>assume vivid astro focus
Artist
assume vivid astro focus is the chosen alias of a Brazilian-born artist, Nee Eli Sudbrack, who prefers to use the avaf moniker to encourage and encompass a broad and inclusive artistic practice. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, avaf has described the personal significance of growing up during the U.S. sponsored military dictatorship of Brazil that lasted from1964-1980. Exposure to the influx of American popular culture that resulted in US produced television, film and merchandising arriving into the already culturally diverse Brazilian culture, has been an influence in avaf’s working practice, assimilating a wide range of aesthetic tendencies into a varied practice and output. Avaf completed a Batchelor of Communication Studies, Cinema, Publicity and Advertising at Pontificia Universidade Catolica (Rio de Janeiro) in 1992, and subsequently moved to the US to study at the International Centre of Photography, New York. Avaf is predominantly New York based, his particular 'collage aesthetic' is represented through an abundance of media including stickers, masks, t-shirts, drawings, tattoos, clothing, photography, film programmes and projections. These works are most often instigated as collaborations with other like-minded artists and collectives such as Los Super Elegantes, Joseph Ari Loi (aka JK5) and Slava Mogutin. A recent collaboration with Los Super Elegantes for the Frieze Art Fair, Londo, ‘Make it With You: The Slow Dance Club’ (2004), involved a specially constructed room (with a rotating door to enclose it) visitors were encouraged to dance to romantic music in its club-like environment, forged in a spirit of facilitation. Avaf has recently created a range of handbags with one section each of an overall print, further extending the exclusiver nature of the product. Avaf is currently exhibiting until September in 'Globas Sonda', a group show in the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon, Spain.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
‘Off the Wall Serie’, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Nov 2005
’assume vivid astro focus XIV’ (in collaboration with Elmgreen and Dragset), Galeria Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Fall/Winter, 2005
‘assume vivid astro focus XII’, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England, Apr 23- Oct 23, 2005
‘assume vivid astro focus XI’, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz Private Collection, Key Biscayne, FL, 2004-2005
‘Make Out With You: A Slow Dance Club’, Collaboration with Los Super Elegantes, Frieze Art Fair, London, October 14 – 18, 2004
‘assume vivid astro focus IX’, public art project for Central Park sponsored by The Public Art Fund, New York, April – September, 2004
‘assume vivid astro focus VII’, Deitch Projects, New York, June 26 – August 15, 2003
‘assume vivid astro focus V’, peres projects, San Francisco, November 8 –
December 7, 2002
‘assume vivid astro focus III’, Bellwether (gallery 2), Brooklyn, New York, May
31 – July 1, 2002.
Selected Group Exhibitions
‘Ecstasy: In and About Altered States’, curated by Paul Schimmel, The Geffen
Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, Oct 10, 2005
‘Seeing Double: Encounters with Warhol’, Andy Warhol Museum of Art, Pittsburg, Feb 19 – May 1, 2005”
‘Growing up Absurd’, Kent Institute of Arts and Design, (Herbert Read Gallery),
Canterbury, UK, January 27 – February 26, 2005
‘Nocturnal Emissions’, Groninger Museum, Groninger, The Netherlands, Sep 25 – Nov 21, 2004
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 1– May 30, 2004
‘Fast Forward (Media Art from the Goetz Collection)’, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, October 11, 2003 – February 29, 2004
‘Karaoke Death Machine’, Daniel Reich, New York, April 9 - May, 2003
‘Georges: Abstraction/Surface’, curated by Nicolas Trembley, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris, France, December 16 - 31, 2002
‘High Desert Test Sites’, curated by Andrea Zittel, Andy Stillpass and John Connelly, Joshua Tree, November 23 and 24, 2002
‘222: 2002: Stardust: Assume Vivid Astro Focus and Kalaman’, curated by Anton
Kern, Apex Art, New York, June 21 – July 10, 2002
‘Alpha Flight’, curated by John Connelly, john connelly presents (JCP), New York, November 9 – December 8, 2001
‘Biting Style and Spitting Image’, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, curated by Diane Chamber and Denise Delgado , June 15th - July 1, 2001
‘City Cannibal’, curated by Daniela Bousso, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil, September thru November, 1998
‘Excesso’ (Excess), curated by Daniela Bousso, Paço das Artes, São Paulo,
Brazil, September thru November, 1996