Miami, FL, August 19, 2021 – Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at Miami Dade College (MDC) presents Constructed Color, an exhibition of recent paintings by the Miami-based Venezuelan American artist and New World School of the Arts alumnus Loriel Beltrán. Affixing slabs of layered paint, sliced from blocks hardened in boxlike molds, to panels, the artist creates innovative abstract works of dazzling opticality and metaphorical density. Loriel Beltrán: Constructed Color is on view from Nov. 6, 2021 through May 1, 2022.
Constructed from strips of congealed paint arranged either horizontally or vertically on the work’s support, Beltrán’s canvases appear as stacked structures, assemblages, or objects. But the optical mixing of the colors perceived by viewers also make the paintings seem somewhat intangible. This contradiction between object and opticality constitutes only one of the works’ paradoxes.
Beltrán uses such contradictions to create a tension-filled space within which he explores possible modes for contemporary painting. His works harken back to historical references, such as Gerhard Richter, Alejandro Otero, and Carlos Cruz-Diez, all of whom contrasted the construction of color to vision’s physiological and psychological subjectiveness. Yet it is Constructivism’s legacy—its drive to conceive vision in terms of the object and the object in visual terms—that Beltrán’s recent production revisits and redirects. For color, to use the artist’s words, here oscillates between a “mediated” or visual and a “primary” or physical status; constructed color affirms itself both as an optical event and as a structured material that can only belong within the realm of things.
“Loriel Beltrán’s paintings number among the most visually exciting artworks being produced in Miami right now,” said Rina Carvajal, MOAD’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, and the organizer of the exhibition. “They are fascinating for the distinctive way he creates them and the network of meanings they engender.”
Loriel Beltrán: Constructed Color is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition since 2007. The exhibition is accompanied by a special issue of MOAD Unbound, the Museum of Art and Design’s new online publication series, devoted to the artist and his work, which includes a critical essay by the New York-based independent scholar and curator Juan Carlos Ledezma and an interview with the artist.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1985, Beltrán moved to Miami at age 15. He earned a BFA from the New World School of the Arts, an MDC affiliate. Beltrán’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Perez Art Museum Miami; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Museo de Arte Acarigua-Araure in Venezuela; and the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, and he has had solo exhibitions at the Wolfsonian Museum Bridge Tender’s house, Central Fine, and the non-profit Locust Projects in Miami. Beltran was also a co-founder and co-director of the artist run gallery and collective Noguchi Breton (formerly GUCCIVUITTON).
Loriel Beltran: Constructed Color inaugurates MOAD Projects, a new series of exhibitions that features work by Miami-based artists, including distinguished Miami Dade College and New World School of the Arts alumni and faculty. MOAD Projects provides a platform for local artists to realize new projects or exhibit recent bodies of work, as well as for investigations of understudied historical developments in Miami’s cultural past. MOAD Projects expands upon the swing/SPACE/Miami alumni exhibition series that began in 2013.
This exhibition is curated by Rina Carvajal, MOAD’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, and is made possible by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
Located inside MDC’s National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower, MOAD at MDC offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that aim to foster a reimagined Miami. Exploring the challenges and opportunities we face locally and globally, MOAD convenes artists, designers, and thinkers to address the urgent questions of our time. As the College’s flagship museum, MOAD strives to be a catalyst for action and a place that empowers people to remake their city. MOAD follows the College’s lead in operating across Miami with its Museum Without Boundaries initiative, which takes place in city neighborhoods and invites everyone to be a part of the conversation.
WHAT: Loriel Beltrán: Constructed Color
WHEN: Saturday, November 6, 2021, through Friday, May 1, 2022
WHERE: Museum of Art and Design at MDC
Freedom Tower
600 Biscayne Boulevard, Second Floor
Hours: Wednesday: 1 – 6 p.m.; Thursday: 1 – 8 p.m.; Friday–Sunday: 1 – 6 p.m.
Museum admission: $12 adults; $8 seniors and military; $5 students (13–17) and college students (with valid ID); free for MOAD members, MDC students, faculty, and staff, and children 12 and under; free on Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m.
Accessibility challenges: please call 305-237-7710 for details.
The Museum of Art and Design is open during regular hours. As part of Miami Dade College, MOAD and MDC Special Collections will continue to closely monitor COVID-19. MDC is coordinating efforts with the appropriate state and local authorities. We recommend that you visit MDC’s information and resource page and check back frequently.
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