WEST PALM BEACH, FL.- The Norton Museum of Art is known for presenting art. But it also has a hand in the creation of art, and in the support of artists. The Museum is hosting mixed media artist Nora Maité Nieves’ first solo museum exhibition, Clouds in the Expanded Field, on view since Dec. 23, 2023, to April 28, 2024. It runs in tandem with Nieves’ artist-in-residency at the Norton, December 2023 through January 2024.

The exhibition features her first exploration of video in Eyes of the Sea, a stop-motion animation that transforms the symbols, materials, patterns, and textures present in her painting and sculptural practice. In addition to the video work, this exhibition also features nearly 20 two-dimensional works, including nine works produced specifically for presentation at the Norton. Born in 1980 in Puerto Rico, Nieves, an interdisciplinary artist, creates richly textured abstracted visual motifs of architectural elements through painting, sculpture, and now, video.

“We are privileged to host Nora Maité Nieves’ first solo museum exhibition and to welcome her concurrently as the Museum’s 2023-24 Mary Lucille Dauray Artist-in-Residence. Her work is a dynamic reflection of the cultural influences that are so prevalent in South Florida, and Clouds in the Expanded Field gives us an opportunity to bring this internationally recognized artist to the Norton,” said Ghislain d’Humiéres, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO. “This is a fantastic moment for members of the West Palm Beach and surrounding communities to connect more deeply with a contemporary artist and her process.”

During her artist-in-residency, Nieves is encouraged to focus on her artistic practice and engage with the Norton community through lectures, workshops, teen programming and other activities.

Nieves’ work contains textured and tactile surfaces on brightly colored canvases and often includes various media, including acrylic and modeling paste. There is an inherent and immediate physicality when viewing her work, which draws inspiration from the natural and built environments encountered in both Puerto Rico and New York City. A central work to the exhibition, Eyes of The Sea, begins with one of her most common motifs: a concrete ornamentation block, colloquially known as a “Breeze Block.” When constructed as a wall, the blocks allow the wind to pass through and simultaneously provide visibility through to the other side – a symbolic nod to Nieves’ shift from the Caribbean. “The blocks become eyes looking through a portal to the Caribbean Sea,” Nieves explains, “a way for me to look back at my home, Puerto Rico, and for home to look back at me.”

Nieves acts as a connector between worlds, combining fragments of decorative architectural elements from her Caribbean heritage — a ubiquitous modernist concrete breeze block design, or tile floor patterning from a past residence — with those from the urban landscape she encounters daily. Exploring these themes of identity and belonging — as well as the histories of places — Nieves comments on the sacredness of a single place within a complicated and evolving environment.

“I am deeply honored to present Clouds in the Expanded Field at the Norton Museum of Art, marking my first solo exhibition in a major museum in the U.S. I hope the exhibition will bring joy and captivate the visitors with a sense of belonging and freedom. Clouds are ephemeral and not bound by anything, they move freely without borders in the landscape.”

The exhibition arrives ahead of Nieves being featured as one of three artists selected for Times Square Arts’ Winter 2023-2024 Midnight Moments. Eyes of the Sea, presented in partnership with the Norton Museum of Art, will be synchronized on 92 electronic billboards over New York’s Times Square from 11:57 p.m. to midnight, February 1-29, 2024. The other artists participating in Midnight Moments are Lu Yang and Aron Sanchez-Baranda.

Nora Maité Nieves: Clouds in the Expanded Field is organized by the Norton Museum of Art. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Milton and Sheila Fine Endowment for Contemporary art and the Dr. Henry and Lois Foster Endowment for the exhibition of Contemporary Art. The exhibition is curated by Arden Sherman, Glenn W. and Cornelia T. Bailey Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, with support from Tiera Ndlovu, Curatorial Research Associate.

NORA MAITÉ NIEVES

Nora Maité Nieves (b. 1980 San Juan, Puerto Rico) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010, and her BFA from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004. Recent solo exhibitions include: Temples of the Sea, Jason Haam, Seoul, Korea (2022); Deep Blue Day, Pink Bright Night, Embajada Foyer, Brooklyn, NY (2021); Full Room in the Sun Room, Fresh Window Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2019); Paisaje Lunar, Flyweight Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Tangible at Hidrante, San Juan, PR (2018). Recent Two Person exhibitions: Cuerpo, Espacio y Todo lo que Rodea, Nora Maité Nieves and Yoan Sorin, Embajada, San Juan, PR (2021); Electric Hue, Nora Maité Nieves and Livia Ortiz, Proxyco Gallery, NewYork, NY (2021). Recent group exhibitions include: Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico, curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL (2023); Interplay, Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Unspoken Identities, curated by Abdiel Segarra-Ríos, Ana Mas Projects, Barcelona, Spain (2023); Reimagined Landscapes, Calderón Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Intertwined, curated by Alex Allenchey, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (2021); Surfacing at Ruiz-Healy Art, New York, NY curated by Carlos Rosales-Silva (2021); Contact Light at Survey Survey, New York, NY (2021); […]ENTREFORMAS, at El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, curated by Abdiel Segarra (2021); Rubus Armeniacus (Himalayan Blackberry) at Jessica’s Apartment Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Jessica Kwok (2019); Nada Tropical, Miscelanea Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, curated by Ricardo Cabret and Maximilian Juliá (2019); Repatriation at El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, curated by Bianca Ortiz (2019); and EDDYS Room at Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden, curated by Austin Eddy (2018).

NORTON’S ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM

As part of the Norton’s campus masterplan, three residences on Cranesnest Way, running alongside the Museum’s sculpture garden on the south side of campus, were renovated and transformed into housing and a shared studio for up to two artists at a time. Each artist (and their family) receives their own house during the residency. Another house features two open, flexible studio spaces for the artists to work in. Past artists in residence at the Norton include María Berrío (2021), Addoley Dzegede (2020), Jessica Ingram (2021), Lavar Munroe (2020), and Jaye Rhee (2020).

The program began in January 2019 and demonstrates the Norton’s deep commitment to fostering creative and intellectual growth for mid- to late-career artists whose work warrants greater attention, and emphasizes the promotion of gender, racial, and ethnic parity in the arts through dedication of two residencies annually for women artists. The Mary Lucille Dauray Artist-in-Residence, made possible through the support of the Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund/MLDauray Arts Initiative, is exclusively for an African American or Latina woman.