Miguel Angel Ríos:
LOVE
April 28 - June11, 2006
Video Gallery

In LOVE two black-and-white tops, symbolizing positive and negative, spin forward, then backward, clack together, or nearly miss in a whirling, sometimes violent, dance reminiscent of a tango. The tops are synchronized to Maria Callas’ version of the famous aria from the 1892 opera La Wally by Alfredo Catalani. Callas plays Wally, the character who sings of a suffering heart. The tops perform a dance of love, passion and ultimate tragedy as one falls before the other. The final top eventually topples marking the end of love, the end of life.

Miguel Angel Ríos was born in 1953 in Catamarca, Argentina. He studied at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, the National University of Tucumán, and the National University of Buenos Aires. Ríos has had solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2005); White Box, New York (2004); Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (1999); Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires (1992); and several other prominent institutions. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including the 6th and 7th Havana Biennials (1997 and 2000) and Mapping at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1994). In 1998, he received the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Currently, Ríos lives in New York and Mexico City.

Miguel Angel Ríos, still from LOVE, 2005, black and white video, sound; courtesy the artist.

This presentation is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell.