My mom made paintings with me as a kid and it was something I was always inspired by since then. Then I went to school and started showing at galleries and people kept showing me support, so it showed me I was doing something good.

So what’s your art about?

I explore shape, space, art history, color, and context.

How important is the emotional aspect of art?

My artwork changes everyday because I’m always keeping track of and reproducing processes throughout different bodies of work. Sometimes the actual process of painting can be emotional due to the building and deconstructing of layers in the work. It takes time to produce my work and once I change it, it can affect me because I feel that sometimes those changes are drastic.

What are you currently working on?

A minimal series in which I use just a few colors and shapes throughout the body of work.

Have you been to any exhibit or seen a work of art that transformed your life or change your way of thinking?

Several times I’ve been to great art shows. For example, the Francis Bacon retrospective at Met. The Jules Olitsky retrospective at Goldman Warehouse. I’m influenced by a variety of other shows and artists.

You are part of the upcoming group show Futurespective. Can you tell us more about the exhibit?

I believe in the group of artists that were chosen to be a part of this show. I believe they are all great artists.

Do you listen to music when you paint? What is your perfect soundtrack?

I love Spotify—it allows me to listen to all kinds of different and related artists. Sometimes, I enjoy listening to the Miami Heat or Miami Hurricanes on the radio.

What else do you have planned for 2013?

Marrying my beautiful lady, Kristen Soller.

Congratulations!

Words: Heike Dempster

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What defines the art of Abby Double?

Abby Double’s proposal is a questioning about identity, unicity in duplexity and duplexity in unicity, including scientific, metaphysics aspects and self experiment. It deals with the harmonization of dualism.

You work off the idea of duality, starting with your own experience as twins. Can you elaborate on how you approach duality in your art?

Duality deals with polarity. It’s the easiest way to take it but there are other angles. For the physics point in our art we have a work which show a geometrical representation of shadows intermingled with light. A shadow can’t exist without light but this figure can also express two sides of a personality. This is also why, on a psychic aspect, the personality trouble is also fascinating. For example, our “Sequential Scanning of a Replicant” installation deals with the potential confusion of identity of the twins and the opposite reading direction between occidental and Western civilization.

Can you share some highlights of your journey as artists with us please?

Our first public performance in 2011 during Scope Miami was really intense because we could feel the crowd of people around us , the murmurs of people through the gas masks between admiration, aversion, amusement or perversion. But when we started the most relevant fact

after the obvious lack of oxygen was the loss of all notion of time. The suffocation had something very heartwarming…

Which media do you prefer to work with?

We’re interested by all objects which can record the real. So, we are the point of departure of our studies and then we use our body as a blank paper for our performance.

You are inspired by philosophy. Which philosopher’s work have you explored via your art?

We titled our first exhibition ‘Prolegomena’ in reference to ‘Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science’ by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. It has to be taken as preliminary notions as non0destructive testing in industry.  Clement Rosset’s work about the physical aspect of the double, Edgar Morin for his reflection about manhood and death and also Michel Guiomar.

Is it ever challenging to be so close and to work together?

Obviously it’s a challenge because the debates are pretty intense. In a collaboration between two colleagues you only have objectivity and logic but in family it’s always a mix between emotion and logic and we have to deal with it.

What do you most admire about each other?

May be the answer is in a quote of Wittgenstein: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”

What are some of your favorite hot spots in Paris?

The art institutions Palais de Tokyo for Art, Museum of Romantism, Palais de la découverte and the Bibliothèque Forney Art and Architecture. For cafés and restaurants we like the café La Perle, the guinguette Rosa Bonheur and the restaurant Le Dauphin. Our favorite clubs are  Cirque Paradis and Le Montana.

What are you currently working on?

We are working on projects with French art institutions in Paris and Marseille and also on a new installation about classic movies about free violence. The Rebecca syndrome series and Duels is also still work in progress.

Double trouble or double blessing?

Double trouble, no doubt.

spinelloprojects.com/abby-double/

Words: Heike Dempster

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Who is Typoe?

TYPOE is a name that was given to me from a friend when I was about 15. It has pretty much stuck with me ever since and has been like my first name. Most people don’t even know my real name. It’s kind of funny.

You mix street art and fine art influences to create your pieces. What aspects do you incorporate and what specifically do you appreciate in street art and gallery art?

I look at the gallery as a classroom. A way where I can teach people about myself. Most of my work is about my journey through life and all the things I have been through: Money, sex, drugs, violence, fucking shit up, love, loss… All the good stuff. As far as graffiti goes, I look at it more like something fun I like to do. To me, graffiti belongs outside and it is about fucking shit up, plain and simple. I don’t believe that graffiti is meant to be inside. It is a full contact sport that is handled in the streets and should stay there.

Where do you draw your inspirations from?

I’m like a sponge. Some of my work is inspired by friends who have passed away, other work is inspired by things I see on a daily basis like fashion, partying, shiny things. Some of my favorite artists are: Andy Goldsworthy, Alexander McQueen, Robert Rauschenberg, Michelangelo.

You are an artist as well as a gallery owner. How do you manage to juggle both and be successful in both arenas?

I have to work very hard at managing my time well. Because of doing both of these activities I don’t have time for anything else really, which is fine. I love what I do and it makes me so happy to just do what I love.

You’re participating in various upcoming international art fairs. How relevant are art fairs to an artist’s career?

They’re effective because it is a really great way to get a lot of views in a short amount of time. Also, it’s great to meet people from other places who have seen and/or bought my work and I would have never known. I think it is a needed step to be involved in the fair circuits just to be relevant. If I’m not working and putting my work into the world then what am I doing?

Which direction do you see your art taking?

Every year my art grows exponentially, as do I. We mature together at a nice rate.

Do you have any other news you would like to share?

I am doing my first collaboration with a brand this year and it is something that normally I wouldn’t jump into because it usually doesn’t make sense. I try to keep my work very limited and I want to share it with people who truly appreciate and love it, so be on the look out for an interesting and exciting collaboration between myself and Deltoro shoes.

spinelloprojects.com/artist/typoe/

Words: Heike Dempster

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Where are you based?

I was born in Miami in 1976 and have always lived in Miami.

When did you decide to become an artist?

Art has always been a part of my life, since I was a young child I was always drawing something, when I was 11 years old is when I started sketching pieces of graffiti. But it wasn’t until 2008 that I finally transitioned into the fine art world.

What attracted you to graffiti?

Mostly my surroundings, seeing other writers work in the streets of Westchester and Hialeah and wanting to evolve and see my own work in the streets of Miami.

I was really introduced to the removal in 1994 when the Summit Of The Americas was held in Miami, Florida. The streets of Miami were completely cleaned up and the buff [the mark left behind when graffiti is scraped and ‘buffed’ off walls] was everywhere. That was a drastic moment for me! I then continued to piece and continued to get buffed until 1998. The buff has always been a part of my world but in 2008 I decided to recreate a part of history, a part of my life, which is recreating the removals that surround us and go unnoticed.

Could you tell us more?

My work first starts from documenting the removals through photographs I capture in the streets. I then become 3 different characters, the construction worker who creates the wall, the vandal who defaces the property and the city employee who removes the graffiti. My work consists of multiple layers which are a reenactment of what is happening in our surroundings and all have a story and memory behind it. I try to give the viewer the opportunity to visualize and understand a movement that previously went untold and unnoticed by the general public.

What is the graffiti scene like in Miami?

The graffiti scene has changed in many ways, from the style to the rules of the game. It has changed in ways that are also for the better such as graffiti writers not respecting the rules of graffiti but conflicts between crews don’t seem as common – or it may also just seem that way to me since I’m from another generation.

Within the last 4 years I have focused on the gallery public but I also have done street art within those years with several artists such as NUNCA, OsGemeos, Finok, Joe Grillo, Shie Moreno and Chris Mendoza.

There is an increase in street art presence in the fine arts and more shows about graffiti and urban art. What has changed?

