On Monday, May 3rd, members of the Board of Directors of the Kendall Art Center visited the University of Miami's ceramic studios. The purpose of the visit was to acquaint themselves with the workspace of the esteemed ceramic artist Carlos Enrique Prado and to appreciate the finalization process of the artworks slated for exhibition in two weeks at the KAC's permanent gallery. This exhibition is part of the newly established SOFLO New Artists program, a collaboration with the University of Miami's Department of Ceramics and Fine Arts. The program aims to provide graduating Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students with the opportunity to showcase their finest works and to step into the art world with exhibition and curatorial experience. Alongside Professor Prado's Tautologies exhibition, the graduate ceramic students Anthony Magnetti, Kim Bauldree, Sepideh Kalani, and Elizabeth Guignino will present their work, each offering a distinct and unique perspective on the art of ceramics in the Circle of Influence.
The Kendall Art Center is proud to host the first solo exhibition in its venue by the renowned artist and professor Carlos E. Prado. Tautologies brings together a series of clay sculptures created using modeling software and a 3D clay printer, showcasing the impressive results of this cutting-edge technology. The title, "Tautologies," reflects the connection between the term's meaning and how the content of the pieces unfolds. The collection, primarily consisting of the Recycling Piles series, features assemblies of repeated copies of famous sculptures, transformed into modular sections, patterns, and motifs as part of new compositions in the form of columns, stacks, and piles. These repetitive arrangements, much like tautologies in our language, can be interpreted as "statements that are inherently redundant" or as "circular arguments, that is, one that begins by assuming what it seeks to prove."
The human figure has always been central to Carlos Prado's artistic exploration, whether through the referencing of iconic ancient figurative sculptures or the recycling of representations of the human figure from various art history periods, with a particular focus on the Greco-Roman legacy. In his recent sculptures, the quoting process has been emphasized, becoming an integral part of the content. Prado, to some extent, challenges the Western aesthetic paradigm by repurposing historical symbols of power stripped of their original meaning. Thus, iconic images intended to stand on a pedestal have become pedestals themselves in his work.
CARLOS ENRIQUE PRADO HERRERA
Carlos Enrique Prado Herrera is currently lecturer at the University of Miami, where he teaches different ceramic courses and the study of the human figure in clay. As an artist, his works are primarily ceramic sculptures with a strong presence of the figure, however, his full body of work also includes sculpture, installations, drawings, computer-generated images, and public art. He recently completed a major public sculpture for Miami-Dade County.
Before joining the faculty of the University of Miami, Prado taught at the University of the Arts of Cuba, former Superior Institute of Art, where he was also chair of the sculpture department at the School of Visual Arts. Besides, Prado has been a guest lecturer at several universities in the United States, such as Midwestern State University, Arizona State University, University of Mary Washington and the University of Southern California, among others.
His works are part of the collection of several museums, among them are the Museo Nacional de la Cerámica de Cuba and the ASU Art Museum - Ceramics Research Center. Several private collectors in Europe and America also collect Prado’s works. He has won awards at the Biennale of Ceramics in Havana, Cuba, and Triennale of Ceramics, Santo Domingo, Dominic Republic, among others.
