THE ARMORY SHOW

Written by Antonio Ascaso on August 20, 2021. Posted in

JESÚS SOTO AND VÍCTOR VALERA
The Armory Show | Booth #402
September 9-12, 2021
thearmoryshow.com

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The Ascaso Gallery Miami’s proposal for the Armory Show 2021 is based on the artwork of two globally recognized and prestigious artists: Jesús Soto (1923-2005) and Víctor Valera (1927-2013). Through their contribution and innovations, considered and analyzed by other creators, these two Venezuelan artists have been considered pioneers in the creative processes of geometric and kinetic abstract art by proposing a new understanding of visual compositions, as well as thematic and conceptual narratives into the plastic arts developed since the mid-twentieth century.

The kinetic artwork of Jesús Soto reflects the changes that the course of the interpretation of the reality through the art in the fifties demanded: to transform the form into a “non-form”, proposed as a notion of energy, space, and time, by combining the formalist logic with the mystery of creation. Breaking with the canonical schemes of art, Soto creates different series of kinetic structures with virtual movement, from “Las Escrituras” to “Los Penetrables”. For him the immaterial is the sensitive reality of the universe, and art is his knowledge as a framework that reaches the absolute within pure virtuality, while Victor Valera’s work does so from sensitive abstraction. Without starting from the rigid morphologies of assembled and welded metal, Valera proposes alloys between hard and organic geometry, straight planes are blended with organic undulations, where the value of flat and bright color adds a playful character that induces the spectator to move around it. Both proposals suggest “movement”, real or virtual, as a fundamental formal element.

Bélgica Rodriguez, PhD, Art Critic, and researcher specialized in Latin American Art

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Jesús Rafael Soto
Naranja inferior, 2003
Paint on wood and metal
83 x 82 x 17 cm
32.6 x 32.6 x 6.6 in.

Víctor Valera
Umbria, 1975
Polychromed wood and vinyl
68 x 68 x 10 cm
26.7 x 26.7 x 3.9 in.