Artist Yanira Delgado opens "Aíther: Sublime Time," an exhibition of cloud photographs and oil paintings, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the library lobby of the University of Puerto Rico at Carolina. The show runs through November 20. It brings together a selection of cloud photographs taken across Puerto Rico and three oil paintings extending Delgado’s exploration of the sky.
Delgado said the exhibition grew not from a formal project but from years of documenting the changing atmosphere above her, mostly near where she lives and works, using the cellphone she always carries. "I enjoy observing the patterns and colors of clouds, especially at sunset," she said. All the photographs were made with Samsung Galaxy smartphones rather than professional camera systems, a choice she called both practical and creative.
Graphic design professor John Rivas describes the project as an invitation to slow down in an era of rapidly consumed digital images, and says the work turns clouds into an "architecture that refuses to remain static." Rivas said the show creates a dialogue between the immediacy of digital capture and the slower process of painting.
Delgado said "Sublime" refers to landscapes that convey peace and to contemplation itself, and that she hopes visitors leave with renewed awareness of the beauty around them.