Within the framework of the exhibition Sensitive Constructivism: Techniques and Materials, a Latin American Dialogue, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) hosted a conversation with visual artists Jorge Salas and Mario Marinoni, two creators whose artistic paths invite a broader reflection on the persistence and transformation of constructivist languages within contemporary Latin American art.
Held on Saturday, June 6, 2026, the conversation addressed the power of the creative act across the different visual languages both artists have explored throughout their careers. Rather than approaching constructivism solely as a formal tradition, the event proposed a space for considering how geometry, matter, technique, and sensitivity can operate as fields of thought, memory, and experience.
The presence of Jorge Salas and Mario Marinoni brought together two complementary approaches to form. In Salas’s work, the constructivist language is projected through a rigorous organization of visual space, where composition, rhythm, and structure enter into dialogue with a modern tradition that continues to renew its expressive force. His practice invites us to reconsider constructivism not only as an aesthetic legacy, but also as a sensitive method for ordering the image.
Marinoni, for his part, brings an especially intense relationship with materials, technical processes, and the physical dimension of the artwork. His approach expands the discussion toward matter as a form of thought: that which is shaped, transformed, and given presence through the artist’s intervention. In this sense, his work opens constructivism toward a territory where form is not reduced to structure, but becomes tactile, symbolic, and perceptual experience.
The title of the exhibition, Sensitive Constructivism, points precisely to this productive tension between order and emotion, geometry and body, technique and intuition. In the Latin American context, this relationship acquires a particular density, as the continent’s constructivist traditions have historically been shaped by questions of modernity, identity, abstraction, public space, and material experimentation.
Moderated by cultural management specialist Mariella Bruno, director of NARTS, the conversation was part of a program aimed at strengthening dialogue among artists, institutions, and audiences interested in contemporary creative processes. The initiative was supported by NARTS, MoCAA, and Rodríguez Collection, organizations committed to the visibility of Latin American art and to the creation of spaces for critical thought in Miami.
Beyond the presentation of individual works or trajectories, the encounter positioned artistic practice as a form of knowledge. In this sense, the conversation between Salas and Marinoni underscored the continued relevance of constructivist languages when understood not as closed repertoires, but as open fields of formal, material, and conceptual research.
Through programs such as this, MoCAA reaffirms its commitment to fostering conversations that connect artistic production from the Americas with broader debates on visual culture, modern traditions, and contemporary experimentation.
The program concluded with a tasting of hors d’oeuvres and wines led by Mario Marinoni, extending the spirit of the conversation into a more convivial register. This final moment allowed the dialogue on matter, technique, and sensitivity to move beyond the visual field and into the shared experience of taste, presence, and encounter.
