RECEPTION
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 6 – 9 PM
THE ARTISTS WILL BE PRESENT
Gravity Hustle
Mindy Solomon Gallery is pleased to present Gravity Hustle, a group exhibition of recent New World School of the Arts Graduates J.M. Urbina, Yusimy Lara, Gabriela Beltran, and Patrick Oleson. The exhibition will run from August 10 – August 31, 2019.
“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”
-S. Hawking
Gravity Hustle represents the push and pull of the invisible and indescribable; the constant human struggle to explain complex realities. Erosion and sedimentation, the physical traversion of architectural spaces, creative acts of improvisation, and the interaction of texture and color as a sensorial experience are the subjects chosen by the artists to display their visual expressions and perceptions. Gravity Hustle is each artists’ personal analysis of different intangible abstract processes.
About the Artists
J.M. Urbina is a Venezuelan-born artist living and working in Miami, Florida. He received his BFA degree with an emphasis in painting from the New World School of the Arts College and has exhibited works in several shows including “New World North West” at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (2019) and “Etcetera” at the Mana Contemporary spaces (2019) in downtown Miami. Urbina is currently focusing his painting practice around the interaction of texture and color as an abstract, sensorial experience. Urbina’s work is centered around the capacity for empathy that a singular abstract experience may have. Urbina believes the placement of color and the manner in which it is applied invites an intuitive emotional response from the viewer. In stark contrast to the emotional nature of his works, Urbina starts each piece with a monochrome application of industrial tar and asphalt. The final product is an image that belies its utilitarian roots.
Born in 1994, Gabriela Beltran is a Colombian-born artist working in Miami. Gabriela received an AA in classical flute performance and received a BFA in painting from New World School of the arts. Beltran has performed with orchestras around south Florida and has exhibited work in various spaces such as The Yard at Casa Lin, and The Kampong Botanical garden. Beltran’s work deals with the balance between intuition and intention and the revealing nature of the improvisational process. Having studied music prior to her visual arts education, she works within the intersection of sound, harmonic and rhythmic systems and the realm of painting, drawing and sculpture. Once the work is completed, the artist assigns a tempo to each piece manifested through the use of individual metronomes. An arrangemnt of paintings then become an improvosational percussive experience.
Yusimy Lara is a Cuban-born artist working and living in Miami, Florida. After completing an Associate in Arts at MDC, she received a BFA degree from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. Lara’s work has been exhibited in different venues in the Miami area, including the Martin and Pat Fine Center for the Arts, Wynwood Art District, and Kampong Botanical Garden. Her sculptures won an Honorable Mention at the “Quest for Peace” student show in 2015 and were featured in the 2016 Edition of the Arts & Literature Magazine, MIAMBIANCE. She was the recipient of the 2016 Outstanding Art Student Academic Achievement Award, from Miami Dade College, Kendall Campus, and the 2019 class Valedictorian at NWSA. Her current artistic practice explores the visual effects of natural phenomena and its relation to humanity and all living things. Yusimy Lara’s work is a visual exploration of ideas about connectivity and interdependence between the man-made and nature. Her sculptural assemblages of organic and inorganic materials reference synergistic interactions between living things and their environment. Lara is also interested in addressing time-based natural processes such as erosion, decomposition, and sedimentation. Her amorphous creations symbolize organism-habitat bonds and invite the viewer to reflect on abstract subjects such as matter transformation and provenance.
Born in Miami 1993, Patrick Oleson is a South-Floridian visual artist with Norwegian and Midwestern roots. He received a BFA degree from New World School of the Arts with a primary focus on painting. He currently has a studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex. Oleson has previously exhibited works in various shows including: “New World North West” at the African Heritage Cultural Arts center (2017), “Etcetera” at Mana contemporary spaces (2019) in downtown Miami, and “Where the Land is free” at Bakehouse Art Complex (2019) in Wynwood. Patrick Oleson’s work is informed by architectural experiences, encounters, unusual occurrences and the reality of Miami’s urban environment. Evoking a sense of place while utilizing a wide array of media, Oleson’s explosive marks, colorful shapes and repeated patterns create a proliferation of positive and negative spaces. The final outcome is a vivid abstract composition that references the metropolitan landscape.
