desencuentros 1997-2017 - Art & Art Gallery [PDF]

SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

LOMO 0.9 cm

The question now is: Are there moral & political reasons to repeat this principle? Philosopher & performance theorist Judith Butler makes a case for this possibility. She calls this act of repetition (in performance) “citationality.” Performativity is not a regular act, for it’s always a reiteration of a norm, or sets of norms, and to the extent that it requires an act-like status in the present, it conceals or dissimulates the conventions of which it is a repetition. Moreover, the act is not primarily theatrical, indeed its apparent theatricality is produced to the extent that its historicity remains dissimulated (and conversely its theatricality gains a certain inevitability... a performative is that practice that enacts or produces what it names. Performativity is “not a regular act”. In a sense, Caminero's protest presupposes a reiteration of a norm. Which norm? By smattering the vase, the performer at once legitimates & overcomes the transgression involved. Art’s performativity is a productive activity: the breaking of norms justify the creation new forms. What makes a protest/performance legitimate? We suggest a criterion we discussed with performance artist and theorist Marina Abramoviç on the occasion of her 2007 conference at FIU. She mentioned two points: proper context, & compelling reason. Proper context: Caminero carried out his protest/performance right in front of Weiwei’s document/piece @ PAMM in front of everybody. See how (in the CNN clip & later photos) Caminero stands next to Weiwei’s installation & calmly & deliberately (as he looks onto Weiwei’s photos) proceeds to let the vase fall onto the floor. Compelling reason: Caminero’s protest/performance was meant to call attention to a persisting problem of the art establishment. Which problem? Contemporary art’s arbitrary criteria of inclusion. No vandal would act in this manner. A gratuitous act destroys either for its own sake or (as some artists in Facebook & elsewhere have implied) for the sake of a self-aggrandizement. This is what performance theorist & actionist Günter Brus refers to as “sincerity.” Caminero was simply doing what he thought was right. As important performance theorists like Abramovic, Burden, Schneemann, etc have pointed out: performance art is much more than mere theatricality. Some limit situations have a purpose because they bring to the open a persistent problem that is often overlooked or ignored altogether. Performance artist Chris Burden has identified how these “limit” situations offer a purpose: ... by setting up aberrant situations my art functions on a higher reality. Caminero’s smashing Weiwei’s “one million dollar vase” @ PAMM is aberrant enough (in our present context of an incestuous & redundant art market) to fit Burden’s prescription. Performance art is neither inside -nor outside- the political or moral realms; it becomes a sort of inter-dependent realm to discuss political and moral issues. Here @ miami bourbaki, we refer to the issue Caminero protests against as a riddle: Where is the magic of art if people realize that what makes art art is a market strategy? Which brings me to Weiwei’s reaction to Caminero’s protest/performance. “The argument does not support the act,” Mr. Ai said. “It doesn’t sound right. His argument (Caminero’s) doesn’t make much sense. If he really had a point, he should choose another way, because this will bring him trouble to destroy property that does not belong to him.” Even worse, “My work belongs to me, it doesn't belong to the public and also it doesn’t [belong to] somebody else.” Wait, is Weiwei saying that his (iconoclastic) conceptual recipe applies only to him? What an unfortunate verdict, coming from China's enfant terrible of the arts. By denying Caminero the performativity principle his art depends upon, Weiwei has lost a great opportunity to actually put his money where his mouth is. I leave Weiwei with Günter Brus’ motto: sincerity is scandal when the wise world officially runs against it.

Máximo CAMINERO

It all begins with this odd piece of news from the New York Times: (...) a valuable vase by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei had been deliberately destroyed by a visitor in what appeared to be an act of protest. A spokeswoman for the museum said the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when a local artist walked into the waterfront museum and picked up one of the vases in an installation of Mr. Ai’s work titled “Colored Vases.” A guard asked the man to put it down, but instead he threw it to the ground, smashing it, the spokeswoman said. (click the CNN video in the nytimes piece). Who is the culprit? Máximo Caminero, a local miami artist. Mr. Caminero, a native of the Dominican Republic who has long lived in Miami, told the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, after his arrest that he had broken the vase to protest what he said was the museum’s exclusion of local artists in its exhibits. Since caminero has no known previous criminal record, it’s only fair to take up his reasons: 1- “It was a spontaneous protest,” 2- “I was at PAMM and saw Ai Weiwei's photos behind the vases where he drops an ancient Chinese vase and breaks it. And I saw it as a provocation by Weiwei to join him in an act of performance protest.” Protesting on which ground? 3- (...) “for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here.” Are caminero's reasons justified? The CNN video implies that Caminero's protest “mirrors” Weiwei’s. Performativity (as we’ll see later) follows its own norms. According to the New York Times article, PAMM’s description of Weiwei’s piece discloses that the Chinese artist dropped a 206 BCE-220 CE urn to the floor “to express the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm.” New ideas and values produced through iconoclasm? Here Weiwei is basically endorsing a cultural practice of (deliberate) destruction of a culture’s symbol for political motives. In 1995, on the occasion of smashing the dynasty urn, he manifested: I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable -how we decide what is valuable. Let's call this justification (of the destruction of symbols in order) to crate new forms, the Weiwei's performativity principle. In order to avoid the charge of vandalism, Weiwei’s performativity principle must -implicitly- presuppose a political (or moral) justification. Let’s not miss a subordinate point here: Weiwei’s iconoclasm brings transgression to a center stage, i.e., the destruction of a Chinese cultural treasure is performatively and thus morally/politically justified. But the justification of Weiwei’s act presupposes that Weiwei’s destruction of the ancient Chinese urn amounts to vandalism. Is Caminero’s protest/performance not politically justified? Exploring what makes a performance legit is important here because Caminero’s protest has been presented as a criminal act by a PAMM’s official by the name of Leann Standish, who was quick to denounce it as an “act of vandalism.” You’d expect this quick and crude assessment from the police, but not from an official representative of a museum exhibiting a performance/document where its author (Ai Weiwei) appears smashing a similar vase -under the same performative principle which Caminero simply reenacts. See that we’re not underplaying or excusing Caminero’s action (his unconventional, perhaps radical, destruction of Weiwei’s vase as a vehicle for his protest has legal ramifications), nor are we heeding the ridiculous price-tag of $1 million, quickly thrown by PAMM to put a figure to his “crime.” What is at stake here (in following Weiwei’s performativity principle) is whether the reasons for caminero's protest balance out standard property-rights considerations. Weiwei’s performativity principle bypasses property simply because owning an ancient Chinese urn doesn’t give anyone the right to break it. Cultural artefacts are considered exclusive in their archaeological, ethnological and social significance. Weiwei is, de facto, introducing a different normative order here, i.e., iconoclasm supervenes property.

RETRO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

The political imperative: Ai Weiwei should congratulate Máximo Caminero for smashing his "one-million dollar vase" on PAMM's floor Alfredo Triff

TAPA 22 x 28 cm

SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Máximo

CAMINERO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

Acknowledgements Gallery Directors Stefano Carniato & Dante Carniato Personal Manager ?? Editing Silvia Belmonte Photography Freddy Osorio Xxxx Xxxx Graphic Design Saint Design

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

Cover Paint Las Tinieblas de mi alma Oil mixed 74 x 47 in. 2004

SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

LOMO 0.9 cm

The question now is: Are there moral & political reasons to repeat this principle? Philosopher & performance theorist Judith Butler makes a case for this possibility. She calls this act of repetition (in performance) “citationality.” Performativity is not a regular act, for it’s always a reiteration of a norm, or sets of norms, and to the extent that it requires an act-like status in the present, it conceals or dissimulates the conventions of which it is a repetition. Moreover, the act is not primarily theatrical, indeed its apparent theatricality is produced to the extent that its historicity remains dissimulated (and conversely its theatricality gains a certain inevitability... a performative is that practice that enacts or produces what it names. Performativity is “not a regular act”. In a sense, Caminero's protest presupposes a reiteration of a norm. Which norm? By smattering the vase, the performer at once legitimates & overcomes the transgression involved. Art’s performativity is a productive activity: the breaking of norms justify the creation new forms. What makes a protest/performance legitimate? We suggest a criterion we discussed with performance artist and theorist Marina Abramoviç on the occasion of her 2007 conference at FIU. She mentioned two points: proper context, & compelling reason. Proper context: Caminero carried out his protest/performance right in front of Weiwei’s document/piece @ PAMM in front of everybody. See how (in the CNN clip & later photos) Caminero stands next to Weiwei’s installation & calmly & deliberately (as he looks onto Weiwei’s photos) proceeds to let the vase fall onto the floor. Compelling reason: Caminero’s protest/performance was meant to call attention to a persisting problem of the art establishment. Which problem? Contemporary art’s arbitrary criteria of inclusion. No vandal would act in this manner. A gratuitous act destroys either for its own sake or (as some artists in Facebook & elsewhere have implied) for the sake of a self-aggrandizement. This is what performance theorist & actionist Günter Brus refers to as “sincerity.” Caminero was simply doing what he thought was right. As important performance theorists like Abramovic, Burden, Schneemann, etc have pointed out: performance art is much more than mere theatricality. Some limit situations have a purpose because they bring to the open a persistent problem that is often overlooked or ignored altogether. Performance artist Chris Burden has identified how these “limit” situations offer a purpose: ... by setting up aberrant situations my art functions on a higher reality. Caminero’s smashing Weiwei’s “one million dollar vase” @ PAMM is aberrant enough (in our present context of an incestuous & redundant art market) to fit Burden’s prescription. Performance art is neither inside -nor outside- the political or moral realms; it becomes a sort of inter-dependent realm to discuss political and moral issues. Here @ miami bourbaki, we refer to the issue Caminero protests against as a riddle: Where is the magic of art if people realize that what makes art art is a market strategy? Which brings me to Weiwei’s reaction to Caminero’s protest/performance. “The argument does not support the act,” Mr. Ai said. “It doesn’t sound right. His argument (Caminero’s) doesn’t make much sense. If he really had a point, he should choose another way, because this will bring him trouble to destroy property that does not belong to him.” Even worse, “My work belongs to me, it doesn't belong to the public and also it doesn’t [belong to] somebody else.” Wait, is Weiwei saying that his (iconoclastic) conceptual recipe applies only to him? What an unfortunate verdict, coming from China's enfant terrible of the arts. By denying Caminero the performativity principle his art depends upon, Weiwei has lost a great opportunity to actually put his money where his mouth is. I leave Weiwei with Günter Brus’ motto: sincerity is scandal when the wise world officially runs against it.

Máximo CAMINERO

It all begins with this odd piece of news from the New York Times: (...) a valuable vase by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei had been deliberately destroyed by a visitor in what appeared to be an act of protest. A spokeswoman for the museum said the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when a local artist walked into the waterfront museum and picked up one of the vases in an installation of Mr. Ai’s work titled “Colored Vases.” A guard asked the man to put it down, but instead he threw it to the ground, smashing it, the spokeswoman said. (click the CNN video in the nytimes piece). Who is the culprit? Máximo Caminero, a local miami artist. Mr. Caminero, a native of the Dominican Republic who has long lived in Miami, told the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, after his arrest that he had broken the vase to protest what he said was the museum’s exclusion of local artists in its exhibits. Since caminero has no known previous criminal record, it’s only fair to take up his reasons: 1- “It was a spontaneous protest,” 2- “I was at PAMM and saw Ai Weiwei's photos behind the vases where he drops an ancient Chinese vase and breaks it. And I saw it as a provocation by Weiwei to join him in an act of performance protest.” Protesting on which ground? 3- (...) “for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here.” Are caminero's reasons justified? The CNN video implies that Caminero's protest “mirrors” Weiwei’s. Performativity (as we’ll see later) follows its own norms. According to the New York Times article, PAMM’s description of Weiwei’s piece discloses that the Chinese artist dropped a 206 BCE-220 CE urn to the floor “to express the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm.” New ideas and values produced through iconoclasm? Here Weiwei is basically endorsing a cultural practice of (deliberate) destruction of a culture’s symbol for political motives. In 1995, on the occasion of smashing the dynasty urn, he manifested: I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable -how we decide what is valuable. Let's call this justification (of the destruction of symbols in order) to crate new forms, the Weiwei's performativity principle. In order to avoid the charge of vandalism, Weiwei’s performativity principle must -implicitly- presuppose a political (or moral) justification. Let’s not miss a subordinate point here: Weiwei’s iconoclasm brings transgression to a center stage, i.e., the destruction of a Chinese cultural treasure is performatively and thus morally/politically justified. But the justification of Weiwei’s act presupposes that Weiwei’s destruction of the ancient Chinese urn amounts to vandalism. Is Caminero’s protest/performance not politically justified? Exploring what makes a performance legit is important here because Caminero’s protest has been presented as a criminal act by a PAMM’s official by the name of Leann Standish, who was quick to denounce it as an “act of vandalism.” You’d expect this quick and crude assessment from the police, but not from an official representative of a museum exhibiting a performance/document where its author (Ai Weiwei) appears smashing a similar vase -under the same performative principle which Caminero simply reenacts. See that we’re not underplaying or excusing Caminero’s action (his unconventional, perhaps radical, destruction of Weiwei’s vase as a vehicle for his protest has legal ramifications), nor are we heeding the ridiculous price-tag of $1 million, quickly thrown by PAMM to put a figure to his “crime.” What is at stake here (in following Weiwei’s performativity principle) is whether the reasons for caminero's protest balance out standard property-rights considerations. Weiwei’s performativity principle bypasses property simply because owning an ancient Chinese urn doesn’t give anyone the right to break it. Cultural artefacts are considered exclusive in their archaeological, ethnological and social significance. Weiwei is, de facto, introducing a different normative order here, i.e., iconoclasm supervenes property.

RETRO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

The political imperative: Ai Weiwei should congratulate Máximo Caminero for smashing his "one-million dollar vase" on PAMM's floor Alfredo Triff

TAPA 22 x 28 cm

SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Máximo

CAMINERO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

Acknowledgements Gallery Directors Stefano Carniato & Dante Carniato Gallery Staff Giulia Carniato Nathalia Sanchez Photography Freddy Osorio Ruben Coello - Capture Image Tech Lina Arboleda Graphic Design Saint Design Cover Paint Las Tinieblas de mi alma Oil mixed 74 x 47 in. 2004

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

This book was Produced and Edited by ART&ART Gallery in May of 2017

Máximo

CAMINERO

RETIRACION SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

RETIRACION TAPA 22 x 28 cm

RETIRACION CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

RETIRACION SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Eppur Si Muove

Galileo galilei

Máximo

CAMINERO

MAXIMO CAMINERO: Aesthetics of Intersectionality Babacar MBow I do not pretend here to an exhaustive review of the body of works Máximo Caminero created so far in his productive career. I just want to highlight some of his aesthetic positions and their relations to Caribbean contemporaneity and representations. I had to work in urgency which is why I essentially focused on two of his latest collections: Migration of the Sign (2014-2016) and Encuentros Tangensiales (2016) that, in my view, highlight the ambition of the artist and his positions on the field of Caribbean aesthetics. These two collections complement each other in that the latter systematizes the positions developed in the former. After exposing the fundamental thesis of Máximo Caminero’s visual expression as intersectionality, I will show how and by what means his works could be better understood in a “…theoretical conjuncture that moves beyond flattened ...unicentric historical meanings to offer new analyses in which anticipated outcomes give way to new information”1 (Carole Boyce Davies, 2013). Through this theoretical conjuncture, Caminero sits an expressive discourse around an ontological dignity, historically grounded, channeled through the arts, and which must still work with contemporary instruments of the politics of representation; particularly in artistic practices and discourses. This conjuncture then must be intersectional--- crossing boundaries of race, color and class; gender orientation; origin and location while still articulating self-representation against a “will of nonsense”. Writing on the Miami New Times October 27, 2016, Carlos Suarez De Jesus reminded us of the last time we heard from Caminero: “he made international headlines for smashing an Ai Weiwei vase at the Perez Art Museum (PAM) of Miami in an act of protest”. The Tsunami of debates on representation that unfolded constituted a significant moment in Miami and South Florida’s contemporary art scene2. This scene is still haunted by the politics of over/ under-representation. Caminero argued his “intervention” at PAM as against a lack of representation of local artists in publicly funded South Florida museums. The expression has been construed as “problematic”. However, the debates it generated brought to surface, the politics of representation in the rise of Miami as an emerging global cultural center. It is the possibility for new analyses the intervention offered that gave way to new practices of intersectionality. 2

