Milagros Maldonado

Milagros Maldonado
Born (1944-07-09) July 9, 1944
Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela
Other nameGrande Dame des Arts
OccupationsCultural promoter

Gallery owner Art advisor

Visual arts collector and curator
ChildrenRicardo Degwitz Maldonado Alexander Degwitz Maldonado
Parent(s)Iván Darío Maldonado Bello
Elsa Blaubach Horrocks
Websitehttp://maldonadofamily.com/familia/

Milagros de las Mercedes Maldonado Blaubach (born July 9, 1944) is a cultural promoter, gallery owner, art advisor, visual art collector, and curator. She was the vice-president of the La Previsora Foundation, where she oversaw its associated art gallery and movie theatre.[1] She is the founder and current president of the non-profit organization META Miami.[2]

Early years

Maldonado was born on July 9, 1944, in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela, to Elsa Blaubach Horrocks and Iván Darío Maldonado. Her father was a lawyer and businessman, while her paternal grandfather, Samuel Darío Maldonado, was a physician and writer active in Venezuelan public life. Maldonado has identified her family's background in literature and the arts as a primary influence on her career in cultural promotion.[3][4][5]

Career

After completing her early studies in Valencia, Blaubach moved to the United States, where she studied art at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame High School in Indiana.[6]

She returned to Venezuela and began her studies at the University of Carabobo, studying art history and painting.[7] In 1969, she moved to Italy and graduated summa cum laude in art history from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma.[8]

In 1972, she joined the Venice Biennale; around the same time, she began working as a co-producer of exhibitions, art installations, concerts, and dance-theatre shows at L'Attico, an avant-garde gallery in Rome led by Fabio Sargentini.[9] [10] Between 1972 and 1974, she served as the coordinator of the performance, music, and dance sections of the Great Contemporary Exhibition in Rome.[2]

Work in Venezuela

In 1975, after establishing herself in Rome, Maldonado returned to Caracas.[3] She was hired as an assistant to Luis García Morales, the president of CONAC (the National Council of Culture in Venezuela).[11] In 1977, she became assistant to Gonzalo Castellano, the general director of the Museo de Bellas Artes, where she was responsible for coordinating programming and exhibitions.[6] Maldonado's management consisted of transforming, in association with the National Cinematheque,[6] the La Previsora Movie Theatre (Cine La Previsora) into an art film space dedicated to the screening of national and international films, art-independent and commercial cinema.[12] In 2000, the theatre received the Municipal Award for Cinematographic Diffusion as the best movie theatre in the city.[13]

By 1986, the Maldonado family, located in Caracas, was the majority shareholder of Seguros La Previsora.[14][15] The La Previsora Art Gallery, created under the responsibility of Maldonado, constituted a new space for exhibitions of national and international artists.[16] Maldonado served as the programmer, producer, and curator of the Gallery's shows until she left the position in 2009.[6]

Exhibitions in Venezuela

Figuration/Fabulation (1990/2004)

On the 75th anniversary of the La Previsora insurance company, the La Previsora Foundation organised the exhibition Figuration/Fabulation: 75 Years of Painting in Latin America, with the participation of more than 100 Latin American artists in the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas.[17] Artists included Rufino Tamayo—who was featured on the cover of the catalog—Antonio Segui, Antonio Henrique Amaral, Julio Galán, Mario Abreu, Candido Portinari, Armando Reverón, Luis Caballero, Fernando Botero, Mario Carreño, Oswaldo Guayasamín, José Gamarra, Flavio de Carvalho, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, María Izquierdo, Wifredo Lam, Amelia Pélaez, Anita Malfatti, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Oswaldo Vigas, Jacobo Borges, Carlos Zerpa, and Roberto Matta.[18] A booklet was published to accompany the exhibition with a prologue by author Gabriel García Márquez and reflections on the works written by curator Roberto Guevara.[19]

Goya's Caprichos (2001)

The exhibition featured a series of Goya's original engravings, supported by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, and Cooperación Española.[20]

Carlos Cruz-Diez (1992/2006)

To commemorate the 78th anniversary of La Previsora, Milagros Maldonado commissioned the artist and kineticist Carlos Cruz-Diez to redesign the main door of the company's headquarters.[21] This piece, called Cromoestructura, remains in the building, thus integrating art into Venezuelan architecture.[22] In 2006, the exhibition Cromosaturaciones y Cromo Interferencias was held, bringing together two emblematic works by the artist: a chromo-interference with moving projection and a chromo-saturation chamber.[23]

The Sense of the Modern—Leo Matiz (2007)

In addition to covering the Mexican muralist movement and its protagonists, including Frida Kahlo, Leo Matiz's photography encompasses many of Latin America's scenarios and characters.[6] Curated by José Antonio Navarrete, the exhibition focused on the beginning of modernity in architecture in Latin America, with examples including the Universidad Central de Venezuela, a world cultural heritage site.[6]

Walter Arp… Rara Avis (2008)

