Through May 2, 2013.
Under the provocative title “Yearning & Desire,” Jorge M. Sorí Fine Art in Coral Gables is opening this April 5th a major exhibition of recent works on paper by two of Miami’s rising stars in the visual arts. Maikel Martínez (b. 1977, Pinar del Río) and Eduardo Sarmiento (b. 1980, Cienfuegos) carry forward important traditions in the art of their native Cuba. The exhibition, curated by Ricardo Pau-Llosa who also wrote the essay in the catalogue, counterpoints the way in which Yearning and Desire shape our sense of identity, space, and the past, as well as the forces which mediate the presence of others in our lives.
Martínez, who has lived in Miami since 2006, is a consummate realist of landscape themes, a tradition which has been a staple of Cuban painting since the early 19th century—with artists such as Eduardo LaPlante, Esteban Chartrand, and Guillermo Collazo. Landscape themes have also been the hallmark of works by modern and contemporary masters such as Carlos Enríquez and Tomás Sánchez. Martínez’s work reconciles luminous realism and dream-like qualities which have run through Cuban landscape painting for two centuries but which have not always coincided. His breakthrough has been, precisely, the ease with which he rides these two currents simultaneously. Poignantly, the works are set in the imagined halfway point—Mile 45—between Cuba and the US, linking the epic of exile with Protean views of sea, sky, and land that plumb the tides and pressures of yearning. Martínez has exhibited widely in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. His work was included in the recent group exhibition “Before the Alarm: Selections of the Sayago & Pardon Latin American Art Collection,” Bank of America, Folsom, California. He is represented locally by Jorge M. Sorí Fine Art and by Bond Latin Gallery in San Francisco. Martínez is showing 10 works, oil on Arches paper, 9 x 24 inches.
Sarmiento has distinguished himself as a painter, graphic designer, and illustrator. He settled in Miami in 2006. His work has been featured in The New York Times, ESPN, Texas Monthly, The Miami Herald, Miami New Times, among others. Sarmiento’s works in this exhibition contribute to the representation of the figure, especially in a theatrical and oneiric context, whose previous Cuban masters have included Mario Carreño, Eduardo Abela, and Servando Cabrera Moreno. Sarmiento’s drawings coalesce Cuban Modernism’s preoccupation with rendering the figure in the sculptural terms of volume and movement with explorations of the unconscious mechanisms which govern our desires. A bizarre, comical yet unsettling character emerges in these works, masking the personae of the archetypal man and woman and otherwise negotiating the exchanges between them. A wide tonal range – from dread to satire – gets full play in these masterful drawings. Sarmiento’s work has been exhibited in numerous cities the United States, Latin America, and Europe. His work was included in the current 50th Annual Exhibition at the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana, and at The Museum of American Illustration in New York City in its Annual Exhibition. Sarmiento is showing 10 drawings, some of them diptychs, pencil on Arches paper, 12 x 16 inches.
Jorge Sori Fine Art
2970 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
Coral Gables, FL 33134
305.567.3151
[email protected]
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