Brickell Urban Encounters

BB Americas Bank presents “Brickell Urban Encounters” bringing together works for the first time by internationally acclaimed master sculptors Manuel Carbonell and Yutaka Toyota. The second in the inaugural season of the BB Americas Bank Cultural Series, this exhibition opens Monday, December 1 and is on display through Friday, February 27.

“BB Americas Bank has a proud tradition of supporting culture and one of our number one assets is the multicultural nature of our clients and staff,” said BB Americas Bank President and CEO Cassio Segura. “Yutaka Toyota’s monuments grace São Paulo and Manuel Carbonell’s ‘The Pillar of History’ is an iconic part of Miami’s Brickell Avenue Bridge, which makes this exhibition particularly appropriate for our series.”
The exhibition is curated by Stella M. Holmes, director of The Brickellian, and Carolina Lucero as part of the art consultancy’s West Encounters East® project.

“Both Toyota and Carbonell developed their own aesthetics through a syntheses of different traditions in their artistic training,” the curators said. “In ‘Brickell Urban Encounters,’ their works bridge cultural differences and present two different but complementary visions of reality” explained Ms. Holmes.

Considered among the most important Latin American Masters, Carbonell (1918 – 2011) belonged to a generation of Cuban artists that studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro” in Havana. He traveled to and studied in Europe before returning to Cuba and ultimately coming to the United States and, later, Italy. Searching for the essence of the form and the absence of details, Carbonell imparted a sense of strength, simplicity and monumentality to his work. His modern monumental works are part of important collections and public spaces.

“Carbonell’s works have a universal beauty that can be appreciated in a variety of contexts and we are pleased to have his works shown for the first time alongside those of Yutaka Toyota,” said Ricardo J. Gonzalez, III, administrator of Carbonell Sculptures Ltd. which serves as the exclusive representative for the works of Carbonell.

Born in Japan in 1931, Toyota arrived in Brazil in 1962, where he currently lives. From 1965-1968, he lived in Milan and worked with designer Bruno Munari while developing his research on sculpture with reflexes. He then joined the movement of optical and kinetic artists who pioneered the use of stainless steel in artworks. Influenced by the spatial theory of Argentine artist Lucio Fontana, he creates artworks that, through the application of physical laws such as Einstein’s theory of relativity and the influence of Zen Buddhist philosophy, encourage art to be viewed in new ways.

Artworks are available for sale through The Brickellian with proceeds benefiting ArtesMiami, Inc., which supports and promotes South Florida Hispanic artists and cultural organizations, in order to generate greater understanding and appreciation for their work among the diverse publics of this region.