I saw some incredible art last weekend at the International Art Fair in Santa Fe.
The quality and caliber of the art on view was top notch; attempting to absorb all of the visual stimuli was overwhelming. The art ranged from simply beautiful to starkly political, reflecting the duality that is difficult to ignore as a human being on earth today: incredible struggle, strife and degradation coupled with passion,ingenuity,creation and hope. Artists and non-artists alike, we all must continue to look, listen and love deeply.
One artist whose work stopped me in my tracks as I walked through the densely populated exhibit halls of the Santa Fe Visual Arts Center, was Gaston Ugalde of Bolivia.
Considered one of the most important contemporary Latin American artists, he is most famous for his photography and installation work, which are primarily staged on the "Salar de Uyuni", the largest salt flat in the world. The artist has been using the salar as his own private stage and studio for the past 30 years, staging large scale installations that blow Christo and Jean Claud's earth wrapping projects out of the water. Ugalde's artistry is graceful and elegant, his compositions organic and playful. The vast and empty yet vibrantly lit and colored scenes that he stages and then photographs, are truly sublime.
The jpegs attached here don't begin to do justice to the C-prints on view at his booth in Santa Fe, but here is his website for better viewing. Actually, the C-prints I saw in Santa Fe are not on his website, but perhaps they will be soon.
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