O’REILLYBAILLY

VALELLASANCHEZ

ABE

PAINT CITYALUMNI EXHIBITION

April 5, 2013FIU College of Architecture + The Arts Miami Beach Urban Studios

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Department of Art + Art History

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Increasingly since WWII, the art world has been considered to be in a “post-medium condition.” The latter refers to the rise of installation art as well as the ideological abandonment of the modernist emphasis on the medium as the source of artistic significance.  This exhibition brings together work by five Miami-based contemporary artists that suggest that medium specificity—in this case painting—does not have to be abandoned wholesale, conflated with parochialism, or considered outmoded. 

The exhibition is loosely organized around the complex interplay between the “city”—broadly construed—as well as what is often referred to as its obverse, nature. Aramis O’ Reilly’s works depict highly stylized gardens—often seen as spaces of reflection or leisure in cities—and engender a meditative quality. John Bailly’s works are more cacophonous; he stacks diverse visual information upon each other—perhaps referencing the glut of information in contemporary urban life but through paradoxically referencing ancient or historically significant cities. Marcos Vallela’s works also include complex layering, but only of paint. The dynamism of his strokes are felt in the visible flourishes and smudging; his works are stripped of any signifiers but seem rife with affective energy that one might even connect with the hurly-burly of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Yolanda Sa’nchez references felt experience of space she’s inhabited, and puts the personal—often overshadowed by the built city—in her work front and center. Harume Abe’s paintings depict individual subjectivity as overwhelmed by cataclysmic events, such as earthquakes, and solitary homes seemingly engulfed by nature. In addition to their masterful use of paint, the artists have another thread connecting them—they all received their BFA or MFA degrees from FIU. Several have returned to teach at FIU and all exhibit nationally and internationally. PAINT CITY is part of the Department of Art + Art History’s interest in celebrating the work of our alumni of whom we are proud, while also contributing to dialogue around artistic practice—in this case the indefatigable and always contemporary medium of painting.

Pip Brant, Associate Professor – PaintingExhibition Curator

On behalf of the FIU Alumni Association, our Board of Directors and the more than 170,000 Golden Panthers we represent, it’s a privilege to support tonight’s Paint City Alumni Art Exhibition. We congratulate all of our alumni artists for being Worlds Ahead! While there are many outstanding alumni in a wide range of fields you truly personify the excellence of FIU and the influential role assumed by our graduates.  As a successful graduate, you are a vital part of our success. We believe that your accomplishments and those of the University

remain integrally related.  As our alumni continue to rise, FIU reaches ever-greater heights—and you are a part of that growth. Florida International University’s Alumni Association is a membership organization whose mission is to serve the community of FIU alumni, students, and friends by providing lifelong connections to FIU.  Membership in the Alumni Association  is a great way for supporters of the university to show school pride and establish a lifelong relationship with the university. All graduates,  students, parents, and friends of FIU can join the Alumni Association with either an annual or lifetime membership. Join our 19,000 and growing membership base today by visiting www.fiualumni.com or call 800-FIU-ALUM.   Sincerely,

Duane M. WilesFIUAA Lifetime MemberAssociate Vice President & Executive Director

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Harumi Abe MFA ’08

“The idea of home, as described in Gaston Bachelard’s writing, Poetics

of Space, has been my primary interest for a while. The home is not

just the physical construction in which we live, but more importantly,

is a state of mind. This series of works “134 days and 21 hours”

embodies some of my personal journey in search of “home.” Mother

Nature swirling around our house can be gentle and comforting, but

sometimes is bent on destruction, as in the March 11th tragedy in

Japan. We build houses with the hope of creating something new

but mostly reinvent the familiar places that comfort us.

My painting process reflects this phenomenon. I create an abstract ground and use the mark as the guild to

build the landscape for the home. I use semi-imaginary landscape as vehicle to represent the sublime and its

horror of the journey. Just as Albert Bierstadt painted American West as his Swiss Alps, every corner that I explore

partly becomes Japan, my homeland.”

Japanese native, Harumi Abe is an artist who has shown her art extensively in South Florida. At age 19 she

relocated herself to Miami to study Art. She holds MFA from Florida International University.

Harumi Abe’s inspiration is in everyday life. Her interests are personal and emotional. The main issues of

her art are not formally convoluted but rather simple observations of daliy life. She paints about being

Japanese and living in America, about being married to an American, living next to his American family

and away from her home in Japan. In a strange, round about way, it is about being an American.