I feel that the whole graffiti world has changed. It was an underground movement then but now it is accepted not only in galleries but also in the streets. It was very different in the 80s and 90s.

What do you have planned for 2013?

My plans for 2013 are to work hard, have my work noticed and understood by those who don’t understand the history of the removal.

jelmartinez.com

Words: Heike Dempster

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1. Agustina Woodgate

Agustina Woodgate was the only Miami-based artist chosen for Art Positions at Art Basel, a platform for a single major project allowing curators, critics and collectors to discover new talent. Woodgate’s work creates a discourse with the environment and her installations, performances and projects deal with humanity, place and displacement and transformation. In ‘New Landscapes’, Woodgate uses positive and negative matter from three representations of Earth as a proposal for a new kind of territorial exploration as she moves towards an exploration of an optimistic realization of the world. The artist sanded a map, atlas and globe, modifying and recontextualizing the objects as a reaction to the world today, erasing countries and nations, creating one humankind and one planet.

2. Asif Farooq

Miami artist Asif Farooq and his gallery, Primary Projects, set up shop in Wynwood for Art Basel 2012. Farooq spent 7000 hours over a 9 months period to hand-craft 300 superb replica cardboard guns, ranging from snub-nosed revolvers to AK 47s and M16 assault rifles. Asif’s guns was easily the most outstanding and talked about art installation in the Wynwood Art District this year. Set up like a real gun store, the Primary Projects team paid attention to every minor detail to create an ideal space to present and sell Asif Farooq’s artillery – as well as an environment of art and a forum for a discourse on iconography and gun culture.

3. Andra Ursuta

New York based Andra Ursuta was another artist chosen for the Art Position sector. Known for her dark, erotic and humorous sculptures, the young artist is heavily influenced by her Pentecostal Romanian family and strict upbringing. ‘Pole Woman 1’, presented by the gallery Ramiken Cucibles, is another example of Ursuta turning cultural clichés into art.

4. Julieta Aranda

Art Positions is a platform to discover new artists and the Mexican artist Julieta Aranda was one of the chosen few to participate. Her installation ‘I Want to Give it to Someone Else’ raised questions about the role of architecture in society, low income housing, living space and dignity. Aranda reconstructed the floor plan of an apartment building for the poor that collapsed in an earthquake in Mexico in 1985 due to cheap building materials. “Part of the proposal was to give dignity to those people, which is something that I find complicated because I do not think that dignity is something you can do as a handout,” explains Aranda. “The question is, how can you give dignity to people by asking them to just let go of their possessions? Because you will give them something else that is better? The intentions are good but there is too much of an imposition there.”

5. Jumana Manna

Jumana Manna grew up with a feeling of transnational identity. The 25-year-old artist grew up between New Jersey and Jerusalem, feeling simultaneously Palestinian and Israeli and studying in California before relocating to Norway. CRG Gallery from New York presented Manna’s work at Art Basel via a piece entitled ‘Come to Rest’, a life size carousel like the barriers one needs to pass between Israel and Gaza or the West Bank. ‘Come to Rest’ is an inactive barrier that she confronts in her work. “It’s a reference to the fact that you are not supposed to enter until someone else has let the turnstile come to rest,” explains Mae Petra-Wong of CRG. “It’s also an irony of there is nothing restful or peaceful about a barrier between those two countries.”

6. Scott Campbell

American artist and tattoo artist Scott Campbell’s star has risen fast in the art world. Within a mere five years Campbell has reached a level few artists ever reach, with works selling for six figures and a rumored retrospective in 2013. At this year’s Art Basel, Campbell was particularly prominent. At the main vernissage he was present with his delicate sculptures made out of US dollar bills (and yes, he is the only artist in the world who has permission to use US currency) and the satellite fair ‘It Ain’t Fair’ by OH WOW presented a hand engraved 24k gold plated copper rainbow.

