KaBe is proud to present Superflat Donkeys and Zooms, showcasing the latest works by Neo-Conceptualist artist, Meyer Vaisman. Born in Caracas (1960), Vaisman currently lives as a hermit in Barcelona, Spain, after having developed most of his artistic career in New York City. This is the artist’s first solo show in the United States after he stopped making art for more than 10 years. Miami is the city where after two years of studying engineering he became an artist; Vaisman then decided to move to New York City and pursue an art degree.
After finishing his studies in the early 1980’s, Vaisman gains
international notoriety when he opens his own gallery International with Monument.
Located in New York’s East Village district, International with Monument showed some of the better known contemporary artists of current times, such as Jeff Koons, Peter Halley, Richard Prince and Ashley Bickerton. He also curated a show of important seminal works by Robert Smithson.
In Superflat Donkeys and Zooms Vaisman literally zooms into his life
and early work. It includes a set of works inspired by Francisco
Goya’s Caprichos, a series of influential graphic images in the history
of Western art. A number of Goya’s etchings showed donkeys with human characteristics denouncing the crudeness of Spanish society in early 19th Century. Donkeys represent noble creatures that, for some cultures, have been the base for myths related to lack of judgement and stubbornness.
Vaisman also gives a continuation to his representation of “self” and
photomechanical reproduction – which he began in 1984 with a series of works that were painted with process inks instead of commonly used artists materials.
The artist uses portraits of donkeys printed on industrial plywood surfaces as self-portraits and representations of others. In this series of works, Vaisman has also developed geometric works reminiscent especially of Mark Rothko who was an early
inspiration when he lived in Miami .
Vaisman´s Donkeys and Zooms in their inert, objectal form are taken as
a symptom for a much larger reality which replaces it as its ultimate
truth.
