On May 11, 2006, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University launched its first traveling exhibition in Latin America.  After several years of dedicated planning and with the generous support of title sponsor UBS, the Latin American tour of Vision Revealed: Selections from the work of Abelardo Morell debuted in São Paolo, Brazil in May and continued on to Santiago de Chile in July, 2006.  In 2007 the exhibition will travel to Buenos Aires and Mexico, D.F.  This ambitious project was conceived as part of the international celebration of the highly anticipated grand opening of the new Frost Art Museum. 

Vision Revealed: Selections from the work of Abelardo Morell, curated by Elizabeth Cerejido, first opened at the Frost Art Museum in January 2004. The exhibition highlights several different series by this renowned Cuban-American artist, including the Camera Obscura body of work for which he is best known.  Morell’s photographs have been exhibited and collected in major museums around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Morell is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Cintas and Guggenheim Fellowships. 

Since the initial success of the exhibition, the Frost Art Museum has identified leading art institutions in Latin America who share our vision and passion for interpreting, preserving and presenting contemporary Latin American and American art.  The Frost Art Museum staff has worked closely with leading members of the arts communities in each of the hosting cities to coordinate exquisitely chic VIP opening receptions. Attending these events alongside Latin America’s elite art connoisseurs, CEO’s and politicians will be featured artist Abelardo Morell, leading VIP’s from Miami including naming donors Patricia and Phillip Frost,  as well as Frost Art Museum Curator, Elizabeth Cerejido.
 
The Frost Art Museum’s efforts to foster cultural, educational, and artistic exchanges complement Florida International University’s commitment to its ever-growing international audiences.  This important exhibition lays the groundwork for the Museum’s goals to pursue future collaborative projects with international museums. By cultivating the transnational relationships that have been established through this project, the Frost Art Museum will be able to expand its presence abroad, as well as its offerings at home through unique initiatives in the arts.

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) (Museum of Modern Art)
Parque do Ibirapuera, portao 3 – s/no, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
www.mam.org.br
May 11 – June 26, 2006    

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Parque Forestal S/N, Casilla 3209 – Correo Central, Santiago, Chile
www.dibam.cl/bellas_artes/
July 13 – September 7, 2006

MEXICO D.F., MEXICO
Centro de la Imagen
Plaza de la Ciudadela 2, Mexico, D.F.  06040
www.conaculta.gob.mx/cimagen
June 14 – August 19, 2007
 
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
El Centro Cultural recoleta
Junin 1930 -  Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.centroculturalrecoleta.org
September 2007 – November 2007

UBS, one of the world's leading financial firms, is the title sponsor of the Latin American exhibition tour of Vision Revealed: Selections from the work of Abelardo Morell.   UBS is the market leader in Swiss retail and commercial banking, internationally recognized as one of the world's foremost wealth management businesses, global investment banking and securities firm, and a leading asset manager.  As a member of the global community, UBS strives to actively contribute to the communities within which they do business.  The “raison d’être” behind their well-established corporate responsibility agenda is the recognition that their success depends not only on the skill and resources of their people and the relationships they foster with clients, but also on the health and prosperity of the communities they work in. 

One of UBS’ major commitments to community has been in the arts.  The company is internationally recognized for a premier corporate collection as well as the title sponsorship for the two leading contemporary art fairs in the world, Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach.  Additionally, UBS has been active in the museum sector, including the prestigious title of founding corporate partner of London's Tate Modern.  All these initiatives are major platforms for demonstrating UBS’ commitment to art, and have provided the company with invaluable international exposure.

Groundbreaking international ventures such as the Frost Art Museum’s Traveling Exhibition capture the nature and intention of UBS cultural sponsorships.  As a direct result of the generosity, vision and commitment of UBS, the Frost Art Museum is able to pursue meaningful endeavors to foster cultural exchanges. 

Consistent throughout the work of Cuban-American photographer Abelardo Morell, lies an inherent trait, the artist’s keen ability (through the lens of his camera) to transform seemingly mundane objects from our everyday lives into works of art, worthy of introspection.

Within the confines of traditional photography, Morell creates pictures that are both familiar and surreal by distorting scale, cropping objects and juxtaposing images.   The artist fuses unexpected fragments of outdoor elements with household objects to create images that challenge our adult perceptions of reality.  Morell reflects, “the spiritual aspect of my work has more to do with the sense that things in the world can be perceived and accepted as being in some respect alive. I try to approach everything that I photograph with this sense of wide-eyed awe.” 

Vision Revealed: Selections from the work of Abelardo Morell features the artist’s best known series, Camera Obscura, in which he literally turns a room into a dark chamber capturing, through long exposures, the images that appear inverted on the walls of the outside world. In addition to the Camera Obscura series, the exhibition focuses on other bodies of work, including, photographs of books – portrayed both as objects emphasizing their physical properties and as containers of content whose narrative may be carefully manipulated through simple photographic techniques.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a series of photographs based on the classic illustrations by Sir John Tenniel, portrays Morell’s trenchant skill with the latter.  Also on view, is the work Morell created as artist-in-resident at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the 1990’s.  The face of a museum’s staff member is juxtaposed alongside the face of Rembrandt creating a portrait that plays with time and history in a work from a series of scenes that merge the old world with the contemporary.

Morell’s photographs have been exhibited and collected in major museums around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Morell is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Cintas and Guggenheim Fellowships.  Curating this exhibition was a deeply rewarding experience and it was a privilege to work closely with the artist.  It is with even greater pleasure that we now present this successful exhibition to the Latin American audience. 

Elizabeth Cerejido
Curator

El Museo de Arte Patricia y Phillip Frost  de la Universidad Internacional de la Florida en Miami, Florida presentara el trabajo del fotógrafo Cubano Americano Abelardo Morell en una exposición itinerante, que por primera vez, viajara a cuatro ciudades en Latino América.  Este importante proyecto esta siendo subscrito por UBS Internacional y es parte de la celebración de la gran apertura del nuevo edificio del Museo de Arte Frost en Miami, un espacio de 4,275 metros cuadrados que inaugura en noviembre del 2007.

Esta exposición titulada, “Visión Revelada: Selecciones de la obra de Abelardo Morell” que fue comisariada y presentada en enero del 2004 por el Museo de Arte Frost, inaugura su gira latinoamericana en São Paulo en mayo del 2006.  Después se presentara en las siguientes ciudades: Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires y Mexico, D.F. 

Morell es muy conocido por su serie de Cámara Obscura en la que convierte un cuarto en una sala oscura capturando ,a través de largas fotografías, las imágenes del mundo externo que aparecen proyectadas al revés. La exhibición consiste de selecciones de muchos grupos de obras  que también incluyen: la serie de Alicia en el País de las Maravillas, Libros, Museo Gardner y su más reciente trabajo sobre Dinero. Su trabajo forma parte de un prestigioso número de colecciones permanentes entre las cuales están el Museo de Arte de Moderna en Nueva York, el Museo de Arte Americana Whitney en Nueva York, el Instituto de Arte en Chicago, el Museo de Arte Metropolitana en Nueva York entre otros.
 
El presentar este proyecto en varios locales en Latinoamérica,  nos permite fomentar intercambios culturales con prestigiosas instituciones que pueden ser el comienzo de una relación mutua, donde ambas audiencias se beneficien de concocerse – enriqueciendose de los intereses culturales que compartimos.

Es un gran honor tener la oportunidad de presentar este proyecto, con el patrocinio del prestigioso banco internacional UBS, que nos garantiza el éxito de este importante evento.