7. Theaster Gates

Theaster Gates’ ‘Soul Manufacturing Corporation’ took over Locust Projects in Miami’s Design District. Gates, a sculptor and trained urban planner who lives and works in Chicago, created a factory occupied by “skilled makers” featuring everyone from a DJ to a yoga instructor. Beginning with an empty space things were produced during the duration of the exhibition. Inspired by the early industrial era, Gates’ project is an effort to explore urban intervention, space transformation and relationships between aesthetics, labor and race.

Words: Heike Dempster
Images: Heike and Robert Dempster

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Hello Marc. Would you share some of your career highlights with us?

My first big solo expo was in the Museum of Photography in Antwerp in 2006. My Overview Expo “XXML 20 Years Marc Lagrange” showed in Belgium for the first time in 2011, then in Austria and now at LMNT in Miami before it starts traveling aroud the world.

Your preferred medium is Polaroid photography. What attracts you to the use of Polaroid?

Because Polaroid is so nice to skin tones, it is glam in one shot. It’s an ultimate image and it is impossible to take two identical Polaroid. It’s exclusive.

What essence are you are trying to capture in your photographs?

The ultimate sense of a woman. Sensuality. I want to get my models to reveal their inner selves in a cinematic setting of mystery and charm.

The images you create are sensual, seductive, erotic and captivating. How do you achieve these images bringing out beauty and staying away from an overly sexual focus?

By being a good director and by working with a very good team of stylists and make-up artists. Behind my lens I create art. My work never gets sexual as I think the subtitle in nude photography is to keep it sensual, provoke the imagination.

Do you envision an image first or do you see a woman and then create a vision around her?

I prefer to see the woman first because it is important that she feels how we work. The second shoot is always better because the ice is broken and we can go for stronger creations.

What aspects are important to you when choosing a location or designing a set?

The feeling, the right elements and the light I bring into it. It could be natural or cinema lighting.

Which locations would you still love to shoot at and why?

Tahiti, because of the natural beauty and soon, St Petersburg, for the decadent stories.

You are based in Antwerp. What’s happening in the art scene there?

Antwerp has a very reputable Fashion Academy. People from around the world are studying here. Just remember some Antwerp fashion designers like Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Martin Margiela.

You are launching a new book with your work in 2013. Could you tell us more please?

The title of the book will be “Diamonds & Pearls – A Tribute to Beauty.” The book will be launched in 80 countries and will be my first internationally published book. The book will be published by Te Neues and in 2013 we will travel to several countries for book signings and expositions.

Do you have any other news you would like to share with us?

We will be showing some of my new work during Art Basel Miami Beach next week. We will be at Art Miami Booth C-43 as well as at LMNT Gallery.

www.lagrange.be

Words: Heike Dempster

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You are an artist and graphic designer but also somewhat of an anthropologist. How does your research and observations on culture and society inform your art?

It is a huge part of my practice. I love to connect the dots. I am fascinated how culture and ideas organically evolve. That is a big part of the way my work is informed.

Why did you choose the title “Lock Them Out And Bar The Door. Lock Them Out Forevermore” for your latest solo exhibition?

It comes from a film called Häxan, a silent film from 1922 by a filmmaker called Benjamin Christensen. The film depicted the potent superstitions and mythologies surrounding Satanism and the hysteria of the medieval
Christian. The film was banned from the United States and other countries. In 1967 it was re-released with William S. Burroughs narrating. He opens the film with saying, “Lock them out and bar the door. Lock them out forevermore”. When I first heard that in Burroughs’ distinctive voice I knew that I would have to one day create a visual body of work that would answer Burroughs. It was perfect.

You examine censored and banned books. What first attracted you to this?

My work deals with identity within groups and how those identities are often created as a reaction to an opposing group or idea. Books throughout history have been the catalyst. And for this reason censored.

What’s your personal view on censorship?

Nothing should be censored. Ever.

What are some of the first books you chose to work with and why?

The first was Howl and then Naked Lunch. Howl and Naked Lunch came out of the last series I was working on. I was dealing with different subcultures and they affected music, art and literature. Ginsberg and Burroughs were a big part of these subcultures.

What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus.

Your work is predominantly black. Why did you not incorporate any color?

