Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to present Every sound is a shape of time, a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring over 20 works by 17 artists including painting, sculpture, and lightwork. Curated by PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans, the exhibition showcases works from the museum’s collection made between 1958 and 2020—half of which will be presented for the first time.

The title of the exhibition, Every sound is a shape of time, alludes to Cuban artist Glenda León’s work, inspired by “the space where sound and the visual merge”. The exhibition speaks to the interconnectedness between universal elements through the various multimedia artworks on view, centered around the core elements of beauty and humanism, and grounded in the strength of a plurality of voices.

“With Every sound is a shape of time, we’re excited to bring together works that reflect on the common threads that emerge from our collection,” said PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans.

Core to Every sound is a shape of time is Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar’s neon lightwork, I can't go on. I'll go on. (2016). Two other works by Jaar further ground the show, including Europa (1994), his monumental installation responding to the Bosnian War and the indifference in response to this crisis in the early 1990s. Also of note in the exhibition is an entire gallery space showcasing several of the first acquisitions made by the museum, which include works by leading figures in Post-Painterly Abstraction of the 1950s and 1960s such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. This group of artists strived to create something new in a moment of tumult and friction between abstraction and representation, as well as the parallel divide between inner and outer worlds in contemporary art’s subject matter.

Participating artists include Abraham Cruzvillegas, Alfredo Jaar, Ellsworth Kelly, Glenda León, Helen Frankenthaler, Jennie C. Jones, Jules Olitski, Julie Mehretu, Lawrence Weiner, Luis Camnitzer, Lydia Okumura, Mark Bradford, Morris Louis, Nicole Cherubini, Richard Serra, Richard Dupont, and Robert Morris.

Every sound is a shape of time: selections from PAMM's Collection is organized by PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans with PAMM Curatorial Assistant Fabiana A. Sotillo.