Earlier this year, the Naples Art Institute brought works by Henri Matisse to Southwest Florida. This year, it brings the works of another iconic artist to our area. Executive Director Frank Verpoorten made the announcement.
“Everyone knows the Catalan artist Joan Miro, who used a unique visual vocabulary, was interested in the subconscious mind, and whose work is often associated with surrealism, Dada art, abstract expressionism,” said Verpoorten. “Everyone knows his dreamlike compositions, and it is really a coup for us to be able to pull off an exhibition of this caliber.”
Titled “Fire in the Soul,” the exhibition consists of a striking selection of Miró’s works revealing themes of nature, mysticism, and the Catalan identity that shaped his unique artistic language.
“The exhibition includes a lot of Miro's illustrated works, but also a few original gouaches and paintings,” Miro noted.
Verpoorten says it’s an exhibition that’s sure to appeal to the Naples Art Institute’s donors and patrons for two reasons.
“They like the fact that they can find these high-caliber subjects here in their beloved Naples, Miro said. “And what we offer beyond that, too, is that our exhibitions, by virtue of the size of our gallery, are never overwhelming in size or scope. So, it doesn't need to take four hours out of your day. You can just come in and wander around and get reacquainted with Miro, the iconic artist whose work you're familiar with.”
“Joan Miro: Fire in the Soul” invites viewers into Miró’s poetic and transcendent vision of the world. It opens Dec. 13 and runs through March 29, 2026.
MORE INFORMATION:
Joan Miró (1893–1983) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A leading figure in modern art, Miró developed a distinctive style blending abstraction with playful, dreamlike imagery, often featuring bold colors, organic shapes, and symbolic motifs. Though associated with Surrealism, he considered art to be free of an “ism.” Consequently, he forged his own path, influencing generations of artists. His works are celebrated worldwide for their vibrant creativity and poetic vision.
According to Verpoorten, the Matisse exhibit (“Art in Balance: Matisse & His Illustrated Works”), which ran from Jan. 18 through April 13, was NAI’s “best-attended exhibition in the past five or 10 years, so we know that the community is very excited about moments when we present these sort of world-renowned subjects.”
NAI is working with the same team that brought the Matisse exhibition to Naples.
The works in “Fire in the Soul” are from a private foundation in Barcelona.
“It's an exciting exhibition, and you'll get a full overview of the sort of work he created,” Verpoorten added.
Miró had a long and storied career.
In 1928, he began making sculptural reliefs and wall-mounted constructions of found and altered materials that reflected his involvement in Dada and Surrealism in Paris, where he lived, on and off, during the 1920s and 30s. He continued to develop this method of combining found objects into suggestive, often whimsical compositions throughout his career.
Following World War II, the artist settled in Palma, where he began experimenting with ceramics. By 1945, he was working in terracotta to make maquettes for large-scale sculptures in bronze, such as “Moonbird” (1946).
“His monumental work in ceramic and bronze led to several public commissions in the 1950s: a painted mural at Harvard University and a ceramic wall for the UNESCO headquarters for which he won a Guggenheim International Award,” noted Rachel Boate for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018. “Miró received the Grand Prize for Graphic Work at the Venice Biennale in 1954 and was included in the first documenta exhibition in Kassel the following year.”
Other public projects include a ceramic mural for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; murals for the Osaka World’s Fair in 1970 and murals for the Barcelona airport and La Défense in Paris.
The Centre d’Estudis d’Art Contemporani, Fundació Joan Miró opened in Barcelona in 1975 as a museum and research center dedicated to his work. The Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró opened in Mallorca in 1981, just two years before the artist’s death on Dec. 25, 1983.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
