Friday, November 3, 2017

Art Basel and Other Delights at the Frost

"I do not pretend to transmit a message of reality: I am moved by the longing to travel through my paintings in a dimension of spirit where the intimate and the cosmic converge.”
--Rafael Soriano


The Artist As Mystic

Composition. Oil on canvas, 1959.
A couple weeks ago I received notice about two upcoming shows taking place at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU in Miami. Both exhibitions will celebrate their openings tomorrow, Saturday, November 4. The first is titled The Artist As Mystic, a retrospective covering the life of Cuban-born artist Rafael Soriano (1920-2015). Soriano (1920–2015) was an acclaimed master of geometric abstraction and a global figure in the twentieth-century art world. Featuring more than ninety paintings, pastels, and drawings from the Rafael Soriano Family Collection, other institutions and private collections. The exhibition at the Frost features ephemera from the late artist's Miami studio, shown for the first time.

The Artist as Mystic begins with Soriano’s works in the Cuban geometric abstract style. It then moves to his transitional, experimental paintings from the 1960s and 1970s reminiscent of surrealist biomorphism. The exhibition concludes with luminous, mystical imagery from Soriano’s mature period. 

Organized by the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College in collaboration with the Rafael Soriano Foundation, the exhibition has been curated by Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta. Major support has been provided by Boston College and the Patrons of the McMullen Museum. More about the artist at rafaelsoriano.com.


Rafael Soriano, Facing the Infinite, oil on canvas (1992)

Continental Abstraction
Highlights from the Art Museum of the Americas
Also opens Saturday, November 4

Continental Abstraction examines the wide spectrum of social, cultural, and artistic concerns of countries across Latin America. Features more than 40 works drawn from the collection of the Organization of American States (OAS) Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), based in Washington, DC. Over 30 artists hailing from 20 different countries experiment with form and materials and investigate through an abstract lens, themes of migration, exile, poverty, freedom, and creativity.

Enrique Careaga, Sphere Spatio-Temporelle BS 7523
acrylic on canvas (1975)

Elsa Gramcko, Composition 20, oil on canvas (1958)

The artist Rafael Soriano
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS
and Saturday's Opening Reception, visit

If you are in the vicinity, go check it out. I certainly wish I could be there.
Meantime, wherever you are, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

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