‘Questions, not answers.’ Explore nostalgia and tension at The Frank’s summer show
South Florida artist duo TREIZMAN + ZURILLA doesn’t want you to leave their new exhibition at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery feeling awed, delighted or even impressed.
They want you to leave unsettled.
“I’m interested in creating this experience where you feel a little bit uncomfortable,” Denise Treizman, born in Chile and based in Miami, told the Pembroke Pines News.
“Art is made up of questions, not answers,” added Julia Zurilla, Treizman’s Venezuelan counterpart who’s also based in Miami.
“Monumentalizing the Trace” — the duo’s first solo show together — does just that, spinning a meta, nonlinear narrative that leaves visitors wanting to know more.
The show is a “dynamic dialogue between analog and digital processes, presence and absence, permanence and impermanence,” reads the exhibition statement. “Familiar elements appear displaced and reconfigured, inviting viewers to reconsider the ways objects, images and fragments accumulate meaning over time.”
The exhibition’s centerpiece is an abandoned partyscape — littered with festive debris such as balloons, glitter and colorful LED lights — set at The Frank.
But something’s off, explained Treizman, who equates the experience to stumbling into a deserted Pompeii or Atlantis.
Clear, plastic tarps are haphazardly scattered, and two looping videos projected onto the space show the gallery flooding with water until it’s fully submerged.
What began as a straightforward storyline now leaves the audience to piece together what really happened and what’s left behind.
“We’re thinking of ‘trace’ as fingerprints left behind by things left over from a major event,” Zurilla said. “What you’ll see are clues that will give you information about a scene that you’ll ultimately end up creating yourself.”
But beyond creating a thought-provoking, immersive experience, “Monumentalizing the Trace” doubles as an experimental foray in merging Treizman and Zurilla’s vastly different artistic practices.
Treizman describes her art as vibrantly colorful and innately analog, specializing in sculpture and installations with lots of handcrafted elements. Zurilla’s work leans toward digital processes, often using archived media that evokes darker, more serious narratives.
Both creatives met while resident artists at Miami-based Laundromat Art Space in 2022 and were given their first opportunity to publicly collaborate the following year at the 2023 Satellite Art Show.
“We realized that, deep down, both practices might actually be speaking to the same thing ... something that has to do with what was left behind, the traces, the nostalgia of childhood, playfulness,” Zurilla said.
“I believe that the most valuable thing happening here, regardless of whether the final product is attractive or valuable in its own right, is that we managed to truly collaborate,” she continued. “It is very rare for that to happen. That is truly very special.”
“Monumentalizing the Trace” kicks off at The Frank on May 14 with an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m., — where visitors can get a first look at the show and meet the artists behind its creation. It runs through Aug. 29.
For more information on the exhibition, visit the gallery’s website or Instagram.
