Where the Suns Sleep on the Island Opening Reception

Imagined stone monuments, unconventional architecture and shifting perspectives populate Cisco Merel’s paintings of landscapes suspended between the ancient and the unfamiliar. The opening reception for Where the Suns Sleep on the Island takes place Tuesday, December 1 at David Castillo Gallery in the Miami Design District during Miami Art Week.

The exhibition centers on the “hyperlith,” an invented megalithic form that appears poised between construction and disappearance. Unexpected color combinations and spatial relationships unsettle the apparent weight, balance and stability of these imagined structures.

Based in Panama, Merel works across painting, sculpture, photography and installation, using abstraction to examine architecture, popular culture and social contrasts. He collaborated with the Carlos Cruz-Diez workshop in Panama City for more than a decade and was among the artists representing Panama in its inaugural national pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Gallerist David Castillo established his Miami gallery in 2005, developing a contemporary art program centered on cultural histories and individual perspectives. His work includes placing gallery artists in major museum collections and advising on public art commissions.

The reception takes place at 25 NE 39th Street.