assume vivid astro focus (avaf) is both an alias of Brazilian-born New York-based artist Eli Sudbrack, and the name of an international group of visual and performance artists, with French multimedia artist Christophe Hamaide-Pierson one of the main collaborators. Sudbrack was born in 1968 and moved to New York in 1998.
Sudbrack first exhibited in New York in 2000, at which time he used the name Superastrolab, switching to assume vivid astro focus in 2001, the name always rendered in lowercase. avaf's work includes painting, drawing, photography, film and digital technology.
avaf has been featured in Art Forum, Frieze, Flash Art, L'Uomo Vogue, V Magazine, W Magazine, and a catalogue was recently published by the Whitney Museum of American Art for the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
avaf is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawing Collection.
avaf is currently based in New York and Paris, and is represented by John Connelly Presents, New York, and Peres Projects, Berlin/LA.
The name derives from two musical sources: Throbbing Gristle's album Assume Power Focus, and the band Ultra Vivid Scene.
Read more about Assume Vivid Astro Focus: Upcoming Exhibitions, Exhibitions
Famous quotes containing the words assume, vivid and/or focus:
“We assume that politicians are without honor. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandals of their politics: not so much that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political lie.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships consist in. If the novelist honours the relationship in itself, it will be a great novel.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women.... When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)