The Kendall Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCA-Americas) will present on Friday, November 24, the book 'Carlos Albert, Towards the Unknown' by Alfonso de la Torre.
This volume was previously introduced to the public on April 26, 2023, at the Sabatini Auditorium of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, featuring its author Alfonso de la Torre and the artist himself. The book has been sponsored by NG Gallery, Aquilaluna Gallery, and MoCA-Americas. Also present at the launch were Cécile de Froidmont, Director of Aquilaluna Art Gallery, Leonardo Rodríguez, Founding President and CEO of MoCA-Americas Kendall, and Nivaldo Carbonell, Director of NG Art Gallery.
With this project, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas continues a purpose that has been repeatedly interrupted by the coronavirus crisis and the war in Ukraine: the creation of MoCA-A Editions. Having its own publishing house has been a long-considered project aimed at publishing educational monographs on key artists from its collection, as well as specific topics of artistic and community interest. In the same vein, MoCA-Americas is also working on the creation of the editorial profiles for a visual arts magazine that will initially be published biannually, starting in the second half of 2024.
Within the esteemed milieu of Art Basel, the illustrious Bernardo Medina, known professionally as BeMe, will grace the Aldo Menéndez Permanent Hall at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas with the presentation of his tome, 'The Sofrito Manifesto', a work that proudly encompasses two volumes. In the foreword of the second volume, dedicated to the cocktails and libations commonly savored in Puerto Rico, Joaquín E. Bacardí III penned: "It is a source of great pride for me to speak on a subject that, within my family, has been woven into the fabric of our daily discourse from a young age... Born into a lineage of rum manufacturers with a father and grandfather who were master distillers, it was our customary practice to converse about our cherished beverage, one that mirrors the vibrancy, spark, and ardor with which we embrace life in the Caribbean."
This unveiling will take place amidst a personal exhibition of Medina's oeuvre. Select pieces from diverse series have been meticulously curated to offer the South Florida audience and December fair attendees as comprehensive a view as possible of the artistry Medina has cultivated over the past quinquennium. Eleven medium-format works stand out, marked by an exuberant chromatic range that flawlessly encapsulates their genesis—breathing the very air and visual culture of the Caribbean.
On December 1st, 2023, MoCAA will inaugurate three simultaneous exhibitions. One of these will be "El hombre es una isla," featuring pieces created by Pepe Franco over the last decade. In an article published by Hypermedia magazine in September 2020, Cuban art expert and professor François Vallée remarked in the introduction:
"José Franco has been a prominent figure in Cuban art since the 1980s. His artistic practice is prolific and eludes easy classification. As is often the case in what has come to be known as postmodernity, his work is marked by constant renewal and is not confined to a single medium. Instead, it spans and explores an array of forms: painting, drawing, sculpture, object art, installation, and theatrical scenography, among others. He is an artist who stands independently of the doctrinaire positions of the art world, a 'sharpshooter' demonstrating a plastic openness leading to a renewed circulation of the gaze.
On July 7, 2017, the Kendall Art Center (now Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas) inaugurated "Cuban Slugger," an exhibition by the renowned Cuban artist Reynerio Tamayo. On this occasion, Tamayo expressed that this exhibition was a 'long-standing debt' he felt he owed, as he had participated in various group exhibitions on the theme of baseball but had never held a solo exhibition entirely dedicated to this sport. The project was previously showcased at Galería Habana in Havana and traveled almost in its entirety to South Florida. It was a heartfelt homage to the history of Cuban baseball and its giant protagonists, both past and present, with a bit more focus on the early stars of the 20th century. The exhibition was both formally and conceptually a sports celebration. The Galería Habana exhibition, titled “Cuba en pelota,” also served as a nod to the island's history through baseball, painting, and the socio-political story of the island. The title referenced an iconic work within the history of contemporary Cuban art: Antonia Eiriz's "La muerte en pelota" from 1966, thus paying tribute to this great Cuban artist of all time. For Tamayo, it was essential to hold the exhibition in its natural settings. 'From one side only, it remained incomplete,' he expressed.
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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