20 March – 20 May 2013

Opening:
Wednesday, 20 March, 20-22 h.

Conde de Xiquena, 5
8004 Madrid, Spain
T

[+34] 915 210 382
General info: info@casadosantapau.com
Opening hours:
Tuesday-Friday, 11-14 h. / 16.30 to 20.30 h.
Saturday, 11-14 h. + by appointment
www.casadosantapau.com

“As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table”.

Comte de Lautréamount

For the solo exhibition at Casado Santapau Gallery, Abdul Vas presents a selection of his artistic production based on collage- defined as “an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface,”and derived from the French word “to glue”- a highly personal form of expression for him .

The recycling, reinterpretation and reprocessing images as true and vital reflection of our time and perfect medium for the artist to carve out fragment from his frenzy and obsessions and force the disparate pieces to became one. It is his way of controlling the chaos -or at least pushing the pause botton long enough for examination.Abdul Vas collages are an unexpected yet strikingly appropriate means of channeling and processing the world around us and is enjoying a newly found place among necessary outlets of expression.

In the show, the artist constructed scenes often focused on a tribute to AC/DC and Halley´s comet, jewish symbolism, physical relationships involving trucks , pleasure and power and enigmatic situations that reflect private dramas. The way the artist is assembling individual items to form a new whole with juxtaposing images create a disruptive and perturbing atmosphere between abstract and narrative, expressive and iconic, technically intricate and super-raw.

Blurring of lines that is at the heart of Abdul Vas collage work reveals a highly experimental field that goes in many directions. It serve aesthetic purposes, also use as a vehicle for devotion to AC/DC and in other cases as a catharsis for images that populate subconscious that only make sense to himself, but remain insoluble puzzle for everyone else.

Curated by Alexis Callado Estefanía

Abdul Vas. Born in Maracay, Venezuela, in 1981, he grew up living between Surinam, Guyana, and Belgium. He studied Fine Arts at EAVRA, Maracay, and later at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. He has created handmade books and zines, photographs, collages, drawings, paintings and murals. Since 2004, he has realized several solo exhibitions for commercial galleries in Europe and the Americas, and has participated in many group exhibitions. In 2009, he was selected for the Beijing Biennale; in the same year, he exhibited My 57 States AC/DC (Georgetown, Guyana). Since 2010, he has been working on the project North-American Truckers and AC/DC Power , exhibited at Disk Union (Tokyo, Japan). Abdul Vas lives and works in Amsterdam and Madrid.

more info: www.preteengallery.net