Photos courtesy of Chemi Rosado-Seijo
PRART NEWS - Working on board shipping in the Mississippi isn’t the
exuberant scene as depicted by George Caleb Bingham in his classic Jolly Flat
Boatmen, 1846. It’s actually
lethal. Instead of a quaintly romantic
experience with po’folk dancing a jig on the deck, these flimsy boats regularly
sank with all hands. Bingham must have had quite an imagination to conceive his
masterwork; in fact, I’d guess most boatmen would have laughed up their sleeves
at the picture after cursing him out. The flatboat’s mega-industrial grandchildren,
AKA the barges and tugs seen on the river today, crash and overturn regularly.
Pilots are legally required to fish corpses out of the grizzly mud banks as a
reminder that catastrophe is only an uncharted sandbar or a careless moment
away. Chemi Rosado-Seijo (Puerto Rico) and Juan William Chávez (St Louis) are
both interested in the slightly less dangerous “wipe out” of skateboarding for
Duet’s upcoming exhibition. Both artists
plan to work with damaged and crushed barge hulls to build skate ramps and half
pipes in the gallery. Various drawings and films will complement these
repurposed objects, juxtaposing the skate culture of each artist’s hometown.
The vernacular materials of work and the whimsical impulse of extreme sport
come to together in a jolly tribute to the menacing river and the industrious
people who work on it.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Juan William Chávez - Photos courtesy of Duet / Twitter
Juan William Chávez is an artist and cultural activist who
explore the potential of space through creative initiatives that address
community and cultural issues. His studio practice incorporates drawings,
films, photographs, and architectural interventions, unconventional forms of
beekeeping and agriculture that utilize art as a way of researching, developing
and implementing socially-engaged projects. He has received awards and grants
from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital, Kindle
Project, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Art
Matters, the Gateway Foundation, Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts
Council. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Chemi Rosado-Seijo - Photos courtesy of Duet / Twitter
Born in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, Chemi Rosado-Seijo graduated
from the painting department of the Puerto Rico School of Visual Arts in 1997.
In 1998, he worked with Michy Marxuach to open a gallery that transformed into
a not-for-profit organization presenting resources and exhibitions for
contemporary artists in Puerto Rico. In 2000, Rosado had his first solo show at
the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, including interventions on billboards
around the city. Since 2002, he has worked with residents of the El Cerro
community, a poor neighborhood south of San Juan, to present public art
projects, workshops and other community initiatives. In 2006, he inaugurated La
Perla’s Bowl, a sculpture built with residents of San Juan’s La Perla community
that functions as both a skateboarding ramp and an actual pool. Since 2009,
Rosado-Seijo has been organizing exhibitions in his apartment in Santurce,
creating a center for meeting and exchange in the Puerto Rican contemporary art
scene.
The exhibition will run from September 18 until November 21,
2015. For questions please contact Director, Daniel McGrath at
duetstl@gmail.com or 310-614-7338. Duet is located at 3526 Washington Avenue
Suite 300, St Louis, MO 63103
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