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O n the occasion of a Houston gallery's 30-plus milestone, we devote this column to Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, known nationally and internationally for its ground-breaking commitment to modern and contemporary Latin American art. Since the 1990s, I have covered the gallery's program and its ascent, from modest but promising beginnings in a small Upper Kirby space to its iteration today — housed in a two-story kunsthalle of a building designed by Brave Architecture, sited blocks from The Menil Collection. An Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) member, the gallery — the only Texas dealer to exhibit annually at Art Basel Miami Beach — is led by founding partner/director María Inés Sicardi, partner/director Allison Ayers, and partner Carlos Bacino. The museum-worthy exhibition now on view adds a vital narrative to the art- history books: "New Classicism in Collage: Edgar Negret, Louise Nevelson, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar" (through November 22). Curated by Rice University associate professor of art history Ana M. Franco, the exhibition distills works on paper and sculpture, revealing the path between an idea presented by a collage and the three- dimensional works that followed in each Clockwise from top left, all at Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino: Louise Nevelson's Untitled, 1959. Edgar Negret's Pájaro, 1995. Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar's Collage, 1959. R A C H E L S O L A R - R E A L T O R ® | 7 1 3 . 4 1 6 . 1 6 0 0 | R A C H E L . S O L A R @ S I R . C O M | R A C H E L S O L A R . C O M Superior service shouldn't be a luxury. sculptor's oeuvre. The iconic Nevelson's artworks are presented alongside those of the two Colombians who will be less known to North American audiences: Edgar Negret and Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar. The exhibition illuminates a lost chapter in the international art world from the transformative decades of the mid- century. In her exhibition essay, Franco writes: "During the late 1950s and early 1960s, artists around the world redefined the concept of abstraction seeking to explore new possibilities in painting and s c u l p t u re . A p a r a d i g m a t i c manifestation of this broader shift was advanced by a transnational group of artists based in New York who shared a preference for lucid, clear design, hard-edged geometrical shapes, and a restricted color palette often limited to flat primary colors and monochromes. At the time, their approach to abstraction was labeled New Classicism." Franco brings the triumvirate of Nevelson, Negret, and Ramírez Villamizar together for the first time in 50 years. Nevelson was a mentor to the generation-younger Colombians when they lived and worked in New York, and all three artists showed together in Manhattan, as underscored by a display case of ephemera from the era, including vintage exhibition catalogs and reviews. Their early, yet often overlooked creations in collage "became a means for all three artists to explore a constructive language for building art," Franco writes. The chance to see totemic works by Nevelson while discovering Negret's tensile bolted sculpture and Ramírez Villamizar's ghostly monochrome abstractions makes for remarkable viewing. While you're at Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, another must-see is a painting by the late great Venezuela-born Carlos Cruz-Diez: Physichromie Panam 69, 2011. A touchstone of the gallery — which to date has mounted eight solo shows for the artist, whose international foundation is headquartered in Houston — Cruz-Diez's dazzling chromatic saturations shift and appear to move according to the viewer's perspective. Catherine D. Anspon Art Notes COURTESY GIÓ MARCONI GALLERY AND SICARDI | AYERS | BACINO. PHOTO BY GIANNI UMMARINO. © 2025 ESTATE OF LOUISE NEVELSON / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK. COURTESY SICARDI | AYERS | BACINO. PHOTO BY ANTHONY RATHBUN. COURTESY SICARDI | AYERS | BACINO AND NUEVEOCHENTA 22