It’s been a big year for Nora Maité Nieves. Her first solo museum exhibition, Clouds in the Expanded Field (Nubes en el Paisaje Expandido), is currently showing at the Norton Museum of Art through July 7. The show is the climax of the two-month artist residency Nieves completed at the museum in January. A month later, in February, an animated version of her paintings aired on … [Read more...]
All the presidents’ man: Harry Benson at the Norton Sculpture Garden
A distraught Ethel Kennedy has just seen her fatally wounded husband lying on the floor of a hotel kitchen. With a ferocious scream, she pushes back the crowd demanding they grant him some space. One daring camera stays and catches the prelude to Bobby Kennedy’s death. Six years later, Pat Nixon stands near her husband as he struggles to address his staff one last time. … [Read more...]
‘Mariano’ at PAMM: One name, many identities
How do you convey the depth of a radically disruptive artistic output produced under as simple of a name as Mariano? You build a sense of enigma around said name, as Pérez Art Museum Miami has done for the first major retrospective of the work of Cuban artist Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990) in the United States. A darkly lit gallery tucked away on the second floor of the … [Read more...]
A few good (and bad) men: Warhol’s Mao and Gropper’s cartoons
A cartoonist, a pop-art icon, an American president, and the leader of China’s Communist Party walk into a bar. What time is it, one asks. 19:72. Time is up. An ongoing exhibition out of Fort Lauderdale broaches the lethal subject one should avoid at the dinner table and ignites a debate on the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal. More than religion. More than … [Read more...]
Paintings by Jefreid Lotti: A dirty job gets the fine art treatment
A different type of oil change went on during lockdown at a mechanic shop in Miami where an artist found a full-time job at the peak of the pandemic outbreak. The resulting 19 oil paintings created among vacuums, tires, and commercial mop buckets now comprise a new exhibition. A frenzy of colors delivered mostly in impasto style sets up the scene of a sedated machine … [Read more...]
In Coral Gables, art shows how it saves Ukrainian culture
More than 60 artworks by nonconformist Kyiv artists freed from Soviet influence speak to the fearless spirit of a nation still fighting for its way of life. Once unleashed, their long-suppressed individuality led to a wave of creativity that took the region by storm. The traveling exhibition Painting in Excess: Kyiv’s Art Revival, 1985-1993, showing at Coral Gables Museum … [Read more...]
Haring-Alechinsky ‘confrontation’ at NSU Fort Lauderdale more of a friendly get-together
There would be blood – we thought – in the duel of two titans from the art world. We imagined brushes piercing the skin, intense stares exchanged by their canvasses, a snarky gesture hidden like a pentimento in plain sight. But visitors showing up to Confrontation: Keith Haring and Pierre Alechinsky don’t need to broker a peace deal after all. The renowned artists appear … [Read more...]
Yale artists at NSU Art Museum: Let there be light — and harsh truths
A rocket ship, a sentinel, and mirror-faced sculptures are among the artworks composing a deeply personal and vocal exhibition born out of camaraderie and moral support. If it says anything, it’s that injustice benefits from silence and shadows. On view through October 23 at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Lux et Veritas highlights 21 artists of color who bonded over their … [Read more...]
At Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, Bradley Theodore’s cheerful memento mori
Think of a thermal imaging camera illuminating areas of high body temperature in a black canvas and you would begin to get a sense of Bradley Theodore’s painting The Last Supper. Indiscernible features, bold tones, and broad strokes delivered in rapid fashion shape this familiar scene of 13 dinners against a wall. The colors clearly missed the memo that three is a crowd and … [Read more...]
Welcome to the Technicolor jungle: Helmut Koller at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens
A white-faced capuchin monkey bites its middle finger to mask its anxiety or astonishment. The confused expression directed at us is reminiscent of a creature arrested from its natural habitat, the rain forest.This monkey is, after all, levitating on a red wall. Purple Monkey on Red (2016) is one of 19 hyper-realistic, color-soaked paintings of animals turning Ann Norton … [Read more...]