was born, and without notice, Drowsy took the child and cut off all contact with Qadan, something Drowsy has never had the courage to admit to Valris. To this day, Qadan (naturally) resents Drowsy for stealing Valris away. For a decade after their departure, Qadan had given chase to find her child and bring him back to the Steppe, but Drowsy’s sudden departure from the spotlight left everyone baffled, and the trail for finding the two gone. Defeated and her spirit broken after 10 years of searching, she returned to the Steppe where she now lives out her days idling by, hoping that one day her son, Yul Olkund, will make his way back way home.

Siblings: Biologically, Valris is an only child (as far as he knows). Haelbryda, a childhood friend of his, was unfortunately orphaned at 14. Drowsy took custody of her, and Haelbryda began to travel the realm with them from job-to-job, until she finally set out on her own, as an apprentice weaver in ul’dah. Nowadays, as a result of being a natural at the practice, and also having honed her craft for a decade, she’s quite established in the fashion world (and a bit infamous for also for having various... “relations” with her female clientele). Val and Haelbryda live together as housemates currently, where she puts up with his dumb shenanigans in exchange for him modeling for her work.

Pets: A small sparrow that follows him around. Val isn’t sure when it started to follow him, or why it does, but he genuinely appreciates its company! In actuality, the sparrow just wanted to use his fluffy hair as a nest, but eventually grew fond of traveling around with Valris (and free food fam).

Skills: Drinking, eating, fighting, sleeping, partying, and getting in trouble

Hobbies: Singing, dancing, and modeling. Occasionally practices carpentry when he’s feeling exceptionally positive. Enjoys making birdhouses

Traits

Positive Traits: Accepting, highly amiable, trusting, generous, a lovable rascal, just an all-around Good Dude(tm)

Negative Traits: Highly impulsive, flighty, hasty, impatient, secretly envious and bitter (much to his dismay, as he tries to repress these feelings as much as possible and almost never lets this slip), self-destructive, martyr-complex

Thing he hates about himself: What Valris hates the most about himself is his lack of drive for anything. He’s constantly dissatisfied with where he’s at it in life--he’s pushing 30 with no aspirations in life other than to watch it slowly pass him by. While everyone in his life is paving their way in the world, he feels like he’s being left behind--he’s not particularly good at anything he truly cares for, and he just spends his days wandering around aimlessly, taking whatever odd jobs he can find to sustain his compulsive drinking habit.

Other than that, he feels out of touch with his heritage--he feels neither here nor there in regards to culture. He visually passes off as Au Ra, but has absolutely no connection to the Xaela culture, and much less the Olkund. He’s familiar with the ways of the Hellsguard, but is never recognized as one since he barely shares any traits with his father.

Three words people would use to describe Valris: kinda eccentric / kinda dumb / kind hearted

Likes

Colors: Black, Pink, Yellow/Gold, White/Silver

Smells: Spices, sea breeze, freshly rained-in forest

Textures: Wool, soft sand, bark

Drinks: Enhance ALCOHOL

Other Details

Smokes: Fairly often, though rarely around other people. he tries to hide it for the most part

Drinks: Wayyyyy too much. He doesn’t have a flask tied to his shirt for no reason--this lad is a partyboye

Drugs: Has tried before, but avoids completely due to bad experiences

Mount Issuance: Somehow, yes

Arrested?: Wayyyy too many times to count. Though he usually always gets released shortly thereafter, once they realize he’s an idiot that means well

Tagged by: @aurelle-ffxiv thank you so much for this!! it was super fun to read aurelle’s and learn a little more about her, and im glad to see another Olkund 👍

Tagging: im just gonna go ahead and tag just a few people, but if you see this and are interested, go for it! and tag me or pm me so i can read it!!! @road-sparrow @jae-ardence @rolanberrycheesecake @wildgirlcinna @aurorahawklight-ffxiv @asinopes @cerulianvaultofwonder @the-rosehouse @lady-of-crowns (obvs only if you guys wanna, and for whichever character of your choice if applicable!)

#the fool #this was awesome honestly #i got to actually sit down and think about The Fool's Lore :tm:#thanks again aurelle!!#long post

9 notes · View notes

caveartfair · 8 years ago

Text

The 20 Best Booths at The Armory Show

The Armory Show underwent a successful makeover this year, opening its doors yesterday to a labyrinth of bigger booths, wider aisles, and a whopping 70 one- and two-artist presentations—making for a stronger fair. But the amount of carpeted pavement one must pound to see all 208,000 square feet hasn’t abated. To help you navigate the show’s two long piers, featuring presentations by 210 galleries from 30 countries, we highlight 20 booths you can’t miss.

Victoria Miro

Galleries Section, Booth 600

With works by Yayoi Kusama, Hernan Bas, Alice Neel, Peter Doig, Sarah Sze, Maria Nepomuceno, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jules de Balincourt, Verne Dawson, Barnaby Furnas, Alex Hartley, Secundino Hernández, Christian Holstad, John Kørner, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Ofili, Celia Paul, Tal R, Kara Walker

Installation view of Victoria Miro’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

Grounded in a green swath of astroturf, Miro’s booth resembles an ecstatic, surrealist garden. The brilliant floor covering connects the presentation, which features standout works by Yayoi Kusama, Alice Neel, Peter Doig, Sarah Sze, and Maria Nepomuceno (to name a few), with Kusama’s large-scale installation situated at the heart of the fair. Titled Guidepost to the New World (2016), it’s a dreamlike environment that roots Kusama’s red and white sculptures, resembling fairytale mushrooms on acid, in a mossy carpet. According to director Glenn Scott Wright, the installation sold in the fair’s first hours.

Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Galleries Section, Booth 200

With works by James Turrell, Mary Corse

Installation view of Kayne Griffin Corcoran’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

Armory Show first-timer Kayne Griffin Corcoran’s booth is the first visitors see upon entering Pier 92—and its draw is like that of a moth to a flame. Mary Corse’s glistening painting, measuring 102-inches square, hangs on the outside of booth and serves as a gateway into an installation devoted to two practices that employ light as medium, as well as “challenge perception,” says gallery director Genevieve Day.

The second artist, James Turrell, is announced by a pink glow that emanates from behind the wall that supports Corse’s painting. It leads to two recent works by the famed Light and Space movement pioneer on the back wall of the booth. Priced between $500,000 and $850,000, they represent the artist at his best: A rectangle and a diamond pulse ever-so-slowly with mesmerizing gradients of colored light. On the first day of the show, Diamonds (Squares on point) Glass (2015), in particular, was drawing interest from collectors. A cascade of colors emerge from its center, which looks as if it stretches back, like a portal, into another dimension.

While Turrell’s work is more well-known—and also higher-priced—Corse’s paintings stood out as an exciting new find for some fair visitors, as well as a good buy. Corse came of age in Los Angeles at the same time as Turrell but wasn’t in dialogue with his male-dominated group of Light and Space artists. She was, however, independently inspired by painting’s ability to manipulate perception, especially through an engagement with light.

Her spellbinding monochrome canvases embed glass microspheres into paint; when light catches at the right angle, the surfaces scintillate brilliantly. They are priced between $100,000 and $350,000, and several had sold by the close of the fair’s first day.

Downs & Ross

Presents Section, Booth P11

With works by Ragna Bley, Yanyan Huang

Installation view of Downs & Ross’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

This jewel-box booth presages an exciting future for the young gallery Downs & Ross, which recently opened as a joint effort between two Lower East Side spaces, formerly known as Tomorrow and Hester. The gallery’s first Armory Show presentation joins the new paintings of Oslo-based Ragna Bley and Florence-based Yanyan Huang. Both artists, according to gallery co-founder Alex Ross, “extend the language of biomorphic abstraction.” Each practice brims with exuberant, lush strokes that evoke, in Huang��s work, sensuous, overflowing foliage, and in Bley’s, tempestuous seas and volatile atmospheric shifts.

Sprüth Magers

Galleries Section, Booth 800

With works by Michail Pirgelis, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Ruff

Installation view of Sprüth Magers’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

A massive shard of metal commands Sprüth Magers’s installation. It’s the work of 40-year-old Greek-German artist Michail Pirgelis, who mines airplane graveyards for the materials that become his dystopian-minimalist sculptures. The Berlin, London, and Los Angeles-based gallery pairs Pirgelis’s work with Thomas Ruff’s recent series of manipulated, archival newspaper clippings related to early space travel and a quartet of Sterling Ruby’s sculptures and collaged wall works made between 2011 and 2016.

