ADC Contemporary & Building Bridges International Art Exchange presents: “Latin American Visions of LA” Opening Reception: June 30th, 2012 6:30pm Installation by Filippo Manzini, sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles

Selected Artists:

First Prize Winners: Luciana Abait- Marcelo Mitnik-Thomas Trail Honorary Mention: Natalia Boucher- Nancy V. Bulacio - Neca Dantas - Eduardo Manilla - George Miguez -Cecilia Rahban - Juan Tallo- Claudio R. Vázquez - Jorge Vismara

“Latin American Visions of LA” will be a compilation of works by selected artists from the open call for LA based artists who were born in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay. This open call was organized by the ADC Contemporary & Building Bridges in combination with the General Consulate of Brazil in Los Angeles, the General Consulate of Argentina in Los Angeles, the General Consulate of Mexico in Los Angeles and the General Consulate of Uruguay in Los Angeles. Sponsored by Argentine American Cultural Foundation (AACF).

Jury

CHRIS DAVIS - Publisher at FABRIK MAGAZINE, Los Angeles CAT GIMENEZ – Executive Director at LUCIE FOUNDATION ALEJANDRO PELAYO RANGEL – Film Director, Writer and Producer – Cultural Attache of the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles. ISABEL ROJAS WILLIAMS – Executive Director Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles DANTE SPINOTTI – Italian Cinematographer among his movies are Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans Heat, LA. Confidential, The Insider, Wonder Boys.

SELECTED ARTISTS: Luciana Abait: Abait was born in Argentina and is currently based in LA. Her artworks, which are shown all around the world, are held by big-name private, public, and corporate collectors. Her work was chosen as part of “Sur” Biennial, Los Angeles, in October 2011. Her exhibits “A Midmorning Garden Dream” and “Aquarium” have been selected by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to be exhibited at LAX between 2011 and 2012.

Natalia Boucher - “Stuck in Time” - Natalia Boucher was born in Uruguay and moved to the USA in 2001. She started working as a freelance photographer for a private school, shooting school events. Her mother-in-law saw how passionate Natalia was about photography and bought her a professional

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ADC Contemporary & Building Bridges International Art Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivate an understanding among cultures worldwide through international art exhibitions, artist exchanges and residency programs.camera. Since then, she has taken courses in photography and developed her own way of looking at things to find beauty in the simplest things, such as the antique car captured in her piece “Stuck in Time.”

Virginia Bulacio – “Meat is Murder” “Venice Street Musician” - Born in Argentina, Bulacio is a freelance journalist with strengths in backpack journalism and photography. She is now a student at California State University, Northridge and has covered many topics affecting the nation and LA. Her work can be seen in multiple Spanish-language newspapers and in the Spanish-language program Nuestra Voz and La Prensa de Los Angeles. Bulacio has been recognized and awarded for her work by many.

Neca Dantas - “City of Angels” - Born in Brazil, Dantas is an emerging commercial and fine art photographer. After she graduated from a University of California with a degree in international relations, she decided to pursue her two great passions in life: travel and photography. Her work focuses on capturing moments that evoke the social and economic transitional feelings in the minds of Angelinos.

Eduardo Manilla -“Partyachi Rojo” – Eduardo was born and raised in Mexico and describes his homeland as “the borderless Pacific Ocean.” He has worked at multiple architecture firms along the coast. Most recently, Manilla has settled down in Venice Beach, where the California lifestyle has inspired him to use his architectural skills for the creation of art. His exploration of graphic design and photography led him to his first art series titled “On-the-go” – a collection of graphic compositions of photos of LA.

George Miguez: Miguez was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1960 and moved to Los Angeles in 1993 where he lived until 2008 when he moved to Silicon Valley. He is a self-described photographer, engineer, musician, yogi, and healer. He is a self-taught photographer and is inspired by the abstract beauty of the world, but is still connected to actual reality. His Zen-like approach to photography can be seen in his piece as he balances the new and old buildings that coexist in Los Angeles.

Marcelo Mitnik: Marcelo grew up in Cordoba, Argentina where he studied film, and also photography. In 1999, he moved to Los Angeles to earn a master’s degree in screenwriting at UCLA’s School of Film and Television, winning a range of awards as a writer and director. In 2006, when Agfa stopped producing Scala slide film, his favorite, Marcelo bought up as many rolls as he could afford and keeps them in his refrigerator. Many of his photos of Los Angeles have been shot on this dwindling supply, including those exhibited here.

