Miami Series (2019)

Miami to Arango is both a youthful paradise and religious awakening. The Miami Series is a sensual glimpse into Arango’s ritual thirty-mile bike rides along the Florida coast. The colors of the Atlantic Ocean, ever changing skies, birds, and the native sea grape trees inspire works such as Us. The Miami Series also indexes Arango’s attempt to grapple with his Catholic upbringing. In Christianity, paradise is a place of extraordinary happiness, fulfillment, and delight; Arango’s vibrant colors simultaneously exaggerate and irredeemably disrupt the pastoral imagery associated with paradise. The painting represents his own tropical Last Supper.

The digestive system has been a common theme in Arango’s work for some time. In Tropical, he uses relations between the body and landscapes to reference the Last Supper. According to the New Testament Jesus instituted the Eucharist during the Last Supper; he gave his disciples bread and wine during the Passover meal.