Surfside resident and Design District gallery owner takes Champlain anniversary to heart

Side-by-side figures in McLean Fletcher’s painting depict a prayer vigil soon after the Champlain Towers South collapse. (Photo courtesy of Swampspace Gallery)

In times of grief and loss, art speaks the compelling language of solace. Consider the many millions who’ve visited possibly the most profound work of public art in the past century, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

We’re living among moments of crisis, from mass shootings to war in Ukraine. Reasons to grieve bombard us daily. Art can offer a respite, an opportunity to console the soul.

It’s no surprise that in recent years more public art memorials are being created and planned to honor lives lost to gun violence.  In 2020 at the Bakehouse Art Complex, Chire “VantaBlack” Regans began her large-scale mural “Say Their Names: A Public Art Project,” commemorating lives taken by many forms of violence and abuse.

On Monday, June 20 the $2.3 million “Curtain of Courage Memorial,” in undulating bronze and steel, opened to the public in San Bernardino, Calif. It honors families and a community scarred by mass shootings there in 2015. Other memorials are planned in Orlando, Las Vegas, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Ruth Burotte portrays a wide-eyed young woman in hard hat and boots in “CHAMPLAIN in memoriam.” (Photo courtesy of Swampspace Gallery)

The first anniversary of another catastrophic tragedy, the collapse of Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside on June 24, 2021, recalled a daily unspooling of horrific news as we learned how 98 people were killed. It’s considered one of the deadliest construction failures this country has witnessed.

Surfside resident Oliver Sanchez took the first anniversary of the tragedy to heart. He mounted an affecting one-month exhibit, “CHAMPLAIN in memoriam,” at Swampspace, his Design District gallery and studio space.

It pays homage to first responders and a community’s need for comfort following a stunning disaster. Calling on talents of his close network of artists, some of whom he has previously exhibited, Sanchez curated a selection of painting, poetry, photography, and installation art by 12 visual artists.

On the opening night of the exhibition, on Friday, June 24, plaintive, soothing strains from a flute and harmonica played by Surfside resident Marcos Winer filled Swampspace, reprising what he did after the collapse. Winer would go to the site almost daily, recalls Sanchez, playing on the beach “for the lost souls hovering there. He did this for the dead, not for the living.”

Wanting to recognize the first anniversary but unsure at first if the exhibit was a good idea, Sanchez remembers some discouraged him by saying, “We’re moving on.” A veteran figure in Miami’s art community, he decided to mount it anyway.

“I hope it helps people process their grief on whatever level they are experiencing it.  Grieving is a part of life,” he says. “Art is healing because it brings our feelings to the surface.”

Sanchez points out a large painting by New World School of the Arts grad and faculty member Reinier Gamboa, who’s created murals in Wynwood and Little Haiti. “It’s really the anchor for the show. It’s so prophetic.”

Reineir Gamboa’s “Ruins of Miami” is the anchor of “CHAMPLAIN in memoriam,” says Oliver Sanchez, who curated the exhibition. (Photo courtesy of Swampspace Gallery)

Gamboa’s 2021 “Ruins of Miami” shows an angelic statue reaching out in a gesture of benediction amid piles of concrete rubble. In the background, glimmers of silver light may evoke slim but determined hope as they pierce darkening clouds over the ocean. Flying ibis, as graceful as ballerinas, elude a snarling dog. Dwarfing the statue in the foreground is a massive piece of earth moving equipment.

A smaller, less imposing painting from 2020 by Kiki Valdes also employs Christian imagery. It shows a crowd gathered around a crucified Christ, their distraught expressions somewhat in the style of Otto Dix, whose art was shaped by the trauma of World War I. “I painted this during COVID in Wyoming. I was painting all about spirituality,” Valdes says.

Other artists acknowledge first responders. In her gouache illustration on a digital print background, Ruth Burotte portrays a wide-eyed young woman in hard hat and boots. Eddie Arroyo, painting from a photograph taken by Sanchez, renders green-uniformed responders viewed from behind as they walk toward their shift at the site. Their no-nonsense professionalism is clear; their facial expressions must be imagined.

