Galerie Denis Cooper presents … Piñatas

 

Chuck Ramirez
Teresa Serrano
Pascale Marthine Tayou
Pulp Parlour
Art Pinjata Studio
Diana Benavidez
Iván Argote
Meg Cranston
Thedra Cullar-Ledford
Piñata Jumpolin
Dave McKenzie
Paulo Licona
Giovanni Valderas
Amy Boone-McCreesh
Sita Bhaumik
Justin Favela
Aaron Krach
Abel Saucedo
Franz West
Blanka Amezkua
Mathias Goeritz
Paolo Pivi
Gaby Lopez
HangMeOfficial
Sebastian Errazuriz
Charlotte Sagory
Roberto Benavidez
Jennifer Rubell

 

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Chuck Ramirez Piñata series (2002)
‘Chuck Ramirez came into this world with an eagle’s detail-devouring eye. In his Piñata series (2002), Ramirez puts his eye to complex narrative use: each image zeroes in on the material detritus of a past event and displays the swept-up and forsaken. Ramirez’ photographic technique in the Piñata series and elsewhere employs an almost molecular focus and a light both pitiless and exalting. With an initial blast of color, the comical intent of each party sculpture appears readily. But each torn paper limb and ruffle, each glimpse of spindly wooden skeleton and bulge of newspaper stuffing suggests a deep pathos behind the early impressions of humor. In lesser hands, a photo series of freshly-whacked piñatas could have taken on all the glibness and slick irreverence of a kitsch mexicanismo. It could have come off sentimental. For Ramirez, though, his worldview lies in the particulars; he doesn’t present piñatas with a pop, but with subversive gravitas. His awareness of his own mortality is too finely attuned, his queerness too gritty and his anger too potent to contain itself in mere punchlines. Ramirez also made evident his ambivalence towards Mexican and Mexican-American culture; an identity he claimed firmly and dismissed irreverently in turn, but never fully turned away from. The Piñata series exemplifies Ramirez’ respect for handiwork and, of course, rasquache.’ — Sarah Fisch

 

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Teresa Serrano La Piñata (2003)
Single-channel video

 

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Pascale Marthine Tayou Empty Gifts (2015)

 

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Pulp Parlour Bat Woman (2010)
‘This life size pinata stands at 5 feet 7 inches. Numerous pinata bats were created and attached to her.’ — PP

 

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Art Pinjata Studio Various (2018)

Hatsune Miku

Keith Prodigy

Ariana Grande

 

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Diana Benavidez Piñatas (2016 – 2019)
‘In this body of work, Diana Benavidez introduces the piñata as a method for storytelling, expression, and reflection. Benavidez shares her personal narratives by manipulating physically and conceptually the piñata through the incorporation materials not commonly found in traditional piñatas. Through the use of color, scale, and text, this popular Mexican art form is transformed into a contemporary art practice that explores mental states and emotions.’ — contemporaryartdaily

 

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Iván Argote White Cube Piñata (2014)
‘White Cube Piñata it’s a comment on minimal sculptural and also exhibition standards of installation. Something important is that the object, as happens with piñatas, is made to be broken during a celebration, so here, the White Cube is presented broke, inside of it there is plenty of small sculptures, performances instructions and many other references and winks to art history, popular culture and even sentimental things.’ — Perrotin

 

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Meg Cranston Magical Death (2002)
‘For some artists, stuffing their piñata is not as important as the beating it will take, especially when it’s a self-portrait. From 2002-2007, Los Angeles-based artist Meg Cranston created a series of empty piñatas in her own image. Each piece in the series is titled after the anthropological documentary Magical Death (1973) about the Yanomami people of Brazil who use ritual warfare, or “shamanic drama” to avoid real blood shed. According to Artforum, early in the series Cranston invited visitors to “enact a similar ritual murder on her own pendant form—if they would be willing to pay for the pleasure by buying the work.” Cranston later suggested that no one had taken her up on this masochistic challenge and for this reason she filled her last piñata with candy. “The violence has to occur,” she said, “so the figure (my doppelgänger) can symbolically triumph.”’ — Art21

 

 

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Thedra Cullar-Ledford F**K CANCER (2016)
‘The performance is a response to let everyone know how she feels about her breast cancer diagnosis, and her choice to have a double mastectomy and live the mantra “flat and fabulous.”’ — Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

 

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A PIÑATA STORE IN AUSTIN GETS BULLDOZED BY LANDLORDS FOR A SXSW PARTY
‘Unreal. A party supply store, Piñata Jumpolin, in the eastside of Austin, was reduced to rubble, unbeknownst to store owners, Monica and Sergio Lejarazu, by building landlords for a party to take place during SXSW. The store was in the location for 8 years. This upsetting news also points to the fact that Austin is the most economically segregated city in the country, according to Austin Culture Map. It was the morning of February 12, as he was driving his daughter to school, that Sergio Lejarazu discovered that the store that he co-owned with his wife for eight years, selling custom, hand-made moonwalks, piñatas imported from Mexico, and more, was demolished, allegedly without warning, with their inventory still inside. Sergio describes to Austin Culture Map: “That’s when I saw it: my life’s work under the bulldozer.”’ — Pennsylvania Herald

 

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Sita Bhaumik We Are Against the Wall (2016)
‘In the fall of 2016, just before the presidential election, I set out to build and destroy a piñata made in the form of the proposed border wall. Curated by Michele Carlson at Southern Exposure in San Francisco, the wall changed from the opening to the closing of the exhibition. Why piñatas? I decided that if I were to build something that I didn’t believe in, it should be made of a material whose only purpose is to be destroyed. Originally an Aztec tradition commemorating the birthday of Huitzilopochtli, the piñata was coopted by Spanish colonizers as an opportunity to evangelize during the Christmas season. This seven-pointed piñata represents the seven deadly sins. The blindfold represents blind faith. Hitting the piñata is a rejection of sin and the sweets are a reward.’

 

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Dave McKenzie Self-Portrait Piñata (2002)
‘When Jamaica-born artist Dave McKenzie commissioned an effigy of himself as piñata, his “hanging” and “beating” had entirely different connotations. At an event at the Queens Museum of Art, museum-goers joyously bashed McKenzie’s likeness. Candy and fun seemed trivial, if not inappropriate, as his dangling lifeless figure began to conjure America’s history of lynching and other racially charged violence.’ — Artsy

 

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Paulo Licona ¡AUU! (2025)
‘A Colombian, the son of teachers, he was punished at school, which was to be the trigger for much of his work.’ — Castello di Rivoli

 

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Giovanni Valderas Piñata Houses (2018)
‘Local artist Giovanni Valderas grew up in Oak Cliff. He misses the neighborhood he once knew. He’s seen all these changes firsthand — and he’s had enough. And, for the past few weeks, he’s been doing something about it. On Christmas Eve, Valderas started placing sad little piñata houses he’d made throughout Oak Cliff — namely around the Bishop Arts District and other areas currently undergoing top-to-bottom gentrification. His goal is to raise awareness about the disappearing affordable housing market in Oak Cliff through an approachable starting point.’ — Central Track

 

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Amy Boone-McCreesh The Twins (2014)
Plaster, cardboard, wood, vinyl, acrylic paint, fabric, found objects

 

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Several women destroy a piñata with a figure that represents a sculpture by the Costa Rican artist Jorge Jimenez Deredia while singing in chorus ‘All his sculptures are the same’.

 

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Justin Favela Various (2015 – 2019)
‘Though he lives in Las Vegas, Favela has a considerable following in Denver, where his large-scale piñata installations, including a tissue-paper tribute to Frida Kahlo and a life-sized lowrider piñata, have been exhibited at the Denver Art Museum and Museo de las Americas.’ — ACD

 

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Aaron Krach Indestructible Object (2009)
”When you’re a kid and you go to a birthday party, bust the piñata, and all you get are hard candies, maybe peppermints or butterscotch balls, you’re angry!” And so, Krach fills his piñatas (there has been more than one) with expensive imported chocolate truffles in a few different flavors. From the shell of the piñata down to the candy, participants continually pull back layers. “Also very important,” he says, “is that they are wrapped in the most beautiful colorful foil. These chocolates are so pretty you don’t want to eat them, but of course that’s just like the piñata. You’ve got to open them in order to really enjoy them.”

 

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Abel Saucedo Cd. Juarez es the #1 (2009)
‘This piece describes the violent drug war that began when Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s cartel moved into the city of Juarez. Between the years 2008-2011 alone, there were 9578 murders, naming Juarez the most dangerous city in the world.’

 

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Franz West Epiphanie an Stühlen (2011)

 

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A man from western Mexico tried to jump out of a church window and ended up hanging like a piñata while a policeman beat him with a broomstick. A mobile phone video posted on social media on Tuesday shows the moment a Tonalá police officer, Jalisco, clings to the left leg of the carjack. A crowd quickly gathers outside and urges another law enforcement officer to hit him with a stick.

