Carlos Amorales makes "Manimal" magic in Seoul, opens solo show

"Black Cloud," by Carlos Amorales (2007), 25,000 black paper moths on walls

Carlos Amorales

Carlos Amorales

Carlos Amorales, “Carlos Amorales: Silent Films,” Seoul, South Korea.  

The Songeun Artspace on 11 March inaugurated post neo-Mexicanismo artist Carlos Amorales’ first solo

show in South Korea. It runs through 21 May.

Songeun emphasized it chose Amorales as its point artist for its new project, whose mission is providing “significant exposure in Korea to young international artists who are making a unique and significant impact in the art world today.”

 

Amorales is a natural fit with his collection of 25 digital, vector graphic drawings, 14 photograms--artistic cameraless photography--and two videos.

Wikipedia defines vector graphics as applying “geometric primitives such as points, lines curves and shapes or polygons, which are all based on mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics.”

He loves his photograms of “Manimals,” half human, half animal.

  

Amorales takes sheets of photo paper or other photo-sensitive material, places various objects on them, then kick-starts his kinetic visual capers, creating sometimes ghostly images.

In a 2009 interview in Mexico City, he said:

“I don’t create art that lectures or tells you what to think; instead, my art helps you ponder, giving possibilities of what to think so that you can make new connections that apply in your life.”

One of Carlos Amorales' "Manimals"

(See: YouTube video condensing this interview, translating segments into English, but professionally created by painter and art therapy Ph.D. student, Amanda Alders. 

This is worth seeing.

Shifting media comes easily for Amorales.

“I am not a writer; I’m not a person who can tell a fantasy story. I’m good at visualizing things.

“So, what I’ve been looking for is a method to be able to tell those stories and to make good my story telling incompetence,” he said in another reported interview.

This exhibition reveals only a hint of the depth the artist’s multi-layered talent.

He has staged solo exhibitions at the MOMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Milton Keynes Gallery in Milton Keynes, UK, Miami’s Basel art fair, Tate Modern in London and Pompidou Center in Paris.

Amorales also sculpts and performs as well as throws up installations.

Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris and New York, represents him.

Rock on and practice love and peace.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler™

As spring nears, consider a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop in our Andalusia Mountains. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

Samana Santa (Holy Week) (2007), Competa, Spain - Photo by Stefan van Drake

You may reach me privately at stefanvandrake@gmail.com; please alert me to news tips, story ideas or happenings where you are, which may interest us all. You can call me: (34) 951 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates: 0844 774 8349. Both bring you to me in Canillas de Albaida, Spain.