Latin American Rockers brings together artists from South America and Mexico. Each artist was invited by the curator to reflect on their cultural roots and to explore the spirit of rebellion, freedom, and creativity that characterizes Latin American culture. The concept behind the exhibit centers on the idea that, just as music is a universal language, art also transcends borders and creates a dialogue among diverse Latin American cultures. The exhibition showcases a heterogeneous array of artistic forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, and multimedia installations, ensuring a broad representation of artistic expressions within the Latin American context. This interdisciplinary dialogue highlights the evolution of art south of the United States, anchoring the exhibition in the complex pathways of contemporary creativity, ever-evolving and in a constant state of flux.
The exhibition features iconic works by Colombian artists Andres Bardales and William Germán Alonso; Venezuelan artists Ileana Rincón-Cañas, Jorge Salas, and Teresa Cabello; Argentine artists Alejandra Yunis and Claudia Groll; Mexican artist Mónica Czukerberg; Brazilian artist Fernanda Froes; and Chilean artist Clara Johnson.
This exhibition perfectly represents our Art in the Community program, which aims to unite Latin American artists in the celebration of their shared cultural experiences while recognizing their individual journeys. This celebration of culture and creativity promotes intercultural understanding and appreciation, fostering a sense of pride and identity among Latin American artists and audiences. It is an event that will leave a lasting impression on art lovers who attended the inauguration or visited the exhibition space afterward, likely sparking thoughtful debates about the diversity and unity of South America. Ultimately, it will undoubtedly contribute to the enrichment of the local artistic landscape.
Twenty-two magnificent artworks by the ten previously mentioned artists are exhibited in the Aldo Menéndez Hall at the MoCAA. Below is the list of their details:
His work encompasses painting and its various techniques: oil, watercolor, mixed media, and acrylic. Drawing and printmaking are also fundamental aspects of his practice. Transparency, contrast, layering, and chromatic richness are some of the elements that define his style. Regarding themes, symbols, animals, and death are the three most recurrent. From these, he creates images structured within geometrization, stylization, and transparency. He generates a visual experience that invites the viewer to enter a suggestive labyrinth where symbolism and abstraction play.As a Latin American artist, he perceives his reality immersed in the paradoxes that define Latin identity, granting his work an unmistakable visual and chromatic richness. His painting, in his own words, results from interpreting these realities as a Colombian with deep roots, solid criteria, and multiple existential concerns. His entire body of work reflects a complex social and cultural environment where the contradiction between celebration and death coexists in a relative and ambiguous peace.
Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and Judy and Punch
Papier-mâché, Fabric and Paint | 27 Inches approximately (each)
His work involves using the ancient paper-folding technique known as origami as the foundation for his pieces. The use of lines, repetition, geometric shapes, and patterns gives his work a unique and structural quality. Bordalás is convinced that the art of paper folding possesses a high spirituality, and in a world often surrounded by chaos, he enters a meditative state while transforming paper into whimsical forms. For this reason, the process is just as important as the final product. Integrating origami into his art has allowed him to question the nature of time. The repetitive actions often immerse him in a spiritual trance, grounding him and helping him find mental peace. In this state, there is no past or future; it is about his relationship with the present moment. This state provides him with a strong self-awareness and allows him to incorporate the diverse influences of his origins, culture, and life experiences into his work.
Another cardinal component of his work is the materials. Each type of paper has unique characteristics, and each fold records history differently. Vellum, for example, captures even the subtlest movements, and its translucency gives the material a minimalistic and pure impression. He also incorporates recycled paper, newspapers, and old encyclopedias into his compositions. Reusing these papers breathes new life into these almost archaic sources of information. In an increasingly digital age, printed materials are becoming obsolete. By transforming them, they gain new relevance without losing their informative richness. Additionally, he has been studying and incorporating elements of sacred and pre-Columbian geometry. These ancient cultures fascinate him and allow him to express elements of ancestral cultures in contemporary language, preserving their particular type of knowledge while adding depth to his work in general.
Camaleón (Chameleon), 2021
Mixed Media | 48 x 24 x 3 Inches
Cabello's work revolves around migration and adaptation. It explores the nostalgia of what was once whole and the process of accepting the new. Like many immigrants, she left behind her roots, traditions, loved ones, and belongings to reinvent herself in a new landscape. She acknowledges being a broken being and accepts this as a likely permanent state. For her, memories and feelings are scattered fragments trying to fit into this new reality, seeking communication, recognition, and acceptance.
She is a figurative sculptor, proposing fragments of human figures framed in an indeterminate space and time. These are not broken or loose pieces seeking to unite to complete a whole. Each one is presented as an individual and complete unit, like a short story in the anthology of life. She may indeed be broken, but in a way, all immigrants share the same fate, and the only option is to pick up the pieces and create something new and undeniably beautiful with them.
Al norte del sur, 2024
Fiberglass | 21 x 8 x 22 Inches
Monica Czukerberg is a visual artist primarily focused on abstract painting, sculpture, mixed media, and photography. Her process involves searching and experimenting with materials, textures, and shapes. She constantly seeks techniques and materials that allow her to express her unique aesthetic universe. She describes her style as 'abstract realism,' characterized by capturing elements of nature and repositioning them in the undefined settings that result from her various reflections and investigations. She draws inspiration from the Magic Towns of Mexico and nature, appreciating the magical grandeur that surrounds her: the landscapes, lights and shadows, the depth of the oceans, the fresh air of the forests, the green of the leaves, and the vibrant tones of the flowers.
As both an architect and an artist, she aims to convey balance through a blend of geometric and organic shapes. With abstract painting and sculpture, she often sets aside the rules imposed by reality to show different ways of expressing emotions, whether it be a word or any other subject or theme. She aspires to foster a communion between nature and the viewer, inviting them to visit her abstract landscapes, hoping that the experience will transport them to a magical corner, making them feel immersed in an infinite and majestic universe.
Vibrando en Color (Vibrating in Color)
Mixed Media on Canvas | 30 x 40 x 1½ Inches
Where everything happens, 2024
Mixed Media on Canvas | 36 x 36 x 1½ Inches
From the Pueblos Mágicos (Magical Towns) Series
Untitled, 2024
Mixed Media on Canvas
10¾ x 13¾ x ¾ Inches
From the Pueblos Mágicos (Magical Towns) Series
Untitled, 2024
Mixed Media on Canvas
19 x 12 x ¾ Inches
Her artistic practice revolves around the connections between ecology and colonization, concepts that are deeply intertwined. Her works stem from the observation of two branches of biology—zoology and botany—profoundly affected by human environmental activities dating back to the beginning of the colonial period.
She uses representations of animals and plants to explore their behavior and transformations. She constructs visual narratives—through drawing or a combination of media, including painting, fiber, printmaking, text, and organic dyes—that ultimately mirror the complex relationship between their kingdoms and our species. This process intersects with other themes related to colonialism and identity. Ultimately, her formal exploration becomes a call to engage attentively with plants and insects, considering environmental preservation an urgent contemporary anthropological necessity. Having been born in a country that is home to the Amazon, her research, arising at the intersection of art, science, and history, aims to recover the natural and cultural heritage of the Americas as a single continent.
Utopía Botánica II (Botanical Utopia), 2023
Mixed Media | 24½ x 23½ Inches
Core, 2023
Mixed Media | 24 Inches
As a young girl Ms. Groll’s passions for colors and textures were the beginning of a new conversation. She discovered right away that she could communicate better through her hands than with words. Her career in dental school taught her a precise manual dexterity which later translated to her natural ability to feel the canvas as her sole medium. Giving her patients a sought-after bight smile again was accomplished as rarely seen with utomost professional care. Yet being a physician was not enough. Her award-winning art has a unique voice. Each pioece will captivate the audience and allow them to bond and weave their own story. Most viewers are drawin in and begin to identify with a particular past personal experience which weaves itself from the deepths of the images. Ms. Groll strives to create that special connection with each of her soulful pieces.
