Augosto Arbizo at Envoy
Envoy Enterprises located in the Lower East Side features blotted works of Augosto Arbizo with an exhibit entitled “ArtForum” running from October 10th 2008 to December 14th 2008. Using gathered advertisements, pamphlets, and other printed materials Arbizo creates a medium for his work. Each work staggering from near and far Arbizo generates symmetry and center foci to his pieces while showing tribute to various artists from the notable Andy Warhol and others with his simple means of creation.
Arbizo’s entire collection, with close observation, was bi-folded to allow symmetry of his poured painted streams to occur in continuum with the other portion of his medium. This struck as a rather fundamental and straightforward style of creating art. I recall making similar works in elementary where I would pour tempera paint on half a sheet of colored construction paper, and fold the other side over the painted. With this the exhibit reminded me of the walls in grade school posted with student art work, but interestingly enough, the art holds more value than that on the walls of schools.
Although simply constructed, Arbizo’s blots were somewhat more than they appear to be. Some pieces resemble faces with two eyes, a nose, and mouth; others looked like human rib cages and skeletal structure. This was spurred rapid curiosity in my mind whether the images were purposely composed to look like certain objects and figures, or a fortunate accident that worked in the favor of the artist. Either way, I found each work intriguing and pleasant to glance at for short times.
Even more to my surprise were works of blots over past gallery pamphlets of other artists, and signature Warhol works. In my mind, perhaps he chose these mediums to show his liking, support, and tribute to the artists, while integrating his work into theirs, whether it enhanced or worsened the original work was up to the viewer. I believe in some cases, his choice to paint over the pamphlets created a balance between the blot and the medium, while in other cases, it seemed the ruin the piece entirely. An example of enhancement of the medium was an abstract piece composed of blues of all kinds of shades and lights with Arbizo’s addition of white blotting. The blotting creates a center for the viewers’ that lures the viewers’ eye and brings balance and Zen to the work. While other works such as one over a gallery brochure, covered the faces of the people on the cover, and drew attention to a negative space on the image, whether intentional or not, I found the blots to ruin the image rather than enhance it.
Augosto Arbizo’s work provoked thoughts that no matter how a work is made, it can be considered art. It also illustrates the power of networking, not just any networking, but networking with the right people. For the reason that Arbizo’s art is fairly simple to compose that comparable to a child’s production, if enough people in high places consider ones work to be “art” then the artist can thrive in the wretched world that is design.