Wynwood Second Saturday preview:
Russkis and a new movement
By Carlos Suarez De Jesus Thursday, Oct 7 2010http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-10-07/culture/wynwood-second-saturday-preview-russkis-and-a-new-movement/
Deatils:
"Abstract Miami": Through December 30.
Center for Visual Communication, 541 NW 27th St., Miami;
305-571-1415; visual.org.
Monday through Friday 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
Saturday noon to 5 p.m. For this Saturday's gallery walk, 7 to 10 p.m.
Upwind, at the Center for Visual Communications, a sprawling exhibit showcasing a homegrown movement calling itself The Miami School puts the 305 front and center in contemporary painting.
The show features the work of Darby Bannard, who was one of the originators of minimalism in the late 1950s with Frank Stella. He also pioneered color-field painting with Jules Olitski and Kenneth Noland in the 1960s. The graybeard master, known for truck-sized canvases coated with atmospheric fields of richly colored gels and paints applied with push brooms, has headed the University of Miami Department of Art and Art History for the past two decades.
During his tenure, he has mentored a generation of young artists who are generating the new movement in abstract painting. "It's very exciting to present an exhibition that celebrates the emergence of a new movement in art and at the same time the serious work of painters in the Miami community," says Barry Fellman, the CVC's director. "The artists in the show demonstrate that Miami is a central participant in the current discourse of painting in America."
Visitors can expect work that is as vibrant, bold, and infused with heat as our city itself, adds Fellman. "Abstract Miami" also includes work by Andy Gambrell, George Bethea, Sean Smith, Kathleen Staples, Kerry Ware, and David Marsh. Works on display will range from the pooled colors of Bethea to the lyrical geometry of Gambrell to Ware's scrubbed surfaces and subtle shift of hues.
"The responses have already hit a chord," says Fellman. "We are extending the exhibit through Basel now — even before it has opened — because of the expectations currently surrounding it. We hope this will highlight to the international art world the coming of age of Miami and that the visual arts here are worthy of attention year-round and not just one week in December featuring art from other places."