Some artists convey the tenor of those days in the immediate aftermath. Photographs by Tina Paul and Arhlene Ayalin record a community coming together to support each other. People contemplate a make-shift memorial on Harding Avenue. They gather in prayer when it was announced operations would shift from rescue to recovery.

“I was trying to get a sense of the beauty and sadness, not really to concentrate on the horror,” Paul says.

Resembling spirits themselves, intimately side-by-side figures in McLean Fletcher’s painting depict a prayer vigil soon after the collapse.

As a self-appointed historian of the disaster, Sanchez contributes an approximately 15-minute slide show, with 100 photographs presenting early history of Surfside, pivotal moments of June 24, 2021 and continuing to the present.

Eddie Arroyo, Champlain Towers Surfside, 2021, 18X36-inches, acrylic on linen, inspired by a photograph by Oliver Sanchez in “CHAMPLAIN in memoriam” at Swampspace Gallery in the Miami Design District. (Photo courtesy of Swampspace Gallery)

Art by Sharif Salem honors the memory of his father Nabil Salem, a longtime Miami resident and advocate for Lebanese immigrants, Sharif explains. Nabil died of cancer on July 4, 2021. Together the two watched television news about Champlain while Nabil was hospitalized. For the son, losing his father and the Champlain collapse are intertwined memories.

“At that time of the search for people, we were going through my dad’s last days. He was very concerned about the other people,” Sharif says, recalling how his dad, despite deteriorating health, fretted that the search was too slow.

Sharif has enlarged scans of his father’s official ID document in Beirut, showing a black and white photograph of his father at age 16, with notations in French and Arabic. In this context, his art may only seem tangential. It is richly telling for multi-cultural Miami.

“CHAMPLAIN in memoriam” is presented in partnership with Global Empowerment Mission, a disaster relief nonprofit based in Doral. Some works are for sale and a portion of the sales will be donated to GEM.  “If people want to support their efforts, they can give directly to Global Empowerment Mission,” explains Sanchez. “They’re really doing the hefty lifting.”

WHAT: “CHAMPLAIN in memoriam”

WHEN:  noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment through Friday, July 22.

WHERE: 3940 N. Miami Ave., Miami

COST: Free

INFORMATION: swampspace.com or 305-710-8631

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Public art exhibition on billboards in Miami makes a statement about jail system

Six artists’ works, including the above billboard by Faylita Hicks, are featured in the Art at a Time Like This public art exhibition ‘8X5: Artists Against Mass Incarceration, Calling for Judicial Reform’ throughout Miami. (Photo courtesy of Fred Vogel)

Public art brings art to people where they are. That’s the purpose of a billboard and bus-stop billboard exhibition throughout Miami. The nonprofit Art at a Time Like This commissioned six artists for “8X5: Artists Against Mass Incarceration, Calling for Judicial Reform,” to create public artwork meant to create awareness and spark conversation about the United States’ criminal justice system. Not just awareness, however, but more a focus on the inequities of mass incarceration.

The more than two dozen billboards have been strategically placed throughout the city near courthouses and government offices, according to Anne Verhallen, the co-founder of Art at a Time Like This, who curated the exhibit with co-founder Barbara Pollack. The title of the exhibition, “8X5” refers to the size of an average prison cell.

“The billboards can have up to 350,000 viewpoints a week,” says Verhallen. “It’s important to bring politically and socially engaged works to the public and make them easily accessible. . .to influence one person’s thought, to trigger someone’s mind, to make an impact with an artwork versus an advertisement.”

Barbara Pollack, left, and Anne Verhallen, co-founders of Art at a Time Like This, are curators of “8X5: Artists Against Mass Incarceration Calling for Judicial Reform.” (Photo courtesy of Dana Buckley)

Art galleries and museums, Verhallen explains, can be intimidating by design and, to many, not available whether it be because of economic constraints or a feeling of not belonging at a museum or inside an art gallery. “They might be intimidated in a sense that they don’t know if and how they can interact with an artwork or if they feel they aren’t an ‘expert’ on art. If you bring these works into the streets, you remove that element of access,” she says.

Art at a Time Like This partnered with SaveArtSpace, another nonprofit whose sole mission is to replace advertising spaces with public art. Both are based in New York.

