For Freedoms: A Benefit Exhibition in Support of Acción por la Libertad
Henrique Faria Fine Art is honored to present For Freedoms, an exhibition to benefit Acción por la Libertad (Action for Freedom), an initiative that is committed to freedom and democracy in Venezuela. The foundation’s objective is to promote human rights and to document and report violations against fundamental rights: freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of association and assembly and, more recently, freedom of movement. This organization was born after the persecution and arbitrary detentions of political dissidents and students imposed by the Venezuelan government upon its citizens since the protests that started in February 2014.
Participating artists:
Valentina Alvarado (Maracaibo, 1986) studied Graphic Design at Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo and became a professor in the Experimental Arts department there. She later moved to Barcelona where she received her Master's in Contemporary Artistic Creation at Universitat de Barcelona. Her practice explores the hybridization of the various artistic languages like collage, ceramics, photography and analogical film to elaborate discourses linked to memory and identity unfolded in unfinished geographies. Her work establishes a constant dialogue between the digital and analogical where the poetic and the political are an important part of her artistic proposal. She has participated in several collective exhibitions between Maracaibo, Caracas, Barcelona, Berlin, Miami, and London. Historial de navegación was her first individual exposition (Backroom Caracas, 2014). In 2016 she participated in the exhibition El pueblo - Searching for Contemporary Latin America at the Oberhausen Festival (Germany). Her films have been presented at festivals such as Antimatter Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Punto de Vista Festival, among others. In 2017 she was granted the Guasch Coranty Foundation scholarship. Valentina is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Advanced Studies in Artistic Productions at the UB.
The artist continues to live and work in Barcelona, Spain and is currently is an artist resident at La Escocesa.
Alexander Apóstol (Barquisimeto, 1969) studied photography with Ricardo Armas from 1987 to 1988, and art history at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, from 1987 to 1990. Apóstol has completed residencies with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Maracay Mario Abreu, Venezuela (1998), Casa de América, Madrid (2002), and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Italy (2012–13). Apóstol has had solo exhibitions at Sala Mendoza, Caracas (2004); Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; and Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona (all 2006); David Rockefeller Center of Latin American Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2007); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain (2010); and Centro de la Imagen, Lima (2011). He has participated in the group exhibitions Habitat/Variations, Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, and Lo(s) Cinético(s), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (both 2007); Painting in the Glass House, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Islands+Guettos, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin (both 2008); Photographic Typologies, Tate Modern, London (2010); The End of Money, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, and Destello, Fundación Jumex, Mexico City (both 2011). Apóstol has also participated in the São Paulo Biennial (2002); Istanbul Biennial (2003); Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador (2004); Prague Biennial (2003 and 2005); San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico (2009); Manifesta (2009); and Venice Biennale (2011).
The artist lives and works between Madrid, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela.
Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck (Caracas, 1972) received his MFA in Caracas where he has extensively exhibited his work, and later moved his practice to New York from 2000 to 2010. Since the mid-nineties Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck has developed a hybrid practice that incorporates the activities of a researcher, archivist, historian and curator. Working across various mediums, his productions formally resemble or incorporate the works of others, stressing notions of authorship and cultural authority. His entangled narratives are motivated by sociopolitical questions involving gaps in collective knowledge or misrepresentations in the public record, often focusing on the importance of propaganda as a political strategy. Balteo-Yazbeck's works have been shown in solo shows across the globe like at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge; Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York; Galeria Luisa Strina, Sao Paulo; Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna and Green Art Gallery, Dubai. He has also been included in numerous group exhibitions including: Panorama at Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo; Then & Now: Abstraction in Latin American art, 1950 to Present at Deutsche Bank, New York; 12th International Istanbul Biennial; When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Honey, I Rearranged the Collection... at The Bronx Museum of the Arts; Liquid Assets at Steirischer Herbst, Graz; Statue of Limitation at Green Art Gallery, Dubai; 12th International Cuenca Biennial; XVI Quadriennale D’Arte Di Roma, Rome; 4.543 billion. The matter of matter at CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux and Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.
The artist currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Fernando “Coco” Bedoya (Borja, Peru, 1952) is a Peruvian artist who has been based in Argentina since the late 1970s and who is a key figure in linking the experiences of political artistic activism in both countries. Bedoya studied painting and drawing under the artist Cristina Galvéz and at the National School of Fine Arts in Lima, and went on to become a leading member of several artist collectives in Peru, such as Paréntesis and Huayco (1978-79). In Buenos Aires he continued his work by propelling the creation of the groups GAS-TAR and CAPa.Ta.Co, which used street interventions and public space to protest impunity of Argentina’s authoritarian regime with the use of political artistic language, memory and participation. He has exhibited his work extensively, with solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI); Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Museo de Bellas Artes Juan Blanes, Montevideo; among many others. He has also been featured in collective exhibitions at the Museo Jumex, Mexico City (forthcoming 2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MALI, Lima; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; El Museo del Barrio, New York; and the Biennials of Cuenca, La Habana, Curitiba and Lima, among others. As part his creative practice, Bedoya has taught workshops and seminars at art schools as well as federal prisons in Argentina. He has won international prizes and fellowships for his work and has had work acquired by public and private institutions.
The artist lives and works between Buenos Aires and Lima.