- By Felix Suazo
Things are not what they seem, even when they don’t resemble anything familiar. For instance, emptiness often evokes a lack or absence of something. Colloquially speaking, emptiness is “nothing.” However, from a logical standpoint, something that can be named and occupies a place—at least in the mind—cannot be deemed nonexistent. Put simply, emptiness exists.
This puzzling notion of what doesn’t serve as a starting point for artists Marissa Tellería and Andrés Michelena in the exhibition “The Emptiness That Is Not,” presented at Mahara + Co in Little River, Miami, from February to May 2024.
Both artists “extract” the meaning of their works from the exhibition space. They work in corners and along the edges of the floor, using wall fragments and unexpected gaps. They intervene on the floor itself. In reality, what appears to be empty is the collaborative work of Tellería and Michelena. One is focused on minute details and subtle gestures, while the other is engrossed in materials and accessory elements of the art discourse, like stretchers, frames, and other objects Derrida called parergon in his book The Truth in Painting.
In the exhibition “The Emptiness That Is Not,” the invisible seems to be the true element that constitutes the art. Certainly, many material elements are in view: colored bands, burlap, wood, fabric, rocks, texts, and more, which might suggest that emptiness has been defeated. But the truth is that emptiness is an idea, not a thing. If that logic holds, we could conclude that Miami—the vibrant, multifaceted city of boundless sunshine—is also an idea drifting on the empty horizon.
