A Conversation with Milagros Bello

In  2010, Venezuela-born art critic and curator Milagros Bello opened Curator’s Voice Art Projects, a creative laboratory that has fueled the careers of many artists from both Florida and abroad and has helped encourage art collecting in the area. Three years later, we met her to talk about the achievements of this initiative and what she is planning for the coming months.

By Raisa Clavijo

Raisa Clavijo - In 2010, you opened the doors of Curator’s Voice, which now has a larger gallery space in Miami’s Wynwood Art District. What were your goals when creating this space? What have been the main challenges you faced to position your gallery?

Milagros Bello - In 2010-after having developed my curatorial career in Miami since 2000 and having prepared and presented multiple curated exhibitions, as chief curator of Hardcore Art Gallery in Wynwood, curator at the Jewish Museum/Miami, and heading NoBe’s curatorial project presented during the Art Basel season in 2008, Merryll Lynch arteaméricas curated shows presented continuously from 2003 through 2007, and other projects presented in the Art Gallery of Miami Dade College/Kendall Campus, the Barrio Museum, all of them focusing on contemporary art-I decided to open Curator’s Voice Art Projects (CVAP) in Wynwood, to foster contemporary art. Based not only on this fruitful experience, but based also on my theoretical studies at Sorbonne University in Paris, with a Ph.D. in sociology of art and a master’s in art history, I created an art space for artists and for curators to present a different approach to exhibiting in Miami. CVAP’s mission is to offer postmodern and modern art exhibitions to the public in curated shows, either by me or by any other invited curators. We combine cutting-edge artists with more classic proposals, creating an interesting balance for reflection and learning. At CVAP, all the exhibitions are curated and obey to a theoretical approach to art. This is a totally different initiative.

At the same time I have also worked as an art critic, professor of art at Florida International University and at Florida Atlantic University, and as a senior editor for the art magazine Arte al Día, in this last position deepening my knowledge of Latin American art. At present, I am full-time faculty at the Miami International University of Art & Design, teaching the future generations of artists different courses, such as Postmodernism, History of Photography, History of Western Art, for the undergraduate level; and Critical Theories in Art, World Cultures, on the graduate level.

The challenge to position CVAP has been linked to the development of Miami as a cultural city and growth of collectors and buyers who are open to new proposals and new voices in the visual arts. We all are pioneers in Miami, and we have to persevere in developing the artistic field in this city.

Milagros Bello, Director of Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Photo: Mariano Costa-Peuser.

R.C. - Which artists are you working with? What exhibitions have you planned for Art Basel Miami Beach week?

M.B. - Curator’s Voice has presented numerous art exhibitions since its founding in 2010. The solo shows of Atelier Morales, the artistic Cuban-French duo living in Paris, Miami photographer Lamia Khorshid, Miami artist Rosario Bond, Venezuelan artists Susy Iglicki and Magaly Barnola-Otaola, among others, have marked a solid ground for defining contemporary tendencies. Mid-career artists participating in curated groups shows, such as Nadia Benatar, Maria Cristina Carbonell, Mariana Monteagudo and Néstor Arenas, along with strong and promising emerging voices such as Wuilfredo Soto, Duvi Silva-Ruz, María Loreto, Santiago Paulós, Beatriz Baumgartner and Efigenia Pérez, among others, have opened a space for reflection on the currents in art. We presented “Toys Art Us,” focusing on toy related art for our inauguration, and in photography, we have presented two key shows, “The Deceptive Eye” and “Venezuela-USA Contemporary Photography.”

Since we moved to our new location at 299 25th St. at the corner of NW 3rd Ave., with more than 3000 square feet of space and with two monumental exhibitions spaces, the scope of our shows have greatly expanded. Each curated show now can include a much greater number of artists.

For the Art Basel season, CVAP will present “Digressions & Detours,” a curated group show of strong and radical works of 22 artists, including Pepe Calderín, Susy Iglicki, Beatriz Sánchez, Jerónimo Villa, Jean Nestares, Anica Shpilberg, Olga Dueñas, Claudia Di Paolo, Daniel Adrian, Ana Abreu, Niko Rakusa, Ramón Espantaleón, Mariana Thome, Evelyn Walg, Mariano Costa Peuser and Pascal Lecocq, among others. Special emphasis on the magnificent urban installation is the work of Pepe Calderín, who presents sort of high “skyscrapers” made with discarded computer parts.

CVAP will also present the solo show “The Doorway Within” by artist Ana Martínez, who proposes an all-encompassing, environmental, multisensory installation, a cube of 15-by-15-by-10 feet in which the spectator submerges in a breathtaking experience of dazzling images and sounds. Both shows will run from Nov. 23, 2013, through Jan. 25, 2014.

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R.C. - How can an artist be included in your exhibitions?

M.B. - To participate in an exhibition, artists have to submit their portfolio to be reviewed from a strict criteria on quality and innovation. Second step, if selected, would be an interview to physically review the works. If artists fulfill the criteria, there would be a possibility to be included in a curated upcoming show that conceptually relates to that specific work. Not all artists will be included or selected, and not all works will fulfill the criteria. Selection sometimes is a tough task for the curator. Curated shows produced in the gallery must be on the highest level, and they always are based on a curatorial concept.

R.C. - I am aware that you bring to artists services of art coaching to help them organize their creative process and improve their careers. Can you tell me how an artist can access this? What do these services consist of?

M.B. - As a curator, I have developed an art coaching program to consult, assess and help the artists with their work and goals. As life coaches help with life issues, the art coaching program helps the artists to evaluate, improve, reorient their art goals and their works; it assists in understanding their art perspectives, their possibilities in the field, etc. As well as to improve their portfolio, their art statements and all editorial materials artists need to be strong on.

R.C. - Do you welcome other curators from Florida or abroad to exhibit their projects at Curator’s Voice’s headquarters in Wynwood?

M.B. - Just recently I have invited Chinese curator Fu Xin, owner of Fu Xin Gallery in Shanghai, who presented her curatorial project and show titled “Transitive.” Dr. Fu Xin also offered an outstanding lecture on Chinese contemporary art. This initiative is open to all curators to propose curatorial projects to us, enriching our Wynwood art community.

R.C. - Curator’s Voice operates as a cultural institution that not only promotes the oeuvre of the artists you work with, but also consistently offers art history lecture programs that contribute to educating art enthusiasts and collectors. Tell me a bit about this initiative.

M.B. - One of my goals as a curator who holds an art space in Wynwood is to offer didactic events to the art community. On every Saturday of our shows, which usually run for five weeks, I always present a guided tour of the show, an art talk with the participating artists and lectures on art. I just recently presented Picasso and Matisse, Van Gogh, Modern-Postmodern Art, Contemporary Photography, and in preparation for Art Basel fair, I just presented Art Basel Revisited, which is my view and analysis of the fair as a curator.

R.C. - How has the Miami artistic scene changed in the last 15 years? How do you envision the future? Is there more activity during the year beyond Art Basel week?

M.B. - Miami currently is an explosive epicenter of art during Art Basel season and after the Art Basel season. The number of great galleries continue to grow in Wynwood, and the area is just marking its place in the art world nationwide. No doubt this is an epic artistic moment for our city. Curator’s Voice gallery will present the upcoming solo shows by Nadia Benatar, Susy Iglicki and Rosario Bond, and various curatorial projects, such as “Performed” on performance art, and “Geometrics,“ a survey on contemporary abstract art.

Curator’s Voice Art Projects is located at 299 NW 25th Street. Wynwood Art District. 
Miami, FL 33127 / Phone: +1 786 357 0568 / www.curatorsvoice.com / milabello@aol.com