Of all the important private art collections in Miami -- and there are many -- the Rubell Family Collection has long been one of the biggest and the best known. Founded by Don and Mera Rubell and today including son Jason in the collecting activities, the sprawling, 45,000-square-foot exhibition space was a Wynwood pioneer when it opened in 1993.
Thanks to the Rubells, Miamians have been exposed to some spectacular, world-class art that we otherwise might have missed. One of the best examples of this was the superb 30 Americans show that opened for Art Basel Miami Beach in 2009, which highlighted the works of 30 African-American artists, both emerging and established, in a unique, cohesive, informative survey. Those 30 moved on to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., where the president visited it, and opened on March 16 at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Va.
This year’s exhibit, American Exuberance, is much larger, and maybe as a consequence not as tight in its delivery and thematic thread, intended to convey the changing American condition over several decades. Many of the 190 artworks from 64 artists — both Americans and foreigners who live here — are recent acquisitions to the collection, with 40 of them made in 2011 alone. Rather than trying to follow the rather broad concept, it may be most worthwhile to concentrate on these new works, as where the Rubells go in collecting, others soon follow.
Another way to divvy up this large show would be to tour it under the theme “The Exuberance of Los Angeles Art,” as almost every other work seems to have been made by an artist who calls that West Coast hotspot home. (In fact, another great show of the Rubells from several years ago, called Red Eye, was all about L.A. artists.)
One of those is Richard Jackson, who has created the wild and colorful introductory installations to the exhibit. He has splashed the walls, floor — and in a great touch, even the drinking fountain — in the first room with bright yellow paint, while covering other surfaces with canvases in similarly vibrant primary colors. In the middle is a stainless steel sculpture, called “Upside Down Duck General,” which is, indeed, an upside-down duck.
In a second room, the color and light are outrageously intense; orange light floods in from windows and a door to a deep blue room, in which a mannequin woman, also drenched and dripping in blue, sits at a desk. Jackson made both these rooms for the show, and they make an immediate, sensational impression.
One room is dedicated to popular L.A. artist Sterling Ruby, who has four, gigantic spray-painted canvases, abstractions that nonetheless evoke layers of sediment, or horizons, in their horizontal composition. Gigantic is not an exaggeration; standing in front of one of these is simply engulfing.
It is nice to stumble (although hopefully not literally) across the work from Mike Kelley, a member of the influential Cal Arts group that includes another major player in this exhibit, John Baldessari. Kelley’s piece consists of some colorful throw rugs and found stuffed animals. In a death that shocked the arts world, Kelley took his life this past Feb. 1. Nearby is sculptural installation from one of L.A.’s most controversial inhabitants, a familiar piece from Paul McCarthy. It’s of a father, a boy and a goat, and the disquieting proximity of the boy behind the goat gives it a McCarthy signature.
via miamiherald.com
