Michelle Concepción

Painting

Acrylic on Canvas

Fifteen-Year Selection of Works by Innovative Artist Michelle Concepción at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries

November 2019 – February 2020

Michelle Concepción, the artist who pioneered a technique that creates astonishing three-dimensional depth in flat, two-dimensional paintings, will exhibit “Chaos to Order” at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, Florida from November 2019 through February 2020.

“This exhibition is particularly interesting because it presents a selection of her work from different series over a 15 year period,” according to Virginia Miller, owner and director of greater Miami’s longest-established contemporary fine art gallery.

Contributing to the varying interpretations of Concepción’s subject matter is their illusion of depth and texture.

“She developed a method of painting that creates a realistic appearance of depth and texture despite the flat surfaces of her canvases or works on paper,” 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.”

Author and arts educator Thyrza Nichols Goodeve states that when she looks at the paintings of Michelle Concepción, “Coordinates disappear as each canvas suggests a universe in motion, where color and scale have no measure except the size of one’s imagination…. The interlocking layers of color, texture, paint, shape, and air seem to inhale and exhale into and out of one another, freed of mass or recognizable temporality.”

“Pearls,” the artist’s current series of abstractions on paper, include both biomorphic forms and circular shapes reminiscent of asteroids, with deeply dimensional picture planes. Her abstractions on canvas feature biomorphic forms, but tend to be looser than her paintings on paper, with luminous backgrounds enriched by underpainting.

Whether on canvas or paper, her abstractions, evocative of cellular forms or ancient asteroids, offer soft, dreamy shapes that appear to be floating in a bottomless abyss, visual meditations that invite the mind to wander among them.

In his review of one of the artist’s prior exhibitions at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, critic José Antonio Evora of El Nuevo Herald described Concepción’s paintings as an “indecipherable enigma,” adding that they are “so enveloping that one is able to be submerged in their bubbles.”

According to art historian Mayte Mari, “her paintings rely on impressions and illusions” that evoke perceptions by surfacing and disappearing. Michelle Concepción, Mari states, “seems to explore the interior of organic worlds and to make them visible – as if through a microscope” – in order to elicit a secret from their “glittering surface of endlessly changing forms.”

Born in Puerto Rico in 1970, Michelle Concepción received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also studied at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the College of Art & Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung), in Offenbach, Germany.

Concepción’s paintings have been exhibited since 1988 in dozens of important public and private galleries as well as in major art fairs in New York, Miami, Santa Fe, and Chicago as well as in Spain and Germany. At this time she has exhibitions scheduled in ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, Florida, and Galerie Arte Giani in Frankfurt, Germany.

“Chaos to Order” will be Concepción’s second one-person show at the gallery, which presented her first U.S. solo exhibition in 2008 and has included her work in six group exhibitions since 2005.

Her paintings are included in important private and public collections in Canada, China, Dubai, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

Now in its 46th year, ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries is located at 169 Madeira Avenue in the heart of the restaurant district in downtown Coral Gables, eight clocks north of Miracle Mile and just east of Ponce de Leon Boulevard. A virtual tour of the Concepción exhibition and details of each work will be placed on the gallery website, www.virginiamiller.com. For more information, call 305-444-4493.

Michelle Concepción

Solo Shows
2019 Chaos to Order, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami), Florida
2017 Logical Painting, Arte Giani, Frankfurt Germany
2013 Pearls, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2011 Movements, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2010 Vibrations, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2009 Spheres and Strings, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2008 Volver, Art/Space Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami)
2006 Hybrids, Galería Safia, Barcelona
Hybrids, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2005 Neue Bilder, Gästehaus der Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt
2004 Paisajes Evaporados, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2003 Vom Kleinen und Großen, Galerie Alexei Russak, Frankfurt
2001 Negro, Blanco y Rojo, Galería Principal Sombrerers, Barcelona
1999 Organische Erzählungen, ML 44 Ausstellungsraum, Frankfurt

