‘Visual Meditations’ Being Exhibited
At ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries
 
Michelle Concepción’s abstract paintings are an enigma: abstract compositions that evoke diametrically different interpretations. Some viewers see microscopic organisms; others, asteroids; still others, aquatic plant forms.

“They are like visual meditations, dreamy shapes that appear to be floating in their space,” says Virginia Miller, owner and director of ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in downtown Coral Gables, where an exhibition of the Puerto Rican artist’s latest paintings opens from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 6th.

Contributing to the varying interpretations of Concepcion’s subject matter is their extraordinary illusion of texture.

“She has developed a method of painting that creates a realistic appearance of a rough, deep texture despite the flat surfaces of her canvases,” notes Miller. “It’s an amazing technique that simply can’t be appreciated from a photo or on a computer.”

According to art critic Peter Frank, “Each of us sees the myriad interplays of form, color, and shade that dominate Concepción’s paintings slightly differently, perhaps, but we all recognize that her forms float, often one across another.

“Some of us are certain these shapes, whatever they are, are in motion, while others among us see them fixed in the picture, even establishing patterned rhythms.”

For several years, Concepcion’s paintings have either been in black, gray and white or shades of blue on an all-black or white background. Some of her recent works burst into a palette of lush colors: pumpkin, lime, deep scarlet, cobalt blue.

The most common description of the colorful new works is “gorgeous,” Miller reports. Although the Coral Gables exhibition is Concepción’s first one-person show in the U.S., she has held a half-dozen solo shows in Germany and Spain and since 1988 has participated in 54 group exhibitions in leading museums, galleries and art fairs in the United States and Europe.

Located at 169 Madeira Ave. in the Coral Gables business district, ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A virtual tour of the Concepción exhibition and details of each work are on the gallery web site, virginiamiller.com

For more information, call 305-444-4493.