Installation view of 'Ultralounge: The Return of Social Space (with Cocktails)', University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, January - March 2000, with work by Jack Hallberg (right)
Painter Jack Hallberg's upcoming show at New York's CUE Art Foundation is curated by noted critic Dave Hickey, a name often associated with the (albeit diffuse) revival of an 'aesthetics of beauty' in the 1990s. Certainly, Hallberg's seductive and glossy abstract paintings could be cited in that connection, but they would also seem to possess something of the neon glitz of Las Vegas, where both Hallberg and Hickey reside. In fact, Hickey has curated Hallberg's work before, at the University of South Florida in 2000 (the show, 'Ultralounge: The Return of Social Space (with Cocktails)') and James Kelley Contemporary, Santa Fe in 2001. Hallberg has previously shown in New York, at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (2001's 'Fresh - The Altoids Curiously Strong Collection 1998-2000').
Showing alongside Hallberg is Miguel Luciano, who addresses both playful and painful exchanges between the United States and Puerto Rico, questioning a colonial relationship that exists to the present day, and problematizing the space between the two cultures. His paintings and installations often examine how colonial subordination is extended through globalization, as communities have shifted gears from a production-based society to one that is grounded in consumption. He sometimes manipulates US corporate logos in his paintings and photographic works to suggest what he perceives as the Americanization of Puerto Rico. Luciano trained in Florida and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Miguel Luciano, Cracker Juan, 1998, digital archival inkjet print on paper
Jack Hallberg / Miguel Luciano
7 December 2006 - 27 January 2007
CUE Art Foundation
511 West 25th Street, Ground Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212 206 3583
www.cueartfoundation.org
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