Brazilian açai smoothies and coffee will be provided opening night thanks to Sambazon's mobile cafe. As well as fine wines courtesy BIBI GRAETZ (Italy).
This relatively recent obsession of mine has fueled an entire body of work entitled, Aliens of AkahtiLândia - integrating all three of my visual mediums; sculpture, photographs and mixed-media paintings. The sculpture pieces, although based on actual creatures I have seen or photographed, are modified and manipulated versions of the real thing, while the flat mixed-media pieces are normally truer to the actual entities that inspired them. I've noted some insects with extremely sophisticated behavioral traits. A few, believe it or not, seem to demonstrate what appear to be real emotions.
The opening reception will take place on February 21th from 7-10pm. The show will remain on exhibit for two weeks after the opening with viewing opportunities available by appointment.
The evening is planned in coalition with the Santiago Arts District where 7-10 other gallery openings will be happening within walking distance. Other galleries of note are Curbside Gallery, Kaboom, and Shutter + Light.
Hosted by:
F+ Gallery
661 North Poinsettia Street
Santa Ana, CA 92701
Ithaka – AkahtiLiandia, Brazil (Statement from the Feature Artist)
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I'd been living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for five years and was feeling it was time to move on, when after researching a tip from an anonymous stranger in October 2010, I investigated (and soon afterward purchased) a small brick house on an acre of jungle property just outside of the Serra do Mar Atlantic Forest Reserve on the southern coast of the State of São Paulo – about 300 miles south of Rio. Needless to say, it was a move that somewhat metamorphosized my mostly urban-suburban upbringing and adulthood.
The immediate neighborhood of about 2000 acres, an area called AkahtiLândia, is extremely rural. There is a native Guarani village just down the road, where many of the local residents literally live in mud and stick huts. There are several rivers and small mountains, exotic birds and wild animals.
For the past four and a half years, I've been occupied with a mutated version of the life I've known since my early twenties: making art and music…and surfing, but this time in a neo-tropical forest environment. One thing that has really impressed me most about the jungle are the tiny animals; spiders, moths, beetles and worms. Visually, there's no end to the variety. The colors and geometric forms are absolutely mind-blowing. To me, bugs are living, cutting-edge, contemporary art forms.
I spend several hours a week just observing and photographing them. And attempting to ID them. But sometimes that's impossible, many of them have yet to be officially recognized by the scientific community. It's also probable that in creatures having such short reproductive cycles (some procreating more than thirty generations of offspring in a single year) that subtle adaptations are constantly resulting in new variations of existing species.
I call them Aliens not only because of their seemingly unearthly eccentric multi-colored appearances and high IQs, but also because of their extremely complex, functional and almost indestructible body designs. Most people who believe in extraterrestrial life think that beings from other solar systems will appear somewhat humanoid and be more or less our size. I disagree. I find it more likely that they would be something much smaller and more insect-like.
Imagine if some of these creatures already present on this planet originated from other parts of the universe. How would we even know it?
One earth insect, the Tardigrade - aka the Water Bear, has already been proven to be capable of surviving the vacuum of space.
And if one or more of the minute species already here was actually more intelligent than us, how could we even measure or determine that? (maybe they simply choose not to communicate with us).
More importantly, would we admit something so much smaller in stature to humankind is in fact superior to us in many ways?
Ithaka 2015
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