The works included in “8X5” are by Guerrilla Girls, a collective of feminist activist artists, Shepard Fairey, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Sam Durant, and two artists who have themselves been incarcerated, Sherrill Roland and Faylita Hicks. There are no Miami artists included in this iteration of Art at a Time Like This. Verhallen acknowledges that is something that is missing in the Miami “8X5” project. Time constraints, she says, prevented an open call to Miami artists. Moving forward, they will include artists selected from an open call.

Strategically placed by the Freedom Tower and FTX Arena is the Sam Durant billboard as part of the public art exhibition ‘8X5.’ (Photo courtesy of Fred Vogel)

There are messages, however, that are Florida-centric. Guerilla Girls’ billboard cites statistics: “Floridians are sentenced to prison at a higher rate than 37 other states and every nation worldwide. Black Floridians are imprisoned at a rate 4 times higher than others. Florida prosecutes more children as felons than any other state.”  Sherill Roland’s Florida facts are displayed by poking fun at the cheeky “Did You Know?” way of presenting information.

Guerilla Girls also have a public art billboard in Spanish at two locations: ¿Por qué ee uu tienne el 5% de la población mundial pero el 20% de sus prisioneros?

With the project next traveling to Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and ending in New York City, Verhallen says billboards in other cities will have some of the text-based art specific to those areas, such as the ones in Miami that accented Florida’s inequities.

The dates of the display in Miami are dictated by the contract with the billboard companies. Many of the billboards throughout the city will be on display through July 6. One, near the FTX Arena by Durant, however, will remain until July 20. Verhallen says that depending on the billboard company’s (in this case Clear Channel) schedule, some of the art may remain longer.

Guerilla Girls also addresses Spanish speakers in one of its billboards in two locations in Miami. (Photo courtesy of Fred Vogel)

Hicks, currently based in Chicago, born in California and raised in Texas, is one of the featured artists. (She identifies as a non-binary femme person and prefers a gender-neutral pronoun.) They spent 45 days in a Texas jail for a $25 check that bounced at a grocery story. It was May of 2010 when Hicks was homeless and living in their car. Because they had no permanent address, a warrant was issued and was never received, so when they failed to appear in court, they were found and arrested.

Hicks’ billboard, which, like the others appears in multiple locations throughout Miami, features a photo of a person smiling with an American Flag placed over their eyes. The text reads: “Hold these truths to be evidence, all are created equal endowed with rights, among these: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”

Faylita Hicks spent 45 days in a Texas jail whose billboard in the ‘8X5’ project features an ‘erasure poem.’ (Photo courtesy of the artist)

“I released an essay entitled ‘The Lineage and Language of a Liberation.’ In that essay, I mention that the conversations that impact us regular (folx) the most are not the ones being held via major television stations and political campaigns—it’s the ones being held at the bus stop or train station, the ones being had while sitting at the kitchen table or in a bar. A billboard is a conversation starter—and it’s one that desperately needs to be happening,” says Hicks.

Hicks is currently a writer in residence for the Texas After Violence Project, a nonprofit curating an oral history archive for people impacted by mass incarceration and people on death row.

“Before my arrest, I was a spoken word artist and writer whose work often focused on the rights and protections for marginalized communities both in and out of the US, including the performance pieces created to highlight human trafficking in Texas,” says Hicks.

Artist Sherill Roland spent 10 months in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. His work is part of the Art at a Time Like This 8X5 billboard project in Miami. (Photo courtesy of Fred Vogel)

In the decade after their arrest, they began to integrate music, photography, digital art and film into their work. Being included in the Art at a Time Like This project is vitally important, Hicks says, especially right now.

“My billboard is the opening of an erasure poem that will reimagine the Declaration of Independence,” says Hicks. “If the U.S. Constitution, the one that has been so mercilessly abused by our Supreme Court Justice over the last several months, is based on the principles put forth by the Declaration of Independence, then it feels only natural to evaluate the quality and weight of the language used  . . . and to consider if it is perhaps time to revise or start a new draft . . . one that prioritizes the inclusion of ideals and values of the historically marginalized.”

