December 1, 2017–October 15, 2018
Opening: Friday, December 1, 11am–6pm
JCMAC
Design District
3841 NE 2nd Avenue
Suite 201
Miami, FL 33137
Hours: Tuesdays–Friday 10:30–5pm,
Saturday 11–4pm
Miami Art Week hours: December 3–10, 9am–5pm
The Juan Carlos Maldonado Art Collection (JCMAC) initiates a new cycle in its exhibition program at its recently opened Miami Design District center with Constructing Constructivism. Curated by JCMAC’s curator M Carlota Perez-Appelbaum, the new selection from JCMAC’s outstanding collection explores the role of geometric abstraction in the mid-twentieth century within an extensive international context. While widely embraced in Europe and Latin America, geometric abstraction never found a wide audience in the US. This exhibition aims to revisit the achievements of wide array of artists from the Americas and Europe and to open a dialog on the importance of the geometric abstract style in the development of what we know as contemporary art.
With works by such diverse artists as Ilya Bolotowsky, Lygia Pape, Jesús Soto, Leon Polk Smith, Gego, Kenneth Noland, Joël Stein, Tadaaki Kuwayama, among many others, Constructing Constructivism looks into a wide range of philosophical, painterly and conceptual approaches to the geometric image during a time of increased global awareness. Featuring paintings, sculptures and drawings from JCMAC’s exceptional survey of artworks focused on geometric abstraction from Latin America, Europe and the United States, Constructing Constructivism advances the possibilities of global integration by focusing on mutual influences and exchanges among artists and movements across three continents.
In addition to visiting this selection of artwork at its own exhibition space, audiences can also enjoy one of JCMAC’s most distinguished works, Jesús Rafael Soto’s Penetrable BBL Bleu, 1999, currently installed at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
About JCMAC
Since its establishment in 2005, JCMAC (formerly Art&Art Collection) has been dedicated to surveying the intricate histories of abstract and constructivist art in Latin America. Over the years, JCMAC has engaged in multiple collaborations and projects that uphold its belief in the power of art and education as instruments for social change. The Collection has benefited communities by providing access to artwork and documents in the collection to increasingly wider audiences. Its lending program has reached: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Perez Art Museum, Miami; Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU, Miami; MFA Houston; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; MALBA, Buenos Aires and private institutions in Caracas.
Education is an important component of JCMAC’s mission. JCMAC has recently launched jcmac.art, an expanded, redesigned website, that provides online access to holdings in the collection to students, researchers, and online visitors and stimulates further research in Latin American geometric abstraction. The website encourages visitors to research and explore biographies, movements and works by artists in the collection, while also offering exhibition history and basic bibliographical references on each artist. The website is an ever growing project to include European, North American and Contemporary artists in the collection in order to enrich visitors’ knowledge and appreciation of geometric abstraction as a universal language, fundamental to the history of 20th century art.
JCMAC is a private project, not registered as a 501(c)(3) foundation under the US Internal Revenue Code and does not receive governmental assistance.
Press contact
For more information visit www.jcmac.art or contact us at info [at] jcmac.art