Cecilia Rahban - “LA fashion district” - Born in Uruguay, Rahban’s love of art has taken many forms since her childhood - from music to over 20 years of photography. She has always been fascinated with color and the way its vibration affect how we feel. While most of her work focuses on nature, she also explores other subjects. With her photos, she hopes to transmit the struggles and successes of Angelinos.

Juan Tallo - “Bristol” - Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tallo is a multi-media artist. While completing his degree in architecture at the University of Buenos Aires he studied photography as well. He opened his Buenos Aires photography studio in 1990, and has worked as an Advertising Photographer, Digital Cinematographer and Visual Arts Consultant. He has won many awards and is noted for his rare combination of visual sensibilities as a photographer and architect.

Thomas Trail: Thomas Trail is a filmmaker who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for part of his youth and settled in Los Angeles, California. Thomas attended the USC School of Cinema Television, where he fell in love with still photography. His work is influenced by Garry Winogrand, Weegee and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Claudio R. Vázquez - “Shine” - Born in Argentina, Vázquez’s interest in photography sparked when he was a teenager. He learned the basics of photography during a stay in the US, and took the skills back to Argentina and explored photography further. Through the 90s, Vázquez photographed professionally in many different fields such as photojournalism, social events, advertising, and, his predilection, nature and landscapes. Since his move to LA in 2000, he has participated in different events and exhibitions

Jorge Vismara - “Sharing the Moment” “The Shadow of the Sunset” - A Brazilian born photographer, Jorge Vismara captures intimate images of nature, human emotions, and the performing arts. He first

explored photography in Germany while studying industrial design and cinema. He works as a creative computer consultant and founded Pelourinho, one of the largest websites promoting Brazilian culture in the US. Vismara’s method for photography is to let the images speak and interact as a “new sacred place.”

Marcelo Mitnik Thomas Trail Luciana Abait

Filippo Manzini – Installation

Born and currently living in Florence, Manzini works in the transitions of two- and three-dimensionality, of drawing and space. In earlier paper cuttings he actually generated the depth of the page as an image and introduced gesture as a space vector with simple folding. His new three-dimensional works represent unstable surfaces, which are held in a fragile equilibrium between sketch and object, illusion and gravity.

The paper, wood and metal used by Filippo Manzini in his installations are translated into objects of slender size, fragile breath, frail but definite body, impermanent consistence and slightly anthropomorphic personality. We immediately feel close to these "actors" that seem to be conversing with each other, each speaking its own dialect, possibly decreeing various and absurd hypothetical eccentric axioms on the nonlinearity of space, on the ever open possibility that it can receive the absurd, the unfinished or inconsistent, in a geometry of its own that remains to be discovered. These are minimal sculptures proclaim their mere presence as if they were the discards of a conversation, a conversation of traditional sculpture, for which the completeness, solidity and size are not absolute values but only the ability to define the space as that normal value in use container that we know. From the homes in which we live in to the streets and squares where we walk, we are often prey to a space designed to give shelter and safety. Geometry submits to this need. Not the one of Manzini, because it becomes the grammar of a different conversation and it proposes itself through an "anti-sculpture", a spontaneous growth of forms that proceed through folds.

In Project Room 1:

“Alchemy” — Nicole Hausman // Michaelangelo Cruz

Nicole Hausman was raised in Los Angeles. A practicing and highly regarded physician, she also has a great passion for photography. A love of art throughout her life has taken many forms - initially as a classical pianist and dancer, now as an emerging photographer. She is an avid and intrepid world

traveler, seeking to capture the junctions between art, culture, humanity, and nature. Drawn to open spaces and faces, her images are spare, vivid, and evocative.

Michaelangelo Cruz was raised in the diverse hustle and bustle of Manila while it was ruled by martial law. At an early age, he developed a desire to create structure and balance in his life. From the time Michaelangelo received his first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, he has sought to capture the beauty that exists in everyday images, creating a harmonious balance of form and color.

Michaelangelo Cruz Nicole Hausman

In Project Room 2:

“Between Eros and Dreams” — Dminc

Born in Lausanne, Dminc is a Swiss-Italian painter. She traveled through Europe before settling down in Bologna. As a non-conformist and lover of Zen-photography, she is always pushing beyond the boundaries of the “ordinary.” In her work, Dminc uses body language to show all the power that is held in the male nude. In these forms she plays with notions of Beauty, Eros, and Sensuality. The bodies that Dminc paints capture moments of perfection that are removed from the borders of time and capable of infinite emotions