The color black has different connotations depending on what culture you come from. In western civilization it tends to have a negative association. Black also conjures up feelings of the unknown. Another reason why I use
black in this body of work is that the color black is a straightforward color. The tone on tone with the different shines of blacks give it another layer. I love the way the surface reacts. I have to say a huge influence
for me is Ad Reinhardt.

Will you continue to explore literature and censorship? What are you currently working on?

Not sure but my work has always had text. Maybe not censorship per se, but language and text always creeps up in my work somehow.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or any news you could share with Wonderland readers?

Yes, I‘m in the upcoming group show at Spinello Projects called “Closer” curated by Anthony Spinello. This show will open for Art Basel Miami Beach in December.

spinelloprojects.com/artist/manny-prieres

Words: Heike Dempster

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Your latest solo exhibition, “Americana”, explored American culture and society. Where were you going with this idea?

Americana is an offspring of a series called Dogville which is based on Lars Van Trier’s film of the same name. I was working on pieces for the Dogville series for about a year and I made the Nuclear Family piece. It got me thinking that since I have a solo show coming up I can transition into something else. All the issues that I was working on Dogville could easily be focused into an American context. What really interests me about the works is the complex nature of violence, how habitualization and socialization are forms of violence and how this can lead an individual to also be violent.

What sparked your interest in social structures, individual identity and the relationship between the two?

Ever since I can remember I was defensive and sensitive to the idea of an individual’s identity and the possible coercion of social structures. Reading Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” when I was younger had a real life changing impact, I couldn’t believe how close I felt to this story. Dostoevsky’s story is all about an individual struggling against the idea of a perfect society of reason and beauty, symbolized by the Crystal Palace. Something within me gravitates to this struggle everyone goes through, I don’t exactly know why.

Why the focus on anxiety and violence, then?

No matter what subject I set out to portray it ends up having a sense of violence and anxiety within it. I think that deep down I don’t trust people and I certainly don’t trust groups. Apart from anything personal, violence is fascinating because, like humor, it’s a transcendental part of society that expresses a lot about the darker more irrational aspects of society itself.

So that sense of danger in your paintings is deliberate?

Yes, there is usually danger just lurking around the corner. One of the first paintings I ever showed was a group of boys around a fire. A very typical Boy Scout camp fire, but I turned it into a potentially threatening ritual in which the group sacrifices one of its members. I definitely don’t plan adding lurking danger in my images but it’s something that is natural about what I make art about.
　
In your recent work you use Xs to mark people’s faces. Could you elaborate?

The first time I found myself using an X in an image, it was purely an act of aggression or disgust for what I seeing in the image. After this I started realizing the amazing implications of a mark like an X. The X is usually used as a symbol of negation or death. Lots of times it’s also a state of mind in my pictures. Often the central characters in the pictures have some sort of mind or perception control over the other characters and their is an interplay of symbols on the characters hands, faces and foreheads.

Have you made any new observations on American culture that you’re planning to explore?

I’m very interested in the detachment that come along with technology in society. Even though we can connect with one another in all sorts of new and faster ways, people are more lonely and detached than ever.

spinelloprojects.com/farley-aguilar

Words: Heike Dempster

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Tell us about your career to date, please.

My career, to date, has consisted of small private commissions. I mostly have worked outside of mainstream art as I used to run a small electronics company. I specialized in fixing analog synthesizers. I’ve worked as a welder, carpenter, neon sign craftsman, mural painter, teacher, and other very hands-on-type fields.

Do you listen to music when you create? What would be your ideal soundtrack?

I need to have music on, yes. This week it’s been a lot of Al Green, Phyllis Dillon, Megadeth, UGK, and Coleman Hawkins.

What is an average day in the life of Asif Farooq like?

I wake up, drink a glass of water, do pushups and crunches, buy coffee, and start working. I work most days for about fifteen hours, while I always ensure to make time for those who are important or that need me – but I work a lot!

What is your process from inception on the idea to a final piece?