Laveronica arte contemporanea

Presents Section, Booth P10

With works by Marinella Senatore

Installation view of Laveronica arte contemporanea’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

In advance of Marinella Senatore’s April solo exhibition at the Queens Museum, Laveronica brings a mini-survey of the work that the Italian, London- and Paris-based artist made during several recent stints in New York. It’s an ambitious project for the gallery’s first Armory Show outing, which successfully introduces Senatore’s complex performative practice—one that hinges on community engagement—within the confines of a small booth. One work on display, Jammin’ Drama Project (2011–2014), engaged over 500 New Yorkers across neighborhoods to explore the abundance of spontaneous poetry and rap that fills the city’s streets.

Jeffrey Deitch

Galleries Section, Booth 732

With works by Florine Stettheimer, Cecily Brown, Philip Taaffe, Lisa Yuskavage, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Joe Brainard, Thomas Trosch, Rob Wynne, Aurel Schmidt, Walter Robinson, Joe Coleman, Laura Owens, Tschabalala Self, John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Elizabeth Peyton, Pavel Tchelitchew, and more

Installation view of Jeffrey Deitch’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

After a several-year hiatus from The Armory Show, Deitch has returned with a show-stopping booth exploding with Rococo-inspired decor, hot pink walls, and a salon-style hanging of paintings by the likes of Cecily Brown, Laura Owens, and Tschabalala Self.

“Florine Stettheimer Collapsed Time Salon,” as Deitch has dubbed the installation, resurrects his 1995 project of the same name. Originally presented in the penthouse of Gramercy Hotel’s International Art Fair (The Armory Show’s predecessor), it served to introduce Stettheimer—a Jazz-Age figurative painter, who also ran a notorious Upper West Side salon frequented by the likes of Marcel Duchamp and Georgia O’Keeffe—to an art world that had largely forgotten her contribution.

But times have changed since 1995, and this time around, Deitch is taking a different approach. “Today, there’s wider awareness of Stettheimer and a real dialogue about her work between generations,” said Deitch on the fair’s first day. “This presentation is a testament to that.”

Of the living artists Deitch asked to contribute to the 2017 iteration of the project, “all of them cited Stettheimer as an important influence,” he continued. This includes Brown, whose standout painting Sky Towers and Bridal Bowers (2016) draws directly from Stettheimer’s visual vocabulary of the city and its frollicking denizens. “Without exaggeration, we could have sold Cecily’s painting 10 times,” said Deitch of the piece, which was snapped up in the fair’s first hours.

The booth also includes exuberant canvases by on-the-rise figurative painters like Grace Weaver and Chloe Wise, along with paintings, collages, and sculptures by more established artists like John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, and Elizabeth Peyton. Prices range from $5,000 for an Aurel Schmidt drawing to $200,000 for a Pavel Tchelitchew painting.

But the most stunning piece in the booth is a work that’s not for sale. It’s one of Stettheimer’s masterworks, Asbury Park South (1920), a beach scene that captures both the flamboyance and the social tensions (namely, lingering segregation) of the Jazz Age.

Thomas Erben Gallery and Lévy Gorvy

Focus Section, Booth F8

With works by Senga Nengudi

Installation view of Thomas Erben Gallery and Lévy Gorvy’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

This sparse but powerful presentation convenes both the historic and recent works of radical performance artist Senga Nengudi. Her performative sculptures, both made between the 1960s and today, combine nylons filled with sand and ritualized movements to explore the dual fragility and resilience of the human body—and the black female body in particular. Her recent large-scale sculpture, R.S.V.P. Reverie “Scribe” (2014), is especially memorable; it stretches taut five “limbs” rendered from a rainbow of skin-colored pantyhose, each culminating in a bulbous base resembling a foot, breast, or phallus.

Donald Ellis Gallery

Insights Section, Booth 212

With works by 19th century Plains Indians

After Donald Ellis saw a 1996 show at New York’s Drawing Center of drawings by the Plains Indians, made between 1865 and 1935, he headed out west to learn more. Since then, the gallerist, whose program is devoted to antique North American Indian art, has incorporated a focus on drawings made by members of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche tribes, among others. Across the booth, he presents a wide array of the pieces, both large and small, which depict triumphant moments from battles and hunting expeditions, intimate everyday activities, and transcendent visions alike.

