Fared Manzur
Rice Hotel – 30 N. Miami Ave. Miami, FL 33128
March 14 – April 12. Extended by appointment at [email protected]
I am pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Fared Manzur. It is the first time I will present a project outside of New York as an extension of the program that took place on an irregular basis under Lucien Terras. name. The exhibition will be located at 30 N. Miami Avenue in a building known as the Rice Hotel. The two-story historic structure was built in 1914 and commissioned by EA. Waddell one of the pioneers of the City of Miami.
The Rice Hotel was left vacant for decades until Fared Manzur took residence to establish his own studio but also occasionally invite artists to feature their work. During Art Basel Miami 2019 he hosted two New York based galleries (CC Projects and Wham!) offering them an alternative space far from the buoyancy of art fairs. Following the December 2019 presentation of invited artists, this exhibition in the studio will focus only on Fared Manzur’s practice and emphasize its connection with the identity of the Rice Hotel.
When Fared Manzur first entered the building the once elegant structure was in a state of decay. The preparation of the space can be considered as the first phase of the work: the artist laid down wood floor himself and had electricity installed to bring back a level of functionality while respecting the memory embedded in the architecture. Fared Manzur consciously wanted to be accepted by the building rather than take control of it and state a position at the opposite of gentrification in urban development. After a several months long phase of construction, Fared Manzur began his own work poised by an aesthetic that is both an opposite and a response to the raw space. The exhibition will feature two parallel bodies of work: pristine paintings at the section of representation and abstraction and minimal constructed assemblages of painted glass, designed with a numeric precision and method of execution. Together they create a sense of “otherness” heightened by the architectural context. While the work is not site specific the placement of the work in the studio is deliberate and carefully calibrated.
Observer is a suite of four 50 x 80 inches paintings depicting a single mosquito like creature against a flat background that are hung in a row along a 40 feet wall. A large surface of unprimed canvas and two horizontal beige colored stripes that evoke sedimentary layers are repeated with exactitude and extend through the entire length of the panels as a flat landscape. In each piece, the viewer is brought to the close examination of a mosquito biting through skin. Although mosquitos denote a species that depends on another body to survive, the feeling of discomfort or abject reaction is suspended. The bare simplicity of the painting redirects the entomologist observation towards a form of abstraction holding an enigmatic meaning. The insect is adorned with a bright yellow body, delicate translucent pale grey wings, long angular legs drawn as a form of calligraphy.
Place, a second suite of four 120 x 72 inches paintings, engages the architecture in a direct way. Each piece represents a schematic structure of a door of the Rice Hotel at its exact scale, frame and hinges rendered in black and white. The largest area of the painting is left to unprimed canvas that Manzur describes as a negative space. The paintings are installed just above floor level and the placement activates the large empty surface of unprimed canvas as a field with depth, foreground and background separated by the passageway. An abstract phenomenon fills the lower portion of the canvas with a yellow translucent coat, as if a substance was poured from a light gray circular vessel floating above, either in front or behind the door. The geometric shapes – lines / circles / bands of various widths – are applied with either a fine mist of spray paint or painted with a brush in taped sections and their execution follows a premeditated scenario of consecutive steps.
In Observer and Place, the repetitions and variations of the simple formal vocabulary evoke a logographic script. Each arrangement expresses subtle meaning differences within a hieratic system of signs and both suites of four works are segments of a speculative trajectory or program that Fared Manzur will explore overtime.
The same principle of negative space and economy of form is manifested in the sculptural work: pale yellow orbs of various diameters are very lightly spray painted on panels of glass that are spaced at regular intervals and stand vertically in wood or aluminum structures. The concentric circles align at times as the viewer moves around the free standing units and create an optical effect of virtual volumes. The suggestion of conic sections broken into a geometric progression of circles functions as a mechanism to generate fleeting apparitions of invisible forces or energies that inhabit the space. Beyond their formal aspect the glass sculptures are determined by numerology and a notional personal codex that bridges with the ambiguous content of the paintings. Their title, Orbs – Orbs BeforePour – Moment allude to the hidden narrative that drives the work.
Finally, a third series of four paintings of light cast by a suspended fixture in a darkened room revert to glass sections of the sculptures but shift the orientation of the source of light away from the viewer. Titled There they introduce the notion of distance and displacement.
Fared Manzur, born 1990, lives and works in Miami.
