BWW Interviews: Aner Candelario and NOBEL SALVAGE at the OUT Hotel

The Ivy Brown Gallery's current exhibition is Nobel Salvage by Aner Candelario at The OUT Hotel (510 W. 42nd Street). Candelario's art will be on display from February 9th to August 9th and the exhibition is free and open to the public. Broadwayworld.com had the opportunity to interview Candelario about his career and the show.

Puerto Rican born, Bronx raised, Aner Candelario started as an artist at the leather bar "The Lure", back in 1995, doing Live Performance Erotic Art, in a jockstrap. Gay Activist since 1976, he helped run Gay Youth of NYC, at the age of 16. His work was recycled each week as decor. He did Live Body Plaster Body Casting, which looked like Super Heroes. His involvement in Act-Up, coupled with the events of 9/11, led to much introspection about the course of his work, mourning the loss of countless friends, associates, and those at the Twin Towers. He searched not for answers, but stayed in the question of: What does it mean to be a mortal being? Who will remember us once we are gone? What will we leave behind that has meaning? For a gay artist in particular, the work becomes their progeny, embodying their wish to not be forgotten.

Candelario told us about his earliest interest in the arts. "I was always drawing, and reading at the library as a child, it was a tool to escape my home life. I was enthralled by Picasso, and the evolution of his style. In elementary school the principal came to my class during a test to retrieve me so I could work on murals for the school's hallways, along with other students who were older than me. I wanted to go to Music and Art for high school. but ended up going to the Bronx H.S. of Science. Receiving no art training there, I designed the posters for Gay Youth of NYC, which I ran at the age of 16. I moved in with my first love at age 19, and decorated our apartment with tear sheets from Per Liu, GQ, and Vogue magazine, which led me to do collage illustration, they ended up in 3 issues of Sports Illustrated. While Go-Go dancing in clubs in NYC, I made most of my costumes and props, which I appeared in during the Nina Hagen's video: 'Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick', at the Limelight, and at the Lure during the Wednesday Art Performance nights called: 'Pork', where I did live erotic art paintings.

We asked Candelario about his mentors. "My parents gave no notice or support to my love of art. My mother used to babysit a young boy, his father happened to see me drawing at the kitchen table, the next day he brought me an oil paint set, with charcoal, and colored pencils. Unfortunately my foster brother got into the paints, smeared it all over his face, causing my mother to throw out the whole kit. This is when I started drawing only at the library. My teachers were my biggest supporter and always noticed my talents from an early age. I remember all their names. I had more muses than mentors. People always inspired my best work. A friend, Dug McDowell, wanted a pinata for his birthday, so I made a 3' long boot with laces. I realized I could make anything out of nothing. He was the organizer of 'Pork' at The Lure. I started painting on furniture panels from Ikea that I would find on the street, they looked so beautiful to me, and I knew they would go in a landfill, I felt I was rescuing them. I had little money at the time for canvases."

There are a number of famous artists that Candelario admires and he some of them for us. "Picasso and Matisse, for their early 'Punk' Black & Blue period. Dali. Landscape artists. I admired everything from early cave drawings to computer graphics. I especially love children's art, and that of Senior Citizens doing art for the first time. I feel the act of 'creation" mirrors our Divinity. I have many friends who are artists. My friend George Towne paints in a incredibly realistic style, doing portraits and landscapes. My friend Chris Tanner works with glitter, and sequins, and costume jewelry, creating large butterflies, and mosaics. Gerard Richter for me is the epitome of a painter. Warhol was the master of commercialism. Hopper understands the Loneliness of Modernization. I was enthralled by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling from any early age, to see it emerge as they cleared always years of soot. I love the simple, and Spiritual elegance of Stanley Casselman, whose studio I got to visit. I swoon at Milton Avery's landscapes. I love the textures in cartoons. David LaChappelle's early Spiritually Iconic images, reflected the collaged icons I was doing at the time.

Candelario told us about his current show. "Noble Salvage is work comprised from table tops, drawers, Ikea panels, found canvas from the street, and a donation of empty frames, with glass or plexiglass from a gallery that was doing some spring cleaning. I strive to have work that doesn't need framing. Being self taught, and working in seclusion, I never had any ego, or ambition about my art. Common themes are: Under the Sea, Atomic particles, Outer Space, Forest, Gardens, and Jungles. Right now I am in my 'Floral' period. They are not your grandmother's flowers. The first work was created after the passing of our dear friend Santiago Garza, an excellent photographer in his own right. I did "Requiem for a Friend" in his honor. They are an 'all over' design, there is no vase, or background. They are dense, and complex, and I pour my heart and soul into them. I am an Earth Honoring Native Taino from Puerto Rico, so my works unconsciously at first evoked Nature."

We wanted to know a little about Candelario's plans for the future. "With so many of my friends passing from AIDS, cancer, suicide, drug addiction, etc, I feel a great responsibility to carry on in their name. I strive to have customers, collectors, and patrons, who appreciate my aesthetic of simply trying to create something that is beautiful, and not just merely 'decorative'. I want my work to move people the way it moves me when I create it. I believe that Mother Nature is the best artist, and that I am merely her forever pupil."

The Ivy Brown Gallery, founded in 2001, curates and exhibits contemporary art of all mediums. Dedicated to supporting emerging and established artists, Ivy Brown takes her experience from the commercial arts world and brings it to the fine arts arena. Her commitment to art and the critical part it plays in our humanity is the grounding force behind the gallery. http://ivybrowngallery.org.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Aner Candelario