Galería OMR

Galleries Section, Booth 702

With works by Jose Dávila, Gabriel Rico, Matti Braun

Installation view of Galería OMR’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

It wouldn’t be hard to mistake OMR’s booth for a scene from the Stanley Kubrick-film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Together, the works of Matti Braun, Jose Dávila, and Gabriel Rico create an otherworldly environment. On the walls, Braun’s cloud-like abstractions and Dávila’s frosty glass panel, held up precariously by a white ratchet strap, feel like passages to other realms. Rico’s sculptures enhance the mystical environment. One, comprising a taxidermy lamb, a piece of glowing neon, and a plastic orange, resembles a seance circle or a sacrificial offering.

Pace Gallery

Galleries Section, Booth 530

With works by Studio Drift

Installation view of Pace Gallery’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

On the fair’s opening day, the largest and most awestruck crowd gathered around Pace Gallery’s booth, where a hulking concrete cube levitated high in the air. At around 11 a.m., the artists behind the feat—Studio Drift, duo Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn—stood under the work, taking photos while fairgoers looked on (nervously, in this writer’s case). “People have been amazed,” said Pace’s Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst of the reaction to the installation, titled Drifter (2017). “It’s very elegant, poetic, and beautiful, but also filled with wonder, strangeness, and tension.”

Nauta and Gordijn excel at probing dichotomies between beauty and discomfort and between the familiar and the phenomenal in their work. And they achieve these tensions by combining everyday materials with innovative technologies. As is the case in much of their output—including another Studio Drift project at the fair, which employs mixed reality—the artists consulted engineers and programmers in order to realize Drifter. But while Nauta and Gordijn reveal that the piece is constructed from concrete and robotics, exactly how it floats in the air remains a mystery. And the artists want to keep it that way.

“Our dialogue today, whether in politics or technology and culture, is all about what’s real and what’s fake and what’s augmented and what’s organic,” says Dent-Brocklehurst. “This work taps into those conversations and questions.” The artists echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the piece engages the tensions between “humanity versus nature and chaos versus order” that currently headline newspapers and conferences the world over. The installation was already a crowd favorite by close of the fair’s first day. But priced at $350,000, and measuring 16 feet wide, and mobile at that, it will need to find an ambitious—and courageous—buyer.

Alison Jacques Gallery and Stuart Shave/Modern Art

Galleries Section, Booth 500

With works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Dorothea Tanning, Juergen Teller, Takuro Kuwata, Lygia Clark, Fernanda Gomes, Graham Little, Irma Blank, Erika Verzutti, Maria Bartuszová, Richard Tuttle, Ricky Swallow, Linder, Hannah Wilke, Ron Nagle

Installation view of Alison Jacques Gallery and Stuart Shave/Modern Art’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

This multi-room booth, which joins the London-based programs of Alison Jacques and Stuart Shave, stands out for its tightly curated arrangements of artworks. Juxtapositions between generally small but arresting pieces reveal stimulating—and surprising—resonances between artists. One striking corner mingles two 1998 abstractions by Richard Tuttle with a new bronze by Ricky Swallow. Next to these, feminist pioneer Linder’s recent erotic photomontage, featuring yellow roses arranged strategically over private parts, is juxtaposed with an irresistible 1970 Hannah Wilke terracotta, Yellow Rose of Texas. Other standouts include sculptures by Maria Bartuszová, Takuro Kuwata, and Ron Nagle.

Galleri Brandstrup

Galleries Section, Booth 745

With works by Joseph Kosuth, Ola Kolehmainen, Per Maning, Lars Elling, Michael Kvium, Thomas Lerooy, Marina Abramović, Sverre Bjertnæs

Installation view of Galleri Brandstrup’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

Oslo-based Brandstrup’s ambitious program is announced with an eye-catching installation by young Norwegian artist Sverre Bjertnæs on the booth’s exterior. At the fair, he forged a deep blue mural that looks like an undulating sea from marker alone. It serves as the backdrop for two intricately composed figurative paintings that reference immigration. One, titled Three Figures in a Revolution (2017) and priced at $27,000, had already sold on the fair’s first day. Other compelling works include a series of large-scale black-and-white photographs by Per Maning and a group of new paintings by Michael Kvium.