S/T Mix media - 43 x 57 in. 1997

3

I use aesthetics of intersectionality in the sense Iba N’Diaye Diadji assigns “aesthetics of plasticity”3. N’Diaye defines the concept as “the artistic discourses and practices able to integrate in their fields of action and creation, life in what it is: unique. Máximo Caminero has fused these concepts in a process of mixing, synthesizing them to a level at which there is no oral or scribed expressions on the one hand and painting, sculpting, installing or digitally presenting and political engagement on the other. He summons them to evidence the fact that Caribbean arts and civilizations have long attained this proficiency thereby constituting they expressive politics as a contraction to the factice division which tears into thousand pieces, the unicity of the artist with his contemporary realities. Theoreticians carry a heavy responsibility in this skinning of the values of Caribbean, African Diaspora, Andeans (Latino), Native American, Blacks, Whites, female, Gays Lesbians and transgenders. Consciously or not, they have constructed themselves into zealous continuators of a colonial ideology by reducing these to a geography of the margins; excluding them de facto from the domains of contemporary creativity. Intersectionality in the works of Máximo Caminero is then the essence of Caribbean civilizations. It is that which forges the human in his modes of thinking and being. Without it, there is no work of the mind. It allows the Caribbean to keep his aesthetic personality as the product of various cultures that overlapped in the Caribbean but still clear about the histories of enslavement, genocide, political oppression, tyranny and contemporary inequalities and injustices. It also is intersectional in that it feeds on science and technique to question life distinctively and sincerely. It is that which envelops him in each of his sketches. This fundamental expression of the tough of Máximo Caminero profiles through declination of three basic principles: the sense of composition (rigor, order, equilibrium) and the personality of the social group. The Aesthetics of intersectionality unfolds in the works of Máximo Caminero as a conception of a hybridity which is transversal to all forms of artistic expressions. This transversal position is also shared by Europeans like Joost Smiers, author of an interesting work on European contemporary creation4 as well as Carl Einstein another theoretician in the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, Caminero subsumes the aesthetics of intersectionality under a unicity that makes it work by extension to writing, the stage, and through his political engagement. This extension of thought may seem strange if not founded on the theoretical context defined by Boyce Davies.

4

ORINOCO Mix Media - 47 x 35 in. 1999

5

DIPTICO AL OLVIDO Mix media - 39 x 57 in. 1999

6

From these then, we can interrogate the ideological context in which Caminero works. Consistently, he has attacked the racist corpus that founded colonial ethnology and anthropology. Moved by a civilizing mission, Europeans, with their so-called philosophy of enlightenment, boarded the Caribbean, sword drawn; dagger to the chips. The image couldn’t be more contrasted but still must be only ranged on that registered; of image. An image of the Caribbean as the expression of colonial phantasms. An ontological Caribbean dignity through the arts If Máximo Caminero, with a barely contained irritation, engages the issue of representation and legitimization, it is because he understands the stakes in a constant will to deny any sense of elevation and conceptualization to the Caribbean artist. Thus, we understand the consubstantial link he makes between works of arts and intersectionality. His belief that: No artistic production, No true historical existence, neither human presence. This is the lens through which to view the works of Máximo Caminero and his articulation of an artistic contemporaneity. To speak of Caminero’s contemporaneity is then to show that “the traditional is not the ancient nor the modern that which is. It is about revealing that postmodernism is also post-contemporary”5. These dialectical relationships find contemporary trends in the classification of Máximo Caminero, other Caribbean artists and those of first peoples. Caminero is fierce toward the artists that, under the veil of mainstreamness, monkey the mainstream and end up reproducing all its perversions. For him, these carry the germs of a decadence and a civilizational impasse routed in stagnation. He assumes his contemporaneity while affirming his caribbeanness in each of his works. We are founded to believe that, the aesthetics of Máximo Caminero is one of combat. Fighting for acknowledgment of the Caribbean artist’s presence and the human dignity of Caribbean peoples. Therefore, it is difficult for this artist to just be a contemporary artist without political occurrence; also, why his aesthetic project is eminently humanistic.

1- Carole Boyce-Davies. Caribbean Spaces: Escapes From Twilight Zones; University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2013. 2- For more information on the debates.www.google.com/CAMINERO/PAM 3- N’Diaye Iba Diadji. The Impossible African Art, Dakar: Dëkkando, 2002. 4- Joost Smiers. Etats des lieux de la création en Europe, Le tissu culturel déchiré, Paris : l'Harmattan, 1998. 5- N’Diaye Iba Diadji. Creating the art of Africans, Dakar: Dakar University Press, 2003.

7

El arte es la expresión de un sentimiento... un dibujo en el aire. Detenerme hoy y mirar atrás, todo el camino recorrido desde mis primeras pinceladas y garabatos, veo una estela que como una serpiente se ladea de un lado al otro. El rastro de mis obras no son mas que mi vida terrenal y sus múltiples situaciones que todos experimentamos en este estado provisional. En los títulos de las mismas podrán notarse algunos. No es mi función en estas breves palabras "describir" mi obra. Soy un artista visual que pinta y "si pintas!... para qué hablas?" Pero si daré unas pinceladas sobre mi sendero y hacia donde me ha llevado. Desde niño fui cultivando un sentimiento de creación que con los años se hizo más fuerte, más presente y necesario. Pinté los paisajes de Van Gogh, de Gaugin, Monet, luego me di cuenta que tenía un país y una cultura distinta a la de estos maestros y dirigí mis ojos hacia el paisaje presencial. Con el tiempo emigré a otros paisajes que se hicieron invisibles a mis ojos, por lo que esculqué en el recuerdo interior de mi mente en donde la conciencia social estaba presente desde hacía mucho tiempo. Surgieron los campesinos, los vendedores ambulantes, los niños pobres mal vestidos de mi tierra. Quise denunciar a través de mi obra una realidad social que por ser tan común pasaba desapercibida ante todos. Entre esas cadencias que daba mi vida al continuar moviéndome a otras ciudades extrañas, mis sentimientos a la par daban giros que iban enriqueciendo mi forma de crear y expresarme. Ahora, las nuevas influencias pictóricas surgían de Oviedo, Guadalupe, De Szyszlo, Tamayo. Todos motivados en su Arte Vital Ancestral, sus raíces: Aztecas, Mayas , Incas, Caribes. Comenzé la ruptura con el realismo e Impresionismo, en el año 1994, dejándolos definitivamente por el arte moderno en el 1995. Ante la nueva disyuntiva al entrar en un mundo completamente nuevo y con sentimientos indeseables ante la repulsión que me causaba el arte moderno, fui buscando la forma de expresarme que me diera un sello particular, un lenguaje propio y único que lograra identificarme ante el público... la vanidad, también es un sentimiento... Busqué en mi pasado/pueblo/raíz y encontré una cultura muy pobre en manifestaciones y rituales. Los Taínos fueron los que dieron la bienvenida a los conquistadores Españoles a los que ingenuamente llevaron a mostrarle todas las Islas del Caribe que serían despojadas por estos inmisericordes hombres. Los sentimientos encontrados ante la historia de conquista de las Antillas, me llevó a indagar en la forma de expresión de estos pobladores sencillos y humildes que fueron subyugados en el paraíso.

8

PASION DE VIDA Mix media - 46 x 60 in. 2001 9

Su caligrafía se incorporó en mi subconciente permitiéndome darle forma a unos primeros pasos anteriores de expresión que surgían del automatismo de la mano, del gesto audaz y firme que con seguridad se plasmaba en la tela. Cuando más adelante aparecieron Lam y Matta, descubrí el Surrealismo y me di cuenta que entraba en un mundo visual de manifestación que expresaba mis sentimientos con una armonía superior a mis anteriores formas. Los Africanos, Taínos y el Universo Interior y Exterior encajaban perfectos en un espacio que no sólo coincidía en sus formas y estilos sino que se adentraban en unos paisajes geométricos ancestrales del alma y el espíritu. Metafísica, Geometría Sagrada, Universos paralelos, dimensiones inimaginables, todos contenidos en una simbología que llevamos insertada en nuestros genes y que se pasea ante nuestros ojos invisibles por la distracción a la que nos somete la mente. Un mundo pesado y arcaico que se empeña en perpetuarse por un ego que durará lo mismo que la materia que la sostiene. Somos un todo contenido en un todo, nadie ni nada está fuera ni es diferente, somos parte y lo mismo. Prescindibles e imprescindibles. No solo en su obra debe el artista expresarse con sentimiento, sino que debe poner esos sentimientos también en su obra de vida, en su habitualidad humana, para despertar conciencias e invitar a mirarnos dentro donde en verdad estamos... no estamos fuera. No importa cuántos jarrones se tengan que romper, ni cuántos millones nos cuesten, el Universo es perfecto y nos beneficia a todos por igual, sin distinción de raza, idioma o cultura. Podremos retarlo inventando Dioses, diviéndonos en fronteras, separándonos de los "diferentes"... pero el es inmutable ÉS... Y ERES! no hay forma que puedas ganar, es inútil... ES UN SENTIMIENTO... UN PENSAMIENTO... UN DIBUJO EN EL AIRE!! Máximo Caminero

CARIBE FUERZA Y ESENCIA #3 Mix media - 60 x 46 in. 2001

10

11

1999 Amable López Meléndez (curador del Museo Arte Moderno República Dominicana) comentando sobre la serie "Amamey" Artículo publicado en el periódico "Hoy" Santo Domingo DR 1999

"La pintura de Máximo Caminero, es la chispa de su cadencia energética en el aire isleño que las contienen y en el pleno disfrute de lo inefable" (...) "Lo que más nos atrae de sus obras no es tanto la percepción de lo invisible, de esa realidad espiritual y poética en la que se reafirma el artista como imaginero de la memoria, sino también la compenetración que va logrando Caminero con las formas y estructuras abstractas, combinándolas y contrastándolas por medio de tonalidades cromáticas fuertes y densamente acentuadas".(...)

LOS FANTASMAS DE TU AUSENCIA #4 Oil mixed - 16 x 31 in. 2002

"Aportándole un contenido y una forma que prevalidan nuestros valores culturales esenciales (...) Una poética que hurga en los recovecos de nuestra psicohistoria Taína (...) Así como no hay estridencia en su repertorio gestual, es igual de enfática su intención de alcanzar registros texturales capaces de contener toda su emoción y de proporcionar al espacio pictórico un poder imagético que nos permita percibirlo en todo su esplendor.(...) La propia naturaleza del lenguaje plástico y de los símbolos con que Máximo Caminero intenta definir su universo visual, implica que este artista merezca un seguimiento más detenido (...) Caminero es un artista con prometedoras perspectivas, si su producción sigue el curso que ha mostrado en esta oportunidad, no solo llegará a ser un pintor "moderno", sino también un testigo excepcional de nuestra contemporaneidad". 12

RITUALES LEJANOS Oil mixed - 74 x 53 in. 2003

LOS FANTASMAS DE TU AUSENCIA #5 Oil mixed - 23 x 31 in. 2002

LOS FANTASMAS DE TU AUSENCIA #6 Oil mixed - 28 x 31 in. 2002

13

TAL VEZ YA NO SEA YO CUANDO ME ENCUENTRE "COLOR ESPERANZA" Oil mixed - 89 x 66 in. 2003

14

ALMAXIMO Oil mixed - 65 x 54 in. 2005

15

SEDUCCION Oil mixed - 53 x 51 in. 2006

16

1996 Luis Labera Trufero/ Museógrafo. Sobre la serie "Caminero Miami

1996"

"Embelezado con el vacío del lienzo, con lo que encubre en su centro, dado a una meditación sobre el enigma que se enfunda en la obscuridad del pasado místico, el artista de la plástica "Máximo Caminero" sucumbe y se integra en esa búsqueda para darle vida y valor de obra a ese paisaje interior de la existencia ancestral, para proyectar el paradigma del momento actual centrando en el ayer misterioso de la psiquis anterior. (...) Superficies pulidas afloran un espejismo sinuoso de un grafismo mágico que insinúan la incertidumbre gris de Giacometti, las precisiones imprecisas de Nicolas de Stael y las manchas líneas de Fernand Leger. Delicadamente perfilados desde la obscuridad... Hacia la luz."

1997 Luis Labera Trufero/ Museógrafo. Sobre la colección "a la República Dominicana

sombra de un olvido"

"Estas obras se afianzan en su vigor y valor en sus raices indigenistas caribeñas con una cierta melaza de calor, con insinuaciones sugestivas de lo espectral Taíno y una temperancia sutil en el manejo de la materia un tanto con suavidad el lienzo que deja entrever el celaje que lo soporta".

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PARA SUBIR AL CIELO… LO QUE YO NECESITO Oil mixed - 67 x 55 in. 2006

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ASI EN EL CIELO..... Oil mixed - 28 x 55 in. 2006

..... COMO EN EL MAR Oil mixed - 29 x 55 in. 2006

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EL RITUAL... Oil mixed - 27 x 54 in. 2006

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…DEL TIEMPO Oil mixed - 28 x 54 in. 2006

OCASO Oil mixed - 41 x 54 in. 2007

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LAGRIMAS DE MAR Oil mixed - 50 x 66 in. 2007 22

2004 Amable López Meléndez comentando sobre la muestra "Memoria publicado revista Areito Santo Domingo

786"

"Atendiendo al proceso que registra la producción pictórica de Máximo Caminero en el último lustro, se impone advertir el valor y la vigencia de una experiencia estética y sensible cuyos efectos retienen las huellas de la busqueda estilística, de las crisis íntimas y corporales del artista, de la ardiente impaciencia, del autocuestionamiento profesional, de la irresolución conceptual y de la misma firmeza de convicción que la hacen posible. Esta propuesta pictórica reciente de Máximo Caminero me motiva nuevamente a pensar en la posibilidad de la materialización de la máxima libertad expresiva, de la sensibilidad y de la realidad espiritual del artista a través de su práctica creativa."(...) "Así, estas obras recientes se me revelan como resultado del proceso de madurez de una personalidad artística que resiste y persiste sobre las opciones de la libertad, la lucidez y la diferencia. Traspasando límites culturales, geográficos, políticos, existenciales, estéticos, espirituales, a base de una autorreafirmación ejemplar sobre su oficio que nos depara la espléndida y ética lección de lo auténtico."

2005 Jose A. Evora (crítico) /comentando sobre la muestra "Con publicado en el Miami Herald. Nuevo Herald. Miami Florida

toda el alma"

"Estos óleos están llenos de animales recónditos, de impaciencia reprimida y de aquella misma sed de luz que humedecía los labios de Goethe en su lecho de muerte. Son estructuras de pensamiento sostenidas por un andamiaje ligero o sotisficado según la gravedad del inescrutable asunto que las provoca. Al chocar contra su espesura, el atavismo de buscarles parecido con la realidad corre la misma suerte de la mirada que se esfuerza por traspasar la niebla sin reparar en ella."(...) Un artista es alguien que logra enriquecerse deshaciéndose de lo más preciado que tiene (...) Cuánta exactitud no habrá entonces en estos cuadros? Cuánto descubriremos que ignoramos de nosotros mismos por ajenos que nos parezcan?" 23

2007 Amable Lopez Melendez

Máximo Caminero, fugitivo de conciencia Publicado periódico "Hoy" Santo Domingo

"Atento, silencioso, discreto observador y jubiloso celebrante de la vida, la verdad, el arte, el amor, la libertad, las maravillas de lo real y los mundos enigmáticos. (...) De un universo visual particular y una producción pictórica cuya contextualización y valoración se tornan inminentes. (...)

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POSESION Oil mixed - 50 x 52 in. 2007

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LLEGADA Oil mixed - 39 x 49 in. 2008 26

RUIDO Oil mixed - 66 x 88 in. 2008

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CUANDO ESTE SOL SE VAYA Oil mixed - 88 x 66 in. 2008

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AREYTO A LA LUZ DE LA LUNA Oil mixed - 78 x 62 in. 2008

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SOLEDAD Oil mixed - 24 x 62 in. 2008 30

EVOCACION Oil mixed - 26 x 62 in. 2008

"EL ARTE EXISTE PORQUE LA VIDA NO BASTA" Ferreira Gullar

BUSQUEDA Oil mixed - 25 x 62 in. 2008 31

1998 Luis Labera Trufero. Santiago DR

En blanco y negro

"Efectismos de la pulsión de la mano a la tela, expresionismo abstracto! Donde el objeto y la imagen pierden las precisiones de la cámara obscura, pero se gana la expansión sutil de las posibilidades de un discurso interior intrínsico. Caminero se fragua en su propia sangre!"