As a mere beginner her art takes off in the naif style and she allows other styles to emerge. Textures play a huge role in her pieces alluring the viewer further to feel that interpersonal connection. Claudia’s need to tell her true stories though her pieces brought out her realism style which provided a way of self-expression and further evoked the dialogue. Still this was not yet quite the way her art needed to reach hout. Ms. Groll began infusing her own personal belingings in her canvases. Utilizing fabrics that had once been in touch with her own skin was a way to give further of herself, her smell her very soul. Be it through the use of her own worn jeans to the use of the fabric that once hung as her drapes or torn leather pieces from her jackets applied onto the canvas and all casting a magic spell weaving that personal connection between the viewer and the artist soul.
Claudia’s art language has evolved from the deep roots of Artentina’s vast landscape of La Pampa to her newfound inner light which is seen in her use of aluminum sheets as canvas. This new, ethereal luminous medium brings a whole new dimension to her self expression. This new media bridges both past and future while maintaining the warmth and integrity of her rustic roots.
Fortaleza (Strength), 2024
Oil on Canvas | 60 x 48 x 1½ Inches
Brisa (Breeze), 2024
Oil on Canvas | 30 x 40 x 1½ Inches
Clara Johnson's work aspires to be a dialogue between her past and present, where the gentle curves of her childhood in the hills of Valparaiso come to life. Inspired by the wind, clouds, and sea, she translates these experiences into her printmaking. She predominantly works with aluminum plates, treating them to create intricate lines, planes, shadows, and chiaroscuro. The quality of the worked plate is crucial for achieving a successful print on paper. Each piece involves a meticulous process of inking, cleaning, and pressing, allowing for experimentation with colors and their combinations. Thus, in her art, movement and gentle curves are ever-present, reflecting the fluidity of life and nature. She seeks to capture the essence of her experiences and share them in a vivid and dynamic form.
Columna (column) I, II & II, 2013
Fabriano Rosaspina Paper. Plate worked in Sugar and inked in Black.
Application of black Gauze. Blue Ink applied with a roller through cut-outs on printing Paper
20½ x 15 Inches
Ileana Rincón-Cañas (1975) was born in Venezuela and there she studied Advertising and Marketing. Later, she completed a Master’s Degree in 3D Animation in Spain. She currently lives in the United States, and she has worked as a motion graphic designer and as a 3D artist for more than 20 years, hence her expertise and thoroughness in digital image post-production. Regarding the magical and fantastic atmosphere of her images, she declares: “My photographs are an inverted reality and a reverse of the logic that does not come from my dreams as in surrealism, but are born in my imagination”. Her aesthetic has a certain pictorial configuration and, especially, the artist recognizes a powerful artistic influence from painters such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte.
Lágrimas Heladas del Cosmos (Frozen Tears of the Cosmos) II
Giclée Printed Canvas | 40 x 30 x ¾ Inches
1/1
Lágrimas Heladas del Cosmos (Frozen Tears of the Cosmos) I
Giclée Printed Canvas | 40 x 30 x ¾ Inches
1/1
Video Installation
Lágrimas Heladas del cosmos (Frozen Tears of the Cosmos), 2023
Jorge Enrique Salas Mora, born in 1954 in La Grita, Táchira, Venezuela, is a renowned sculptor. Initially studying architecture and painting at Universidad Central de Venezuela, he later focused on sculpture, studying marble carving in Italy. Influenced by Constructivism, his series 'Tuy Yo Escrituras sin Tiempo' blends ancestral and contemporary symbols. His work is part of prestigious collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas and the Museum of Latin American Art in California. He is represented by Ascaso Gallery in Miami.
From the Escrituras sin tiempo (Timeless Writings) Series
Memoria rítmica (Rhythmic Memory), 2019
Carved Wood | 40 x 67½ x 2½ Inches
Alejandra Yunis's most recent work focuses on nature and the urgent issue of deforestation. Through botanical elements, she aims to raise awareness about the devastating consequences of losing our forests. Each piece reflects her commitment to the environment, as she even donates to plant a tree for every artwork sold. Her art is a blend of cultural influences and the rich colors of Latin America, supported by the precision and detail of her training as an architect. Alejandra Yunis, born in Argentina, holds a degree in architecture and has studied painting and art history in Argentina, Holland, and Spain. With 20 years of international experience as an architect in multiple countries, she established herself as an independent architect and visual artist in Key Biscayne, Florida, in 2018.
Nude, 2024
Mixed media on canvas | 60 x 24 x ¾ Inches
This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor, and the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.
