Miriam is the first Australian artist to win The Annual International Religious Art and
Architecture Design Awards for Visual Arts. During June, the 2010
National Convention of the American Institute of Architects (Miami, Florida)
exhibited her award winning entry and became the springboard to represent
Australia's rich cultural life.
The Winter 2009 AWARDS
Issue of Faith & Form magazine published her winning entry, for
the painting installation Stations of the Cross.
The series is a contemporary melange of master techniques and innate expression
that elevates figures traditionally seen in art as ‘other’ to that of Christ
and his disciples.
“My art grows from a passion for the
civil rights movement and I have found inspiring voices in the oral history of
individuals such as Dave Sands, an Indigenous boxing legend. Painting a black
boxer as Jesus empowers the artwork. - The paintings resonate as well as
challenge and shift people's ideals.”
The boxer also informs her internationally acclaimed ©
White Rope 2010 series. Her painting "White Rope
III" was a finalist & selected to
exhibit at the National Art Museum of Sport, Indianapolis, USA.
Cabello’s series of boxers, painted in oils on linen,
show luminous torsos woven into a grid of gestural drips. She uses an edited
palette of primary colours to engage the viewer and let them step into the
subjects’ sanctuary. By painting the colour temperature of her subjects she
shares their resolve and journey. It is in this private place where the
poignancy of each mans gaze is felt.
Her paintings are created using glazed transparent
layers applied in an innovative, layered technique that she has developed over
the years. Cabello becomes completely immersed in the piece and its evolution,
as once the colour is applied it stays. Painting in this tiering technique
allows for the luminosity of each layer to shine. From the woven veins of white
to the heat of foreground red - inviting observation and consideration of the
raw, gestural strokes that inhabit each piece.
The series explores the robust male and how society
has created and disarmed him. The focus is on the individual and, like
Michelangelo’s David; physicality does not make the task ahead less daunting.
Cabello’s emotive paintings explore the spectrum of
her boxers’ story from the initiated to the robust. She contributes to the
dialogue of the male image in art, while her subjects determine their white
rope.
In 2010 Miriam completed the Golden Artist Educators
Program with Patti Brady and returned from studying in New York with renowned
artist Daniel E. Greene. This was an intensive 3-week workshop dedicated to
painting the figure from life and learning a comprehensive flesh palette
derived from the Old Masters.
To celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Caravaggio's
Death (1610-2010), Miriam launched Atelier Master School. This specialised and
exceptionally structured school offers Innovative workshops and private
instruction dedicated to the Old Masters’ Techniques.
“My aspirations and endeavours as a contemporary
artist are to interpret history, discuss injustice & apply masterful
techniques.
Inspired by Velasquez's virtuosity, I aspire to
assimilate the very best of artistic tradition and to leave my own unmistakable
and highly personal mark. As explained by art critique & historian Robert
Hughes, "To use what was old in a new way … didn't think in terms of
'copying' antiquity…Rather one (artists) sought and understood its principles
grasped its essence and brought that forward into the present". [American
Visions: The Epic History of Art in America, Pg 69]
Schumann best describes my other endeavour. "To send light into the
darkness of men's hearts-such is the duty of the artist". [Robert A.
Schumann - German Romantic composer, 1810-1856]”