 

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Ronny Quevedo & Blanka Amezkua Rompe Puesto (2010)
‘New York-based artist Ronny Quevedo and artist Blanka Amezkua invited twenty-three emerging artists to create piñatas for the one-night exhibition and party, Rompe Puesto, at the Bronx River Art Center. (The event’s title loosely translates to “breaking ground.”)’ — Art21

 

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Mathias Goeritz Sculpture Piñata (1981)

 

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Unknown Unknown (Unknown)
‘I have tried to find out what this is and knowing how many world travelers ATS has, I thought someone could tell me. What is this weird ceremony? Is that Mao with Lenin in there?! Weird! Thanks!’ — Clearskies

 

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Paola Pivi They All Look the Same (2019)
‘These life-sized bear piñata sculptures are inspired by Pivi’s traumatic encounter with a polar bear years ago in Alaska.’ — artmacao

 

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Melissa The Unfortunate Truth (2015)
‘Hi. I am 11 yrs old. Whaling should be against the law, but for now some countries still do it under the legislation of science, but they eat them instead. This sculpture is a reflection of the whale’s emotions during the tragic events of getting harpooned. This sculpture is to make you think. So, what do you think?’ — Melissa

 

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Gaby Lopez Hunted Deer (2019)

 

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HangMeOfficial Horror Movie Piñatas (2019)
‘Also we have more pinatas that we can not post on etsy.’ — HMO

 

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Sebastian Errazuriz Golden Calf (2014)
‘Sebastian Errazuriz caused quite a scene of the streets of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood last week with a giant, cash-stuffed piñata shaped like a golden cow. The glittering statue is meant to recall another iconic bovine: Arturo Di Modica‘s famed Wall Street Bull, which has become an internationally recognized symbol of the stock market’s resilience and capitalism’s bullishness. “The piece hints at the Capital system as an idol that we have worshiped for decades and is unfortunately proving to be false,” said Errazuriz. “There’s an urgent need for corrections to the Capital system that can offer a more fair redistribution of wealth.” There was an enticing extra incentive to take part in the collective calf-smashing, in case anti-Wall Street sentiment alone didn’t cut it: 1,000 $1 dollar bills stuffed inside the piñata, in a grown-up spin on the candy-stuffed versions so popular at children’s birthday parties. Predictably, participants quickly reverted to a capitalistic “every man for himself” mentality the minute the money began to rain, pushing and shoving one another while grabbing fistfuls of $1 bills—not that the artist expected anything else. “The people will be really excited to destroy the (symbol of) capital [and] will then end up running for the capital.”’ — artnet

 

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Charlotte Sagory Various (2017 – 2019)

 

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Unknown Superman (2006)
‘It’s a flaming piñata. Supposedly its Superman? Feels weird.’ — Umberto Brayj

 

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Roberto Benavidez Hieronymous Bosch Pinatas (2021)

 

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Jennifer Rubell Andy Warhol Piñata (2018)
‘This year’s Brooklyn Ball will feature several art history-inspired works of food to make the evening fun and interesting for all who attend. The most visible of these takes the form of a twenty foot tall piñata in the shape of Andy Warhol’s head, which is currently installed in our Rubin Pavilion. The idea for the piñata came from Jennifer Rubell, who is creating these food installations inside the Brooklyn Museum that evening as a project she is calling “Icons.” What, you ask, will the piñata be filled with? That will be kept a secret—one staff co-worker hopefully quipped, “It’s going to be filled with $100 bills for staff, right?”—until the start of “High Style: The After Party,” which begins at 9 p.m. I have been told, however, that its contents will be edible.’ — Brooklyn Museum

