MIAMI, FLA.- On March 10, 2016, Pérez Art Museum Miami will debut When Two Are In One, a new sculptural installation by Matthew Ronay which will fill the window-lined Patricia Papper Project Gallery, adjacent to the museum’s main entrance. Commissioned by PAMM, the installation comprises a series of brightly colored, abstract totems positioned atop a long, low plinth. Through a linear progression of organic forms, often anthropomorphic and reminiscent of biological structures, the installation alludes to reproductive and evolutionary processes.

“Matthew Ronay’s work is distinguished by its unique approach to ideas and forms, and to the dialogue it engages across the geographies and temporalities of art history. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to commission new work from such an exceptional artist, one whose practice is continually moving in new and interesting ways,” says PAMM Associate Curator Diana Nawi, who curated When Two Are In One.

Ronay is known for sculptures and installations that feature shamanistic forms and vivid colors, harkening to psychedelia and surrealism, as well as folk and non-western art. His playful forms—each meticulously hand-carved out of wood—are imbued with humor and a continual interest in the unconscious.

PAMM’s commission allowed Ronay to create a work that is specific to the museum and the Patricia Papper Project Gallery. By encouraging an artist to spend time at PAMM and make work that responds to or resonates with it, PAMM furthers its mission of promoting artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, using the museum’s space to bring artists with a diverse range of practices and backgrounds into dialogue.

“Ronay’s installation will complement the architectural space of the gallery, draw on pivotal art-historical moments and, simultaneously, be astutely contemporary. In this way, the exhibition mirrors PAMM as a whole—firmly rooted in the present, while ever investigating our past,” says Director Franklin Sirmans.

Matthew Ronay lives and works in New York. He was born in 1976 in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his MFA from Yale and his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. The artist has exhibited extensively at institutions including Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London; Kunsthalle Lingen, Germany; ArtPace, San Antonio; the Serpentine Gallery, London; SculptureCenter, Long Island City; Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; and Locust Projects, Miami. His work has been included in the Lyon Biennial and the Whitney Biennial. Ronay’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunste, Olso; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; and ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum.