sculpture

After spending a Saturday afternoon with the family at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach last weekend, we decided to keep out of the usual heat, humidity and scattered thunderstorms that make summertime in South Florida suck, by heading south and checking out the new Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Founded in 1984 as the Center for the Fine Arts, it became known as the Miami Art Museum from 1996 until the opening its new building designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron at 1103 Biscayne Boulevard. The museum was renamed the Pérez Art Museum in 2013 in recognition of a landmark leadership gift of cash and art valued at $40 million from local real estate billionaire Jorge M. Pérez.

One of the museum’s exhibits, Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, boasted some spectacular works of art from artists all over the Caribbean. We got to see it before it officially pulled out this past Sunday. We weren’t allowed to take pictures at that exhibit but the museum’s permanent collection was also pretty impressive. Moreover, the museum was in the process of reinstalling several of its galleries in which they’ll feature selections from their permanent collection alongside a number of works on loan. We’ll be back sometime in the Fall to check out the new galleries but as it was, the Pérez Art Museum Miami made for a pleasant way to spend a few summer hours.

Here are a few pics starting with this life-sized 1987 pseudo-religious mixed media piece called “La Trampa” (The Trap) by Cuban artist Rubén Torres Llorca. The “sculpture” invites viewers to to uncover veiled meanings in the imagery while also satirizing the tendency to overinterpret artworks. I just found it splendidly creepy. Enjoy…

Haitian-born, Miami-based artist Edouard Duval-Carrié’s “Imagined Landscapes” exhibition…

George Segal’s “Abraham’s Farewell to Ishmael”

Major installation by Simon Starling called “Inverted Theme” that poetically translates a post-war Puerto Rican housing plan into spaces akin to birdhouses. Made with wood, iron, tree trunks, and birds(!), the structure spans 133 x 122 x 140 inches…

Patricia Cronin’s bronze sculpture “Memorial to a Marriage”

Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn

Colombian Australian artist María Fernanda Cardozo’s “Cementerio (jardin vertical)”

Miami-born artist Hernan Bass “Untitled (blue glove)”

Mexican-born, New York-based artist Laura Anderson Barbata’s “The Cheese Ball Queen” is one of the centerpieces of the “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” exhibit…

Oh, and the outside area of the museum has some sweeping views of Biscayne Bay – grabbed a few pics before the rains came…

I’ll post some more pics upon my return to the museum some time this Fall…

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