The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University (FIU) presents Embracing Modernity: Venezuelan Geometric Abstraction, an exhibition which represents a historical overview of the origins of Venezuela’s abstract movement.  This exhibition, opening October 13, 2010 during Target Wednesday After Hours, focuses on the early development dating from the late 1940s through the 1970s.  Embracing Modernity: Venezuela Geometric Abstraction, curated by Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig and Maria Carlota Perez, features works by Omar Carreño, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Narciso Debourg, Gertrude Goldschmidt (Gego), Elsa Gramcko, Carlos Gonzalez Bogen, Gert Leufert, Mateo Manaure, Alfredo Maraver, Nedo, Ruben Nuñez, Alejandro Otero, Mercedes Pardo, Jesus Rafael Soto, Victor Valera, and Oswaldo Vigas, among others.  This exhibition celebrates their achievements and recognizes their role in one of the most important chapters of Venezuela’s art history.

Works on view will include Eugenio Espinoza’s Impenetrable, an alternative exhibition space consisting of a grid painted the same size as the floor area of the room in which it is exhibited. Instead of being hung on the wall, the canvas covers the entire exhibition area and is elevated a few inches above the floor: a physical barrier to access the area and allowing only visual access. Instead of including the viewer in the work following Kinetic art’s traditions, the artist limited the participant’s role and impelled him to reflect, not act. In addition, on view will be Jesus Soto’s Penetrable, Génesis’ whose scenario became a filled space as opposed to the Renaissance concept of an empty stage. Although it was not the first time Soto was creating a Penetrable for a ballet, it was the first time his piece filled the entire stage.  By performing inside the Penetrable, Génesis’ dancers took Soto’s dream of integrating the human body into the work of art to a new level. It is the first time these two works will be exhibited in the same space.

The selection of works from private collections and Foundations included in the exhibit document an important period of Venezuela’s art history which was instrumental in the development of Modern Art in the Americas. Paintings, sculptures and installations illustrate the development of Venezuelan Geometric Abstraction and Kinetic art, and introduce many artists who contributed to the movement in Venezuela, unknown to the American public.