Stunning, small paintings make a dreamy suite – Knight Foundation
Arts

Stunning, small paintings make a dreamy suite

A blurring painting from Odalis Valdivieso.

With small, delicate paintings, photocopies and photographs, Odalis Valdivieso has created a deceptively large, swirling environment at the Museum of Art + Design, where more than 70 of her works are hung around the main gallery for her solo exhibit, “Arrhrythmic Suite.”

Suite is a nice term, as there is movement and flow, like a musical score, to the viewing experience. All the pieces, of fairly similar size, are hung at the same level across the four walls, with several popping up on the columns in the middle of the sprawling room. This space is not an easy one to work with – it can (and has) swallow up the artwork if not conceived and installed in the right way. Smaller works like these could have been victims, and surprisingly are not.

A painting seeming to flow from Valdivieso.

A painting seeming to flow from Valdivieso.

Valdivieso uses rich, gorgeous colors in the paintings, which have a vertical and horizontal pull from the brush strokes. The works are abstract, but you can make out objects and shapes, even architectural elements if you want. They are blurred, with images coming in and out of focus as you are pulled along, almost as though dragged by a wave. These paintings are interrupted every once in a while with a photocopy, or what she labels “posters” – larger pieces hung asymmetrically, with cut-out numbers on them. It’s a dreamy experience as you move with the pieces from wall to wall in subdued lighting, which helps in making the paintings ethereal. From a wall or standing in the middle, you can see the works reflected in the shiny floor – another example of how to use this space to its best effect.

Shapes come in and out of focus.

Shapes come in and out of focus.

The Venezuela native who has made Miami home for the last 15 years has created her own version of a dreamy abstraction, but rarely has she used so much stunning color. As a whole installation, “Suite” is an immersive environment, but the individual works also contain their own worlds, ones that could stand alone and still create that feeling of moving in and out of a not-quite-formed realm.

“Arrhrythmic Suite” runs through May 3 at the Museum of Art + Design at Miami Dade College, 600 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-237-7700; www.mdcmoad.org.