PRAZ-DELAVALLADE

Galleries Section, Booth 712

With works by Brian Wills

Installation view of PRAZ-DELAVALLADE’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

Just a month after Paris mainstay PRAZ-DELAVALLADE opened its second gallery in Los Angeles, it features young L.A.-based artist Brian Wills in a spacious solo booth. In one of the fair’s most elegant presentations, Wills’s minimalist abstractions line the walls with curiosity-piquing striations of color. Depth is evident in the works, but the eye can’t immediately discern how they’re constructed. It turns out that Wills covers wooden armatures with strands of string in different colors. The result: brilliant gradients that resemble computer-generated images but are in fact assembled meticulously by hand.

PROYECTOSMONCLOVA and Timothy Taylor Gallery

Galleries Section, Booth 508

With works by Gabriel de la Mora, Martin Soto Climent, Eduardo Terrazas, Julius Heinemann, Shezad Dawood, Volker Hüller

Installation view of PROYECTOSMONCLOVA and Timothy Taylor Gallery’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

In one of several shared booths at the fair, Mexico City-based PROYECTOSMONCLOVA and London-based Timothy Taylor Gallery present a venn diagram of their respective programs. Works by artists the two galleries share stand out: Gabriel de la Mora’s stunning multi-part piece, B-8 izq / 8 der I (2016), which arranges vintage speaker fabrics into a skeleton-like grid, and architect-cum-artist Eduardo Terrazas’s 1.1.263 (2016), which uses indigenous Mexican techniques to create geometric patterns. Several new 2017 works by Martin Soto Climent are also highlights.

White Cube

Galleries Section, Booth 701

With works by Cerith Wyn Evans

Installation view of White Cube’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

A towering screen of neon text greets visitors of Pier 94 and headlines a large, captivating solo booth featuring Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans. While Wyn Evans is already regarded as one of the contemporary art’s most rigorous conceptual artists—his work has investigated the fragility of meaning since the 1990s—he is currently readying for one of his most momentous years to date.

It’s no coincidence that White Cube has assembled a mini retrospective of Wyn Evans’s work at the fair. And the strong group of glowing, resonant sculptures, neons, and wall pieces suggests what’s to come at upcoming exhibitions like the artist’s solo at the Tate Britain in March and his inclusion in the Venice Biennale in May and the Skulptur Projekte Münster in June.

“We’re thrilled to be showing a range of Wyn’s work,” said the gallery’s director Daniela Gareh of the booth. The highlight, she noted, “is a new Murano glass chandelier titled Mantra, which is activated by a musical score composed by the artist.” The sculpture, which spins and flickers subtly to a soft score that seems to emanate from its innards, is indeed the nucleus around which the rest of the booth revolves. It also speaks to the evanescence and malleability of the meaning of art, an enduring subject of Wyn Evans’s work and here embodied by the constant movements and modulations of the sculpture, the soundtrack, and the light which accompanies them both.

These themes are reflected in the monumental neon ...later on they are in a garden…(2007). Here, Wyn Evans reproduces a fragment of dialogue from the influential French New Wave film La Jetée (1962), in which the characters attempt to piece memories together. Removed from its original context and rendered in bright light, the text at once seems to honor and question the ability of language to reveal hidden or forgotten truths.

Richard Saltoun

Insights Section, Booth 128

With works by Liliana Porter, Helena Almeida, Francesca Woodman, Hannah Wilke, Carolee Schneemann, Eleanor Antin, Claudio Abate, Robert Filliou, Valie Export, Sanja Iveković, Helen Chadwick, Gina Pane, Friedl Kubelka, Renate Bertlmann, Jo Spence, Annegret Soltau, Françoise Janicot, Marina Abramovic & Ulay

Installation view of Richard Saltoun’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

“It’s a primer in influential feminist performance art,” gallery director Niamh Coghlan says of Richard Saltoun’s impressive booth, curated by Italian critic Paola Ugolini. A 48-part photographic installation by radical Viennese feminist artist Renate Bertlmann is the centerpiece of the presentation. It’s a museum-quality work that Bertlmann considers the first piece that set her daring career in motion. Other highlights include a suite of photos from Ana Mendieta’s “Silueta Series” (1973–1978), in which she captures evanescent impressions of her body in sand and mud—some as they fill mournfully with seawater.

Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Galleries Section, Booth 504

With works by Sadaharu Horio

Installation view of Axel Vervoordt Gallery’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

In Axel Vervoordt’s cacophonous, buoyant booth you can pocket an artwork made in-situ for a mere buck. The project, called Art Vending Machine (2015) is the brainchild of Sadaharu Horio, a member of the Japanese avant-garde movement Gutai. Over the course of the fair, he churns out drawings and paintings made in a single minute within the walls of his plywood “machine.” Elsewhere in the booth, a selection of the artist’s seminal, large-scale hanging assemblages, like the excellent Failure to the Tableau Thought (1970), are on view.

Fergus McCaffrey

Galleries Section, Booth 505

With works by Marcia Hafif, Richard Nonas

Installation view of Fergus McCaffrey’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

Fergus McCaffrey’s elegant booth mingles the practices of two American artists who came of age in the 1960s and happen to be great friends. The works of Marcia Hafif and Richard Nonas, however, differ greatly—and that’s precisely what makes this presentation so compelling. Hafif’s hyper-saturated canvases featuring curvaceous forms that resemble bodily contours (she calls these her “Pop-Minimal” paintings) draw you in. Nonas’s more subtle patinaed steel sculptures cover the floor. They resemble architectural forms or ritualized objects; given Nonas’s early years as an anthropologist, they just might be inspired by them, too.

kamel mennour

Galleries Section, Booth 801

With works by François Morellet, Mohamed Bourouissa

Installation view of kamel mennour’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

On the booth’s exterior, the late French minimalist François Morellet’s stunning 2008 acrylic-and-neon painting, Deep dark, light, blue n°2, hints at the tightly curated hanging just behind it. For the Parisian gallery’s second stint participating in The Armory Show, it presents two artists who “together show the gallery’s DNA—the spectrum of our program,” said Kamel Mennour in the fair’s opening hours.

Mennour juxtaposes Morellet, a pioneering minimalist who passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, with Mohamed Bourouissa, a young Algerian-born Parisian artist whose multimedia practice explores contemporary social tensions and cultural idiosyncrasies, especially in urban environments. The two artists might sound like a surprising pairing, but the installation reveals an aesthetic dialogue between their practices: the jagged edges of Bourouissa’s sculptural collages enhance the angular, optically-dizzying patterns of Morellet’s works—and vice-versa.

The installation also reflects “a dialogue and a confrontation between different generations of art in Europe,” said Mennour. This intergenerational exchange lies at the core of the gallery’s ethos. At the fair, Bourouissa’s work represents a younger group of artists whose careers Mennour shepherds, like Camille Henrot and Alicja Kwade. Morellet, on the other hand, represents an older, well-established cohort, including Claude Lévêque, Martial Raysse, and Daniel Buren.

On the fair’s first day, visitors gathered around Bourouissa’s brand-new assemblages and Morrellet’s historic 1970s compositions alike. By the time of writing, two of Bourouissa’s works, priced between $40,000 and $50,000, were spoken for and several of Morellet’s canvases, priced between $100,000 and $500,000, were on reserve. This excitement for each artist’s work is also mirrored in the institutional landscape, where Bourouissa will have his first solo show at a U.S. institution, the Barnes Foundation, in June, and Morellet’s work will be celebrated in a retrospective at the Dia Art Foundation in the fall

Galleria d’Arte Maggiore G.A.M.

Galleries Section, Booth 519

With works by Giorgio Morandi, Lee Ufan

Installation view of Galleria d’Arte Maggiore G.A.M.’s booth at The Armory Show, 2017. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.

In one of two excellent booths G.A.M. brings to The Armory Show this year (the other assembles works by Roberto Sebastian Matta and his sons Gordon Matta Clark and Pablo Echaurren), the Bologna-based gallery juxtaposes the great mid-20th century Italian still life innovator Giorgio Morandi with contemporary minimalist Korean painter Lee Ufan. It’s an unlikely pairing that makes for a transcendent installation—one that reveals the ritual and philosophical qualities of painting for both artists.

