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Now to April 8, 2018
On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Perez Collection
This exhibition explores the diverse cultural and emotional landscapes of recent Cuban art. It presents a selection of works by Contemporary Cuban artists donated to the museum by Jorge M. Pérez, the majority from a recent gift of over 170 pieces, as well as works previously gifted to PAMM in 2012, and several recent acquisitions. The selection includes multiple images of the horizon, and these works serve to structure the conceptual framework of the exhibition. The diverse meanings placed on the horizon—which include it as a symbol of longing, containment or desire—radiate across the additional works on view. Produced in various media, such as, painting, sculpture, drawing, video, and installation, these contemplative artworks help generate a discussion regarding the specificities of Cuba’s current physical, social, and political environment, as revealed through each artist’s personal experience and unique aesthetics. This exhibition is made possible by the generosity of Jorge M. Pérez.
On the Horizon is presented in three distinct, yet interconnected “chapters,” with a new chapter opening every three months. The exhibition is organized around the metaphor of the horizon line—a motif that appears in many of the works on view—and brings together a strong view of artistic practices in Cuba from the last three decades as well as work by young, lesser-known artists working on the island and across the globe. The individual chapters each explore various meanings of the horizon, which include the vista as a symbol of desire, longing or containment. This symbolic framework helps generate a larger dialogue between the works on view and the specificities of Cuba’s current physical, social and political landscape, as revealed through each artist’s personal experience and unique aesthetics.
Now to August 19, 2018
Within Genres
The Pérez Art Museum Miami collection focuses on modern and contemporary art. While it includes examples from as early as the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the artwork housed in the collection is by living artists and has been produced during the last several decades. While this emphasis on contemporary artistic practices informs the museum’s collecting and programming, the museum continually looks to emphasize connections between our current moment and a longer history of art.
Informed by these interests in art history, the current presentation of the permanent collection—installed thematically within two rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second—is organized around the historical criteria of genres within Western painting and the traditional hierarchy of genres that developed out of the Renaissance period and was promoted within European art academies up through the 19th century.
The five genres explored in these galleries, Still Life, Landscape, Scenes of Everyday Life, Portraiture, and History Painting developed as categories when painting was still in its infancy as a respected medium. Each category was meant to highlight the intellectual rigor of the medium. The hierarchy that formed between genres placed still life at the lowest end of the intellectual spectrum, as it involved the representation of inanimate objects, and history painting at the highest level of artistic achievement, as it depicted human subjects involved in allegorical themes related to religion, mythology, or historical events.
These academic categories were challenged in the 19th century with the development of modernism and the avant-garde. However, the distinct characteristics and the symbolism traditionally associated with each genre have continued to resonate over the past century. The five genres serve as a productive point of dialogue with contemporary artwork created within an expanded field of artistic practices, including not only painting but also photography, video, and installation. Within Genres engages the critical space of genres as a creative referent and in doing so seeks to articulate a trans-historical approach to the investigation and exhibition of our museum’s collection, one that celebrates its contemporary vibrancy and historical continuity.
Ongoing
Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Sculpture Garden
Featuring works by artists such as Anthony Caro, Gonzálo Fonseca, Edgar Negret, Ernesto Neto, Jedd Novatt, Pablo Atchugarry and Mark di Suvero, PAMM’s Sculpture Garden displays large-scale sculptures that can be enjoyed in the open air.
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