![](https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Middle-Perspective-1-400x269_1.jpg?w=400)
Three diverse artists make for one powerful show
Laddie John Dill installation center; Cayetano Ferrer’s carpet beneath; Michael Hunter’s paintings on walls.
The Michael Jon Gallery, one of only two Miami galleries represented in Art Basel Miami Beach this year, has moved into new space in the Little Haiti neighborhood. It’s on a side street off of N.E. Second Avenue, across from a functioning warehouse, with plenty of parking – how refreshing. Inside, it’s pretty cool too.
Three disparate artists, varying not only in their chosen medium bit in age and geography, have works that collide in the space, creating a cacophony of color and style.
Laddie John Dill is the most famous of the three. He is a sculptor who came of the Light and Space movement fostered in Southern California in the early 1970s. A sprout of Minimalism, the SoCal aesthetic diverged from the more dour East Coast form, with artists using glass, neon and reflective materials to interact with spaces and more earthy objects (James Turrell might be the best-known product of this movement). In 1971, Dill made his break-out with a solo show at Ileana Sonnabend, when he piled sand into the gallery and planted it with glass panels lit by small lights.
A study in space, shape and color.
In quite a coup, Dill has recreated a version in the Michael Jon gallery, using sand, dirt and rocks found locally in this still-industrial neighborhood. Somewhat over-shadowed, excuse the pun, by other heavy-weights spawned by the Light movement, he is now recognized as one of its leaders, represented by David Zwirner.
But in this iteration, the sand, glass and argon light sit on top of an extraordinary swirl of colors and geometric shapes, spliced together from pieces of Las Vegas hotel and casino carpets, by Cayetano Ferrer. He’s another sculptor from L.A., although from another generation, who just won the 2015 Faena Prize for the Arts, a whopping $75,000 grant (the Faena Arts Center out of Argentina will open a new center in Miami in time for the next Art Basel). Ferrer’s recreated carpet is mesmerizing; you’re walking over a real work of beauty.
The dozens of paintings surrounding these two installations are also about color, from New Yorker Michael Hunter. They are basically the same pattern, taken from an Hawaiian shirt, each one exploring an area of the pastel palette.
Altogether, these three pack a powerful punch.
Work from Laddie John Dill, Cayetano Ferrer and Michael Hunter runs through March 7 at Michael Jon Gallery, 255 N.E. 69th St., Miami; michaeljongallery.com.
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