Two years ago, Jens Hoffmann, the deputy director of the Jewish Museum, invited Brazilian multimedia artist Beatriz Milhazes to create a project for the institution’s lobby that would coincide (and travel with) its just-opened retrospective on the iconic Brazilian modernist landscape architect Robert Burle Marx.
‘At first I had an idea to use the ceiling as a drawing, but it would be too difficult for it to travel because it would be so site-specific,’ says Milhazes of her contribution to the museum's 'Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings' series. Instead, she decided to dip into her own archives and reconfigure a set of chandelier mobiles made from fabric flowers, plastic Carnival beads and trinkets. She had originally conceived an iteration of the piece in 2004 for a production of her sister’s dance company (and later resurrected another version for the 2008 Prospect.1 Biennial in New Orleans). ‘It became a kind of concept that takes the perspective of the space where it’s installed.’
For the Jewish Museum installation, titled Gamboa II, Milhazes had to contend with ‘a very intense lobby that’s quite busy visually’, so she decided to dialogue with the decorative art elements in the ceiling to develop three different mobiles that hang just above visitors’ heads.
‘Usually they drop to the floor and the public walks around them,’ says Milhazes of the vine-like strands. The overhead installation allowed for her materials to showcase their shiny, synthetic pop sensibilities and respond to, but not detract from, Burle Marx’s works on display.
‘Burle Marx has always been a reference to my paintings, especially his landscape drawings and the shapes of his gardens, but the most important aspect is that they are both visceral,’ says Milhazes. ‘Visually you will connect immediately. All his work is based on what he was developing in Rio. These pieces are completely based on the stuff you find in Carnival, the hanging vine plants in his drawings, the drawings he did for Carnival that are in the show. The biggest connection is that we have this basis of inspiration and sculptural language.’
Milhazes dipped into her own archives to reconfigure a set of chandelier mobiles, made from fabric flowers, plastic Carnival beads and trinkets originally conceived in 2004
Titled Gamboa II, Milhazes had to contend with ‘a very intense lobby that’s quite busy visually’, so chose to dialogue with the art elements in the ceiling to develop three different mobiles that hang just above visitors’ heads
INFORMATION
’Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Beatriz Milhazes’ is on view until 18 September. For more details, visit the Jewish Museum’s website
ADDRESS
Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10128
-
For its latest runway show, Zegna creates a serene oasis in DubaiThe Italian fashion house took over the Dubai Opera for a S/S 2026 show that proposed a lived-in elegance, drawing inspiration from Dubai’s sunbaked landscapes and Zegna’s birthplace of Trivero
-
Time-travel to the golden age of the cruise ship at Sea Containers LondonThe South Bank hotel celebrates its tenth anniversary with four new suites inspired by period cabin design, from Edwardian elegance to 1980s glamour
-
A Karuizawa house is a soothing, work-from-home retreat in JapanTakeshi Hirobe Architects play with scale and space, creating a tranquil residence in which to live and work
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
This rainbow-coloured flower show was inspired by Luis Barragán's architectureModernism shows off its flowery side at the New York Botanical Garden's annual orchid show.
