Pérez Art Museum Miami Presents “Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic”

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to present Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic, a large-scale celebration of the works of the experimental Argentine artist, sculptor, poet, and theorist. The exhibition marks the first time such a complete survey of Kosice’s works have been presented outside Argentina. The exhibition is comprised of 50 two-dimensional works and kinetic sculptures made of acrylic materials, air pumps, water, light components, and neon gas tubes. Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic will be on view March 20, 2025 through September 7, 2025.

Gyula Kosice. Satelite de luz, 1970. Acrylic, engine, and light. Courtesy Malba - Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Photo: Santiago Orti

Co-founder of Arturo (1944) and Madí (1946), two constructive art groups that were centered in the Río de la Plata region between Uruguay and Argentina, Kosice was a prominent figure in the international avant-garde. His practice introduced original artistic ideas, such as interactive sculptures, which questioned the relationship between object and spectator, and experimented with a wide range of materials, many of which had never been used in art at the time. Like his contemporaries Julio Le Parc and Carlos Cruz-Diez, Kosice incorporated light and motion into his work—however, unlike them, also integrated water as an artistic medium.

Intergalactic focuses on Kosice’s experimental production, in which motion was a constant and essential feature. The large-scale survey includes works that the artist created between 1950 and 1980, such as acrylic sculptures, kinetic reliefs, and drops of water, most of which incorporated lights and were activated by aerators and motors. In exploring how science fiction and architecture can be utilized in art to address issues of climate change and socioeconomic inequality, Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic is particularly salient at a moment when conversations surrounding environmental issues are being blotted out.

“Urban sprawl in Buenos Aires between 1945 and 1980 created a vast metropolitan area roughly nineteen times the size of Buenos Aires proper. Unlike other Latin American kinetic artists, Gyula Kosice was steadfastly committed to working within this urban context, which fed his creative and socially-progressive ideas around the socioeconomic disparities facing Argentina,” says former PAMM Chief Curator Gilbert Vicario. “We are thrilled to bring such a large survey of Kosice’s work to the US audience for the first time.”

Installation view: Gyula Kosice: Intergalatic, Malba - Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, 2024. Photo: Santiago Orti

The centerpiece of PAMM’s exhibition is Kosice’s most ambitious work, presented for the first time in Miami, and only for the second time in the US. The Hydrospatial City (1946–2004) is an experimental, processual work that has been fundamental to the artist’s explorations throughout his six decades of production. Challenging the idea of borders and private property, The Hydrospatial City has undertaken many forms throughout its history.

Kosice’s earliest iterations of the project, in 1946, were merely conceptual, sketching the work in manifestos, poems, drawings, and brass maquettes (which have since been lost). Kosice then began work on its current form: an ambitious installation of architectural sculpture consisting of seven lighted constellations and nineteen hydrospatial habitat models. Imagining a liveable, transparent utopia floating a kilometer and a half above the Earth, The Hydrospatial City is driven by hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water vapor in the clouds. Conventional divisions of the home—with functionally-dictated rooms like kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms—are replaced with new forms of modular habitats. The nomadic hydrospatial life envisioned by Kosice shifts the values of the capitalist system, paving the way for a new form of coexistence wherein a playful, emotional version of mankind is encouraged. In doing so, The Hydrospatial City reinvents the experience of community living.

Other highlights of the exhibition include the emblematic piece Röyi (1944), a mobile and interactive sculpture, and Kosice’s works made of hydraulic pumps, acrylic plexiglass, wood, aerators, water, and light.

Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic has been conceived and organized by the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).

Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic has been co-curated by María Amalia García, Chief Curator, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires and Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Pérez Art Museum Miami presentation was organized by Gilbert Vicario, former Chief Curator, and is made possible with lead individual support from Patricia and William Kleh.

ABOUT PAMM

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), led by Director Franklin Sirmans, promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The 40-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013 in Downtown Miami’s Maurice A. Ferré Park. The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.

By ML Staff. Courtesy of PAMM