—Alexxa Gotthardt

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

0 notes

embersofhope-if · 2 years ago

Text

Okay i wrote this a while ago bc somebody requested it but now i can't find the ask💔

anyways heres a drabble of the fight Mc and Aurel got into when they were sixteen

tw for fighting, dissociation, strangulation, and theres a needle used at the end but its not explicitly stated

wordcount: 1.9k

The rain pours down onto me as I stand waiting. What I'm waiting for, I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that I need to stand here and wait until whatever is supposed to happen happens. I see the blurred figures of both children and teachers leaving the school to go start their afternoon shifts in the factories. Even if I can’t clearly see their faces, I can feel their glares, anger, and hatred hot on my skin. It’s the only thing I can feel at the moment. It’s honestly about the only thing I’ve been able to feel since the games ended. I can’t bring myself to think too deeply about what happened, or I might start drowning in every emotion imaginable, again.

I can’t let that happen. They’ll put me on so many pills I won’t be able to tell which way is up.

So, I continue to stand, waiting in the rain, having only the heat of glares keeping me warm. A bolt of lightning hits the building across the street, followed by a loud crack of thunder. The jolt of fear suddenly clears my mind of the fog that it’s been trapped in, and I realize why I’m here.

Ash

Every day without fail, Ash and I would meet up here after school. Whether we would just talk for a couple of minutes before their shift at the factory or I was walking them home, we always met up here.

All at once, everything that I haven’t been able to feel hits me so hard I almost fall over. Every feeling forms into a single thought.

I’ve got to get out of here now.

I run, fleeing from the courtyard and everything that’s happened there. That courtyard is nothing but a painful reminder that Ash is gone, and there is nothing I can do to bring them back. With the fog lifted from my brain, I can now fully feel the pain of what's happened. My heart aches as if the games happened just yesterday, and it has left my feet unsteady as I continue to run. I have no idea where I'm running to, probably somewhere equally as painful, but as long as I’m moving away from here, I don’t really care.

I shove past several people, barely hearing their angry shouts of protest, and force my way through a set of doors. I have no idea where I am or where to go. I recognize the room, but my mind refuses to focus enough to remember the name. All I can think about is how much my chest aches and how cold my hands are. My skin feels so cold it's like I’ve never felt the Sun.

I force myself to sit down before I collapse onto the floor, trying not to make any more of a scene than I already have. Exhaustion begins to replace whatever panic is left in my body.

I need to stand up. Make my way home before someone tells Father that I’ve had some type of breakdown. Explain to him that this is nothing like that.

But it is exactly like that, isn’t it? I’m not entirely sure what counts as a breakdown, but sprinting through school grounds shoving anyone out of my way in a blind panic probably counts at least as the start of one. The worry of what Father is going to do when he finds out isn’t enough to motivate my body to move again. I’m so exhausted that all I can bring myself to do is sit here and breathe.

I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been here, but it’s long enough for me to finally realize where I’m at, the community cafeteria. I’m just thankful I didn’t barge my way into some teacher’s classroom, which means the chances of someone noticing me are significantly lower. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to stand, but I have noticed other people moving about and taking seats. These must be late-day shift workers. That means it's almost seven o’clock, and I’m supposed to be at dinner in thirty minutes. This realization finally manages to get my limbs moving again.

I’ve got to get across the city in the middle of a shift change in less than thirty minutes and then pretend that I’ve spent the last three hours in my room instead of out here trying not to lose my mind. This is going to be near impossible

I quickly stand, trying to come up with something to say to my family whenever I get back home.

Maybe I can say I went on a walk or Hope went missing and I went looking for him. Who am I kidding? Mother wouldn’t believe that for a second, and if she did, Calliope wouldn’t, and she’d have no problem with immediately calling me out on the lie.

No matter what I come up with, every excuse is worse than the last. Ultimately, I decided to just get back as fast as I could and wing it from there.

Once again, I begin shoving my way through groups of people not really caring for the looks they throw my way. I’m stopped whenever a hand grabs my collar and pulls, hard. The motion forces me to turn around, and I come face to face with Aurel Weaver. The anger in their eyes does nothing but confuse me.

