Beatriz Milhazes: Jardim Botânico

The first major U.S. survey of works by Brazilian abstract artist Beatriz Milhazes will be on view through January 11, 2015 at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).

Beatriz Milhazes: Jardim Botânico features over 40 large-scale paintings, collages, and screenprints from the past 25 years of her career. The exhibition traces the development of her distinct painting style, which is characterized by her use of bold colors, the layering of geometric and decorative forms, and motifs from a broad range of art historical movements, including Colonial Baroque, European Modernism, and North American Pop Art. Jardim Botânico will feature works never before seen in the United States, as well as three new paintings made specifically for PAMM’s presentation. The exhibition highlights Milhazes’s one-of-a-kind artistic process in which she collages with paint to explore movement and materiality.

The exhibition’s title, Jardim Botânico, references both the neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, home to her studio, and the dichotomy in Milhazes’s work between structure and rational order and sensuality, expression, and emotion. Organized by PAMM Chief Curator Tobias Ostrander, the exhibition follows a loose chronological order, with sequential sections focused around formal investigations.

Born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Beatriz Milhazes lives and works in the city. Known for her colorful, kaleidoscopic collages, prints, paintings, and installations, Milhazes is inspired by Latin American and European traditions. The reoccurring arabesque motifs present in her work are inspired by Brazilian lacework, carnival decoration, music, and Colonial baroque architecture. The balance of harmony and dissonance in her work references work by Tarsila do Amaral, Oswald de Andrade, Henri Matisse, Vassily Kandinsky, and Robert Delaunay. Milhazes has exhibited around the world, and her work can be found at the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia, Madrid, Spain; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; and the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.