WHAT: “8X5: Artists Against Mass Incarceration, Calling for Judicial Reform,” Art at a Time Like This and SaveArtSpace

WHERE: Throughout Miami. See Google Map of Locations

WHEN: Through July 6, one through July 20

COST: Free

INFORMATION: artatatimelikethis.com

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MOCA extends monumental ‘My Name is Maryan,’ then it goes to Tel Aviv

Maryan, “Two Personnages,” (1968), oil on canvas; 52 x 64 in.  (Photo courtesy of Venus Over Manhattan, New York)

He shed his real name to reinvent himself from the person who was persecuted by the Nazis. While much of his work was born of the atrocities he suffered, the artist known as Maryan was firmly against being labeled a Holocaust artist. His wife, Annette, fiercely guarded his work for the same reason after his death at the age of 50 in 1977.

This aversion to what could be a rigid classification of his art explains why, after viewing the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami’s comprehensive and prolific exhibition, “My Name is Maryan,” you are left with the feeling that Maryan might just be one of the most overlooked artists of the 20^th century.

The exhibition is all-encompassing – “holistically” examining the chapters of the artist’s life and work, according to MOCA guest curator Alison M. Gingeras. Four decades of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and his 90-minute black-and-white film take up 12 galleries inside. In addition to 176 of Maryan’s works, there are 36 pieces by his like-minded contemporaries included, and 29 ephemera.

“My Name is Maryan” opened on Dec. 2 during Miami Art Week and was set to close at the end of March. It has been extended through Oct. 2, 2022. It needs to be seen.

“My Name is Maryan”  originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA), and will travel to Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami)

“It’s been three years in the making,” says Chana Budgazad Sheldon, executive director of MOCA about the large undertaking. After it closes at the North Miami museum, “My Name is Maryan” will travel to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for a five-month showing beginning in December.

Gingeras explains that while Maryan’s widow physically preserved his work, she was also known for being “overprotective of his legacy.” She says Annette “thwarted the work of art historians and researchers,” especially those who were interested in the works that explicitly addressed his Holocaust experience. “This certainly was an impediment to his legacy,” she says.

For MOCA, Sheldon says the museum’s mission perfectly aligned with an exhibit of Maryan’s oeuvre.  “The work that we do is both focused on connecting with the community, lifting up diverse voices and stories, and featuring unexplored art and artists.” Based on the scholarship and a selection of never-before-seen works from the artist’s estate, the intent is to cast a new light on Maryan’s contributions. “As comprehensive as this exhibition is, it really is a new beginning for understanding the artist,” says Sheldon.

So, who is Maryan? Born in 1927 as Pinkas (sometimes written as Pinchas) Schindel to Abraham Schindel and Gitla Bursztyn, the first 12 years of his life were unremarkable in Nowy Sącz, Poland. But in 1939, his Jewish family was captured by the Nazis, placed in forced labor camps, and Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. He was imprisoned under his mother’s maiden name of Bursztyn and survived several near-death encounters. Injuries inflicted upon him made it necessary for his leg to be amputated. The rest of his family perished. He was 18 years old when Russians liberated the camps in Germany.

He then went to Israel to begin his art training and after that to Paris, where he adopted the name Maryan, a common Polish first name, according to Gingeras.

Maryan, “Personnage,” (1963), oil on canvas; 60 x 60 in. (Photo courtesy of Spertus Institute, Chicago)

The story of how “My Name is Maryan” was born at MOCA comes from a personal encounter.  Sheldon joined MOCA in January of 2018 and recalls that she had only recently been appointed director when she was touring Art Basel Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center. It was the first year that New York gallery Venus Over Manhattan was exhibiting. There, in booth S5, were a group of paintings depicting wildly garish, cartoonish figures, yet sinister in their slyness. These were Maryan’s “Personnage” paintings.

“I recognized the work from catalogues that used to sit on the bookshelf of my mother’s house that I remembered from a young age,” Sheldon says.

Sheldon’s grandmother was one of the Hidden Children of the Holocaust. “She was hidden in a convent in France with the woman who ended up married to Maryan,” Sheldon recalls.

She says she didn’t meet the artist before he passed away, but she had met Annette and knew that her husband was an artist. “When I started working in the arts in my 20s, Annette invited me to her apartment on the Upper East Side. It was basically a trove of paintings and like a time capsule of all of his works. His paintbrushes, his journals that she had been protecting for years were there. At the time I thought, ‘Someone should archive this,’ ” she says.

After connecting with the Venus Over Manhattan gallery and reaching out to Gingeras, a writer and curator who is based in New York and Warsaw, the journey of “My Name is Maryan” began.  “It’s been quite the adventure,” Sheldon says.

One of the last works of the Polish-Jewish artist included in the exhibition is the 1975 black-and-white film shot on 16mm, “Ecce Homo,” which took a year to make. He is sitting in his Chelsea Hotel studio in a straitjacket, a Star of David drawn across his chest. He reenacts Holocaust memories, giving first-person accounts. The sketchbooks that preceded the making of the film are also included in the exhibit. The film and the books are compelling accounts offering a deeper understanding of the artwork on display.

Guest curator Alison M. Gigneras recreated Maryan and Annette’s Chelsea Hotel apartment-studio. It is the first gallery in the retrospective. (Photo courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami)

Gingeras traveled to Maryan’s hometown of Nowy Sącz. Back in New York, she visited friends and neighbors of Maryan’s from his days living in the Chelsea Hotel. That storied apartment-studio is re-created in the MOCA exhibition. It is, in fact, the first gallery in the retrospective.

“I wanted the viewer, especially one who had never heard of Maryan, to walk into the ‘Chelsea Hotel’ approximative installation and be immersed in his visual universe, to be saturated by the optical power of his painting when he was at the height of his artistic powers,” says Gingeras. She reconstructed the Chelsea Hotel studio from photographs from his time there in the 1970s.

And, it was in New York where he once and for all changed his name to Maryan S. Maryan.

For the exhibition at MOCA, Gingeras was definite in her decision to not follow a conventional linear chronology.

“If we began with Maryan at the start of his artistic life, we would have immediately overwhelmed the viewer with the harrowing tale of his childhood under Nazi occupation and imprisonment,” says the guest curator. “It was important to me that viewers be able to read his work on multiple levels and not just through the lens of his trauma and survival.”

Maryan in his New York Chelsea Hotel apartment-studio, 1974. (Photo courtesy of Susan Wiley)

The curator says it wasn’t easy to select what works would be included. “Maryan was a prolific artist. By all accounts, when he painted or drew, he would work in permutation and produced a lot of work in one go. It was challenging to edit down the work, but I attempted to give an overview of the range of his oeuvre,” says Gingeras.

She highlighted key themes in his paintings, while also going into depth about his groundbreaking film and drawings he made while in therapy for his Holocaust-related trauma.

There is excitement about the next chapter of “My Name is Maryan” as the retrospective heads to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Gingeras is working with Noa Rosenberg, Tel Aviv Museum’s Curator of Modern Art.  “She has unearthed new information about his time in Israel, which will be an important part of the Tel Aviv version of the show,” says Gingeras.

When it opens at the museum in Israel, Rosenberg, speaking from Tel Aviv, says it won’t be a carbon copy of MOCA’s exhibition. Rather than an all-out retrospective, there will be more emphasis on the three years the artist spent in Israel and a larger conversation, including but not limited to, how Israel received Holocaust survivors.

“His time spent here is unfortunately a reminder of how difficult, how detached, and how misplaced he was. When you talk about this artist here, there are few people who know the work, and not many know who he is still,” says Rosenberg.

Maryan, “Personnage in a Box,” (1962), oil on canvas; 60 ¾ x 60 ¾ in. (Photo courtesy of Venus Over Manhattan, New York)

She remarks that she was surprised to discover that there were more than 20 pieces of Maryan’s works that had been donated to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

“It is unbelievable in doing the research that we found so many works that he did while he was here, and they are very different from the ones that he made later on,” Rosenberg says.

Rosenberg says those works will be added to “My Name is Maryan” in Tel Aviv along with letters discovered. She says there will be two questions that will be part of the discourse: “Where does Maryan belong in art history? And to talk or not talk about the Holocaust?”

Her hope is that the exhibition can travel after its Tel Aviv stop to Poland and Germany, although she emphasizes, nothing has been decided.

“It is very moving to me that his work would return to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art where he had a major exhibition in 1977, opening just months after his untimely death. The Tel Aviv project will contribute to our effort to tell as much of Maryan’s story as possible,” says Gingeras.

