Architecture Digested

Glexis Novoa puts his spin on urban planning

Comments (0) By Carlos Suarez De Jesus Thursday, Apr 13 2006

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If future generations attempt to reconstruct a sense of Miami today, Glexis Novoa’s drawings and installations — rendered in graphite on marble, painstakingly painted on canvas, or etched on a wall — might serve as blueprints for understanding how our metropolis changed. His meticulously drafted cityscapes reveal urban settings where the archaic cohabits with the futuristic — where turrets, derelict cathedrals, modern skyscrapers, heroic monuments, and crumbling ruins morph in the tangle of a dawning horizon.

His solo exhibit “Glexis Novoa: Visionary Artist,” opening today at the Lowe Art Museum University of Miami. A talk by Novoa is scheduled for April 21 at 7:00 and will be followed by a reception from 8:00 to 10:00, and features work drawn from local collections and a site specific installation. Like Miami hiccupping in the throes of urban revitalization, his haunting cityscapes unfold the vision of a brave new world rising and falling simultaneously as if caught frozen before coalescing into a whole.

The Cuban born and educated artist is known for exploring physical and psychological landscapes in which he finds fertile ground for how memory can be distorted by nostalgia and expectation. “I have chosen architecture as one of the universal decoding systems of symbols created by humans,” the conceptualist explains. “I recognize cities as the most complete expression of architecture and the greatest tangible trace of humankind on Earth.” Admission is seven dollars; free to members, children under twelve, and UM students, faculty, and staff. Call 305-284-3535, or visit www.miami.edu/lowe.
April 15-June 4; Fri., April 21, 7-10 p.m.