This exhibition reviewed the body of work on Venezuelan birds, developed by painter and ecologist Walter Arp for over fifty years.[24] Milagros Maldonado was the leading promoter of this event due to her admiration and respect for the artist's ornithological research, which was not well known.[25] The exhibition included more than sixty paintings that were exhibited along with photographs, interactive applications, and videos that reflected the vast number of Venezuelan birds, their respective behaviors, and physiognomy.[26] The exhibition was accompanied by a publication about the life and work of Walter Arp by his curator Sergio Antillano Armas, with a prologue by the Venezuelan poet Eugenio Montejo.[27]

Pancho Quilici: Tras Caracas (2009)

The Tras Caracas exhibition consisted of more than fifty paintings, installations, and videos in the spaces of La Previsora Art Gallery.[28] In it, the painter Pancho Quilici presented work informed by research with photos, documents, and plans of the city of Caracas that the exhibition curators provided.[29] At the time, Caracas was experiencing the concerns of urban growth, and Milagros Maldonado proposed dialogue with the artist to generate a meeting point for perception and reflection on Caracas.[30] Quilici combined his memories of the capital with a vision of nostalgia and futurism, with forms including incomplete buildings, labyrinths, and semi-transparent geometric forms.[31]

Work in Miami

By the time Maldonado left La Previsora Foundation in 2009, she had assembled an extensive art collection that included artists such as Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Fernando Botero, Antonio Seguí, José Gamarra, Luis Caballero, Ramón Alejandro, Gerardo Chávez, Agustín Cárdenas, Pancho Quilici, Armando Morales, and Jacobo Borges and Armando Reverón.[9][32] This collection inspired the exhibition, Beyond the Erotic (2010), curated by José Antonio Navarrete, which included a series of lectures and educational activities.[33]

After moving to Miami and having gained experience in New York with exhibitions in alternative art galleries, she founded a new cultural space in Wynwood, which was motivated by the artistic boom that the city was experiencing.[6]

Miami Biennale / Maldonado Education through Art (META Miami)

Maldonado started working at Miami Biennale in 2010 and continued for eight years, during which she curated and produced numerous exhibitions, as well as musical and educational events.[6]

The main objective of this non-profit organization is to promote creative dialogue between Miami, its diverse cultural communities, and the rest of the world through multicultural projects. These include national and international art exhibitions, musical presentations, lectures, film screenings, book presentations, workshops, fairs, and festivals.[2]

Relevant activities
Year Type Title Notes
2010 Exhibition Beyond the Erotic Featured Maldonado's private art collection curated by José Antonio Navarrete
Exhibition Leo Matiz, The Expanded Eye
2011 Exhibition Convergence Paris. José Gamarra, Atelier Morales, Ramón Alejandro, and Panho Quilici
2012 Exhibition Exhaling Gnosis Michele Oka Doner's first solo exhibition in Miami
Event Piano Fest, Music Meets Painting
2013 Project Wynwood Ways Cruz-Diez Intersection Wynwood's first color intersection is dedicated to Tony Goldman
2015 Exhibition ILLUMINATIONS: An illuminating exhibition James Turrell's piece Coconino
2017 Exhibition Proposals on color, rhythm, and light, Waldo Balart
Exhibition Beware of Red
2018 Exhibition Horacio Zabala, Isolations
Exhibition and auction ARTTION, Acción Solidaria a Beneficio de Venezuela An auction of art for people living with HIV, and to get medical supplies for Venezuela
Workshop Empowerment through Art. Conducted by Patricia Van Dalen and Creativo Dance Studio, in collaboration with The Miami Biennial, Merrill Lynch, Rotary Club Brickell, and Miami Women's Club.
Exhibition Solid Abstraction. Strategies of Disobedience in Cuban Art
2019 Exhibition Mercedes Elena Gonzalez at Pinta Miami
2020 Exhibition Esvin Alarcón Lam, Inverted Histories First solo exhibition in Miami by the Guatemalan artist
2021 Exhibition Warheads by Mercedes Elena González To benefit the organization Acción Solidaria
2022 Homage to Venezuelan poet and essayist Rafael Cadenas, a celebration of his life, organized by Rolando Peña
2025 Exhibition Feminine Ecology by Mercedes E. González & Valerie Brathwaite

Film career

In 1986, Maldonado starred in a film version of Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos. The filming occurred on Hato El Frio's family ranch, but was unfinished due to a conflict between the leading actor and the producers.[3]

The director Diego Rísquez cast Milagros Maldonado to play La Malinche, the Nahua woman who collaborated with Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico, in his 1988 film Amerika, Terra Incognita.[34]

During her tenure as director of La Previsora Art Gallery, Milagros Maldonado promoted the making of several documentaries: La Vida en Color de Carlos Cruz Diez (2005) in co-production with Bolívar Films;[35] Leo Matiz, El Sentido de lo Moderno (2007), with the collaboration of Cuban photography curator and critic José Antonio Navarrete; and to accompany the 2008 Walter Arp exhibition, the Foundation collaborated with the television network Vale TV to create a documentary about the artist's research on Venezuelan birds.[36]

