Agró/Glickman STEP (1) at Scope Miami 2006

For this year’s scopeMiami, Agró/Glickman STEP (1) is proposing a fourth curated Scope art fair booth, entitled THE BIRDS AND THE BEES: coos, buzz and bleeps

Like their previous ones – Precious Cache, Paradoxical Landscapes, and Three Players of a Summer Game – THE BIRDS AND THE BEES: coos, buzz and bleeps, will organize the work of four artists under a common theme.  In this case, it’s the oldest story known to man…whether we’re talking Adam and Eve or the Kamasutra, sex and the miracle of life have been a source of both shame and wonder since the beginning of time.  A present day example of this repressive aspect is our insistence on euphemistic explanations of sex and where babies come from, like “the birds and bees.”   Is there a more classic example of our discomfort and shame with our sexuality than this?  On the other side, throughout human history we have celebrated sexuality in art and literature (the Kamasutra and the frescoes of Pompeii being just a few of the countless examples). The four artists showcased in the exhibition – Italian-born Angelo Musco, Omaha-born Zachary Clement, Mexican Humberto Duque, and Neapolitan Betty Bee -- all speak to either the shame or joy of “the birds and the bees” in unique and complementary ways.

A delayed birth at the eleventh month of our main artist, Angelo Musco, serves as a primary catalyst for a narrative body of work which embodies the artist’s fascination with a variety of life-giving forms. Suspended in between the real and the platonic, these harmonious, geometric renderings of placentas, eggs, nests, and genetic structures as living architectural compositions simultaneously cloak and reveal the human form.  The artist will now present his latest piece, Alveo, a work that has been specifically created for Scope Miami.  A wall installation of roughly 70 one foot, hexagonal-shaped photographs that together create a honeycomb, in which naked human figures, as stand-in’s for bees, are cocooning in the viscous sensuality of honey.

Clement’s dynamic expressionistic style is made up of powerful, excited brush-strokes  from such various media as acrylic paint, spray paint, oil pastels, graphite, and conte crayon on board.  The violence of the gestures – they quickly trace powerful and suggestive lines with sharp edges at the expenses of the figure’s organic structure --gives the paintings a sense of movement and unrest.  The paintings presented here come from his latest series entitled Young Alexander.  Each portrays a baby -- pre-natal in all aspects except for his adult penis -- floating in a white background.  In the artist’s own words:  “We are so pure and honest when we come into this world….why do we so (quickly) feel guilt, shame, and fear of our own desires.”

In his animated narrations, Mexican artist Humberto Duque creates work that at first glance apppears playful, but upon closer inspection show a darker side of the collective unconscious.  Similar to the way we dream, his “adorable” characters are often put in complicated, even ominous situations in a world that seems to have no fixed reference points.  He represents the most literal illustration of the chosen theme in his small papier-maché sculptures and drawings of birds.

Betty Bee works in various media such as photography, video and painting as well as performances. “Her work (also) draws from memories of an unhappy childhood, the cruelty and neglect of her father combined with sexual abuse by her brother […] Betty’s artistic resource is herself and her tragic/comic narrative is told using both traditional and non-traditional media”.  In the paintings presented here, she reproduces the erotic positions found on the walls of Pompeii, but then adds a “protective” layer of gold lattice, that confers a measure of innocence while acknowledging the “shameful” aspect of the acts.