One of the best known proponents of the Chilean school of realism, Enrique Campuzano has brought to The Americas Collection a beautiful exhibition of his latest works. The school of realism in his country is inspired by the internationally know master, Claudio Bravo, whose legacy has had a tremendous impact on all of Latin American art, and especially in his native Chile. Campuzano has followed in his tradition, but he has developed his own unique style within it. This series of paintings is of a simple theme, light reflected through groupings of luminous, multi-colored groupings of silk paper. This theme in the hands of this talented painter becomes a vehicle for the study of light and color, focusing on the magic of vision and celebrating our light filled world.

The exhibition will open on June 1 with a reception from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. and will continue through the month of June. In July and August, The Americas will be featuring Graphics by Latin American Masters. Gallery Nights will take place July 6th and August 3rd. Always free and open to the public.

Master artists Wifredo Lam, Francisco Toledo, Antonio Amaral and Cesar Menendez are featured in “Panorama Latinoamericano Part II,” a new exhibition of paintings and sculpture at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables.

Lam is represented by a two-foot 1959 oil on canvas that art historians call a jewel-like masterpiece. Toledo’s works are watercolors, one dated 1965 and the other probably from the same period.

“Carrousel,” a six-and-a-half foot 1998 canvas by Cesar Menendez, features two nudes astride powerful steeds on a whirling merry-go-round. The shimmering surfaces of a five-foot 1992 oil by Antonio Amaral depict an emerald-green cluster of tubes surrounded by menacing gray spikes and rosy clawlike appendages.

Heading the roster of the show’s mid-career artists is Hugo Crosthwaite from Mexico, whose six-by-five foot “Untitled—Enfermas Facilmente” is a masterpiece that captures facial emotion in graphite and charcoal.

Opening August 3rd will be large-scale, graffiti-inspired paintings of Crash.

Carrasquilla an establish Colombian artist from Cartagena whose works have been sold in Sotheby's auction house in New York is presenting a new exhibition. It is inspired by his admiration for Rembrandts work and especially for "The Man with the Golden Helmet"

The exhibition "Totem Objects" is now on display at Jorge M. Sori Fine Art. And precisely he starts with the free version of "The Man with the Golden Helmet" and from it, it just happens, that one by one he steps out and walks away, establishing such a distance from it, that we might say that the only figurative paint is that one.

The rest are abstractions, although they seem to recall Rembrandt's work; either by a golden stein thatbrings us the memory of the helmet; or because the form suggests the fragmentation of the paint itself.

Artist in Residence
HUMBERTO BENITEZ

This group show highlights the shared humanity of different cultures represented through the human form in sculpture.

Niso Maman’s signature torsos, made from nails, coins and other metal media, glass and river stones, give a new dimension to ordinary objects transforming them into a new expression of beauty, combining classical form with distinctive modernity.

He creates in diverse styles, from figurative to abstract and geometric. His monumental figurative works have been commissioned for major public and private international collections.

Bronzes by Tolla ( Israel ), Jamali ( Pakistan ), Ora Segalis (Israel ), stainless steel and bronze by Luis Efe Vélez (Colombia ) and sand-cast glass by Marlene Rose ( US ) also form part of this exhibit.

In July and August, ArtRouge will be featuring: “Shona Art”, unique stone carved sculptures by contemporary artists from Zimbabwe, Africa : Washington Monza, Benjamin Mundara, James Mutambika, Justin Babama, Itai Tauzen, Tufani Mgabali. The exhibition explains the phenomena of African art forms that went back to the essence, seeking purer forms of expression. The stones as the wind are alive and have a soul.

CIFO, and the Colección Mercantil present a major exhibition of cutting edge art by leading contemporary Venezuelan artists. Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art from the Colección Mercantil examines the work of 30 artists born between 1946 and 1972 whose work characterizes the rapid evolution and surprising diversity of contemporary art created in Venezuela and Latin America.

Featuring paintings, drawings, photography, assemblage, sculpture, video and installation work dating from 1990 to 2006, the exhibition offers new insights into the social, political and cultural issues – and the resulting creative output – that have shaped the eclectic international art scene in Venezuela.

Jump Cuts includes work by 30 artists: Alexánder Apóstol, Carla Arocha, Emilia Azcárate, Aziz+Cucher, Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck, Mariana Bunimov, Sigfredo Chacón, Eugenio Espinoza, José Gabriel Fernández, Magdalena Fernández, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Arturo Herrera, Juan Iribarren, Diana López, Luis Simón Molina-Pantin, Roberto Obregón, Javier Téllez, Meyer Vaisman, and Sandra Vivas among others. The presentation was organized by curators Jesús Fuenmayor, Tahía Rivero and Lorena González of the Colección Mercantil, and Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, chief curator of CIFO.