I hardly know Aurel. I can’t even remember the last time I spoke to them. What could I have possibly done to make them so angry?

For a minute, we both just stare at each other, waiting for the other to speak. I take the moment to properly look at them. After the games ended, shifts at the factories began to ramp up, and Aurel ended up dropping out of school to keep up with the work they were assigned. I haven’t really seen them since then, but I can tell the work is taking a toll on them, changing them. They look about as exhausted as I feel. Their skin pale, and the bags under their eyes are worse than I've ever seen them before. But the biggest change I can see is in their eyes; beautiful hazel eyes drowning in nothing but fury and hatred, and it's all directed at me. A sharp pang runs through my chest. I may not have been best friends with Aurel, but I still considered them at the very least a friendly acquaintance. I force myself to ignore the hurt and very suddenly realize that I’ve been staring for too long and I can't afford to waste what little time I have to get home. “Sorry Aurel, I didn’t mean to run into you,” I say quickly, going to turn to leave.

I take a step away until I, once again, feel a hand grab me. Only this time, the hand is wrapped around both my collar and the chain hanging around my neck. They’re saying something to me, but all I can focus on is the chain in their hand and the fact that if they pull it’ll snap. I take a breath slightly, turning my head, forcing myself to listen to what they’re saying.

“It’s rude to not answer my questions, you know?” Aurel growls, and I can feel them getting ready to yank me back. Instead of responding, I try to move out of their grip. At the same time, they decide to pull, and I feel the chain snap.

The pendant slides down my shirt, and I watch it fall to the ground. The last precious gift that I will ever get from Ash now lays on the ground broken like it was nothing. I barely feel Aurel's presence anymore. All I can stare at is the pieces.

They grab my shoulder, tired of me apparently ignoring them, and force me to look at them. Suddenly, the nothingness I felt while looking at the broken pendant is replaced with an all-consuming rage at the sight of them standing, acting like I owe them any type of response. I glance around and notice a glass cup sitting on the table next to us.

Without a second of delay, I grab it and smash it against the side of their head. Before they manage to recover any semblance of balance, I lunge at them and knock them to the ground. One. Two. Three. I get three punches in before they get me off them. They pin me down with one hand around my throat and use the other to try and hold my hands down. I can feel their right hand around my throat, squeezing hard while I kick and scratch at them. As my vision starts to fill with black spots, I freeze and begin to realize that Aurel might just be trying to kill me.

I’m going to die on the dirty floor of the community cafeteria, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine. Broken and nothing on the ground, just like the necklace lying next to me.

I feel Aurel's grip on me loosens, and I know this is my chance to get them off me. I kick them in the side and manage to get out from under them. I throw a punch to the side of their head that knocks them into a leg of the table, hard. Disoriented and off balance, Aurel doesn’t even notice that I’m in front of them until I pin them down and begin to hit them over and over. I lose track of how many times I hit them; all I know is that they’re not fighting back anymore. I don’t stop. I can’t stop. Every emotion I’ve been trying not to feel comes out in every swing. I know I’m crying, but I can’t bring myself to care. I should be ashamed for doing this for letting my anger take control, but I’m not.

There’s a crowd around us now. I can’t hear them, but I can see them; with the show me and Aurel have been putting on, it was bound to catch some attention. If there’s a crowd, then that means there must be peacekeepers on the way. I don’t care. They can drag me away and lock me up forever, and I won’t care. I feel hands trying to pull me off Aurel, but I don’t let them.

They hurt me. Why shouldn’t I hurt them? I want to hurt them. I want to hurt all of them. Everyone in the districts and Capitol. I want to hurt them all.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice white uniforms surrounding me, and they begin grabbing me. They’re a lot better at getting me off Aurel than whoever was trying before. As I’m being pulled away, I notice the pendant still lying on the ground, a forget-me-not shattered into pieces.

Ash would hate me right now.

That thought takes any fight I had left, and I sag in the peacekeeper's arms. The last thing I see is my Father walking towards me as I feel a sharp prick on the back of my neck and fade into darkness.

#emma writes🪶#aurel weaver.#mc vesper.#tw.fighting #tw.dissociation #tw.needles #i literally didnt edit this so ignore the errors im begging #drabbles.

54 notes · View notes