Abe is a recipient of the 2008 South Florida Cultural Consortium for Visual and Media Artists and has

attended residency at Vermont Studio Center in 2010. She now makes her art in a homemade studio

in her backyard in Hollywood, FL.

Abe is an adjunct professor at Broward College and FIU and the gallery director of BC Fine Arts Gallery.

134 days and 21 hours: dragon’s island, 2011Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36" x 48"

134 days and 21 hours, 2011Oil on linen, 24" x 36"

134 days and 21 hours: island II, 2013Acrylic and oil on canvas, 52" x 48"

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John Bailly ’90

“John Bailly examines the relationship of place and time in his

many multi-layered compositions. The artist’s works often depict

cities derived from ancient maps and atlases that have either been

decisive in shaping world history, conquered culturally or militarily,

or were literally destroyed. His imagery is also derived from sources

such as religion, history, wars and science. The over-arching idea of

man’s self-annihilation is persistently evident in Bailly’s oeuvre.”

— George Kinghorn, Director and Chief Curator of the University of

Maine Museum of Art”

John Bailly is a French–American artist born in the UK. He received his MFA in painting and printmaking

from Yale University, and has been a Faculty Fellow of the Honors College at Florida International

University since 2004. His work explores the random nature of information and the manner in which we

process it. Utilizing juxtapositions of diverse data and multiple historical references, Bailly’s work intends

for us to reflect on the manner in which we conceptualize our realities. His works have been exhibited

at University of Maine Museum of Art, Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Art, John and Mable Ringling

Museum of Art, Texas State University, as well as other venues in the US. He was awarded the South

Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists and a State of Florida Individual Artist

Grant. In 2007, Bailly and critically acclaimed poet Richard Blanco produced a collaborative project, Place

of Mind. At FIU, Bailly founded the Aesthetics & Values project, an interdisciplinary curatorial program

that has earned national recognition. He has been awarded two Excellence in Teaching awards and a

European Union grant for course development.

Troy, 2010Oil and ink on canvas68" x 111"

Blood River 1838, 2009Mixed media on paper

60" x 88"

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Aramis O’Reilly ’89, MFA ’01

“My work has been an exercise in creating moments that describe

the play between the act of creation and the deeper forces of design

with purpose. My work represents nature, vaguely abstracted yet

certain in its design. My hope is to reach a state in each work where

the play between representation and abstraction offers a means to

express the exuberance of creation.”

Aramis O’Reilly was born in Havana, Cuba, raised in New Jersey, and is a professor of Art at New World

School of the Arts. O’Reilly received his MFA in painting from Florida International University and

attended both the University of Connecticut and Florida International University for his Bachelor of

Fine Arts Degree.

His work has been shown in various national and international exhibitions and is included in numerous

private and public collections. Besides his studio work he has been involved in several large scale

public art projects. Professor O’Reilly is also a recipient of the Cintas Fellowship Award.

Forms in the Garden No. 24, 2010Oil on canvas, 48" x 72"

Forms in the Garden No. 25, 2010Oil on canvas, 48" x 72"

Forms in the Garden No. 17, 2010Oil on canvas, 48" x 72"

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Anything Is Possible, 2012Oil on Arches paper, 22" x 30"

In the Heat of the Moment, 2012Oil on Arches paper, 22" x 30"

Yolanda Sánchez ’91

“My work is a gathering of my awareness of being and my experiences

of moving with and living among other beings, places and things. It

is my desire to become a more “finely tuned observer” and to live

more in the moment. Making art for me is a way of being present in

the world; it is an act of attention. And through this attention, I give

back and offer praise to the world. As such, my work is celebratory,

expanding, opening, and about offering pleasure.

Nature, in a very broad sense, is my source of inspiration but I am

not recreating the external world. In a non-intellectual way, I am

translating and projecting thoughts, emotions and sensations, into a moment of meeting, working with light,

color and mark and the materiality of the paint itself. I am holding a space for the viewer – to enter, to be there,

to have a moment of contemplation, and to finish the work, as it were. Subject and object are dissolved and

replaced by a presence – a “presence without form.” There is no story to be told, just simply a desire to awaken.”

Yolanda Sánchez was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to the United States in 1960. She obtained a

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1979, and has practiced and taught psychology at the graduate level for over

30 years. Prompted by a personal crisis in her mid-thirties, Yolanda decided to give voice to her creativity

and returned to school, obtaining a BFA and subsequently, an MFA from Yale University in painting. While at

Yale, she studied with the British painter, John Walker, who became a mentor, and with Andrew Forge and

David Pease, among others. Yolanda is a Fulbright scholar, completing her fellowship as a painter in Spain

after she graduated from Yale. Her Fulbright project focused on four Spanish painters: El Greco, Goya, Miró

and the abstract painter, Tàpies.

