Frost Art Museum presents 2011 Aesthetics & Values Exhibition

Writing done with fly pigment, ping pong balls in the shape of clouds and paper shapes that seem to go on forever are just a few of the objects that bridge the line between the real and surreal, the natural and man-made and the figurative and abstract works in the next installation of Aesthetics and Values Fine Art Exhibition (A&V) at The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.

Antonia Wright. I Scream, Therefore I Exist, 2011. Video Installation (Video Detail).

Sixty-four Honors College students worked with 10 of Miami’s most notable artists at the sixth annual A&V exhibit.

“This collaboration has proven to be quite successful,” said Carol Damian, director and chief curator of The Frost. “This is a unique experience for students to learn the intricacies of curating an exhibition within the confines of a true operational museum.”

Each of these works will have visitors challenging the concept of reality. The exhibition will feature the works of Daniel Arsham, Jose Bedia, Ivan Toth Depeña, Jacin Giordano, Fabian Peña, Karen Rifas, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, John Sanchez, Jen Stark, and Antonia Wright. Several of the artists have created works specifically for this year’s installation.

Artist Fabian Peña, whose work for the exhibit is a phrase written with fly pigment across the windows on the first floor of the museum says, “Most of my recent pieces are made with insect parts in a process where I transform these repulsive creatures into other anatomies.

“I re-context these organic elements into significant objects that address existential matters,” adds Peña. “The questioning of the artwork as a cultural product happens through an image of death and resurrection. The viewer’s perception is relocated. It is a “re-awakening” to place the spectator in an ambiguous perceptual trap. The artwork becomes both a map and a detour.”

Taught by artist and Honors College Fellow John Bailly, the Aesthetics and Values seminar helps and teaches students about the role art played and plays in the social and cultural events in history and our daily lives. The class aims to show how artists have enforced or challenged authority and ideas in debated social and cultural issues.

Students are participants in the art community and learn how art can make people see the world in a different way. The students, who come from many different fields of study, then act as curators and work closely with established local artists to create their own contemporary art exhibition.

The class is not only known locally, but across the nation. A&V students have presented at the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference since 2007.

The A&V exhibit is free and open to the public. It runs from March 8 through April 17 at The Frost. The opening reception is March 23 during Target Wednesday After Hours from 6 to 9 p.m.

There will be student-run tours March 22, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.