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Adem Berbic, Hey from across town. My advice: don’t direct too many high expectations at the launch. I think it’s your first, so that’ll be exciting, but launches just what they are. You deserve the organised lauding, though, and that’s the big thing. I didn’t see a trace of hedonism in Berlin, but I wasn’t out and about at 3 am or anything. It’s not a trillion degrees here yet, so … see you soon. ** jay, Hi. Glad you’re okay with the covers. After having the truly awful covers on the ‘My Loose Thread’ paperback and the boring ‘Sluts’ cover, etc., they don’t scare me. Oh right, I remember the particular arm ache that came with playing the piano. Huh. Anyway, tickle that thing. ** Sam F, Hi, Sam! Oh, thanks, I’ll go look for your missive. I’m good, and I hope the imminent launch has your blood circulating in some variation on ecstatically. ** naemi, Hi, naemi! Awesome that you’ve come in here, thank you! No, you were great. Those situations are really strange on my end too. Great, of course, but hard to be yourself at those moments. Haha, the moderator was very German, isn’t he? It was interesting, but it was disappointing that he used up all the time and people couldn’t ask questions. That kind of sucked, but oh well. Yikes, about the situation with your mom. I hope she wins that one. Thank you, thank you. What are you up to? Are you in Berlin for the long haul? ** Jack Skelley, Maestro! Efteling!!! Oh, let me alert the potentially lucky blog viewers. Everyone, The legendary Jack Skelley is doing a reading in London! This is an ultra-rare occasion, as you can guess. If you’re there, go see him if you know what’s good for you. Here are the basic details: Sat. 23 May (tomorrow!), Beasy Bar in Soho. The “Deleted Scenes” series. Joining Jack are Lotte Latham, Mary Morgan and Brodie Crellin. Have the blast of all blasts. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Thank you! No, no Palermo. The festival decided they can’t afford to bring in the filmmakers except for the two who are getting some kind of life achievement award (Bruce laBruce and Louise Weard). So next for us is Amsterdam, a week from tomorrow. But … but … what if being married would make the pigeon happy? (Not that it would know, I guess.) Something festive looking and fragile with a million euros hidden inside being hit with a baseball bat by a blindfolded love in your immediate vicinity, G. ** Bzzt, Well, hey there! I’m good, and you? The film rollout has been great, thanks. Glad you’re sending fiction, and try to not to sweat the rejections. I had a shit ton of rejections before I found my publisher back when. Oh, gosh, I’m a bit out of it on current LA goings on of awesomeness. I’ll need to check with my up-to-the-minute LA pals. I’ll do that. You’ll have fun. You’ll have a car or Uber money? Love back from relatively less hellish France. ** Vincent, Hi! Aw, thank you, Vincent. I know, that was really disappointing about no audience questions. The audience had a vibe like they had some good ones ready to go. Yeah, thanks! I hope Berlin is giving you tons of stuff to gratefully do. Like what? ** _Black_Acrylic, Or social media makes fan letters much more possible but with yes, limited accoutrement apart from the occasional gif. A Northern Soul, doc, nice! I’ll see if I can come across it. ** Carsten, Yikes, what a worthy sentence interrupter. Stasi Museum, yeah. My brain failed me for the moment. I don’t even know what to say about the US anymore. It’s psychotic over there. How hard can it be to assassinate that fuck? (Oops, joking there, nefarious onlookers). I’ll get ‘Yeelen’ into my wheelhouse. Maybe I can assign that film to my club. It’s my turn to pick. ** Steve, I don’t think I ever wrote a fan mail that got any response. And I did write some. I’ll check YouTube, thank you. Sudanese falafel. Stasi Museum was fascinating. It was in the preserved offices of the former East German headquarters. Very comprehensive. ** Bill, Hi. Hackesche Höfe was cool. As you know, you have to climb multiple fights of stairs to get to the theater on the building’s upper floor. And no elevator that I could see. Yeah, ‘Dhalgren’, interesting, right? She’s so smart. ** Laura, Hey. Well, I think I begin to get Berlin at least. I didn’t find it ugly, but I like depressing looking city planning and big neutral looking buildings. Very novel. So intense what you went through. Wow. I lost my Dutch speaking ability, but that was my fault. It (your structuring plans/designs) do deserve your luck and ideally won’t need it. May your excitement maintain. ** Antonia, Hi, Antonia! It was so nice to get to meet you even for way too short a time. Thank you, I’m so happy you like the film. Virginia, the girl who played Marguerite, was so fantastic. She knew exactly what to do. We hardly had to correct her at all. We got super lucky to have her. You have a great weekend too. What do you think you’ll be up to? xoxo. ** Hugo, Celebrating Firbank’s birthday would be a challenge. I used to celebrate Rimbaud’s, but that was easy. I just dropped acid. Berlin didn’t look American to me. I guess maybe it looked more American than Paris does, but … ** HaRpEr //, If I didn’t have coffee I would be toast. Me too: I can’t remember ever getting a response from a fan letter. But I don’t know where I would have sent them. Well, but cohesion can mean a lot of things, no? Being formally justified is enough, isn’t it? Or can be? ** laura w, Hi! Berlin’s interesting. I never really liked it until this time, but now I cant remember why I wasn’t into it. Oh, shit, I so hope you don’t get fired or laid off or whatever. ‘Prayers’. Reading weird French books can help with stalemate breaking. Or at least it can for me when I find the right combo of weird and exciting. Luck with ‘Swann’s Way’. I have this weird punk attitude where I intend to never read Proust just because it’s so revered, but it’s obviously revered for a good reason. Oops, sorry, I’m the world’s worst at email. I’ll go try to find your old email. Sorry, urgh. ** Thom, Hi, Thom. Oh, shit, sorry about life’s targeting of your ass. But nice that you got to Seattle for the show. I used to have a serious problem with wanting to take care of unstable people in need. It was a big problem, but I kind of managed to learn that it was a thing I could not solve. I don’t remember how. I guess just being thoughtful and rational about it or something. But, yeah, I feel you on that one. ‘Magician’ is put out by Roxanne Gay Books, which is an imprint of Grove, so yes. Thank you a lot about the blog. It’s nothing but a total pleasure to get to know about your work, and it’s a joy if my interest has an effect. That’s so kind of you to say. Keep your belief. It’s so important. ** Right. Today you can stroll around conceptually in my galerie and contemplate some piñata-adjacent stuff if you so choose. See you tomorrow.