Miami goes to Bogota!

Anthony Japour explores the work of Jaime Gili

Anthony Japour (AJ) is an art collector, advisor, independent curator, and private art dealer. Japour deals in the international contemporary art movement with a focus on the Chinese Contemporary Art Movement and its relationship to the pillars of Western Contemporary Art. Since 2003, AJ has produced numerous art exhibitions and installations in Miami and South Florida through AJ Japour Gallery and now works on various art projects. AJ has served on the Fine Arts Board and the Cultural Arts Council of the City of Miami Beach.

Alejandra von Hartz Gallery
2630 NW 2nd. Avenue Wynwood Arts District Miami, Fl 33127

ArtBo
Projects, Jaime Gili by Alejandra von Hartz Gallery

Visiting the ArtBo Art Fair in Bogota, Colombia this year was like being in Miami but with Fall weather. While for serious art collectors the fourth weekend in October is generally reserved for the major ArtFair in Paris, known as FIAC, many of us from Miami decided to “think different” this year and headed to Bogota, where I ran into so many people from Miami. The private collections were superb and exhibitions around the ArtFair were outstanding. I was delighted to see Alejandra von Hartz who was exhibiting artist, Jaime Gili in a special section of the Fair.

Jaime Gili (born 1972, Caracas, Venezuela) continues a tradition of Latin American abstract art, especially the Venezuelan optical artists from the 20th Century. Critics have described his work as “a mix of Pop, Minimalism, Vorticism, Futurism and graffiti Art” and as “a bomb exploding on a Cruz Diez”.

Gili received his MA in painting from the Royal College of Art (London) in 1998, after studying in Caracas and completing a PHD at the University of Barcelona, and has exhibited widely since then: in the UK, USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela. Gili won the international contest for one of the world’s largest public art projects, 25,000 square meters on 16 large industrial storage tanks in South Portland, Maine. Since then, he has been invited to create several projects for art integrated into architecture including the Bloomberg Space in London, Tynemouth Train Station near Newcastle, and Barrio José Félix Ribas in Petare, Caracas, Venezuela.

For the ArtBo 2014 Art Fair in Bogota, Colombia, Gili represented by one of the most important galleries in Miami, Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, was exhibited in a special Project Booth curated by Jose Roca, currently the Estrellita B. Brodsky Adjunct Curator of Latin American Art at Tate, London. Alejandra von Hartz Gallery. von Hartz promotes and explores contemporary, non-objective, constructive and conceptual art by emerging and established artists with a focus in Latin American art, and geometric abstraction.

Gili’s contemporary vision includes a great interest in integrating visual arts into architecture, and, he was recently commissioned to do a public work for a new residential building in Miami being developed by Jorge Perez’ Related Group in 2015.

Alejandra von Hartz will host a Solo Show by the artist from Thursday, November 20, 2014 until January 3, 2015, simultaneously with a solo show by Ricardo Alcaide.

I had the opportunity to discuss Jaime Gili among other Latin Contemporary artists with Darlene Perez (Perez Museum of Miami) at the Design Center of America about Art Collectors and their homes, the first installment of a four-part series at the DCOTA.