2000 Luis Labera Trufero. 10 Miami

años

"Su trabajo transcurre dentro de un espacio particular suyo desdeñando tales o cuales estilos para trascender y llegar a un descubrimiento de su propia afirmación estilística. Plasma su recia personalidad por la singular pulsión obsesiva de sus trazos. Estructura un tapete-mapa de emociones. Su discurso pictórico se estiliza más pulido y el color toma una mayor función, movimiento y gestualización. La emoción se formaliza para descubrir el interior desconocido, Caminero nos interna en un territorio plástico más alla de los contornos del objeto sensible, adentrándose en el entorno interno de la metáfora, la leyenda primera del hombre."

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NO HAY ABISMO PARA EL ALMA Oil mixed - 81 x 67 in. 2008

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AL SUR DEL MERIDIANO Oil mixed - 82 x 66 in. 2008

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LA FAMILIA (VAMOS A CONTAR MENTIRAS TRA, LA, LA) Oil mixed - 66 x 63 in. 2008

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2000 Roberto y Carol Guzman/ del libro 10 Miami

años

"Con cada nueva producción Caminero acarrea una nueva sorpresa. Apresa fantasmas para entregarlos transformados en arte. Hay que regocijarse que los fantasmas persigan al artista, que lo acosen, que no le permitan reposo para que continúe en cada entrega de su producción pictórica dispensando expresiones nuevas de incógnitas despejadas."

2002 Myrna Rodriguez Vega/ Aica Tuyel

Puerto Rico

"Su obra posee unas cualidades pictóricas que denotan un conocimiento y dominio del medio así como de las técnicas empleadas. El fuerte de este artista es precisamente la seguridad en el trazo de gran impacto emocional (...)Su propuestas es una nueva síntesis de volúmenes geométricos (...) Constituye una muestra de calidad artística homogenea ya que se puede apreciar el conjunto a la vez que en el contexto particular meritorio de cada pintura.(...) Las vías de comunicación abiertas por el artista nos permitirán una aproximación de distintas maneras a nuestro objetivo esencial, inquirir sobre el poder de la imaginación humana."

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LA MESA ESTA SERVIDA Oil mixed - 50 x 52 in. 2008

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SIEMPRE LA MAGIA Oil mixed - 41 x 51 in. 2008

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FUGAZ MIRADA AL TORBELLINO Oil mixed - 63 x 54 in. 2008

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EL LIO Oil mixed - 59 x 54 in. 2008

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LES DIRE QUE LLEGUE.. DE UN MUNDO RARO Oil mixed - 55 x 55 in. 2006

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DON QUIXOTE Oil mixed - 45 x 43 in. 2009

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BLUE (MUJER TAINA) Oil mixed - 50 x 54 in. 2009

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NOCHE CARIOCA Oil mixed - 66 x 51 in. 2010

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SIEMPRE UN DIOS. SIEMPRE UNA MAGIA II (VERSION AUTORETRATO) Oil mixed - 51 x 52 in. 2010

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HISTORIA DE TASS Oil mixed - 85 x 55 in. 2011

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (ESTUDIO HOMBRE RECLINADO) Oil mixed - 32 x 66 in. 2011

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FRANCOIS BOUCHER (VENUS RECLINADA) Oil mixed - 32 x 66 in. 2011

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JACQUES CALLOT (ESTUDIO DESNUDO MASCULINO) Oil mixed - 35 x 65 in. 2011

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (DESNUDO DE ESPALDA) Oil mixed - 35 x 65 in. 2011

PARADISO Oil mixed - 66 x 63 in. 2012

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ESMERALDA Oil mixed - 54 x 62 in. 2012

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AVE FENIX 2 Oil mixed - 54 x 64 in. 2012

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PSICOLOGRAFIA Oil mixed - 52 x 54 in. 2012

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EL MARIACHI Oil mixed - 53 x 53 in. 2012

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CRUCIGRAMA Oil mixed - 74 x 54 in. 2013

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TEMPESTADES Oil mixed - 80 x 65 in. 2013

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MAXIMO CAMINERO ESSAY Born in the Dominican Republic in 1962 and based in Miami, Máximo Caminero is an uncommon talent who combines a profound sense of communal engagement with distinct abstract imagery to question the dynamics of contemporary society and the existential condition. “My philosophy has always been that those of us who create art have a responsibility to be aware and conscious at all times,” the 54-year-old artist and activist observes. Caminero’s gift lies in his mastery of ancient Taino (first inhabitants of the Antilles) symbolism through which he contrasts notions of harmony and disorder while referencing the lingering scars of colonialism and native genocide. Skillfully fusing the primeval with the novel, his canvases capture the enduring legacy of the Caribbean’s first peoples and African traditions with complex intricacy to trigger associations from deep within subconscious realms. Typically, Caminero’s paintings are rife with philosophical ideas and informed by the artist’s wide-ranging interests in history, music and literature reflecting his inherently inquisitive mind and firmly held principles. Not surprisingly, Caminero’s public activism, and commitment to a raft of social and political causes, have occasionally found the artist at the center of personal controversy. Such was the case in February of 2014 when he became the subject of international headlines for smashing an Ai Weiwei vase at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) in what Caminero called an act of protest to draw attention to legion of Miami artists who had never been the subject of a local museum show. While this act, which ironically echoed one of Weiwei’s works on display at PAMM earned him the enmity of much of South Florida’s art establishment, it forced open a broader dialogue among those who also felt marginalized by local institutions and who openly praised Caminero’s courage. Caminero, who subsequently apologized publicly for his actions, paid restitution for the destroyed urn, and served 18 months’ probation. While neither condoning nor condemning his actions, it is important to note in the context of this exhibit, which focuses on the past twenty years of the artist’s production, that Caminero has garnered a growing reputation as a candid and critical chronicler of his adopted city’s recent emergence as an art world capital in the post Art Basel Miami Beach era. Two paintings on display in this retrospective command particular attention since they reflect a direct and stinging commentary on our town’s international reputation a hedonistic paradise consumed by spectacle. 59

The first painting, a large format canvas titled Cloaca Miami, (Miami Sewer), was produced in the Spring of 2014, shortly after Caminero’s infamous PAMM protest, and represents a self-referential challenge to hierarchies of institutional culture. The artist’s deeprooted dismay with the status quo is represented in tenebrous, monochromatic tones in the suffocating confines of a studio space with barred windows, where a chaotic array of floating cones, spheres and what appear to be Taino war axes hover menacingly above a drain pipe in the foreground. At once metaphysical in nature, the scene’s bleak surroundings and foreboding title convey an undercurrent of defiance and aggression. One can easily cite the thematically festive 2017 painting titled En el Carnaval, (At the Carnival), as the contrasting book end of Caminero’s conceptual fulcrum. In this striking painting, Caminero levels an unflinching eye at the unbridled gentrification of the Wynwood Art District and the booming construction transforming the downtown skyline. Rendered in mostly black, white and gray tones with a cosmology of bold yellow, harlequin-patterned and geometric, jazz-like notes rising in the night sky, this painting depicts what appears to be an Art Walk crowd gazing heavenward with uncontrolled revelry. It also slyly distills the forces at work behind the Magic City’s soaring real estate fortunes where artists have long found themselves the stalking horses for local developers. Perhaps one of the most emblematic representations of Caminero’s idiosyncratic style is 2011’s Historia de Tass, (History of Tass), a large format oil on canvas painting which combines the archetypical modernist grid and his geometrically stylized Taino symbolism to create an enigmatic portrait of a close female friend he light-heartedly compares to the Tasmanian devil for her ebullient energy. The monochromatic bleached bone, charcoal gray and squid ink-black composition is divided into 35 frames, each depicting ancient symbols of the sacred feminine while hinting at interior emotional states and the multifaceted, psychological aspects of being human. In today’s times of political unrest and social upheaval, Caminero fearlessly confronts audiences with a personal outpouring of emotions and ideas to invite community and public participation as a vehicle for social change. This prolific artist’s works are the subject of prominent critical reviews, have been auctioned at prestigious houses in America and are included in the permanent collections of major museums in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. Text by Carlos Suarez De Jesus Independent Art Critic

