The Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas and the Fine Arts Ceramic Center presented their exhibition "Unlikely Assemblages" as part of the 57th Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference, which took place from March 15th to 18th, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The Annex Gallery, located next to the Pendelton Art Center and directed by photographer and cultural promoter Jens G. Rosenkrantz, hosted the exhibition, which will run until April 29th, 2023.
"Unlikely Assemblages" showcases the works of three prominent Cuban creators who are based in South Florida and work closely with the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas in Kendall: Ivonne Ferrer, Milena Martínez Pedrosa, Carlos E. Prado, and Ciro Quintana. In this exhibition, they present works created with the ceramic technique.
In addition, part of the plate collection created by numerous Cuban artists and belonging to the Fine Arts Ceramic Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas is also on display. The works of more than 60 Cuban artists can be appreciated, including Lia Galleti, Carlos Luna, Carlos Estévez, Aldo Menéndez, Aimée García, and many others. Together, they provide a fairly precise idea of the extraordinary variety and originality of Cuban art in recent years.
Meanwhile, the Fine Arts Ceramic Center was created in the midst of the pandemic with the aim of promoting the use of ceramic techniques among Cuban artists belonging to the Rodriguez Collection. This heterogeneous group of creators regularly works on canvas, and with this initiative, they were able to bring their art to a new medium, preserving tradition and introducing a new generation to this unique artistic practice. Leonardo Rodríguez himself invited a group to create on ceramic plates to hold the first exhibition that would attest to the Center's intention to promote this ancient technique, transcending its merely utilitarian or decorative functions and producing valuable works of art.
The exhibition was called Fine Arts on the Plate and was inaugurated on November 27, 2020. It can be considered the foundational event of the Fine Arts Ceramic Center. More than fifty Cuban artists created their plates in the newly set up workshop adjacent to the main halls of the former Kendall Art Center, and they were exhibited in all the spaces of the center. According to curator Carol Damian, the exhibition 'marked a continuation of the Cuban ceramic traditions achieved by various artists at different stages of their careers and levels of experience,' and 'used ceramics to continue a personal aesthetic and style, integrating their natural expression with the new circular media.'
The ceramic collection is regularly exhibited in numerous spaces, such as the recently opened show 'Artists Set the Table' at Pinecrest Garden on Sunday, February 19, and previously at the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona with the exhibition 'Beyond the Plate,' open to the public on May 7, 2022, and the traveling exhibition inaugurated on November 5, 2021, at the Sidney Berne & Davis Art Center, 'Fine Arts on the Plate'.
The exhibition opens Wed the 15.
Reception Friday the 17th 5 to 8.
Runs through April 29th.
Hours Wed to Sat 12 to 5
The Kendall Art Cultural Center (KACC), dedicated the past six years to the preservation and promotion of contemporary art and artists, and to the exchange of art and ideas throughout Miami and South Florida, as well as abroad. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions, programs, and its collections, KACC provides an international platform for the work of established and emerging artists, advancing public appreciation and understanding of contemporary art.
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The Rodríguez collection is a blueprint of Cuban art and its diaspora. Within the context of the new MoCA-Americas the collection becomes an invaluable visual source for Diaspora identity. It represents a different approach to art history to try to better understand where we come from to better know where we are heading.
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