I plan out everything before I make a single cut. I rarely take measurements or make drawings as I tend to eyeball everything. I trust my instincts fully; I’m rarely befuddled or confused about the direction I need to take. I’m a good self-manager; with the benefit of 2-plus decades of experience making objects, I tend to trust even an aesthetic whim. Clearly, my process is experiential.

Do you want to start a dialogue on guns, gun laws or what they stand for?

No, I don’t talk about politics because I do not feel I have much to contribute. I’m not a lawmaker, it would be preposterous for me to tell other people what is “right” or “wrong.” The independence that I value I respect in others, even if they do not respect mine.

Can you share some memorable reactions to your art?

They’re all memorable! Mostly, people just express disbelief, which I feel is quite complimentary! My favorite discourse is with other artists. People like Andrew Nigon– his is a knowledgeable appreciation as I admire his work for his craftsmanship and integrity. As well as people like Books and Typoe of my gallery Primary Projects, who are willing to put their name and reputation behind someone like me. That’s a pretty memorable reaction, I think.

What triggered your interest in weapons?

My interest in guns is in the idea of visual representation as personal metaphor. As a tool for communication – which is often the intended function of actual guns – they’re universally recognized. So, much as a writer uses words, or a musician uses notes, I use guns to communicate. To me they are just as interesting as any other inanimate object, but of course you can only say so much with bowls of fruit.

What are you currently working on?

I continue to push myself very hard. Every new thing I make needs to exceed whatever I did last. The only competition I’m in seems to be with myself.

Do you personally collect art?

I collect friendships, if anything. I think they are far more beautiful. I collect subjective experiences.

www.primaryprojectspace.com

Words: Heike Dempster

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Who is Magnus Sodamin?

A multidisciplinary painter, magnifying intimate encounters that embrace his surroundings. The course of each work is alert, exploring the territory between science, spirituality, and natural phenomena, engulfing each moment as that of accepting uncertainty.

Where are you from and where are you based now?

Born in Manhattan, from Norwegian and Austrian decent, I’ve oscillated between regions, but have resided in Miami for the past 13 years.

Tell us a bit more about your career to date?

My grandmother was a painter when I was a child and inspired me to paint when I visited her in Norway. As a kid I loved her paintings and would imitate some of them. Since then I’ve had some good teachers, Craig Kirk at Mast Academy, Vegard Stalsberg at Nansenskolen, Aramis O’Reilly at NWSA, to name a few. Those are some people that have guided me along towards my aim. I graduated New World School of the Arts in spring 2012. I have been showing in some local galleries in Wynwood, such as Ada Balcacaer’s gallery ABRO for the past few years. I’ve done multiple commissions, most recent the James Hotel, and BRPR firm in the Design District. Now Primary Projects.

Your paintings are very abstract. What inspires you?

My works are geared towards dreaming into. I’m inspired by that endless reservoir of form and beauty in nature, it’s infinite submergence, it is fuel to my train of thought, whereas I can sense that through human repetition we can be very limited.

What do you want people to see once they see beyond the beauty of the paintings?

That’s is something I would like for them to see beyond. It is subjective, but I would say a deeper interest into that unknowing distance between art and nature. I would like for the viewer to have more freedom to explore their imaginations, their own obsessions.

Words that come to mind when we think of your paintings are dominant, striking and captivating. What makes your paintings so strong?

When I work I have an intimate relationship with the process, it becomes a place for me to thrive, through this I seize life and share the result.

Your exploration of nature is very obvious in your “flower waterfalls,” as we call them.

Some years ago I had this vision of how I would experience nature. This daydream inspired me to do these works years later, inevitably they are revisiting the past, falling through the ebb and flow of the present.

Do you have any other news you would like to share with us?

I’ve lately been working on several collaborations filming, creating costumes, with performers. I’ve collaborated with Marissa Alma Nick, a performer, to take part in a play, Cask, on October 26th at the 6ths St. Container. I’ve designed the set and costuming and will also be part of the performance. Through collaborations I have a certain privilege to work with strong passionate individuals who inspire me with their own cosmic energies. That way many amazing wavelengths have been shared.

magnussodamin.com

Words: Heike Dempster

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