Saturday, July 28, 2012

Trailer Park Proyects presents “Messengers” by Maja Ruznic

Trailer Park Proyects is proud to announce the first solo show of Bosnian-Born (1983) and San Francisco based artist Maja Ruznic. The individual show titled “Messengers” will open on August 9th at TPP home base in Rio Piedras, calle Balseiros #65 right in front of El Refugio at 6:00pm. The exhibition consists of a series of 10 paintings on paper which will range in between $225-$500. Ruznic got her MFA at California College of the Arts in 2009 and was featured in the cover of New American Paintings Magazine issue #97. Ruznic last exhibited with San Francisco based Michael Rosenthal Gallery at the collective show titled “Active”.





The paintings are records of people and events where every person and every event are important. As an observer, actor and a witness, Ruznic uses her painting as a medium to explore notions of intimacy and connectedness. Sometimes she is drawn to someone’s hands, to one’s rhythm of speech or to someone’s constant checking of their cell phone.

Relying on the memory of an experience, the artist paints what she remembers and also what is unknown to her. In the act of painting, the capricious nature of memory distorts the truth and the painting becomes something else—something in between the actual experience and her recollection of the event.

Nonetheless, the contemplation of the person or the event-- through the act of painting--is what is most important. In a world where nothing seems to last very long and more and more of our experiences are virtual, as an artist Ruznic is interested in the pyscho-physical relationship between those people she meet and herself. Painting serves as a platform to reflect and observe the nature of memory and its impact on the present.

If you would like to see more of Ruznic’s works you can visit her website www.ontheedgeofreason.com or if you want to see the works that will be exhibited in the Trailer go to our Facebook page and look in the photos album titled Maja Ruznic – Messengers.

Follow us on twitter @trailerparkproj and on instagram: TrailerParkProj for updates and location of the exhibition. To see all the works that will be exhibited at TPP please visit our Facebook page in the photo section search the folder named Maja Ruznic.

As usual we will visit the Universidad de Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras), Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in Santurce and the Escuela de Arte Plásticas in San Juan to show art students what is happening in the different art scenes around the world.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Tim Bergstrom - TPP 2012 Artist in Residence

We are proud to announce that New York based artist Tim Bergstrom has been selected as our first Resident Artist in our new program of International Artist Residency.

Bergstrom visited the Island for the first time when exhibiting at TPP last June 2012 his solo show “Imperfect Pearl”. His works were very well received and praised by local critics and collectors as well and TPP decided to award the first pilot residency program stay.
The artist in residency will receive a one month stay (August 1-30) in a rented 2 room house ($750), airfare ($500), personal expenses ($450) and art materials ($300). One of our sponsors has provided us with the money upfront which will be repaid with one of the created works of the artist while in his residency in Puerto Rico.
We are very excited to have such a talented artist as our first resident and we expect him to have the greatest time. We will post photos on the residency program page in our blog throughout his stay.
To veiw more of Tim's works visit his website www.timothybegrstrom.com
Interested artists in submitting for next year residency program please submit 3-5 images of your works and your website so we can start working on the 2013 resident artist selection. For mor information on the program and on the criteria, please go to the TPP Residency Program Page in our website.

Friday, July 6, 2012

TPP Limited Edition Silkscreen for the month of May – Ismo’s - Air Jordan-Ismo


This month TPP presents the new limited edition silkscreen print by world renown urban and graffiti artist Ismo. After blowing up the streets with his now infamous toaster and other tags of political and social content and mixing his works with the icons and images of pop culture, he has become one of the most important graffiti artists in the Island. 

Ismo which translates into Ism in English took his name from the suffix of the different movements of art hence Cubism, Modernism, Futurism and Minimalism among others with the intention of just creating his own art movement by simply using the suffix Ism.

In this work Ismo presents his newest appropriation of an iconic logo, which by intervening it he makes it his own and automatically becomes a work of art. As before him Richard Prince has done with his Marlboro cigarette ads and lately his edition of the classic American novel The Catcher in the Rye by JD Slazenger, Prince reprinted the novel exactly the same with the only difference that he printed the dust jacket with the name Richard Prince instead of the actual author. This will most definitively end up in court for copyright where Prince has already lost a battle, just as Shepard Fairey aka OBEY lost his battle with the HOPE poster from the Obama photograph from the Associated Press that ended up in a settlement.



In this print, Ismo has taken a logo similar to that of Air Jordan and he intervened it with his trademark 1950’s toaster in the hand of Jordan instead of the basketball that goes in that hand in the original logo. This is not the first time this well-known logo has been used in the art world as Hank William Thomas used this logo where he had the original logo and another logo jumping right behind it with a gun in place of the basketball. Since Michael Jordan is the most famous athlete in the World, artists in the urban scene and tend to use it because of the familiarity and power it has among the Afro-American demographics.

Throughout his career has appropriated logos of local companies and public figures such as Mama Aime, Don Cholito, Carlos Arroyo and other making his art appealing to a wider crowd of people who can understand his works because they feel familiarized with the theme as they will definitively feel familiarized with this print due to Puerto Rico’s heavy fan base of basketball and the appeal of this internationally known logo.

Ismo is a remarkable graphic artist whom instead of computers uses walls across the Island to show his works. His appropriations are necessary to help criticize local products and make art understandable and comfortable to regular Joe’s who would never actually step into a Museum. His work is necessary so everyone can enjoy art around the city. 

This image will be used in a mural in a non-profit community project this summer. We will post images of the process and document the creative process of the mural.

Remember only 50 signed and numbered just $50. Get yours today.

Sebastian Vallejo's "MarkMaking" opening night @ Galeria Yemaya's Parking Space

This past July 3rd. TPP presented in collaboration with Galeria Yemaya the new body of works of artist Sebastian Vallejo. A great crowd of collectors and friends passed by to say hi to Sebastian who came down for the exhibition's opeining night.

The response to Vallejo's new line of work was incredible and the news of his participation of his summer collective show at Lehman Maupin was really awesome. We will continue to support our young up and comming artists as we have alwats done and follow their career path.

Here are photos of the opeining night, hope you enjoy them...













Thank you all for coming down, See you at the next show in August.