Dzine (b. Carlos Rolon, 1970) is a Chicago-based artist who appropriates elements from popular culture, Baroque design, and the Arts and Crafts movement, to develop his own language. As media, he mainly uses sculpture, painting and installation.
For his exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Dzine created a new custom lowrider tricycle inspired by the concept of Ghost Bike memorials. A ghost bike is a bicycle painted white and chained to a pole near the place where a cyclist has been hurt or killed by a car as a roadside memorial. Dzine’s Ghost Bike is a tricycle painted white and fitted with Swarovski crystals, mirror, fabric, video and audio. The film, conceived by Dzine and Joey Garfield, and edited by Dan Zabinski, consists of film footage Dzine found in his fathers house, and features music by Héctor Lavoe.
Additional works on display are, among others, “The Love Below (Custom Speaker Box Chandelier)”, a customized chandelier with Swarovski crystals fabric, light bulbs, wire and audio; “Across the Universe”, a wall installation with mirror, Swarovski crystals and turntable; and “Infinite Mararishi (after Yajoi Kusama)”, a colorful installation with glass beads, crystals, and mirrors.
Dzine lives and works in Chicago and San Juan. He is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation award for Painting and Sculpture. Dzines work has been included in exhibitions and collections such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan. In 2007 Deitch Projects, NY presented Barrio Dreams, introducing the new sculptural work influenced by the Chicano Lowrider culture at Art Basel Miami Beach. He also participated in the exhibition “Poem of an Inland Sea” at the Ukrainian Pavilion, 52nd Biennale di Venezia. A solo exhibition at Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna, Austria, is scheduled to open in Spring 2010.
“From site-specific wall installations to his “pimped-out” Cadillac Fleetwood to shimmering Swarovski Crystals, Dzine’s energetic manifestation of colors, patterns, textures, and sounds fuse into a modern phenomenon that reveals a vibrant mixture of street-art, op-art, and Chicano “Lowrider” culture. A former graffiti artist, Dzine has been able to bolster the semantics of this genre by stretching the boundaries further and bringing never seen before products to the table. His use of precious stones, neon-lights, and motorized machinery has opened up a unique vernacular to contemporary art.” (Excerpt from the press release).
In this video, Dzine talks about his exhibition at the Bass Museum, especially the Ghost Bike, and the new direction in his paintings.
Interview: Sabine Trieloff. Dzine at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, opening reception, December 2, 2009.
PS: Special thanks to Ursula Krinzinger.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.