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CALENDARIO CALENDARIO AZTECA AZTECA VERSION VERSION CAMINERO CAMINERO Oil Oil mixed mixed -- 76 76 xx 66 66 in. in. 2013 2013

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EVERGLADES Oil mixed - 80 x 49 in. 2013

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CLOACA MIAMI Oil mixed - 88 x 87 in. 2014

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POLARIDAD (TODO ES DUAL) Oil mixed - 59 x 59 in. 2015

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CORRESPONDENCIA (COMO ES ARRIBA ES ABAJO) Oil mixed - 59 x 59 in. 2015

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EL TODO Oil mixed - 138 x 67 in. 2015

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TODO VIBRA Oil mixed - 127 x 50 in. 2015

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69

TODO ES MENTE Oil mixed - 69 x 65 in. 2016

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CAUSA Y EFECTO Oil mixed - 58 x 58 in. 2015

LEY DEL GENERO Oil mixed - 60 x 57 in. 2015

RITMO COMPENSACION Oil mixed - 58 x 58 in. 2015

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DESEO Mixe media - 98 x 37 in. 2016

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EMPATIA Mixed media - 99 x 39 in. 2016

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EMPODERARSE Oil mixed - 100 x 64 in. 2016

Conocí al artista Máximo Caminero hace más de quince años quedando sorprendida por su extensa producción, su paleta creativa y una sensibilidad y carisma especial que lo hace ser sencillamente un virtuoso y único ser. Entrar en su estudio es introducirse en un mundo de impactos visuales y de colores brillantes. El crea, dibuja, pinta, escribe poemas del alma con un entusiasmo tal que hace que volemos de la mano de seres cósmicos a mundos lejanos repletos de fantasía. Quien posea una obra de este artista tan prolífero, tendrá para siempre un mundo de escape e ilusión. Gracia Máximo por permitirme ser parte de tu camino y crecimiento. Lizi Fernandez-Puyo Lima, Perú Curator and Internacional dealer 74

NOCHE YORUBA Oil mixed - 67 x 51 in. 2016

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PAISAJE IMAGINADO Oil mixed - 87 x 26 in. 2017

"Descubrirás con los años, que si preguntas, qué significa algo, un cuadro, una música o lo que sea, quizás puedas saber del autor, pero en cuanto a aprender algo acerca de lo que buscas entender, tendrás que averiguarlo partiendo de tu propia experiencia. Ahorra tu energía y no andes por el mundo preguntando lo que no puede comunicarse con palabras. Si el artista pudiera describir con palabras lo que hace, nunca lo hubiera creado." Alfred Stieglitz

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EN EL CARNAVAL Oil mixed - 67 x 54 in. 2017

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MAXIMO CAMINERO Dominican Republic 1962

Museums The Harriet & George D. Cornell Museum of Art and History, Delray, Florida, USA. Museo Casa de Bastidas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep. Guayasamín Museum Foundation, Quito, Ecuador. Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico (MAC), Santurce, Puerto Rico. Museo Galería Casa Turquesa, Cancún, México. Museo Universidad Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. Museo Reina Torres, Panamá. Latin American Museum MOLAA, California, USA Casa Museo La Presentación, Cartagena, Colombia.

Exhibitions – Collections Individual exhibitions 1991 First Solo Show, "Costumbres Dominicanas", Miami, Florida. 1992 "Costumbres Dominicanas II", Santo Domingo, DR. 1993 Dreams, Ghosts and Fantasies, Casa de Teatro. Santo Domingo, DR. 1994 Transition, House Nouveau. Dominican Republic. 1995 Black & White, Casa de Teatro. Santo Domingo. 1997 In the Shadow of Oblivion, Volunteer of the Royal Houses Bastide Museum. Santo Domingo, DR. Faces of the Dominican Community, Casa Cultural Dominicana. Miami, Florida. 1998 Amamey, Guayasamin House. Santo Domingo, DR. 1999 Between North and South, Museum Gallery Josefina. Managua, Nicaragua. 2001 Máximo Caminero 10 years, Casa Cultural Dominicana. Miami, Florida. 2002 Library Florida International University. Miami, Florida. 2003 "Tuyel", Biaggi & Faure Fine Art. Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico. 2004 Selections 2002-2003, Guaysamin Foundation. Quito, Ecuador Memory 786, Casa de Teatro. Santo Domingo, DR. 2005 Selections 2003-2004, It's Art Gallery, City Club. Panama City, Panamá. All Soul, Diaspora Vibe Gallery. Miami, FL 2006 The Loneliness of the Simple, Biaggi & Faure Fine Art. Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico. 2009 Subconscious memory, Museum Reina Torres de Arauz. Panama City, Panamá. 2010 Reflection of Thought, Abro Art Gallery. Miami, Florida. 78

2013 Stages, JF Gallery. West Palm Beach, Florida. 2016 Kybalion, Casa De Teatro. Santo Domingo, DR. 2017 Encuentros Tangenciales. Casa Museo La Presentación. Cartagena, Colombia. Desencuentros (1997-2017). Art&Art Gallery. Miami, FL.

Group Exhibitions 1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 2000 2001 2002 2005 2006 2006 2007 2008 2009

Art Críticos Association (ACCA) Miami, Florida. Casa de la Cultura Dominicana, Miami, Florida. Coral Gables, Miami, Florida. Koubet Center, Miami, Florida. ACCA, Miami, Florida. Wizo, Miami, Florida. The Florida Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art Reinassence Art Gallery, Miami, Florida. Feria Du Padova, Italy. Image Art Gallery, Miami, Florida. Reinassence Art Gallery, Miami, Florida. "Dominican Art", Miami Herald, Miami, Florida. High Point, North Carolina, USA. "The New Vision", Merrill Lynch Campus Art Gallery, Plainsboro, NJ. "Self Portraits" Hetzco Studio, Miami, Florida. Viva Galería, New York. "Dominican Art", Miami, Florida. "Latin American Art of 90", Saint John University, New York. "The Open Studios" Bird Road Art Connection, Miami, Florida. Art Expo, 2000. New Horizons, Biaggi & Faure Fine Art, Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico. MOLAA Latin American Museum of California, Auction. 'One', Biaggi & Faure Fine Art, Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico. Contemporary Art Exhibition, Miami, FL. Aldo Castle, Chicago. MOLAA Latin American Museum of California, Auction. Chicago International Fair. MOLAA, Latin American Museum of California, Auction. Biaggi & Faure Fine Art, Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico. ABRO Miami Art Gallery. Privee Collection Art Gallery, Miami Beach, Florida Art Now Art Fair, Chicago. Red Dot Art Fair Winwood. Miami. Fiart Art Fair, the Dominican Republic. ABRO Miami Art Gallery. 2009-Art Now Art Fair Chicago. Tempo Contemporary, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL

2009 Juannio Auction, Guatemala City. City Club, Panama City. Giovanni Rossi Art Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2010 Galería Turquesa, Cancún, México Art Palm Beach 2011/ 2016 Bienal Santo Domingo, Museo De Arte Moderno 2013 Museo de Antioquia, Medellin Colombia. Five plus 2 Laurent Massachusset 2015 Art Africa Art 2015/ 2016 Bassel week 2017 Art Palm Beach

Awards 1990 2nd. Place ACCA Miami International Drawing Competition 1992 Honorable Mention, Modern Art ACCA 1992 (Miami, Florida). 1996 Plastic Artist of the Year 1996 (Honorary Awards, Miami, Florida). 1997 Plastic Artist of the Year 1997 (Dominican Awards / Miami, Florida). 1998 Plastic Artist of the Year 1998 (Independence Awards / Miami, Florida). Recognition of the College of Fine Artists Dominicans for Contributions to the Dominican Culture Abroad, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 2000 Dominicans Abroad Awards for Contribution to the Community Cultural Growth in Miami Dominicana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 2009 Institute Recognition Panama's National Culture INAP.

Private Collections AGUASVIVAS S. ALEGRE L. ALVAREZ A. ARBOLEDA H. ARIZA M. BAEZ D. BRESSLER J. CALVET C. CAMPILLO I. CASTELLANOS T. CESTARI A. CHICO F. DE CAMPS S. DE LEON J.

ALEGRE G. ALMANZAR M. AMITAI L. ARBOLEDA L. BAEZ A. BALCACER I. BRITO F. CALVET O. CARNIATO S. CASTILLO C. CHAPARRO P. CHIN J. DE LA CRUZ M. DELGADO L.

DIEZ M. DUNAND S. ENRIQUE FERNANDEZ L. GALAN G. GINEBRA F. GOENNEWEIN L. GOLMAN J. GONZALEZ J. GUERRERO A. HERNANDEZ C. HERSKOWICH D. HOFFMAN C. HULL R. INVERNIZZI S. JUANES KHON R LAUREANO M LOPEZ A. MARTINEZ M. MBOW B. MOREL JL. NORMAN OLIVARES S. OSORIO F. PAYARES H. PENALOZA MJ. PEREZ D. PROKOPETZ G. RASOF A. READ H. REYES C REYES O. RISI J. RIZZI A. RODRIGUEZ S. ROSARIO ME. SANCHEZ L. SANTIAGO W. SORIANO G. STEPHEN H. TRUJILLO A. VILLANUEVA N. WOHLER I.

DOPICO V. ECHEVERRIA E. FAURE C. FINLAYSON J. GARCIA C. GISBERT A. GOLBERT J. GONZALEZ J. GUALDARRAMA O. HAZA O. HERNANDEZ M. HIDALGO E. HOLMES N. INDHIRA R. ISAIAS JC. KEBER V. LANDMAN L. LEBREAULT L. MARTINEZ E. MATOS A. MEJIA M. MORENO G. OBREGON M. OLIVEIRA A. OSORIO R. PEÑA POLO P. PERALTA JR. PIZANO MV. RANCIER D. RAYMUNDO E. REGUANT A. REYES E. RISET C RIVAS H. ROBAINA C. RODRIGUEZ G. SAINT LOUIS SANCHEZ O. SMITH O. SORIANO JM. STRICKEL L. VARGAS A. WEREGEMERE Y. 79

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

LOMO 0.9 cm

The question now is: Are there moral & political reasons to repeat this principle? Philosopher & performance theorist Judith Butler makes a case for this possibility. She calls this act of repetition (in performance) “citationality.” Performativity is not a regular act, for it’s always a reiteration of a norm, or sets of norms, and to the extent that it requires an act-like status in the present, it conceals or dissimulates the conventions of which it is a repetition. Moreover, the act is not primarily theatrical, indeed its apparent theatricality is produced to the extent that its historicity remains dissimulated (and conversely its theatricality gains a certain inevitability... a performative is that practice that enacts or produces what it names. Performativity is “not a regular act”. In a sense, Caminero's protest presupposes a reiteration of a norm. Which norm? By smattering the vase, the performer at once legitimates & overcomes the transgression involved. Art’s performativity is a productive activity: the breaking of norms justify the creation new forms. What makes a protest/performance legitimate? We suggest a criterion we discussed with performance artist and theorist Marina Abramoviç on the occasion of her 2007 conference at FIU. She mentioned two points: proper context, & compelling reason. Proper context: Caminero carried out his protest/performance right in front of Weiwei’s document/piece @ PAMM in front of everybody. See how (in the CNN clip & later photos) Caminero stands next to Weiwei’s installation & calmly & deliberately (as he looks onto Weiwei’s photos) proceeds to let the vase fall onto the floor. Compelling reason: Caminero’s protest/performance was meant to call attention to a persisting problem of the art establishment. Which problem? Contemporary art’s arbitrary criteria of inclusion. No vandal would act in this manner. A gratuitous act destroys either for its own sake or (as some artists in Facebook & elsewhere have implied) for the sake of a self-aggrandizement. This is what performance theorist & actionist Günter Brus refers to as “sincerity.” Caminero was simply doing what he thought was right. As important performance theorists like Abramovic, Burden, Schneemann, etc have pointed out: performance art is much more than mere theatricality. Some limit situations have a purpose because they bring to the open a persistent problem that is often overlooked or ignored altogether. Performance artist Chris Burden has identified how these “limit” situations offer a purpose: ... by setting up aberrant situations my art functions on a higher reality. Caminero’s smashing Weiwei’s “one million dollar vase” @ PAMM is aberrant enough (in our present context of an incestuous & redundant art market) to fit Burden’s prescription. Performance art is neither inside -nor outside- the political or moral realms; it becomes a sort of inter-dependent realm to discuss political and moral issues. Here @ miami bourbaki, we refer to the issue Caminero protests against as a riddle: Where is the magic of art if people realize that what makes art art is a market strategy? Which brings me to Weiwei’s reaction to Caminero’s protest/performance. “The argument does not support the act,” Mr. Ai said. “It doesn’t sound right. His argument (Caminero’s) doesn’t make much sense. If he really had a point, he should choose another way, because this will bring him trouble to destroy property that does not belong to him.” Even worse, “My work belongs to me, it doesn't belong to the public and also it doesn’t [belong to] somebody else.” Wait, is Weiwei saying that his (iconoclastic) conceptual recipe applies only to him? What an unfortunate verdict, coming from China's enfant terrible of the arts. By denying Caminero the performativity principle his art depends upon, Weiwei has lost a great opportunity to actually put his money where his mouth is. I leave Weiwei with Günter Brus’ motto: sincerity is scandal when the wise world officially runs against it.

Máximo CAMINERO

It all begins with this odd piece of news from the New York Times: (...) a valuable vase by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei had been deliberately destroyed by a visitor in what appeared to be an act of protest. A spokeswoman for the museum said the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when a local artist walked into the waterfront museum and picked up one of the vases in an installation of Mr. Ai’s work titled “Colored Vases.” A guard asked the man to put it down, but instead he threw it to the ground, smashing it, the spokeswoman said. (click the CNN video in the nytimes piece). Who is the culprit? Máximo Caminero, a local miami artist. Mr. Caminero, a native of the Dominican Republic who has long lived in Miami, told the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, after his arrest that he had broken the vase to protest what he said was the museum’s exclusion of local artists in its exhibits. Since caminero has no known previous criminal record, it’s only fair to take up his reasons: 1- “It was a spontaneous protest,” 2- “I was at PAMM and saw Ai Weiwei's photos behind the vases where he drops an ancient Chinese vase and breaks it. And I saw it as a provocation by Weiwei to join him in an act of performance protest.” Protesting on which ground? 3- (...) “for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here.” Are caminero's reasons justified? The CNN video implies that Caminero's protest “mirrors” Weiwei’s. Performativity (as we’ll see later) follows its own norms. According to the New York Times article, PAMM’s description of Weiwei’s piece discloses that the Chinese artist dropped a 206 BCE-220 CE urn to the floor “to express the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm.” New ideas and values produced through iconoclasm? Here Weiwei is basically endorsing a cultural practice of (deliberate) destruction of a culture’s symbol for political motives. In 1995, on the occasion of smashing the dynasty urn, he manifested: I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable -how we decide what is valuable. Let's call this justification (of the destruction of symbols in order) to crate new forms, the Weiwei's performativity principle. In order to avoid the charge of vandalism, Weiwei’s performativity principle must -implicitly- presuppose a political (or moral) justification. Let’s not miss a subordinate point here: Weiwei’s iconoclasm brings transgression to a center stage, i.e., the destruction of a Chinese cultural treasure is performatively and thus morally/politically justified. But the justification of Weiwei’s act presupposes that Weiwei’s destruction of the ancient Chinese urn amounts to vandalism. Is Caminero’s protest/performance not politically justified? Exploring what makes a performance legit is important here because Caminero’s protest has been presented as a criminal act by a PAMM’s official by the name of Leann Standish, who was quick to denounce it as an “act of vandalism.” You’d expect this quick and crude assessment from the police, but not from an official representative of a museum exhibiting a performance/document where its author (Ai Weiwei) appears smashing a similar vase -under the same performative principle which Caminero simply reenacts. See that we’re not underplaying or excusing Caminero’s action (his unconventional, perhaps radical, destruction of Weiwei’s vase as a vehicle for his protest has legal ramifications), nor are we heeding the ridiculous price-tag of $1 million, quickly thrown by PAMM to put a figure to his “crime.” What is at stake here (in following Weiwei’s performativity principle) is whether the reasons for caminero's protest balance out standard property-rights considerations. Weiwei’s performativity principle bypasses property simply because owning an ancient Chinese urn doesn’t give anyone the right to break it. Cultural artefacts are considered exclusive in their archaeological, ethnological and social significance. Weiwei is, de facto, introducing a different normative order here, i.e., iconoclasm supervenes property.

