Ninu Nina Artist Interviews

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Carlos Betancourt

Carlos Betancourt's most recent exhibit, LAPIDUS INFINITUS, will open at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts in Wynwood, Miami, Florida, during Art Basel Miami Beach.

A special celebration will take place Saturday, December 5th, 2009. The exhibition will be on view through February 6th, 2010. Additionally, Betancourt's Re-Collection series was selected to be reproduced as part of a limited edition collaboration with bathing suit designer Red Carter and Barney's New York. A private fundraiser will take place at Barney's of New York, Miami Beach store, Friday, December 4th, 2009.

CARLOS BETANCOURT – LAPIDUS INFINITUS

In Betancourt’s most recent photographic artwork, the artist continues to assemble explosive compositions consisting of thousands of photographs of objects, people, flowers, and many other elements that occupy the superb glitzy realm of beauty for which he is known. The images appear in their full kitsch splendor, possessed by an enchanting light and seemingly crystallized by a magical sorcerer.

Betancourt, also recognized for his large scale flamboyant interventions, will also unveil one of his most challenging installation to date, a sprawling three-dimensional artwork of multiple column pedestals, each supporting an accumulation of auspicious objects to be worshipped. A symmetrical assembly creates spaces for interaction within this fantastical world. As with the photographic compositions, this large-scale installation titled PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN, iconize Pop and common objects the artist has gifted with a unique sense of dignity. He has empowered the towering of elements and its base by presenting them primarily in his signature blue, being this “the color evil cannot cross" (*). This installation is in collaboration with architect and artist Alberto Latorre.

*( as quoted by Robert Farris Thompson, dean of the History of Art Department, Yale University, in an essay about the artist).