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20/10/2010

Luis Cruz Azaceta

Pan American Art Projects, Miami

Pan American Art Projects is proud to announce our representation in Florida of Luis Cruz Azaceta with the inauguration of his first exhibition at our gallery (Oct. 21 – Dec. 7). The show will mark his return to the Miami art scene.
“Trajectories/Trayectorias” is a major exhibit which will occupy the entire gallery, and will include several works from the solo show "Swimming to Havana" presented at the New Orleans Museum of Art earlier this year. In the central piece of the exhibit “Hell Act" (2009) the artist ironically depicts a fleet of makeshift rafts aimlessly and helplessly bobbing around like toys in an enormous bath tub; the work illustrates the artist's constant struggle with the isolation, loss, and inexorability of being an immigrant.

The exhibit will also showcase works like “Tough Ride” (2008) created in response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The large-scale self-portrait on canvas incorporates elements of chaos resulting from government’s ineffectiveness in establishing an evacuation plan: highways which are supposed to lead people out of the city to salvation are closed circles leading nowhere. “Katrina Boat" (2007) is a structure made of found wood fragments and debris picked up by the artist in his first trip back to New Orleans after the evacuation; it symbolizes the make-shift boats used to rescue people throughout the city and has a reference to the rafts used by Cubans to escape the island. The anxiety present in these large-scale works relates to the human condition of desperation in times of turmoil, whether due to a natural disaster or a political regime. “Spill: Where is Superman when you need him” (2010) from his most recent series "Spill”, addresses the BP oil spill and also references the inadequacies of human solutions and institutions in the face of catastrophe. The show brings together a large array of media, including: sculptures, installations, and paintings from both recent and earlier periods of the artist’s career.

Azaceta's visual language has a powerful sense of distortion, highlighting a juxtaposition of agony and humor. This year marks 50 years since the artist’s departure from his birthplace, his first world and the one that has continued to be present in him throughout his creative journey. The "Swimming to Havana" series expresses the bittersweet impracticality of a distant desire to return to the past.

The artist's fearlessness and determination to explore controversial issues has gained him recognition as a key figure in American contemporary art. In 2009 he received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, which followed other important fellowships and grants, from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Cintas Fellowship for Cuban artists. Luis Cruz Azaceta's work is in important collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institute of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MARCO) of Monterrey, Mexico, and the Fine Arts Museum of Caracas, Venezuela.

Image: Sky Watch, 2010, mixed media on canvas 24" x 24"

For more information please contact:
Janda Wetherington: janda@panamericanart.com

Opening reception: October 21, 2010 (6 – 9 PM)

Pan American Art Projects
2450 NW 2nd Avenue Miami, FL 33127
Hours:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Saturday 12 - 5:30 p.m.

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