Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Vazquez-Figueroa.
Tony, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in the booming Venezuela of 1970 and grew up in my father’s advertising agency. Venezuela was a unique place in the world at that time… hardly any country was as rich on those days.
I became an ad man my self, but by 1997 I left the ad-world and moved to Cuba to study art. From there I saw the extreme political Left rise up in my country and bring chaos and despair. I then moved to NYC, but I was always closely connected to my country and roots. By 2002 I had finished art school and moved back to Venezuela… and as Luck has it, I arrived on the 7th of April. Four days later I participated actively in a peaceful manifestation that turned violent; by the end of the day, we had overthrown president Chavez. The next days, weeks and months after the Coup d’ eta where crazy in Venezuela… and that finally cracked open my art-language. I work with Crude Oil for many reasons now, but at the beginning, it was because I thought, and still think, that until Venezuela does not tame the monster of Oil, it’s troubles and it’s identity crises will never cease to be. Venezuela, in a very simplistic view, suffers from what is known as The Dutch Disease. I work with crude oil not only in metaphor but also in actuality meaning that I make inks of it, sculptures in Bitumen (heavy crude oil -and the most viscous material on earth) sculptures that melt in 7 to 10 years, I print with it… etc… Oil has become The material that defines our times globally; from the power struggles and the addictive consumption of it to the ecological crises it has procured… yet, it is a material that signified progress, modernity, etc.
The issue now seems to be, if, when and how are we going to tame the addiction we suffer to this material? How can we move forward without it?
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My work is based on research and analysis in subject matter and materials… a mixture of elements, but I always start with a question and then, like in my old days of advertising, I create a strategy to answer my question. For example, I asked my self once: what was the US vision of Venezuela at the time of our economic peak?
As an ex-Ad man, I researched and collected all the Print Ads made in the USA about Venezuela during the ’30s and until the 70’s – a period that we describe as the Saudi Years of Venezuela-. I found over 25 Ads. I then analyzed them and found their common threads: the guys in Madison Avenue where clear: Venezuela is rich as few countries in the world, yet it does not produce anything, there is no manufacturing, It is a country so near the US and has proven to be the most stable democracy in Latin America, its cities look and feel like US cities, and their women are beautiful and exotic…and so on… conclusion: it is the best market you can think of businessman of the early 20th. Century.
I discovered many things through these ads, the strategies of creating “Cruise Lines” to bring in American made products, and to take out raw material much in the same style as the United Fruit Company did… I discover great artists like Carl G. Evers.
I then proceeded to transcribe the ads and render them in crude oil… one by one a drew them by hand with a pen that I developed that could work with crude oil… One of those drawings belongs today to the PAMM, and it can be seen there.
In conclusion, I am a researcher that creates visual metaphors of the results of those investigations. The images, installations, sculptures, etc, I present in public are a way for people to understand certain realities about ourselves, our times, etc., but in a way that it is more immediate, emotional. I take years of research and complicated subjects and present an “image” that hopefully explains in a short moment, an in deep, simple experience something about all of us.
How can artists connect with other artists?
If you don’t enjoy solitude, then it will be really hard to become an artist.
Yet, when I first came to Miami and didn’t know anyone in the media, my strategy was to find a place, an artist Complex, with artists studios and a Gallery… I found the Bakehouse Art complex which was a great platform. There are other art complexes in Miami that offer similar spaces, classes and exhibiting opportunities and most importantly a community.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work can be found at LNS Gallery in Miami: https://lnsgallery.com and other Galleries in South and Central America.
My web page: www.tvazquez.net
Tony Vazquez-Figueroa (Jose Antonio Vazquez-Figueroa) Caracas, Venezuela, B.1970.
Selected group exhibits
2017
Oolite – LnS Gallery – Miami, Fl.
Routes of influence – Perez Art Museum Miami – Miami, Fl.
2016
Inventory/Takes – The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center – NY. NY. USA.
Arte en Mayo – Museo de Arte Moderno de Guatemala – Guatemala.
Works on Paper National Exhibition – Long Island Beach Foundation – Long Beach, N.J. USA.
2015
Rozas-Brotran Fundation Exhibition – AG Gallery/ Northern Trust Bank. Miami, Fl. USA.
Works on Paper National Exhibition – Long Island Beach Foundation – Long Beach, N.J. USA.
Color of Latin – Gyeongnam Art Museum – Soul, Korea
2014
63rd. Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition Boca Museum – Boca Museum, FL. USA
Venezuela/Ukraine: Unexpected Conversation – Black Square Gallery – Miami, FL. USA
Urbanism – Coral Gables Museum – Miami, FL. USA.
