Source: Tampa Museum of Art
“Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” organized by El Espacio 23, brings artwork from around the world to the Tampa Museum of Art from November 10 through March 12, 2023.
Tampa, FL – The inaugural exhibition that opened Miami’s contemporary art space, El Espacio 23, will now also premiere the first of many newly expanded gallery spaces at the Tampa Museum of Art.
Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, on view November 10 through March 12, 2023, looks at how artists explore conflicts and contradictions of contemporary society, as well as analyzes historical events and reframes them within the present. An interest in the marginalized, the marginal and the margins (of society, of history) unites the works in the exhibition.
“We’re thrilled to partner with philanthropist and collector Jorge M. Pérez and El Espacio 23 to bring this thought-provoking collection of significant contemporary works to Tampa Bay,” said Michael Tomor, the Penny and Jeff Vinik Executive Director of the Tampa Museum of Art. Tomor added, “Time for Change is a fitting start to a new era of expanded exhibition programming at the Museum. We’re eager to welcome the community into our new galleries and begin offering more year-round opportunities to experience and learn from works that reflect our region’s vibrant community.”
In 2021, the Tampa Museum of Art announced it was embarking on its $100 million Centennial Renovation and Expansion. The opening of Time for Change coincides with the completion of the ambitious renovation portion of the project to increase exhibition space and education facilities within the footprint of the existing building, which first opened in 2010 and was designed by San Francisco architect Stanley Saitowitz.
The reimagining of the existing Museum spaces was led by New York-based WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism. As a result of the renovation, the Museum opened the new Vinik Family Education Center in May of this year and increased its exhibition and collection space from 14,800 to more than 43,000 square feet. Time for Change is the first of several back-to-back exhibition openings in the brand-new galleries between now and February 2023.
Envisioned by Colombian curator José Roca, Founder and Director of FLORA ars+natura, Bogotá in collaboration with Pérez Collection stewards Patricia M. Hanna and Anelys Álvarez, Time for Change features 60 artworks by 57 artists from around the world. The exhibition highlights art—from painting and sculpture to video and works on paper—that addresses unrest through allegory, metaphor or veiled allusion.
Time for Change is structured around themes, or “nuclei,” which organically establish dialogue and correlations amongst the pieces, yet are not necessarily contained by an argument. The themes of the exhibition are grouped into six categories that examine a variety of voices.
- Entangled Histories features works by Yinka Shonibare CBE, Doris Salcedo, Fernando Bryce, Walker Evans, Ai Weiwei, and Sandra Gamarra proposing essential questions: How do we remember as a society? Who is forgotten by history, and for what reasons? How is a traumatic event inscribed in the (social) body?
- Extraction and flows examines displacement of peoples, as well as the exploitative justifications behind forced expatriation and includes a monumental installations by Barthelemy Toguo along alongside works by David Goldblatt, Alfredo Jaar, Marisol, and Eduoard Duval Carrie, among others.
- Artivism: art in the social sphere includes works by Robert Longo, Camilo Restrepo, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Esterio Segura, Glenda Leon and many others, focuses on political unrest and public protest on the streets, an essential expression of democracy which has been diminished in our reduced public sphere.
- State Terror includes two large scale pieces by Carlos Garaicoa and Alejandro Campins in addition to works by Ed Ruscha, Reynier Levya Novo, Umar Rashid, Gonzalo Fuenmayor alongside other artists, and signals how, in a world of real-time generalized surveillance, protest is countered with repression and violence.
- Spatial Politics reflects on social control through spatial segregation, examining modern architecture and its role in creating segregated communities—structures to house the “undesirable,” namely immigrants, people of other races, classes and nationalities and includes works by artists such as Teresa Burga, Rene Francisco Rodriguez, Mikhael Subotzky, Julian Opie, and Samuel Levi Jones.
- Emancipatory Calls summons viewers to reclaim the beauty of our differences, understanding that a more just society can only be built on respect for one’s right to be different. Highlights from this section include Rashid Johnson, Christopher Myers, Kara Walker, Firelei Baez and Ana Maria Devis.
About the Tampa Museum of Art
Founded in 1920, the Tampa Museum of Art inspires visitors with engaging exhibitions and innovative educational programs that emphasize ancient, modern, and contemporary art. The Museum houses one of the largest Greek and Roman antiquities collections in the southeastern United States. As one of the region’s most prominent museums devoted to the art of our time, the Museum’s permanent collection also embraces sculpture, photography, painting, new media, and more.
The Museum’s new Vinik Family Education Center offers expanded year-round studio art classes, lectures, and tours that give children, teens, and adults opportunities to discover new perspectives and learn different art-making techniques. Likewise, through unique community partnerships, the Museum offers outreach programs that provide art-therapy-informed interventions and meaningful modes of self-expression to vulnerable segments of the population.
Located in the heart of downtown Tampa, the Tampa Museum of Art leads as both a cultural institution and a community museum dedicated to celebrating its home city’s diversity. In 2021, the Museum embarked on an ambitious renovation to increase exhibition space and education facilities to accommodate growing community partnerships and allow more hands-on, up-close experiences for students and adults. The Museum will remain open to the public throughout the Centennial Renovation, with an expected completion date by the end of 2022.
General Hours and Information
For tickets and information, visit TampaMuseum.org or call (813) 274-8130. Located at 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza. Tampa, FL 33602, the Tampa Museum of Art is open seven days a week, Monday – Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm, and Thursdays from 10 am – 8 pm.
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