LEFT: "La Paloma" (Mariano Rodriguez) // RIGHT: "Paisaje" (Mariano Rodriguez, 1945 - Oil on Canvas, 30x26")
As the summer looms and live performing arts slow down, now's a good time to take in visual art offerings around the area. Two exciting shows are getting their formal openings this weekend.
At the Latin Art Core Gallery on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, works through five decades of Cuban modernist Mariano Rodriguez are the focus of the exhibition "Mariano. Everything is Possible." Rodriguez (1912-1990) was known only as Mariano, and he was a major figure of the Vanguardia, or Cuban-avant garde, a group of artists who were committed to forging a modern Cuban art in the first half of the 20th century.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mariano traveled to the United States, where he encountered the work of Paul Cézanne (1839 - 1906) and Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), as well as the abstract art scene in New York.
“Mariano. Everything Possible. Selected Works (1940 - 1986)” includes a selection of artworks from across five decades of the artist's career, featuring paintings, watercolors, and drawings. While some of the pieces on display are widely known, others are rarely seen.
The curator, Cristina Figueroa, of the exhibition says in the catalogue: "In Mariano there are no labels or formulas, he was a chameleon-like painter. Regardless of the style he chose to mutate, he always enjoyed the company of his muses, his peasants, his tropical fruits, and, of course, his faithful roosters."
An opening reception is from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, June 8 and the exhibition runs through June 29.
The gallery is located at 1646-48 SW 8th Street, Miami. www.latinartcore.com
On Saturday, June 10, Mindy Solomon Gallery opens new exhibitions featuring Alejandro Contreras, Ali Smith, Virginia Leonard, Andrew Casto, David Hicks and Francie Bishop Good.
Virginia Leonard, Ali Smith, Andrew Casto and Alejandro Contreras will be present at the opening, which is from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday at the gallery.
Alejandro Contreras' third solo exhibition is "Portals in a State of Sunshine." This exhibition is his first post-graduate school show and a turning point in the narrative of his artistic journey, according to Solomon.
At left, Alejandro Contreras, "Detail View" (2023); At right, Ali Smith, "Fallout"
Contreras is a Venezuelan-born artist currently living and working New York. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Florida, New World School of the Arts.
"Splintered" is a two-person exhibition focused on the dynamic, colorful, space-shattering works of Ali Smith and Virginia Leonard; envelope-pushing artists with a penchant for explosive use of bright pigment.
Smith, according to Solomon, has long been a proponent of neon. For her current exhibition, she appears to embrace it in many of her works. In her artist statement she discusses her journey with painting: "In developing my own personal language of abstraction for the past 20 years, I continue to seek ways to find invention and liberation in painting..."
Leonard started her career as a painter and later embraced sculpture and the cathartic properties of raku clay. “My work serves as a visual representation of my body, which has become a central focus of my ongoing studio dialogue. The realities of chronic pain and bodily scarring have left me feeling voiceless. Chronic pain has no biological value or language. Through my practice, I find a way to articulate and process these experiences... "
Francie Bishop Good, "The Milkman Forgot Us," 2023, synthetic polymer paints on wood and ceramic.
And with the three-person exhibition, "Fractured," artists Andrew Casto, David Hicks and Francie Bishop Good, push the boundaries of abstract expressionism through surface and form, all working in the medium of clay.
“Working in clay has opened doors to a magical and quirky world," says Bishop Good. "What seemingly started as a therapy to the tumultuous times, evolved into unconventional sculptures that act as both optimistic and protective forms."
Casto utilizes his art practice in order to manage stress and create a sense of order.
"My current body of work involves an investigation into extant negative forces in our lives, and to what degree the phenomenological ramifications of stress shape us physically, mentally, and emotionally."
Focusing on illumination, Hicks continues to utilize nature as a source of inspiration and reflection.
David Hicks, Clipping 2310, 2023, glazed ceramic, left, and Andrew Casto, Joaquin Costa 1998, 2023, porcelain, gold and white gold.
"Our surroundings influence our genetics, they influence our spoken language, and they instill in us a sense of our origins. These basic facts of regional influence and conditioning have defined me as a visualist and most impotently as an artist my surrounding have shaped my dialect of form."
“Mariano. Everything Possible. Selected Works (1940 - 1986)”, featuring selection of artworks from Mariano Rodriguez.
Opening reception is from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, June 8 at the Latin Art Core Gallery on Calle Ocho in Little Havana. Through June 29.
The gallery is located at 1646-48 SW 8th Street, Miami.
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At Mindy Solomon Gallery, three new exhibits open this weekend:
"Splintered", a two-person gallery with works of Ali Smith and Virginia Leonard; "Fractured", with artists Andrew Casto, David Hicks and Francie Bishop Good; and a solo exhibition from Alejandro Contreras, "Portals in a State of Sunshine".
Virginia Leonard, Ali Smith, Andrew Casto and Alejandro Contreras will be present at the opening, which is from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday at the gallery.
All three exhibitions continue through July 29 at the Mindy Solomon Gallery, Mindy Solomon Gallery, 848 NW 22nd St., Miami.
