14-bis, Visual Poetry and the Evolution of Modernist Aesthetics

Coming in August of 2026

14-bis: Visual Poetry and the Evolution of Modernism  

Curator Vallo Riberto is the past curator of Rule 42 and former director of the Southwestern College Gallery
Curatorial statement for the exhibition: 14-bis curatorial statement Vallo Riberto
Historian- Karl Kempton: visual poet, editor and publisher, curator and historian of visual poetry

“The title of the exhibition, 14-bis—drawn from Alberto Santos-Dumont’s experimental aircraft—symbolizes early modernism’s spirit of innovation and transcendence.  Just as Santos-Dumont’s invention reimagined human flight, visual poets sought to liberate language from conventional form, propelling it into the visual and conceptual space of modern art.”  – curator, Vallo Riberto

Through this exhibition, visitors will explore the history of literature and visual poetry as it evolved into an international art movement, Modernism.

The Bonita Museum of Art, Culture, and History is currently working with curator Riberto in preparing a major exhibition that will introduce a new generation of students and museum visitors to the significant historical influences of visual poetry and the development of abstract art, literature, and modernist and conceptual thinking.

Reaching far back into the Paleolithic period, Visual Poetry has deep, historical roots throughout Asia, India, the Middle East. Africa and the Americas, and has continued to evolve into the present age.

Watch 14-bis, Santos-Dumont 14-bis (1906)

Italian futurists Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carrà, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini in front of Le Figaro, Paris, February 9, 1912 (public domain)

The exhibition focuses on Visual Poetry’s Modernist period starting in France with Stéphen Mallarmé Henri-Martin Barzun, and Guillaume Apollinaire,,-1906-1919.   Featured publications include the Futurist Manifesto by Fillippo, Tomaso Marinetti, documenting how visual poetry spread throughout Europe and Russia.   In Russia this new poetic language produced ‘ZAUM”, the neologism of Russian Futurists and the Constructivists-1915-1921.

image: Isobar Press

In 1935 in Asia poet Kitasono Katie founded the VOU CLUB, and in the postwar years Vou practitioners produced some of Japan’s most significant and innovative Visual Poetry.  Today the VOU group has influenced an entirely new generation of visual poets, thanks to the publications by Tokyo editor and teacher Taylor Mignon.

The exhibition will also explore contemporary visual poetry and its resonance in the digital and post-conceptual era.

The curatorial and research staff behind the exhibition consists of, Visual Poet historian and psychologist, Dr. Harry Polkinhorn, Visual Poets and historians, Karl Kempton, editor and teacher, Nico Vassilakis, Crag Hill, Taylor Mignon, and Mathematical Visual Poet and engineer, Kazmier Maslanka, and Vallo Riberto, curator, retired art instructor and gallery director, Southwestern College Art Gallery, 1995-2017.

Lenora de Barros “Poema”, 1979
Cover image from Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 is an expansive anthology focused on concrete poetry written by women in the groundbreaking movement’s early history. It features 50 writers and artists from Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States selected by editors Alex Balgiu and Mónica de la Torre.

A catalog will accompany this exhibition