The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University will hold a very special exhibition and reception opening on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, from 5 pm-8 pm for José Manuel Ballester: Concealed Spaces. The vernissage will be open to the public and free of charge. The artist will be present. The exhibition will run through June 23, 2013.
José Manuel Ballester is an internationally recognized Spanish artist who has excelled in the field of photography with his unique interpretation of architectural space and light and his outstanding contribution to the renewal of photographic techniques. “It was photography that gave Ballester the freedom to further explore the potential of combining the camera and the paintbrush. In the series of works in the exhibition Concealed Spaces, Ballester carefully analyzes some of the Museo del Prado’s most famous paintings from the perspective of the digital camera, with the ability to transform the image captured by subverting its original intent through the magic of Photoshop and other programs,” says Dr. Carol Damian, Director of the Frost Art Museum.
Concealed Spaces, Ballester’s first individual museum exhibit in the United States, presents twenty-four large-scale photographs inspired by art history’s masterpieces, including works by Botticelli, Fra Angelicio, Géricault, Goya, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velázquez, and Vermeer, among others. The artist erases all living beings and eliminates all references to action from the original works, and re-creates different scenarios where nature and architecture become the main subjects. “Nature, simplicity and spontaneity are qualities he transmits through his landscapes and architectural settings. In the end, it is the ideal of living in harmony, the spirituality of the magnificent landscapes and the majesty of Ballester’s monumental pieces that make them unique and inspiring,” says the curator of the exhibition, Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig.
A full color catalog of José Manuel Ballester: Concealed Spaces is available to the press upon request.
This exhibition is part of the Frost Art Museum’s 2013 year-long program Commemorating 500 Years 1513-2013 Spain-Florida-Caribbean, a series of exhibitions celebrating the evolution of our regional culture and development since Ponce de León’s arrival in what is now Florida.
In addition to this new exhibition, the following current exhibitions will also be opening on February 27, 2013:
• Eugene Savage: The Seminole Paintings
• The Healing Spirits of the Waters
• Deep Blue by Javier Velasco
• Aesthetics & Values 2013
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