In the Main Gallery

Guido Albi-Marini

Calor

February 14- March 7, 2009

In the David Castillo Gallery, Guido Albi- Marini's Calor philosophises that the eye of the camera sees what exists, while the eye of the artist sees meanings as unrefined as sugar in its raw form. The documentary, taciturn power of Albi-Marini's images give voice to traders of the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, slave laborers of the Caribbean, and steam engineers of the Industrial Age. Sugar has crystallized the history of the world's greatest advancements and atrocities. "Calor," the entomology of " calorie," connects to "heat" in Latin and related languages. Sugar's harmful caloric makeup and contentious politics remain hot topics that cannot be destroyed as easily as farmers burn sugarcane to reduce the amount of leafy material before processing.

Albi-Marini's photographs not only call to mind destruction and vigilance, but the fuel of economy, consumption of resources, expense of labor, and exchange of culture. From its ashes rise universal enjoyment and consequence. Albi-Marini allows the viewer to understand sugarcane as a perennial, continuing to colonize contemporary society's emotional psyche and physical addictions. Historical and medical trends seem to urge that burning sugarcane should be understood as an act of protest. However, from the "sugar nips" of 18th century London to the Pez dispensers of today, sugar continues to coat the palms of the people, and the people remain in the palms of corporate hands.

Guido Albi-Marini was born in Naples, Italy in 1955 and lives and works primarily in Miami. Albi-Marini was a pupil of the Neapolitan salons frequented by artists and architects during the 1960s and 70s. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in many important public and private collections.