By Laura Alexa | October 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

Last night I went to the Rosa & Carlos de la Cruz Collection in the Design District to hear artists Kelley Walker and Wade Guyton (known collaboratively as Guyton/Walker) discuss their new site-specific installation. Nine times out of ten in the art world, these kinds of events focus on men. By the end of the last night, however, it was the women who really resonated with me.



Rosa de la Cruz presents the works in her extensive contemporary art collection to visitors.

Let’s start with Rosa de la Cruz. Exuding passion for her art and the confidence of a major player, she spoke engagingly about each of the pieces in the front section of her permanent collection. One of my favorites was this mobile by contemporary Polish artist Paulina Olowska (think Alexander Calder meets Slawomir Elsner).



As far as I know, the girl in the bottom left corner was not dangling.

MOCA curator Bonnie Clearwater also guided visitors through the airy two-story space. Like de la Cruz, her enthusiasm for the work of contemporary artists like Cosima von Bonin and Jonathan Meese was infectious.



Bonnie Clearwater elucidates Jonathan Meese’s work for a crowd at the de la Cruz Collection.

After de la Cruz and Clearwater, the Guyton/Walker presentation felt flat. Their installation started off with a scanner and some cut-up fruit, they said, and the rest oddly evolved from there. I struggled to decode their artsy mumble — “We are doing things with a printer that we shouldn’t be doing. We are doing things with a scanner that feel pretty wrong” – and could only faintly see an evolution from long bananas and round oranges to screen prints directly on drywall to paint cans to screened tables (for lunch?).

But all in all, the evening was a hit, partly because of the first-rate hors d’oeuvres. I definitely recommend checking out the de la Cruz Collection. It’s tastefully cutting edge and free, making it a win-win.

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Here are a few more picture from the event.



A patchwork by Cosima von Bonin. Don’t you wish you could say these words more often?



A pubescent Truman Capote leers out from a wall of art by German Jonathan Meese at de la Cruz Collection.



Who says contemporary art can be off-putting?

Born and raised in Miami, Laura Alexa lives for the pursuit of art. She loves to explore and go on adventures, so you will definitely see this curly-haired ball of energy around town.

All photos by Robby Campbell.