Miami, FL - Special installations by Miami artists, including Leyden Rodriquez-Casanova, Matt Schreiber and Tom Scicluna along with selections from local collectors and Miami Art Museum’s growing permanent collection, will make up Disappearances, Shadows, and Illusions  in MAM’s Upper Level Gallery, on view June 6-September 21, 2008 at the Miami Art Museum.

“The works in this exhibition run contrary to the expectation that artworks must embody enduring values and stand the test of time,” MAM’s Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell said.  “They use tricks of light, perspective, erasure, and other means to evoke a sense of impermanence and uncertainty. They make us acutely aware of our role as viewers and prompt us to question what we are seeing.”

Artists in the exhibition include Elizabeth Cerejido, Cooper, Paul Chan, Joseph Cornell, Olafur Eliasson, Magdalena Fernandez, Mark Handforth, Oscar Muñoz, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Paul Pfeiffer, Regina Silveira, Lorna Simpson and Wendy Wischer.

Several Miami artists included in the exhibition, including Cooper, Handforth, Scicluna, Schreiber and Wischer will join Boswell in a panel discussion on the key themes of the exhibition.  The artists will discuss how they address issues of ephemerality, uncertainty, wonder and authenticity in their works.  The panel discussion will take place Sunday, June 8 from 3-5pm in the MAM Auditorium.  The panel presentation is free for MAM members, $10 for non-members.

About the Curator

Peter Boswell has been Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator at the Miami Art Museum since September 1999.  He is responsible for oversight of all activities of the curatorial and education departments at the museum, including exhibitions and public programs. Exhibitions he has curated at MAM include Miami Currents: Linking Collection and Community (with Lorie Mertes and Cheryl Hartup) (2002); New Work: Donald Lipski (2002); New Work: Teresita Fernández (2002); New Work: Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt (2003); Between Art and Life: From Joseph Cornell to Gabriel Orozco (2004); Robert Rauschenberg (2005); Wangechi Mutu (2005); Mapping Space: Selections from the Collection and Vik Muniz:  Reflex (2006); Power of Ten and Enrique Martínez Celaya:  Nomad (2007).  Prior to joining MAM, Mr. Boswell served for three years as Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome and for 10 years on the curatorial staff of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.   Mr. Boswell has a BA with a major in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Art History from Stanford University. 

Miami Art Museum

Miami Art Museum is dedicated to engaging the public with international art of the 20th and 21st centuries, taking a hemispheric perspective of the Americas. Since its founding in 1996, the Museum has exponentially built a body of contemporary art called by Art in America " the quintessential Miami collection."   Visit : 101 West Flagler Street - Miami, FL 33130 - 305.375.3000