“Deconstruction: A Reordering of Life, Politics and Art”, Frost Museum of Art, Miami, FL, July 10 – September 30, 2018
Echoes of the past reverberate in Pepe Mar’s large-scale installation, Varla TV. Although South Beach has changed considerably in the last two decades, its history as a safe space for counterculture cannot be forgotten. Mar’s Varla TV, which provides an emotional core for the exhibition, Deconstruction. Mar routinely visits second-hand retail outlets, and like an archeologist, he excavates materials. Later, he repurposes them in his own work. In Varla TV, the archives of painter Craig Coleman (1961–1995) aka Varla and Mar collide. Mar constructed a quilt made from clippings about Varla, related ephemera, and images of his past work to serve as the backdrop of the installation. In both the quilt, and in the overall installation, their distinctive archives are powerfully united.
Amy Galpin, Ph.D., Chief Curator, Frost Museum of Art, Miami