Paper Work Project – Black Square Gallery – Miami, FL. USA.
2013
Summer Reading – Black Square Gallery – Miami, FL. USA.
Dessine Moi – Galerie 208 – Paris, France
2012
Acquired – The Bakehouse Art Complex – Miami, FL. USA.
Tridimensionnel – Galerie 208 – Paris, France
2011
Utilitaria- Galería Mad – Caracas, Venezuela
Sauvages – JG pPatform Gallery – Miami.
2010
65 salón Michelena – Valencia, Venezuela.
Identidades – Galería MAD – Caracas, Venezuela.
Collect Collage – Galería Estudio Arte 8 – Caracas.
Brasil Reimaginado – Brasilian Consulate – Caracas, Venezuela.
Retomando el Rojo – Galería MAD/Studio 64 – Caracas, Venezuela.
Eclectic – Galería G7 – Caracas, Venezuela.
2009
V Bienal de Maracaibo – Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Bridge to the Americas – Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) LA, California, USA.
2007-1998
Individualidades – Galería Artepuy/ Beatriz Gil Gallery – Caracas, Venezuela -2007.
Ground Art – Art Basel Week – Miami, Fl, USA.- 2004.
Merit Show New York Studio School – NY. NY., USA.- 2001.
Salón Servando Cabrera – Habana, Cuba. – 1998.
Solo Exhibits
2018
Black Surface – The undoing Process – LnS Gallery _ Miami, Fl.
2017
Crudo/Archivo – Fundación Rozas-Botran – Guatemala, Guatemala
2016
Within the Gaze – Artmedia Gallery- Miami, FL. USA.
2011
Closepop – D’griss Art Gallery – Panama, Panama.
2008
Cata^logos – Galería Artepuy – Caracas, Venezuela.
2005
Ad/iconic – Galería MAD – Caracas, Venezuela.
2004
Venezuela Turmoil – South Florida Art Center – Art Basel Week – Miami, Fl. USA.
Notations – Espacio D’stefano – Caracas, Venezuela.
2003
Retro/Prospective – Centro Cultural Capuy – Caracas, Venezuela.
Selected Awards and Recognitions
Honorable Mention Long Beach Island Foundation for the arts and Sciences, Works on Paper 2017- NJ., USA.
The 2015 Latin American Award Rozas-Botran Foundation – Miami, Fl. USA.
The 2014, 1st. Price of 63rd Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition at the
Boca Museum, Fl.
2014 Miami Photo Salon Panelist- Miami, Fl. USA.
2001, 1st price Good Will Foundation – Caracas, Venezuela.
1998 Partial Scholarship – New York Studio School, NY. NY. USA.
Selected Collections
Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Museum of Latin American Art California (MOLAA), Klugler Kaplan Collection-Miami, Villanueva Collection-Venezuela , Capriles Collection- Venezuela, Maldonado Collection-Miami, Foundation Rozas-Botran Collection.
Selected Art Fairs
Pinta – London, 2011, 2012. Pinta Miami, 2015,16,17, 18.
Scope – Miami, 2013, 2014. Scope – NY, 2013
Art Wynwood – Miami, 2013, 2014.
FIAAM – Soul, Korea, 2013.
Art Miami/Context – Miami, 2012, 2013.
Arte Americas Art Fair – Miami, 2011.
FIA Feria Iberoamericana de Arte – Caracas, Venezuela, 07,08,09,10,12,13.
FIAM Maracaibo – 08,09.
Education
Slade School of Painting at UCL – London.
New York studio School/ New York Academy of Art- NY.
Academia de Arte San Alejandro – Cuba.
BFA -Film- Emerson College – Boston.
Contact Info:
- Address: instagram: tvazquezf and tvazquezfigueroa
- Website: www.tvazquez.net
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: tvazquezfigueroa
Image Credit:
Color ones: name: Oil spills (interpretation of oil spills at sea from satelite images)
Black mirrors: Name: Black Mirrors/material: resin/crude oil.
Objects : Name : in-concrete.
Objects embedded in resin: Name: in Memoriam/ material: crude oil embedded in resin.
Hourglass: Name: Our-glass/ Material: glass and crude oil.
for more descriptions of the work please visit: www.tvazquez.net
all work photographs : Jose Vazquez Figueroa
Portrait: credit: Sonia Gil
second portrait (close up): credit: Edson Smitter/ Instagram : edsmitter
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