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Baltazar Castillo

Profile Information

Website: http://www.baltazarcastillo.com

Relationship status: single

College / University: triton cllege

Program / Degree: fine art - painting

Member type: Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?: Conceptual, Drawing, Installation, Painting, Performance, Sculpture

I am...: an artist living/working in the city of Chicago. Recently I have begun work as an artist -in -residence within the Chicago public school system. This work has proven to be some of the most fulfilling collaborations between the students,the educators and myself as an artist. Presently I am exhibiting with the Aldo Castillo ( no relation) galleries in Chicago. In April of 2008 I was part of "Arte ahora" Chicagos' first Latin American Art Fair.
I have exhibited with Mongerson Galleries also in Chicago.
In Sept I will be part of a four person show at 'Society for Arts.'
In Oct I will be exhibiting at the Pilsen 18th street Open studios project. A silent auction of our works to be presented at the Mexican Museum of Art in conjunction w/ this project.

About my artwork: I write, paint, draw. I open my door. Many people arrive. In time I choose one ....I make a sculpture of this stranger who I have only recently met. Covering her in saran wrap, i rip and dip pages of a fashion magazine in starch. ( after recording the particular issue; Fall-2007 pgs 1-186) I apply the pages onto her body creating a mold. Often we talk. When I am done I leave the studio to fetch some drinking water, coffee. She remains 'curing' on the studio floor.
I return. Sometimes we talk. After a couple hours, I lift the skin from the person as she slides out from under it. Most often it lays in an almost unrecognizble wrinkled heap. She dresses I begin again. She leaves.
Working quickly I stuff the skin until it is full and recognizable but distinctly...different, making small adjustments while recalling things we said. Tucking here and there, adding volume there...smoothing carressing.

Later I begin to stitch our dialogue; looping, twisting, knotting half inch strips of prepared graphite covered canvas. Sometimes a fragments of a prayer is allowed to remain( a hail mary, an our father) when my mind wanders. Sometime a fox hole prayer with blashphemous undertones. When the thing is stated it is affixed to a painting. Sometimes trimmed like a hedge. And the sculpture is positioned on, in or around the vicinity of the studio ...wherever it was they stood ( in the studio) when we met.

Artists I like: Ewa Hesse, George Baselitz, Anselm Keifer, Sophie Calle, James Luna, Felix gonzalez Torres, Giacometti, Rodin, Jasper Johns, Diego Rivera, Christo, Christian Boltanski, Magdalena Abakanowitz

Interests: Observing
Writing
Reading
Organizing salon type readings in artist studios.
Collecting - junk
Organizing, labelling 'junk' for art making process
Many things as they happen outside my studio
Many things as they happen IN the studio ( developing realtionships w/ complete strangers that begin in the very intimate surroundings of the studio)

What exhibitions are good at the moment?: Jeff Koons at the MCA
Paul Nudd - Hyde park Art Center

Centre of the artworld:: London, Berlin

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At 17:23 on February 9, 2009, baltazar castillo said…: Yes I am originally form chicago...folks came here from Mexico in the 1950s. not been to S.F.....have been to L.A. though. Like it lots but this was way back in the 1980s.

The next exhibition was supposed to take place with this person that i mentioned earlier in our corr. ( we met here on this site !) It was a collaborative project; she working from Spain myself here in Chicago. Carrying on with our paintings thru instructions via the e mail, documentation, live chats...etc. we also constructed individual spaces from which to further communicate/ meditate but its on hold for now...

another collaboration with a Mejicana artist involving sculptural molds set for Oct.
yes it is everywhere I'm sure ....but the idiocy seems really overdone here... seems we have certain natural born rights to such nonsense...ha!
so did you attend the sophie calle exhibit yet..?

by the way, If you go to you tube and punch in my name and look for Clareo Curatorship you can view a rather grainy video of a space that I curate three shows a year in. what was terrific was meeting an artist here on this site and then showing her work months later ...
i am very interested in how things develop here on the internet and how they proceed from here out into this world of ours...
well talk soon
b

At 7:21 on December 22, 2008, jan lewin-cadogan said…: wishing you a verry merry christmas and a happy new year :) xx

At 7:48 on December 8, 2008, jan lewin-cadogan said…: hi B, thats a shame, cermaics are fine as long as well wrapped, I posted a large one to cyprus- no probs, I think it 'bounced' all the way there (masses of bubble wrap!) oh well maybe another time. I wish you lots of sucess and look forward to seeing it all, take care janxx

At 18:42 on December 4, 2008, jan lewin-cadogan said…: hi b, long time since i heard from you. i suppose its too late to send stuff out now??? jan

At 12:47 on November 17, 2008, Debbie Douez said…: Hey B. Fancy meeting you here... The sculptures are finished, just waiting for their mounts to dry... You know what it's like to watch paint drying... Should be shipping them out Wednesday. Stay tuned. Love the new works by the way. Besos

At 6:50 on November 11, 2008, Beppe said…: Dear baltazar you send to devoti.g@tiscali.it;Hi Beppe

At 19:45 on November 3, 2008, caron ottewell said…: Hi Baltazar, thank you so much for your very kind feedback :o)) The pieces you mentioned were a response to a Philip Larkin Poem entitled Maiden Name. I was one of 15 artists selected to take part in a three day response to a disused office that once registered births marriages and deaths. We made sound recordings and worked collaboratively until the last afternoon when we all worked on pieces we proposed. The piece I made is a combination of skylines from the upstairs windows made out of random sections of the poem. This was primarily aimed at the visually impaired visitors that couldn't go upstairs to see them. I loved the whole experience and tried all sorts of new ways of doing things. It doesn't surprise me that the kids couldn't do it...kids over here would be challenged too as they are taught pretty traditionally until they get to Uni. Sounds a cool idea to me though :o) x

At 19:49 on October 7, 2008, jan lewin-cadogan said…: hi B, hows the show? Is the one for dec still going to take place. janx

At 16:53 on October 7, 2008, razeea Lindner said…: Thanks to you Balthazar. I would love to see one of your show,but it's just a bit too far !!Writings & typo play a big part in my work too.Most surfaces have traces of them. I'm sure your piece will be very expressive like your other works. Looking forward to it. I 'm based between Köln (Cologne) & Düsseldorf,in Hilden So if your next trip's around here ,let me know!

At 7:41 on October 7, 2008, razeea Lindner said…: Hello Baltazar,
Some very interesting pieces ,I specially like the combines.
Greetings from Germany!