The Work of Nela Arias-Misson at Keyes Art

Artist Nela Arias-Misson was born in Cuba and died in Miami just a few weeks before her 100th birthday (September 8, 1915 – July 17, 2015). Arias-Misson studied with Hans Hoffman and adopted the belief that painting was an “arena” for action, immediacy and rawness. She risked making art in the 1950s when men dominated the art scene in New York City.

From June 10 to June 30, Keyes Art in Sag Harbor will exhibit a highly selected survey of Arias-Misson’s art, bringing together an outstanding selection of the artist’s work, illustrating the progress and achievements that she realized both on a personal level and on the entire development of abstraction in the 20th century. The show opens with a reception on Saturday, June 10, from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Arias-Misson left New York City for Spain in 1961: Her work had attracted admirers, but the compulsion to move on prevailed,” writes George Negroponte. “Arias-Misson’s most essential inventions start now, and the paintings she made generate a gravitational pull; these mysterious objects demand closer inspection. Her masterpiece ‘The Whale’ from 1989 underscores these quixotic associations and exemplifies the degree of her inventiveness.

“Defiantly, Arias-Misson challenges the conventions of her master Hans Hofmann, and her sense of adventure drives her to even greater extremes as she places her faith in authenticity and self-awareness,” he continues. “She adopts an industrial strain like a house painter, a plasterer, a masonry trowel, and a bricoleur. Arias-Misson is overcome by thingness, finding brilliant forms that smile and sing. In her second show at Keyes Art in Sag Harbor, Arias-Misson shows off her long and arduous search for truthfulness and meaning in art. Arias-Misson rewrote the history of painting in the 1960s and 1970s. Now is the time to understand her extraordinary achievements.”

Keyes Art is at 45 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For details, visit juliekeyesart.com.