Benaim + Berti

Benaim + Berti aka Daniel Benaim & Mariana Fuentes Berti (Venezuela)

COVILANDROS 103

During the summer of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the couple Benaim+Berti went on a road trip across the Southern Californian coast. During this journey of over two months, they were voyeurs of a gloomy and lonely atmosphere and found themselves surrounded by unavoidable stillness and slow motion ghostly towns. It was a drive among 7 Elevens, Motels, fast food joints, cigarettes and face masks.

They registered their days with photos of the strangeness around them, and especially of the time spent inside hotel rooms from where the “outside” world seemed more evidently cold and distant. Room 103 is a very intimate portrait of the couple while they shielded away from the complex times and were able to find a positive environment within the uncertain and unexpected times. It is a photo series conformed by ten c-print photos they selected from out of many, in which the anecdotic shared complicity and enthusiasm are protagonists.

Almost 30 years ago, a photographer crossed the line between pornography and art, between good taste and bad, and staged the celebration of a relationship in an 80’s magazine porn mag style. The series was called Made in Heaven, by Jeff Koons. The aesthetics of Room 103 in Covilandros lacks the glam kitsch of Koon’s photos yet it is also a celebration of passion against all odds. Our sophisticated contemporary audiences perhaps will appreciate this minimalistic and unadorned version of artistic obscenity and romance, and will engage in a conversation in regards to the possibilities of happiness even under the shadow of decay.

About Benaim+Berti

Mariana Fuentes Berti is a Venezuelan born artist. She received her BFA from New York University in 2001 and her MFA in writing from UIMP Spain in 2004. Fuentes- Berti's work has been included in group exhibitions at Salon Pirelli, MACCSI museum in Caracas, Venezuela; The Bienal de Barro de América, at the Galeria de Arte Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela; and VzlaSinVPN exhibit at Parking Art gallery in Barcelona, Spain, among others. Fuentes-Berti lives and works in California.

Daniel Benaim was born in 1975 in Caracas, Venezuela. He received his BFA in mixed media from IUESAPAR (Armando Reveron University, Caracas) . Solo exhibitions of Benaim have been presented at Forum Gallery, Lima, Peru; Galleria 39, Caracas, Venezuela; GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela; Ateliers 89, Oranjestad, Aruba. Benaim´s work has been included in group exhibitions at Vertice Gallery, Lima, Peru; Enlace Gallery, Lima, Peru, Casa Piu Gallery, Madrid, Spain; Del Paseo Gallery, Montevideo, Uruguay and Stanford Campus Art Gallery in Stanford, CT, among others. Benaim has also participated in renowned art fairs such as Pinta NY with Galeria D´Museo in NYC, IAAF in Hangaram Museum, Seoul, Korea; BA foto, Buenos Aires, Argentina and PINTA MIAMI among others. Benaim lives in Palm Springs, CA

About Kime Buzzelli

Kime Buzzelli is an artist working in Yucca Valley, CA. Her work is invested in a vocabulary of dreams, storytelling and voyeurism utilizing found photos and images. Working with blurred memories, mixing reality and abstraction. “More is more” mixed media pieces, often on printing papers to show layers of overlapping colorful fantasies. Found objects and fabric installations create spaces born out of a need to create order out of clutter, beauty out of chaos and otherworldly dreamscapes as an escape from the mundane, monochromatic cult of minimalism. Buzzelli studied painting and fashion illustration, receiving a BFA and BAE from OSU and has created art installations and paintings for gallery shows in Japan, LA, NYC, Miami & others. She has worked extensively in fashion, as a costume designer and as the owner/curator of the “art-to-wear” boutique The End (Yucca Valley, CA). Her passion for creating characters and spaces is found in her paintings and extends to her costume and retail projects. Her artwork has been featured in various magazines including Juxtapoz, Flaunt, Beautiful Decay, Swindle, Lula, Nylon, W, The Face, Paper, and Bust.

Robin Hercia

Robin Hercia is a high desert transplant and multi-disciplinary designer and artist living in Joshua Tree CA. Observing and exploring geography, nature, materials and human space, she creates illustrative ethereal scenes and portraits amidst collections of colors, patterns, and materials. Working in graphic, surface and textile design, fine art provides Robin a means to traverse psychological and surrealistic realms as a storyteller and acts as a venue to explore methods of making.Of Eastern Canadian origin and after significant exploration Robin found home in this desert. The space and strangeness provide endless inspiration, motivation and healthy circadian sleep schedules with which to maintain a productive creative work life.

Benaim + Berti

Benaim + Berti aka Daniel Benaim & Mariana Fuentes Berti (Venezuela)

About Benaim+Berti

Photography by Daniel Benaim + Paintings by Mariana Fuentes Berti

About Kime Buzzelli

Kime Buzzelli

Jina Imani

Jina Imani “Pixelated Shadow”

Jina Imani “Not Broken”

Robin Hercia

ROBIN HERCIA

Raquel Bell

"Evolution" by Raquel Bell Watercolor/Archival Ink on handmade paper 27"x21" Framed $650

DUAN KELLUM

Danielle Kinoshita

Best Intentions w/ Eye (16"x16") $400

Peace signs (10"across) $120 each (Green/Pink sold)

Best Intentions w/ Eye (16"x16") $400

Cosmic Butterfly (10"x8") $200

Peace signs (10"across) $120 each (Green/Pink sold)

Best Intentions w/ Eye (16"x16") $400

Peace signs (10"across) $120 each (Green/Pink sold)

Peace signs (10"across) $120 each (Green/Pink sold)

Peace signs (10"across) $120 each (Green/Pink sold)