Rafael Domenech: An Oracle on a Tomato, Ubiquitous Rectangles
On view: March 12–May 14, 2022
Opening Reception: March 12, 5–7pm
Join us Saturday, March 12, from 5-7pm for the opening of an oracle on a tomato, ubiquitous rectangles, an exhibition of new work by Rafael Domenech.
[NAME] is excited to announce its first exhibition project in its new space in West Miami, Rafael Domenech: An Oracle on a Tomato, Ubiquitous Rectangles. The exhibition includes a series of newly-commissioned objects that activate the hidden potentials in the traditional book form by unfolding it as multi-media painting-like structures. The “book-paintings,” as Domenech refers to them, bring together an archive of photographs taken intermittently in and around Miami since 2017 with varied surplus materials that include felt, commercial vinyl, paper, and plywood in a layering process that tracks the city’s urban dynamics and material flows. Closed, the “book-paintings” are containers for the many possibilities to set off a complex distribution of information and a play of forms and colors. Open, they are complex and vibrant structures that open new possibilities for painting in the age of standardization and data overloads.
Domenech’s meticulous process of layering diverse materials generates unexpected contours for these works. Sharp points, quasi-organic elements, and curves appear at the edges of these works, glitching the rigidness of the “page” and generating counterpoints to the geometric compositions. The dynamism of the work, furthermore, extends to the exhibition itself. Domenech will continue to send works from his studio in New York, making the exhibition an active vector in the movement of these objects with no finite end. This active engagement with the work continues throughout the run of the exhibition, as some of the book-paintings are on view unfolded while others are folded into a traditional book form and tucked into the walls of the exhibition space. In slotting the “closed” book -paintings into the walls of the exhibition space, Domenech turns the building into a virtual bookshelf. The presentation and activation of the works in the space draws a parallel between the city and the page, tracking a theme that is central to Domenech’s practice.
About the Artist
Rafael Domenech (b.1989, Cuba) graduated with an M.F.A. from Columbia University. His work has been exhibited at SculptureCenter, New York; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City; The Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York; The Bass Museum, Miami Beach; Phillip and Patricia Frost Art Museum, Miami; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Artium Museum, Vitoria, Spain; and Hua International Gallery, Berlin, and Beijing. He has been the recipient of awards from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and the Cintas Foundation. His work can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum Miami; The Bass Museum; The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection, Miami; The Bronx Museum; and the Great Meadows Foundation, Kentucky, among others.
