© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Warning: These Images Are Meant to Confuse You

by Yuri Tuma

Go to Butter Gallery, a second-floor loft in a burgeoning mini-district of galleries in far-west Wynwood, if you're into being on a natural high. It's there that you'll find a solo show, Sym City, by local artist Yuri Tuma, whose quest for total Op Art abstraction is finally reaching full steam. The seven works on view comprise prints and one holographic work that takes bits of reality, flattens, mirrors and  repeats them into (legally) trippy infinity.

Tuma's previous shows in Miami started out on a similar thread, based on architectural photos fractured and refracted. These new pieces at Butter have the same genesis. "Everything you see here comes from photography," he says. "Before I take a photo, I already find a part of the object I want, and crop it with my eyes. Then I change it to black and white -- or, in one piece, red and white -- and play with the depth, and symmetry. This time around I used more of a layering technique to create a 3-D optical illusion."

You'd be hard-pressed to identify where any of these geometric shapes came from, but you might certainly try. And while you're staring, don't be surprised if things appear to move, or if you get lost in a tunnel of infinitely repeating shapes. That moment that fries your brain a little is exactly what Tuma hopes to make happen.

"When you see something the eye doesn't immediately comprehend, that's when you liberate your mind. At least for a millisecond, you try to find a meaning for what you're looking at," he says. "You might have a moment of confusion, but it's almost like a moment of clarity, because you're allowing your brain to search for meaning. I really enjoy that."

Sym City is on view to the public Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Butter Gallery, 2930 NW Seventh Ave., Miami. Call 305-303-6254, or visit facebook.com/buttergallery for more details.

Credit by Yuri Tuma

More On This Topic