References

  1. ↑ "EFE 66: En octubre de 1993 fue reinaugurada la sala de cine La Previsora - Familia Maldonado". 2024-10-24. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  2. 1 2 3 "About". META MIAMI. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  3. 1 2 3 "Milagros Maldonado: Esplendores y Miserias" ["Milagros Maldonado: Splendors and Miseries"]. Monthly magazine Exceso N°1 (Caracas, Venezuela: Exceso Publishing House). January 1989.
  4. ↑ "EFE: 42 Natalicio de Elsa Blaubach de Maldonado - Familia Maldonado". 2022-10-31. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  5. ↑ "Maldonado, Samuel Darío | Fundación Empresas Polar". bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Stories, Local (2022-05-19). "Meet Milagros Maldonado - Voyage MIA Magazine | Miami City Guide". voyagemia.com. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
  7. ↑ "Grußwort Wikimedia Deutschland", Wikipedia und Geschichtswissenschaft, Berlin, München, Boston: DE GRUYTER, retrieved 2026-04-07
  8. ↑ "MIAMI BIENNALE. LATIN AMERICA WOMEN AND COLLECTING Large". YouTube. 10 January 2020.
  9. 1 2 Fox, Catherine; Cochran, Rebecca Dimling (2010-12-01). "Art Basel Miami Beach, Day 1: New private collection debuts - ARTS ATL". ARTSATL. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  10. ↑ Pansera, Claudia (2022-07-14). "In conversation with Fabio Sargentini". Juliet Art Magazine. Retrieved 2026-03-15.
  11. ↑ "Milagros Maldonado: Esplendores y Miserias". Revista Exceso. January 1989.
  12. ↑ "About us · Meta Miami". META MIAMI. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  13. ↑ "21-12-2014 by Revista_Epale - Issuu". issuu.com. 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  14. ↑ webmaster (2022-09-26). "EFE: 40 Creación de la Fundación Previsora. 1986 - Familia Maldonado". Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  15. ↑ "General 3". META MIAMI. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  16. ↑ "EFE: 40 Creación de la Fundación Previsora, 1986". Familia Maldonado. 2022-09-26. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  17. ↑ "I'm Not Here to Give a Speech". artreview.com. Retrieved 2026-03-15.
  18. ↑ Figuración Fabulación: 75 años de pintura en América Latina 1914-1989 : Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas del 4 de marzo al 6 de mayo de 1990 : [catálogo de la exposición] (in Spanish). Museo de Bellas Artes. 1990. ISBN 978-980-300-970-0.
  19. ↑ Guevara, Roberto; Museo de Bellas Artes (1990). Figuración fabulación : 75 años de pintura en América latina 1914-1989. Museo de Bellas Artes. ISBN 980-300-970-2. OCLC 23184554.
  20. ↑ "Meet Milagros Maldonado - Voyage MIA Magazine | Miami City Guide". voyagemia.com. 2022-05-19. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  21. ↑ "EFE 47: Cromoestructura – Inauguración de la puerta de acceso peatonal al edificio sede en Caracas (1992)". Familia Maldonado. 2023-07-26. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  22. ↑ "Camilo Ibrahim Issa: Carlos Cruz-Diez: el arte cinético en la arquitectura venezolana". camiloibrahimissa.com (in Spanish). 2019-08-13. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  23. ↑ "Carlos Cruz-Diez – Exhibition History". Sicardi Ayers Bacino. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  24. ↑ "Walter Arp…rara avis: Exposición presentada por Fundación La Previsora". Diariocrítico. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  25. ↑ Walter Arp. Government of Carabobo, Notitarde, Valencia. August 2009. p. 5. ISBN 9789801238584.
  26. ↑ Diariocrítico.com, Red de. "Walter Arp…rara avis: Maravillosa exposición presentada por Fundación La Previsora". Red de Diariocrítico.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  27. ↑ Avis, Rara (Aug 2009). Walter Arp (in Spanish). Government of Carabobo, Notitarde, Valencia. p. 5. ISBN 9789801238584.
  28. ↑ "Pancho Quilici: Trascaracas en la reconquista del tiempo". Analítica. 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  29. ↑ "Las Caracas de Pancho Quilici". Sala de Espera Venezuela. 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  30. ↑ Analítica (2009-05-06). "Pancho Quilici :Trascaracas en la reconquista del tiempo". Analitica.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  31. ↑ "Las Caracas de Pancho Quilici | Revista Sala de Espera Venezuela". www.saladeespera.com.ve (in Spanish). 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  32. ↑ "Beyond The Erotic / The Expanded Eye". UnDo.net. 2010-11-30. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  33. ↑ Suarez De Jesus, Carlos (2011-02-22). ""Beyond the Erotic" From the Founder of Miami Biennale". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  34. ↑ Amérika, terra incógnita (1988). Retrieved 2026-01-16 – via www.filmaffinity.com.
  35. ↑ #Documental - Carlos Cruz Diez, la vida en el color, 23 July 2020, retrieved 2023-07-06
  36. ↑ "Walter Arp…rara avis: Exposición presentada por Fundación La Previsora". Diariocrítico. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
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