RETRO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

The political imperative: Ai Weiwei should congratulate Máximo Caminero for smashing his "one-million dollar vase" on PAMM's floor Alfredo Triff

TAPA 22 x 28 cm

SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Máximo

CAMINERO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

Acknowledgements Gallery Directors Stefano Carniato & Dante Carniato Personal Manager ?? Editing Silvia Belmonte Photography Freddy Osorio Xxxx Xxxx Graphic Design Saint Design

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

Cover Paint Las Tinieblas de mi alma Oil mixed 74 x 47 in. 2004

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

RETIRACION SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

RETIRACION TAPA 22 x 28 cm

RETIRACION CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

RETIRACION SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Eppur Si Muove

Galileo galilei

SOLAPA CONTRA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

CONTRATAPA 22 x 28 cm

LOMO 0.9 cm

The question now is: Are there moral & political reasons to repeat this principle? Philosopher & performance theorist Judith Butler makes a case for this possibility. She calls this act of repetition (in performance) “citationality.” Performativity is not a regular act, for it’s always a reiteration of a norm, or sets of norms, and to the extent that it requires an act-like status in the present, it conceals or dissimulates the conventions of which it is a repetition. Moreover, the act is not primarily theatrical, indeed its apparent theatricality is produced to the extent that its historicity remains dissimulated (and conversely its theatricality gains a certain inevitability... a performative is that practice that enacts or produces what it names. Performativity is “not a regular act”. In a sense, Caminero's protest presupposes a reiteration of a norm. Which norm? By smattering the vase, the performer at once legitimates & overcomes the transgression involved. Art’s performativity is a productive activity: the breaking of norms justify the creation new forms. What makes a protest/performance legitimate? We suggest a criterion we discussed with performance artist and theorist Marina Abramoviç on the occasion of her 2007 conference at FIU. She mentioned two points: proper context, & compelling reason. Proper context: Caminero carried out his protest/performance right in front of Weiwei’s document/piece @ PAMM in front of everybody. See how (in the CNN clip & later photos) Caminero stands next to Weiwei’s installation & calmly & deliberately (as he looks onto Weiwei’s photos) proceeds to let the vase fall onto the floor. Compelling reason: Caminero’s protest/performance was meant to call attention to a persisting problem of the art establishment. Which problem? Contemporary art’s arbitrary criteria of inclusion. No vandal would act in this manner. A gratuitous act destroys either for its own sake or (as some artists in Facebook & elsewhere have implied) for the sake of a self-aggrandizement. This is what performance theorist & actionist Günter Brus refers to as “sincerity.” Caminero was simply doing what he thought was right. As important performance theorists like Abramovic, Burden, Schneemann, etc have pointed out: performance art is much more than mere theatricality. Some limit situations have a purpose because they bring to the open a persistent problem that is often overlooked or ignored altogether. Performance artist Chris Burden has identified how these “limit” situations offer a purpose: ... by setting up aberrant situations my art functions on a higher reality. Caminero’s smashing Weiwei’s “one million dollar vase” @ PAMM is aberrant enough (in our present context of an incestuous & redundant art market) to fit Burden’s prescription. Performance art is neither inside -nor outside- the political or moral realms; it becomes a sort of inter-dependent realm to discuss political and moral issues. Here @ miami bourbaki, we refer to the issue Caminero protests against as a riddle: Where is the magic of art if people realize that what makes art art is a market strategy? Which brings me to Weiwei’s reaction to Caminero’s protest/performance. “The argument does not support the act,” Mr. Ai said. “It doesn’t sound right. His argument (Caminero’s) doesn’t make much sense. If he really had a point, he should choose another way, because this will bring him trouble to destroy property that does not belong to him.” Even worse, “My work belongs to me, it doesn't belong to the public and also it doesn’t [belong to] somebody else.” Wait, is Weiwei saying that his (iconoclastic) conceptual recipe applies only to him? What an unfortunate verdict, coming from China's enfant terrible of the arts. By denying Caminero the performativity principle his art depends upon, Weiwei has lost a great opportunity to actually put his money where his mouth is. I leave Weiwei with Günter Brus’ motto: sincerity is scandal when the wise world officially runs against it.

Máximo CAMINERO

It all begins with this odd piece of news from the New York Times: (...) a valuable vase by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei had been deliberately destroyed by a visitor in what appeared to be an act of protest. A spokeswoman for the museum said the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when a local artist walked into the waterfront museum and picked up one of the vases in an installation of Mr. Ai’s work titled “Colored Vases.” A guard asked the man to put it down, but instead he threw it to the ground, smashing it, the spokeswoman said. (click the CNN video in the nytimes piece). Who is the culprit? Máximo Caminero, a local miami artist. Mr. Caminero, a native of the Dominican Republic who has long lived in Miami, told the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, after his arrest that he had broken the vase to protest what he said was the museum’s exclusion of local artists in its exhibits. Since caminero has no known previous criminal record, it’s only fair to take up his reasons: 1- “It was a spontaneous protest,” 2- “I was at PAMM and saw Ai Weiwei's photos behind the vases where he drops an ancient Chinese vase and breaks it. And I saw it as a provocation by Weiwei to join him in an act of performance protest.” Protesting on which ground? 3- (...) “for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here.” Are caminero's reasons justified? The CNN video implies that Caminero's protest “mirrors” Weiwei’s. Performativity (as we’ll see later) follows its own norms. According to the New York Times article, PAMM’s description of Weiwei’s piece discloses that the Chinese artist dropped a 206 BCE-220 CE urn to the floor “to express the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm.” New ideas and values produced through iconoclasm? Here Weiwei is basically endorsing a cultural practice of (deliberate) destruction of a culture’s symbol for political motives. In 1995, on the occasion of smashing the dynasty urn, he manifested: I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable -how we decide what is valuable. Let's call this justification (of the destruction of symbols in order) to crate new forms, the Weiwei's performativity principle. In order to avoid the charge of vandalism, Weiwei’s performativity principle must -implicitly- presuppose a political (or moral) justification. Let’s not miss a subordinate point here: Weiwei’s iconoclasm brings transgression to a center stage, i.e., the destruction of a Chinese cultural treasure is performatively and thus morally/politically justified. But the justification of Weiwei’s act presupposes that Weiwei’s destruction of the ancient Chinese urn amounts to vandalism. Is Caminero’s protest/performance not politically justified? Exploring what makes a performance legit is important here because Caminero’s protest has been presented as a criminal act by a PAMM’s official by the name of Leann Standish, who was quick to denounce it as an “act of vandalism.” You’d expect this quick and crude assessment from the police, but not from an official representative of a museum exhibiting a performance/document where its author (Ai Weiwei) appears smashing a similar vase -under the same performative principle which Caminero simply reenacts. See that we’re not underplaying or excusing Caminero’s action (his unconventional, perhaps radical, destruction of Weiwei’s vase as a vehicle for his protest has legal ramifications), nor are we heeding the ridiculous price-tag of $1 million, quickly thrown by PAMM to put a figure to his “crime.” What is at stake here (in following Weiwei’s performativity principle) is whether the reasons for caminero's protest balance out standard property-rights considerations. Weiwei’s performativity principle bypasses property simply because owning an ancient Chinese urn doesn’t give anyone the right to break it. Cultural artefacts are considered exclusive in their archaeological, ethnological and social significance. Weiwei is, de facto, introducing a different normative order here, i.e., iconoclasm supervenes property.

RETRO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

The political imperative: Ai Weiwei should congratulate Máximo Caminero for smashing his "one-million dollar vase" on PAMM's floor Alfredo Triff

TAPA 22 x 28 cm

SOLAPA TAPA 21 x 28 cm

Máximo

CAMINERO DESENCUENTROS 1997-2017

Acknowledgements Gallery Directors Stefano Carniato & Dante Carniato Personal Manager ?? Editing Silvia Belmonte Photography Freddy Osorio Xxxx Xxxx Graphic Design Saint Design

333 NW 23rd Street, Miami | FL 33127 | USA | T. +1 (786) 362 5165 | [email protected]

www.artnartgallery.com

Cover Paint Las Tinieblas de mi alma Oil mixed 74 x 47 in. 2004