Exhibition Dates:June 7 - July 3, 2010
Reception to meet artists: June 10, 6-8pm
Special Music 6-8pm with Paul Bangser
Workshops with Luis Acosta:click here to download application to apply for workshopsJune 12 (10AM till 5PM) "Design of Weavings" (Acosta’s method)
June 19 (10AM till 5PM) "Designing Fashion Accessories"
Gallery hosts World Renowned Latin American Artists from the NetherlandsThe Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery will host two well-known international artists from the Netherlands. Luis Acosta and Miriam Londoño, will join us in the gallery from June 7-July 3, 2010 for their exhibition, The Language of Paper. We will be hosting a reception to meet the artists on June 10th during our Second Thursday Art Night. The evening will merge the two cultures through art, music, food and wine.
Luis Acosta (Argentine-Dutch) and Miriam Londoño (Columbian-Dutch), long time friends, will be arriving to Alexandria, VA from the Netherlands in the beginning of June and will be staying through the month with another artist friend of theirs, Sylvia Saborio, a resident of Old Town Alexandria. In addition to an exhibition of both artists’ work, Acosta will be providing two weekend workshops that deal with his specialized weaving process; and Londoño will be offering a power point presentation along with a display of her tools showing her complicated and unique paper process. Beginning on June 7, the gallery will be open to the public from 10-6pm and invites the public to meet the artists, and watch the installation process in action.
As a designer, Luis Acosta is particularly interested in forms. Once a form is found, he enlarges or repeats it, concentrating on the possibilities of that form becomes the basis for developing his design. Acosta graduated in 1988 at the textile department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.
He has participated in group and individual exhibitions in many countries around the world. In addition to his active exhibition schedule, he has published several articles dealing with his own method of textile design in the Dutch magazine Textiel Plus and Spanish Oficio+arte; translated Dutch to Spanish the book Si'ira (woven belt of the Wayuu Indians) by Mirja Wark. He has curated and has served on the jury of several exhibitions in Spain and the Netherlands. Also, Acosta participates in a founding circle of members and co-curator of the LAKMA, Latin American Art Museum of the Netherlands, which will open next year.
Luis Acosta's works can be found in the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Centre of Fine Arts in Utrecht (NL), Textilemuseum Tilburg (NL), Museo del Traje (Buenos Aires) and in private collections in Argentina, Finland, India, Norway, Spain, Venezuela, USA and in the Netherlands. He currently resides in the Netherlands. He will be a part of a group exhibition this October at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York).
For the past ten years, Miriam Londoño’s artistic work has focused on a type of drawing derived from hand-made paper techniques. Using paper pulp, she draws figures on a fine mesh, stretched taut on a frame. When the pulp dries up the drawings can be peeled off. This technique has a textile and a sculptural quality, which inspired the artist to find new ways of producing drawings free of any support.
Miriam Londoño studied Fine Arts at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia and at the Art academy in Florence. Her works have been exhibited in many countries around the world. She currently resides in the Netherlands.
Special Music:Paul Bangser is an active guitarist and teacher who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. He is the former Director of Guitar Studies at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts high school in Washington, D.C. Paul has been performing as a guitarist for over 25 years, playing jazz guitar as well as latin, classical, and popular styles. His performances include the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage as a leader with his own jazz quintet and Strathmore Mansion tea room. His groups have also performed at local clubs, outdoor festivals, and other public and private events. Paul has performed as a duo with jazz singers and has also held the principal guitar chair for theater productions including Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar. He teaches all styles of guitar to both adults and children.
Sponsor Information:The Friends of the Torpedo Factory Art Center (Friends) is a nonprofit membership organization presenting a variety of arts-related programs and events in collaboration with the Torpedo Factory Art Center, one of Alexandria’s best resources for the arts. They do this by sponsoring programs and events that both bring art to the community and connect the community to art.
