The Best of the Visual Arts at the MAM

The Best of the Visual Arts at the MAM
Santo Domingo, May 18 2015

Some five exhibitions of the best promoters of the visual arts from Peru, Argentina, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic remain open to the public at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM), a division of the Ministry of Culture.

“Imalabra”, by Antonio Martorell (Puerto Rico); “La palabra de Perú”, by Daniel Mordzinski (Argentina), which includes photographs by Peruvian writers; “Noche cerrada”, by Ricardo Wiesse (Peru); “Mitología Nazca”, by French artist Gilbert Kieffer; and, “Partículas que piensan”, by Pedro José Gris, (Dominican Republic), are available at the MAM.

The “Imalabra” exhibit, a proposal that brings together a collection of forty-five years of artistic production by artist Antonio Martorell, by himself and with friends, is on display in the second floor of the MAM.

“Martorell provides an exhibition focused on the artist as a communicator, reader and illustrator, designer and engraver, performance artist and writer; he prefers to bring their many actions and reactions in a variety of forms and techniques, explains the curator Humberto Figuereo. Also on the second level, Argentinian photographer Daniel Mordzinski exhibits “Las palabras de Perú”. During his recent visit to the country, he said that it is always a pleasure to visit the Dominican Republic and that this exhibition speaks of a literature that is living and dynamic, varied and complex, made by three generations of men and women.

Another interesting exhibition is Richard Wisse’s “Noche cerrada”, where some 26 themes and variations describe the experience of loss that leads to dark sites, deprived of color, where the unconscious dictates and brings together broken signs on matte and unfathomable black. For Amable López Meléndez, chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art, in “Partículas que piensan” Pedro José Gris uses materials and expressive resources which, first of all, reveal the poetic, instinctive and experimental character of his creative practice. “He uses fabric, paper, cardboard, oil, acrylic and pastel paints, while he ventures into the enlightened abyss of uncertainty. He embraces with admirable passion the gesture of action painting,” said López Meléndez.

Gilbert Kieffer’s sample, the result of his experience and contacts with the pre-Hispanic cultures, presents his collection of digital works based on the Nazca mythology, which, in his opinion, makes the spiritual energies of the signs of past civilizations come back to life in a contemporary setting, by using materials such as metal, chrome and glass to draw attention with 3D constructions presented in canvas and lighted boxes. In the basement visitors can enjoy both art and nature: Nueva lectura del Bosque y la Selva, by Spanish artist Antonio Prats Ventós, who is a nationalized Dominican citizen. Meanwhile, in the third floor, the permanent collection of the MAM is on display.

The exhibition will remain open Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, at the Museum of Modern Art of the Dominican Republic, located in Av. Pedro Henriquez Ureña, Plaza de la Cultura Juan Pablo Duarte, in Santo Domingo.

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