A historic hotels' dappled walls and wooden-floored hallways offer a different perspective of large works currently at the Tower Hotel in Little Havana.
Juan Raúl Hoyos turns the stretcher bars behind a canvas inside out; Emilia Martínez-Fierro lets canvas drape; Mette Tommerup's physical process of painting is evident.
The works in “Metapainting: Extracted from the Elements, the Archives, and the Artist’s Studio” also work in tandem with the hotel as they purposefully expose parts of painting that are usually hidden.
Juan Raúl Hoyos turns the stretcher bars behind a canvas inside out in the show "Metapainting: Extracted from the Elements, the Archives, and the Artist's Studio” at Little Havana's Tower Hotel.
Together, they draw attention to painting not only as an image, but as an object made through a process. At the end of a hall in an area that is cavelike delivers the unexpected. A 12 X 12 foot gray canvas by Tommerup hangs over an arched doorway completely covering it. Colorful and playful works by Hovos, hang in the lobby. At closer inspection, he is making a statement: sticks and leaves found in a driveway are printed on silk organza, showing that painting is not precious.
Though each artist works independently, their pieces overlap in their attention to what goes into making art: materials, gestures, memory and the structures beneath a finished work. That is the idea behind “metapainting” here: looking at painting from within its own construction.
Hoyos reveals the framework behind the canvas. Martínez-Fierro’s draped canvases make the material itself part of the work. Tommerup reaches toward the mythical and forms of thought that precede logic. All encompass the idea of Arte Povera, a rejection of commercialism in art, where the focus is drawn instead to the elements.
This is not a show where paintings are merely hung on walls.
The artists’ approaches differ, but each unsettles the idea of a painting as a finished image separate from the act of making it.
Curator Adrianna Herrera of Aluna Art Foundation at the Tower Hotel. One of Mette Tommerup's paintings is behind her.
Curator Adrianna Herrera is successful in bringing those distinct practices into conversation. The dialogue among the works is a result of the exhibition’s curatorial choices, which connect artists working in different ways through their shared interest in painting’s boundaries and possibilities.
Aluna Art Foundation has recently begun showing work at the Tower Hotel, placing ambitious contemporary art in a setting where visitors might not expect to find it.
The surprise is matched by the thoughtfulness of the work and the connections Herrera draws among the artists.
Herrera says that there is a “beyond” to painting and the setting provides an outlet to explore this, one that is not contained by white, gallery walls.
As she so eloquently writes in her curatorial statement: "Working entirely independently, each has pushed their practice toward a threshold at which authorship relinquishes part of its control, giving way to a realm where natural elements, pictorial residues, and multiple forms of the archive seem almost to configure the works themselves, with the artists acting as catalysts rather than sovereign makers."
Emilia Martínez-Fierro's draped canvases make the material itself part of the work.
The title’s “metapainting” points to that examination of painting from within. The works reveal the supports, materials and decisions behind the image, making the act of creation part of what viewers encounter.
Performance and the objects involved in making the work also figure in the artists’ processes, extending the exhibition’s focus beyond the finished piece.
"The works of these artists, converging in their meta-artistic pursuit, attain a liberating dimension," concludes Herrera.
Liberating, indeed.
“Metapainting” is on view through late spring at Aluna Art Foundation at the Tower Hotel, 1450 SW 7th St, Miami, A conversation with Tommerup and Hoyos is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, and will focus on their processes and the role of performance in their work. Info at www.alunaartfoundation.com.
