A New Chapter in San Miguel’s Abstract Art Scene: Three Artists Bring their Work Together in One Space

By Ferdinand Rosa

What happens when three artists—each with decades of experience and a distinctly different visual language—bring their work together in one space? This fall, San Miguel de Allende will find out. On October 28^th, artists Alberto Lenz, Ferdinand Rosa, and Gene Johnson will open Three Journeys in Non-Objective Art at Estudio Rosa. Bringing together three independent artistic paths, the exhibition also marks the launch of The Abstract Collective, a new initiative devoted to expanding the visibility of—and the conversation surrounding—abstract and non-objective art in San Miguel and the region. The collaboration is new. The artists behind it are not.

Together, Lenz, Rosa, and Johnson represent more than a century of artistic practice. Their work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private, corporate, and museum collections. Each has spent decades developing a visual language unmistakably his own.

Alberto Lenz works within the traditions of geometric abstraction and Latin American constructivism—not as a historical reference, but as a living language. His geometry is neither cold nor purely mathematical. It is tactile and deeply connected to ceramics, weaving, architecture, and muralism.

Ferdinand Rosa seamlessly bridges energetic fields of color with a disciplined sense of structure and mathematical precision. Intricate lines and reductive geometric forms create rhythm and movement, challenging perception while giving his compositions an underlying order. Within that framework, Rosa releases geometry from its rigid associations and transforms it into an open field for exploration and discovery.

Gene Johnson creates richly layered paintings in which geometry, texture, and color intersect. He builds bold compositions around the relationships between shape, balance, and luminous color. Crisp, carefully defined lines coexist with weathered surfaces, rich patinas, and accumulated layers of material and gesture. The resulting works reveal a continuing process of construction, erasure, and rediscovery.

Their work is unmistakably different, yet all three share a commitment to making art without relying on recognizable objects to tell viewers what to see. Instead, their work invites each viewer to slow down, look carefully, and discover a personal point of connection. That shared territory is where The Abstract Collective begins. Its mission is intentionally simple: experience, engage, educate.The inaugural exhibition offers the first opportunity to put that mission into practice. Visitors will encounter three very different approaches to non-objective art, presented together in a setting that encourages comparison, contemplation, and conversation.

On November 4^th, The Collective will extend that experience with an intimate symposium and panel discussion featuring Lenz, Rosa, and Johnson. The program will invite visitors to look beyond the finished work and enter into the ideas, decisions, and processes that shape it.

The artists will discuss their early influences, evolving studio practices, technical approaches, and the experiences that have informed their work over many decades.

The conversation

will be moderated by Victoire Sidhoum of French Doors Art Speakeasy.

For collectors, artists, admirers of abstraction, and those simply curious to experience something different, Three Journeys in Non-Objective Art offers a rare opportunity to encounter these three mature artistic voices—and to take part in the beginning of a new creative initiative in San Miguel. This first exhibition is only the beginning.

The Abstract Collective is planning an annual exhibition cycle designed to bring more of San Miguel’s abstract artists into the conversation. A Call for Artists is planned for January 2027, opening the door for new voices—and new journeys—to become part of The Collective.