Currently, Yolanda lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida. She conducts “research” in the natural landscape

– largely influenced by color, texture and light - and paints in her studio. Her work is never a direct translation

of what she sees, but rather is an expression of a felt experience, a memory of or desire for the experience.

The paintings are also informed by a variety of sources: the physical world, literature – and particularly, poetry,

dance, calligraphy and Asian art. She works with oils on both paper and canvas.

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Marcos Valella ’04

“Valella’s four untitled canvases from 2012 are sullied monochromes

stretched over other paintings, bulging at painting’s limits while

dodging any definitive gesture. The crooked lines, mangled

surfaces, and muddied color fields fail to align themselves with

mathematic clarity, revealing a pronounced frustration with, yet

love for, medium-specificity.”

— Hunter Braithwaite , ARTFORUM

Marcos Valella lives and works in Miami.  He received a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing

from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Florida

International University, Miami, FL. He is the recipient of Here and There, Bass Museum of Art Grant

and Mildred Pelzer Lynch Fellowship. Marcos Valella’s work is included in numerous public and private

collections and he will be having an upcoming exhibition Grid’s World, Locust Projects, Miami, FL,

Sept 2013. He also has been featured in such exhibitions as Fish Scales, Michael Jon Gallery, Miami, FL,

Practices Remain, Regina Rex, New York, NY, Marcos Valella, Gallery Diet, Miami, FL, Series 5, Dimensions

Variable, Miami, FL, New Work Miami 2010, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, Paintings and Palettes,

Farside Gallery, Miami, FL, Present, Centro Cultural Español, Miami, FL, Painting’s Edge, Riverside Art

Museum, Riverside, CA, TIME+TEMP: Surveying of the Shifting Climate of Current Painting in South

Florida, Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL, and Pause, Blackbird Space, San Francisco,

CA. He has also been included in various publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker, The Miami

New Times, El Nuevo Herald, and Time Out New York.

Untitled, 2013Oil on canvas 12" x 16"

Untitled, 2013Oil on canvas 12" x 16"

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In Recognition of Our SponsorsFull-time FacultyJacek J. Kolasinski | Associate Professor | ChairpersonTori Arpad-Cotta | Associate Professor | Ceramics | InstallationPip Brant | Associate Professor | Fiber Art | Painting | BFA Thesis CoordinatorR.F. Buckley | Professor | SculptureWilliam Burke | Professor | Graduate Director | Associate ChairKathy Dambach | Professor | CeramicsCarol Damian | Professor | Art HistoryEduardo del Valle | Professor | PhotographyMirta Gomez | Professor | PhotographyDaniel Guernsey | Associate Professor | Art HistoryClive King | Professor Emeritus | DrawingWilliam Maguire | Professor | Photography | Undergraduate AdvisorJuan A. Martínez | Professor | Art HistoryMichael Namkung | Assistant Professor | DrawingAlpesh Kantilal Patel | Assistant Professor | Art History | Graduate DirectorMette Tommerup | Assistant Professor | PaintingConstantino Manuel Torres | Professor EmeritusBarbara Watts | Associate Professor | Art HistoryLidu Yi | Assistant Professor | Art History

Visiting FacultyDustin London | Visiting Instructor | PaintingGretchen Schnarnagl | Visiting Instructor | Drawing

Part-time FacultyHarumi Abe | Painting | OutreachStephanie Chancy | Art HistoryRoxana C. Cocina | Art HistoryRolando Dal Pezzo | PhotographyAnnette B. Fromm. | Coordinator, Museum StudiesIvania Guererro | DrawingBernadine Heller-Greenman | Art HistoryJoel Hollander | Art HistoryPeggy Levinson Nolan | Photography | Photo Lab ManagerHugo Moro | CeramicsLarry Newberry | PrintmakingLissette Schaeffler | PhotographyTom Scicluna | SculptureDonna Torres | Painting

Florida International UniversityDepartment of Art + Art HistoryMM Campus, VH 216DMiami, FL 33199305.348.2897

http://arts.fiu.edu

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

AlumniAssociation

Alumni Association

Alumni Association

Alumni Association

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

Architecture + The Arts

FIU College of Architecture + The Arts Miami Beach Urban Studios420 Lincoln Road, Suite 440, Miami Beach, FL 33199