Now that the doors of Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) are open after a $200+ million construction project it’s time for the spectacular facility to get down to business. To kick things off, the museum has gathered together what is collectively titled Americana, a series of themed installations which will begin a two-year cycle in the permanent “overview galleries” that form the spine of the exhibition spaces at PAMM.
Looking at 1930 onwards, curator Tobias Ostrander has added works from PAMM’s own growing collection to those of private collections with a commonality based on North and South American production and cultural influence. Americana will be split into two cycles, with the first beginning this month. The six permanent galleries will each host one themed presentation – Desiring Landscape, Sources of the Self, Formalizing Craft, Progressive Forms, Corporal Violence, and Commodity Cultures – with a second cycle beginning in the summer of 2014. Among the highlights of the inaugural event are works by Cuban artist José Bedia, a look back at Chilean Alfredo Jaar‘s Times Square intervention against North American centricity, and Josephine Meckseper’s more recent Thank a Vet. Americana ends in May 2015.
Alfredo Jaar
A Logo for America, 1987-95
Five cibachrome photographs
mounted on Plexiglas
Edition 3 of 12
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of Luis Calzadilla
Josephine Meckseper
Thank a Vet, 2008
Walker, mannequin legs, socks, toilet mat,
metal clip stand, stainless steel scouring pad,
underwear packaging, toilet brush, mannequin chest,
T-shirt, motor oil container, and acrylic cube
on mirrored pedestal
72-1/16 x 94-5/16 x 47-1/4 inches
Collection of Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of Mimi Floback
Image courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, NY
AMERICANA: Formalizing Craft
Installation view Pérez Art Museum Miami
Photo credit: Daniel Azoulay photography
Alfredo Jaar
A Logo for America, 1987-95
Five cibachrome photographs
mounted on Plexiglas
Edition 3 of 12
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of Luis Calzadilla
BLAH
AMERICANA: Desiring Landscape
Installation view Pérez Art Museum Miami
Photo credit: Juan Cabrera
José Bedia
Mamá quiere menga, menga de su nkombo
(Mama Wants Blood, Blood of His Bull), 1988
Acrylic on canvas
55 x 78-3/4 inches
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of Diane and Robert Moss
Oscar Muñoz
Cortinas de baño, 1994
Acrylic on plastic
74 x 28 1/2 inches, each curtain;
5 curtains Installation view Pérez Art Museum Miami
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of George M. Safirstein M. D. and Pola Reydburd
Photo credit: Daniel Azoulay photography
Alfredo Jaar
A Logo for America, 1987-95
Five cibachrome photographs
mounted on Plexiglas
Edition 3 of 12
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami,
gift of Luis Calzadilla
