Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo

December/January Exhibition at the Goldfish Gallery

Come celebrate the opening of the December/January exhibition at the Goldfish Gallery this Friday Dec. 5 from 6-9pm (it’s my first Philly show!). I will have a little older and a bunch of newer works on display. The show is a multiple mediums show of 14 artists (including Emmanuelle Wambach’s really exciting sculptures – for those of you who know her too). Anyhow, it is kind of a hodge podge show that’s going to be really fun – it has the feel of a crowded treasure room.
It would be great to see you at the opening, but if you can’t make it the exhibit will be open throughout December and January, with regular gallery hours on Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-4pm or by appointment (267 639-3609). There will also be another First Friday event on January 2. The Gallery is at:

Goldfish Gallery
2214 Frankford ave.
Philadelphia, PA, 19125

Featured artists:

Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo
Emmanuelle Wambach
Gary Glenn
Billy Harris
Peter Handler
Neil Hefele
Terrence Laragione
Weng Kok Lee
Justin Macdonald
Melanie Pulley
Jake Sissinger
Philip Stein
Cat Walshak
Herb Warner

Please feel free to bring along any friends, or let them know about it. I hope to see you then!

-Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo

P.S. In recognition of our downspiraling economy, the gallery owner has asked us to produce art which can be sold at lower prices (I have some for $30, $55 … and they aren’t bad). So if you were thinking about purchasing art or holiday gifts you might think of this as a good way to do that!

www.thegoldfishgallery.com

I graduated from Swarthmore College (June 2008) with a degree in Studio Arts and Latin American Studies, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of gender, sexuality, nationalism and globalization;  I currently live and work in Philadelphia.

As a graduate schooled in a socially-committed liberal arts education, I continue to produce art that seeks to address the gap between theory and practice; between form and content. Emphasizing the role of the artists as an active participant in social production, my work employs historically informed, public art forms with a graphic, multi-media approach. Working through these forms, my art expresses the political potential of the erotic form, the material and subjective experience of exile and cultural production of Otherness. To quote extensively, Ana Mendieta (1982) explains the centrailty of the artist’s public position as she engages lived experience:

“The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said:To be a hero, to be heroic is to be oneself.’ I think this statement is particularly significant to the attitude an artist must have in society. Being endowed with thought, how can a person go through life without questioning himself? And being endowed with feeling, how can he or she remain indifferent?

It is only with a real and long enough awakening that a person becomes present to himself, and it is only with this presence that a person begins to live like a human being. To know oneself is to know the world, and it is also paradoxically a form of exile from the world. I know that it is this presence of myself, this self-knowledge which causes me to dialogue with the world around me by making art.” (emphasis added)

Feel free to browse through the images and written entries, leaving any commentary you think would be interesting and helpful. Thanks for visiting.

Sebastian Duncan-Portuondo

I graduated from Swarthmore College (June 2008) with a degree in Studio Arts and Latin American Studies, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of gender, sexuality, nationalism and globalization;  I currently live and work in Philadelphia.

As a graduate schooled in a socially-committed liberal arts education, I continue to produce art that seeks to address the gap between theory and practice; between form and content. Emphasizing the role of the artists as an active participant in social production, my work employs historically informed, public art forms with a graphic, multi-media approach. Working through these forms, my art expresses the political potential of the erotic form, the material and subjective experience of exile and cultural production of Otherness. To quote extensively, Ana Mendieta (1982) explains the centrailty of the artist’s public position as she engages lived experience:

“The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said:To be a hero, to be heroic is to be oneself.’ I think this statement is particularly significant to the attitude an artist must have in society. Being endowed with thought, how can a person go through life without questioning himself? And being endowed with feeling, how can he or she remain indifferent?

It is only with a real and long enough awakening that a person becomes present to himself, and it is only with this presence that a person begins to live like a human being. To know oneself is to know the world, and it is also paradoxically a form of exile from the world. I know that it is this presence of myself, this self-knowledge which causes me to dialogue with the world around me by making art.” (emphasis added)

Feel free to browse through the images and written entries, leaving any commentary you think would be interesting and helpful. Thanks for visiting.