Artists

“Humor, which is the function of wit in any medium, linguistics as well as visual, is the triumph of context, not content, form not image, manner, not message,” says critic Ricardo Pau-Llosa in his essay “Esteban Blanco’s ‘Playing with Dolls.’” Esteban Blanco is the kind of artist who uses his acquired knowledge very wisely for his work.

The artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, known as Guerra de la Paz, have been working as a collaborative unit since 1996. They reside and work in Miami, using the city as a launch pad for a life in art that has an ambitious scope above and beyond the local art milieu. Self-described “outsiders”, they make work scavenged from the … +

at Abba Fine Art. From Mar 8th through Mar 29th 2008.Miami-based artist Roger del Pino presents a series of experimental music and video pieces at Abba Fine Art in Wynwood Art District this month. An aspiring music composer /cinematographer, Del Pino finds himself at home in the luscious environments created within his films and musical compositions.

at Dot Fiftyone Gallery. From Mar 8th through Apr 30th, 2008. Dot Fiftyone Art Gallery presents “echo – shadow – distance – gravity”, an exhibition of new work by Andres Ferrandis. In a show consisting of constructed paintings and installations, Ferrandis depicts the result of the interpretation of the landscape: light, distance, shadow, movement, color, sound, and temperature. These works are abstract, … +

Sarkisian uses technology to explore the concept of illusion. His work resembles that of a magician who transforms a tiger into a mouse in front of thousands of perplexed spectators. Although the artist doesn’t present live performances, the actions shown in his video projections may be taken from real life events like driving, swimming, hammering, or walking. The characters captured on his … +

It has been said that art is a reflection of the world and time in which we live in. Parting from this notion, would it be too far-fetched to assume that history could be studied through art? Maybe it would not have been so hard to stay up during fourth period history had our high school text-books been filled with images of … +

at Contemporanea Fine Art. From Jan 4th – Jan 29th, 2008. Contemporane Fine Art, located on Miami's Calle 8, will be presenting the work of Miami based artists Esteban Blanco through this month. Take a moment to experience a visual playground filled with fragments from a childhood that would have suited Kafka and Bosch. The new work by Cuban-born artist Esteban Blanco … +

From Dec 4th through Dec 10th, 2007. During Art Basel week, take a moment to experience a visual playground filled with fragments from a childhood that would have suited Kafka and Bosch. The new work by Cuban-born artist Esteban Blanco further explores his interest in the ambivalence of toy-violent imagery, while reflecting his preoccupation with power, wealth, religion and science and the … +

From Dec 1st through Dec 20th, 2007. Just around the bend, two blocks walking south from Art Basel, the "art-biography"  the Vietnamese artist Huong is on exhibit from December 1st, 2007. This 600 foot mural connects the concepts of war, peace, refugees, justice, torture, and displacement through the eyes of the survivor whose determination to pass the peace forward is purged and … +

He’s homeless…He’s an ex-con…He’s illiterate…He’s an outsider artist. Those are among the elements that have helped build the icon most people know as Purvis Young. But ask the man to describe himself and none of these things come up. “I’m a painter,” he says. In a recent conversation Purvis Young commented on his art, his view of the world’s problems, his life … +

Diana Lowenstein Fine Art. From Dec 4th, 2007 through Feb 3rd, 2008. Miami based artist Carlos Betancourt has been collecting vintage glass Christmas ornaments for fifteen years.  His newest installation, Re-Collections III, continues to explore the artist's fascination with the act of collecting.  The show consists of a large-scale floor installation comprised of hundreds of ornaments from the artist's collection. Also included … +

New Work at MAM Museum. From Nov 2nd, 2007 through Jan 13th, 2008. Enrique Martínez Celaya, winner of this year’s National Artist Award from the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, will premiere Nomad, an installation of new paintings at Miami Art Museum. Cuban-born Martínez Celaya is creating this group of five large-scale, oil-and-wax paintings which explore issues of exile and rootlessness, … +

Miami Art Museum. Through Nov 11th, 2007. Miami Art Museum is currently presenting the exhibition Eve Ray Forever by Bruce Connor curated by MAM Senior Curator Peter Boswell. With its lightening-fast editing uniting fragments of pre-existing films and scores from popular music, Bruce Connor’s Eve Ray Forever shows why he is known as the godfather of the music video. Eve Ray Forever … +

MoCa North Miami. From Oct 20th through Dec 29th, 2007 Viva Vaudeville is Miami artist Pablo Cano’s tenth commissioned production for MoCA. Influenced by traditional marionette theater as well as the type of performance art that was practiced by the Dadaists of the 1920s, signature elements of Cano’s work include found objects, kinetic sculpture, and chance.

Ongoing at Opera Gallery. Printed Images. Opera Gallery, located at Bal Harbour Shops, is presenting the exhibition Printed Images by Helene Guetary and Guy Le Baube. Helene Guetary is a Renaissance woman, having worked as a film director, painter, illustrator, photographer and writer. As a young artist she created a series of sculptures for the Pompidou Museum in Paris. In the 1980’s … +

The element of mystery has always been an integral part of the art world, The disappearance of Fernando Garcia is one of those mysteries in that world that cries out for resolution. His voluminous body of work, the joy of viewing it and it’s potential influence on generations of artists has slipped away, mysteriously.

Brandon Opalka’s Miami Beach studio is part construction site and part art installation. Located on Liberty Avenue and 20th Street, Opalka is one of the first artists to work in what the City of Miami Beach hopes will soon become Miami’s newest arts district. When I arrive, Opalka is outside of his studio with friend and fellow artist Carlos Stincer.

Thoughts of a painter. “Everything done with honesty should be admired, or at least deserve a few minutes of observation.” Thus begins a reflection by Raul de la Nuez about his inseparable relationship with art. “We artists enjoy life in a very peculiar way. We don’t see green or blue or black and white, but all the tonalities of green, the nuances … +

Baffling contrasts. Is painting a way to mimic reality, or is it more about inventing a different one while fooling us in the process? Still life was cultivated four hundred years ago by Dutch masters, like Willem van Aelst, Rachel Ruysch and David van Heem. With the excuse to depict worldly possessions and whatnot, these painters explored “the given” (as Francis Bacon … +

Francisco Luna grew up around a big library that his grandmother had in her living room, back in his natal La Plata, Argentina. The library covered a whole wall from the floor to the ceiling and it was filled up with tons of books, old and new, written in Spanish, German, Italian and English. \As a kid, he would spend time imagining … +

Argentinean sculptor. Carolina Sardi is an Argentinean sculptor established in Miami since 1995. She earned her Master in Sculpture at the National University of La Plata, in her country. She also studied Architecture and Urbanism at the same University and Sculpture with the artist Enio Iommi.