Unrealism

Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian present an exhibition of new figurative painting and sculpture in the Miami Design District.

UNREALISM celebrates the recent revival of interest in figurative painting and sculpture. The exhibition features the work of more than fifty of the most original and compelling artists working in figuration from the 1980s to the present. The title points to the challenge of portraying contemporary reality where the real is often confused with the unreal. The exhibition focuses on an emergent wave of painters and sculptors who are exploring new approaches to figurative imagery. In doing so, they are also generating renewed interest in innovative precursors.

Figuration is one of the oldest art forms, but it is continually evolving, reflecting contemporary concepts of human identity. Figurative art responds to technical innovations like printing, photography and digital reproduction, but the ancient craft of rendering the figure renews itself with each subsequent generation. The artists featured in UNREALISM work within the figurative canon without becoming academic. They are able to make a venerable tradition in art completely of our time.

UNREALISM will take place over four floors around the atrium of The Moore Building, a 1921 Art Deco-style, former furniture showroom that is also the current home of the ICA Miami.

Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian have been colleagues since 1979 and have worked with many of the same artists. UNREALISM is their first collaboration. In October of this year, Gagosian Gallery opened its fifteenth location in Mayfair, London. Jeffrey Deitch’s most recent curatorial project is “The Extreme Present”, one of the inaugural exhibitions for the new Aishti Foundation in Beirut.

The Miami Design District, developed by Craig Robins in partnership with L Real Estate, is a neighborhood dedicated to innovative fashion, design, art, architecture and dining. It features distinctive architectural projects by Sou Fujimoto, Aranda/Lasch, Johnson Marklee and other leading young architects; and public commissions of art and design by John Baldessari, Buckminster Fuller, Zaha Hadid and Marc Newson.