Spanish artist José Manuel Ballester exhibition opens at the Frost Art Museum

Opening reception: February 27, 2013, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Through June 23, 2013.

The Uninhabited Garden, 2008, triptych, photograph printed on canvas, 80.31 x 151.26 inches
José Manuel Ballester is an internationally recognized Spanish artist who has excelled in the field of photography with his unique interpretation of architectural space and light and his outstanding contribution to the renewal of photographic techniques. “It was photography that gave Ballester the freedom to further explore the potential of combining the camera and the paintbrush. In the series of works in the exhibition Concealed Spaces, Ballester carefully analyzes some of the Museo del Prado’s most famous paintings from the perspective of the digital camera, with the ability to transform the image captured by subverting its original intent through the magic of Photoshop and other programs,” says Dr. Carol Damian, Director of the Frost Art Museum.

Concealed Spaces, Ballester’s first individual museum exhibit in the United States, presents twenty-four large-scale photographs inspired by art history’s masterpieces, including works by Botticelli, Fra Angelicio, Géricault, Goya, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velázquez, and Vermeer, among others. The artist erases all living beings and eliminates all references to action from the original works, and re-creates different scenarios where nature and architecture become the main subjects. “Nature, simplicity and spontaneity are qualities he transmits through his landscapes and architectural settings. In the end, it is the ideal of living in harmony, the spirituality of the magnificent landscapes and the majesty of Ballester’s monumental pieces that make them unique and inspiring,” says the curator of the exhibition, Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig.

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum
10975 SW 17th Street
Miami, FL 33199
305.348.2890
http://thefrost.fiu.edu

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.