By Gean Moreno.
Great events happen all year around in South Florida. However the little tykes are finally back in school. Parents are breathing again and the arts season is off to a running start.
September 1st, Friday Gallery Nights welcomed well-heeled art lovers to the Coral Gables Museum for an insightful evening of nostalgia.
Glexis Novoa is known for structured illustrations done with graphites.
Writer’s note: Years ago I was an exhibiting artist. Only the high-powered, never-say-no artists, determined to reach the top of the artistic pyramid succeeded. I was exhausted like many of us who had jobs, kids and obligations that demanded our individual attention. However, I had the privilege and honor of being part of a number of group art shows which included greats such as Kenny Scharf, Rafael Salazar, Gay Garcia, Maria Brito, Janet Paparelli, Maestro Rafael Soriano, and many more super talented artists. So, when I discovered that Soriano’s works were going to be a part of an exhibition entitled "BETWEEN The Real and the Imagined: Abstract Art from Cintas Fellows" at the Coral Gables Museum, I just had to be there on opening night.
Artist Mario Bencomo stands in front of his large-scale illustration during the Opening Night Reception.
Walk through the history-laden halls of the museum and you will start to understand who made all of South Florida, survive, thrive and how we all eventually rooted here. As an added bonus, you can hop on the free Trolley during First Friday Gallery nights to discover a vast assortment of European and Latin American paintings and sculptures done by well-respected masters as well as contemporary artists. There are over two dozen art spaces waiting for you, and most of them are on the Trolley’s Ponce de Leon route.
Artist Mario Bencomo explaining some of the features included in his work to a guest during the opening.
The large northern gallery inside the Coral Gables Museum is presently showing selected works that range from the geometric abstraction of Rafael Soriano, Mario Carreno and Jose Mijares created in Cuba in the 1950s. There are also the concrete and constructive experiments of Carmen Herrera and Zilia Sanchez produced in the diaspora, to the 1980s hard-edge abstraction of Fernando Garcia and the more recent multi-dimensional installations by Maria Martinez-Canas, Leyden Rodriguez Casanova and Vanessa Diaz. There are additional amazing artists such as Glexis Novoa and, my friend, Mario Bencomo in this exhibit, too. It’s a fascinating show of works from the mid-century to the present, perfectly curated by Elizabeth Cerejido.
The work of Baruj Salinas.
The exhibition will run through Oct. 22, 2017. The Coral Gables Museum is located at 285 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, Fla., 33134. Details: coralgablesmuseum.org.
