Rachel Valdes’ “Light and Matter” opened at Gary Nader Art Centre on December 3, 2025, during Miami Art Week, welcoming visitors, critics, and collectors to an exploration of light, perception, and consciousness.

Diffraction as an Emotional and Cognitive Landscape

In this new series, Valdes investigates diffraction both as a physical phenomenon and as a metaphor for the internal transformations that occur when we shift emotional, mental, or perceptual states.

Her inquiry begins with a fundamental question: What do we perceive when we stop seeing?

Valdes explores the residual echo of visual experience: colors, shapes, and sensations that linger even after the image has vanished. Her paintings operate as thresholds into invisible landscapes, where color functions as energy and translucent layers activate internal states of sensitivity, awareness, and contemplation.

“I work with color as if it were energy. I am interested in that moment when what we no longer see persists as a sensory echo—almost as a shared creation between memory and the invisible,” says Valdes.

A Practice Across Painting and Public Art

Trained at Cuba’s historic Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, Rachel Valdes has built a robust interdisciplinary practice spanning painting, installation, public art, and immersive works. Her oeuvre consistently reflects on perception, consciousness, and the relationship between body, space, and emotion.

Among her most recognized public artworks is “Cubo Azul” (Blue Cube), a monumental installation presented at Nader Sculpture Park in the Miami Design District. Its presence in Miami underscores the ongoing relationship between the artist and the institution, as well as her impact on the contemporary dialogue within Latin American art.

Color, Embodiment, and Contemplation

In “Light and Matter,” color acquires a vibrational and organic dimension, evoking internal tissues, emotional pulses, and expanded perceptual states. The works appear to emerge from within the human body, connecting cellular memory, emotional depth, and the sensory experience of light.

“We live in an era dominated by speed, technology, and artificial intelligence. But no machine will ever replicate human emotion or its capacity to be moved. That is where art remains essential,” says the artist.

The Institutional Vision of Gary Nader Art Centre

For Gary Nader, founder of Gary Nader Art Centre and Nader Sculpture Park, the exhibition exemplifies the type of contemporary dialogue the institution seeks to promote:

“Rachel Valdes belongs to a generation that works from introspection, sensitivity, and deep conceptual rigor. Her work expands the field of perception and invites us into an intimate dialogue with light, color, and emotion. ‘Light and Matter’ reaffirms Miami’s role as a fundamental hub in the global art landscape,” said Nader.

About Gary Nader Art Centre

Located in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, Gary Nader Art Centre presents modern and contemporary art through solo and group exhibitions, with a longstanding commitment to Latin American art. Its 55,000-square-foot space is part of a cultural vision that also encompasses Nader Museum and Nader Sculpture Park.

For more information: info@garynader.com · +1 (305) 576 0256

Media inquiries: María Carolina Alonso · mariacaro@garynader.com