Group Shows
2019 Lieblingsstücke, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2019 Mikrokosmos und Transparenter Raum, Galerie Kunstforum, Seligenstadt, Germany
2018 Sehnsucht, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2014 20 Jahre Arte Giani, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2012 Color, Form, Space, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami, Florida
2011 Tardor D’art 2011 On-Off, Arts Santa Mónica / Galería Safia, Barcelona
Terra Incognita,Altana Galerie, Dresden
2010 Life through Inner-Self Contemplation, State of the Arts Gallery, Hong Kong
16 years Arte Giani, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
2009 Valoarte – 7th Edition, Galería Nacional, San Jose, Costa Rica
2008 Body of Water, West Cork Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
2007 Schwarz, Arte Giani, Frankfurt
Panorama Latinoamericano, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
Latin American Invitational, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
L’illa D’art 07, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2006 Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach California
L’illa D’art 06, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2005 Latin American Visions, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
Young Latin Americans, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
Latin American Invitational, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
L’illa D’art 05, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2004 Latin American Invitational, ArtSpace/ Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami
L’illa D’art 04, Galería Safia, Barcelona
Pintura Ultima, Galería Sicart, Vilafranca del Penedés, Barcelona
El Submundo de la Piel, BAC, Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo en Barcelona
2003 Beautiful Menace, BAC, Centro Cultural Contemporáneo de Barcelona
Soledades, Galería Hartman, Barcelona
10 Años de Vida, La Santa, Barcelona
L’illa D’art 03, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2002 Compact Art Collection #09, Rrose Selavy, Barcelona
L’illa D’art 02, Galería Safia, Barcelona
2001 L’illa D’art 01, Galería Safia, Barcelona
Kunstbetrieb stellt aus, ML 44 Ausstellungsraum, Frankfurt
Homage to Andy Bueso, Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art Miami
Galería Sienna, Menorca, Spain
2000 L’illa D’art 2000, Galería Safia, Barcelona
1998 Galerie Prestel, Frankfurt
1997 Euroamerica Galleries, New York
Rundgang 97, HFG Offenbach
1996 Faces Art Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
1995 International Women’s Show, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami
Tributo a la Herencia Hispana , Museum of Hispanic & Latin American Art, Miami
Eye on up and Coming Puerto Rican Artists, Ami-Rich Art Gallery, Miami
Eight Latin American Artists, Carib Art Gallery, New York
Santa Fe International Academy of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 Herencia Hispana en America, Florida Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art
Fresh Young Artists at 55 Mercer, 55 Mercer Gallery, New York
1993 Contemporary Spanish & Latin American Art, Museum of Hispanic & Latin American Art, Miami
Bachelors of Fine Arts Exhibit, Chicago
1991 Roots of Inner Space, South Shore Cultural Center Gallery, Chicago
2nd Annual State of the Art Exhibition, South Florida Art Center Exhibiting Space Miami
1990 New Works, Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center Chicago
Windows to the Imagination, Gallery 2 Chicago
Open Walls, Gallery 1633 Chicago
1988 Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago
Schafler Art Gallery, New York

Fairs
Art al Hotel 03
Art Frankfurt 01, Art Frankfurt 03
Affordable Art Fair, New York 03
Arteamericas Miami 06
Bridge Art Fair Miami 06, Bridge Art Fair Miami 08
Fira Internacional d’Art de Barcelona 96
Frankfurter Buchmesse 95
INDEX Dubai – Arab Emirates
Kunst 05 Zurich, Kunst 06 Zurich, Kunst 07 Zurich, Kunst 10 Zurich, Kunst 11 Zurich, Kunst 12 Zurich
Liste Köln 06

Collections
Colección Sanahuja, Barcelona, Spain
International Corporate Art, Norway
Sammlung Ernst Basler + Partner, Zurich, Switzerland
Das Land Hessen, Wiesbaden, Germany
St. Onge Steward Johnston & Reens, LLC, Stamford, Connecticut
Vista Farms, Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico
Hyatt Regency, Shenzhen, China
Westin, Xiamen, China
Roche Diagnostics, Dubai
Roche Diagnostics, Dubai
Park Hyatt Sanya Bay, China
International Corporate Art, Miami Florida, USA
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Reviews
Offenbach Post, Ein Farb-Laboratorium „Mikrokosmos und Transparenter Raum“, 14.01.2019
The Brooklyn Rail, “The Metaphysical Fairyland of Michelle Concepción”, 7.02.2018
Offenbach Post, „Farben aus dem Kunstlabor“ Reinhold Gries, 25.07.2017
La Vanguardia, “Michelle Concepción exposa pintures abstractes que suggereixen canvis” Juan Bufill, Barcelona, September 2011
Frankfurter Rundschau, “Wimmelnde Einzeller” Madelaine Reckmann, May 2011
Travel & Leisure, Barcelona, March 2, 2012
Art News, “Five Abstract Visions” Margery Gordon, January 1, 2010
El Nuevo Herald, “Bisiones Abstractas” Janet Batet, December 11, 2009
El Nuevo Herald, “Abstracciones suspendidas,” Janet Batet, September 2008
Winwood Art Magazine,”Visual Meditations” Vol 1 No. 10, June 2008
Papers D’art, “La pintura com a explosió de energia,” Ramon Casalé Barcelona , November.06
Die Welt, “Panorama, ” Uwe Wittstock, Frankfurt, July 16, 2006
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “In der Schwebe, ” Christa von Helmolt, Frankfurt, July 31, 2006
El Nuevo Herald, “Caras Nuevas,” José Antonio Évora, June 26, 2005
La Vanguardia, “Paisajes evaporados y luz de piedra lunar,” Juan Bufill, Barcelona June 20, 2004
Die Welt, “Michelle Concepción in der Galerie Russak in Frankfurt.” Uwe Wittstock, January 10, 2004
Die Welt, “Die Art Frankfurt schreitet siegreich voran,” Gerhard Charles Rump, Frankfurt May 3, 2003
La Vanguardia, “En soledad y en el color,” Juan Bufill, Barcelona, May 25, 2003
Frankfurter Rundschau, “Die Welt im Wohnzimmer,” Frankfurt, Annik Aicher, November 28, 2002
Movín Barcelona, “Para una Convivencia Pacífica,” Barcelona, November 2002
La Vanguardia, “Una Nueva Corriente,” Juan Bufill, Barcelona, November 3, 2002
Fankfurter Rundschau, “Ungenierte greifen auch mal in den Privatkühlschrank,” Annik Aicher Dec. 6, 2001
Guía del Ocio, “Negro, Rojo y Blanco, Perspectivas Cruzadas,” Jaume Vidal, Barcelona October 2001
El País, “Colors de Temporada,” Jaume Vidal, Barcelona, October 6, 2001
Osmus, “Pintando el caribe en los bosques de Alemania,” Miami Florida, April 1996