WHAT: “My Name is Maryan”

WHEN: Through Oct. 2, 2022. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA), 770 NE 125th St., Miami

COST: $10, general admission, $3 for visitors identifying as disabled. Free admission for MOCA members, North Miami residents, and city employees. Other free admissions available. Contact the museum at info@mocanomi.org.

INFORMATION: 305-893-6211 or mocanomi.org

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Miami Beach native Michele Oka Doner leaves footprint on upcoming ‘Aspen Ideas: Climate’ Conference

Miami Beach native and artist Michele Oka Doner will visit the “Aspen Ideas: Climate.” Her artistic legacy has long been inspired by Florida’s fragile eco-system. (Photo courtesy of Don Freeman)

Whether or not she’s in sight of the sea, artist and designer Michele Oka Doner has the soul of a beachcomber, ever curious to comb her imagination for paths linking art and science. Those paths have taken this New York-based artist and Miami Beach native as far as China. In 2021 her “Velocity of Light,” inspired by clusters of stars, was installed at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum.

Growing up in Miami Beach, Oka Doner recalls how much she loved to play on the beach, obsessively sorting through sand to collect fragments of coral and shell. To her, they resembled an alphabet, a calligraphic record of natural history.

Those calligraphic fragments would one day find their way into her widely exhibited body of work melding art and natural history – work that now spans five decades. The upcoming conference, “Aspen Ideas: Climate,” from Monday May 9 through Thursday, in Miami Beach, recognizes that our coastal region is seriously threatened in this era of climate crisis. It will also pay homage Oka Doner’s various contributions to public awareness of the natural history of Miami Beach and South Florida, interlacing the history with her art.

Her artistic legacy, long inspired by Florida’s currently at-risk eco-system, now seems prescient.
For “Aspen Ideas: Climate,” the City of Miami Beach published a new edition of the book Oka Doner co-authored with fellow Miami Beach native, Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr. The book is “Miami Beach: Blueprint of an Eden.” Mining their families’ extensive archives, they detail the city’s cultural and political history, its distinctive plant life and geology.

“We’re going to give (the book) to sponsors and speakers because it tells such a beautiful story about Miami’s rich history,” says Michele Burger, the chief of staff for the City of Miami Beach.

Lauren Shapiro’s large sculptural intervention will be on display at the Royal Palm South Beach during the “Aspen Ideas: Climate.” The work, entitled Site-R16 Transect 1, refers to a now-extinct coral population. (Photo courtesy of Shireen Rahimi)

Conference attendees will also see subtle reminders of Oka Doner’s “A Walk on the Beach,” the stunning bronze and terrazzo concourse extending over a mile through Miami International Airport and commissioned by Miami Dade County Art in Public Places. The concourse is embedded with nearly 9,000 unique bronze forms, echoing the biodiversity of South Florida aquatic plants and creatures.

An image of one of those bronze forms adorns tote bags, water bottles, and staff and volunteer T-shirts at the conference. The image is inspired by a colony of star coral where each cell in the colony is a separate living creature but interconnected with the others in order to survive and thrive.

As Oka Doner explains, “Like star coral, our human species can join together and function as a colony in order to navigate a rapidly changing environment.”

The May conference is the first time the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Aspen Institute has addressed climate change, where it is bringing together local and international policy makers, scientific experts, corporate leaders, and other stakeholders.

According to Jon Purves, associate director, media relations and communications for “Aspen Ideas,” more than 70 to 80 educational programs at venues, both held in- and outdoors are in place to engage those attending with ideas about ways to address the dramatically altering climate. Attendance is expected to exceed 800, Purves says.

In synch with an ambitious event that promotes creative thinking about a momentous global challenge, there will be daily offerings of public art, film, and performances at Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach Botanical Garden, and Soundscape Park, adjacent to New World Center. South Florida artists taking part include visual artist Morel Doucet, ceramic sculptor Lauren Shapiro, and performance works by artists Dale Andree, Brigid Baker, and Michelle Grant-Murray.

Morel Doucet’s “The Ocean Dances Over Sun Buttered Mountains,” Porcelain, Ceramics and Slip Cast (2019). Doucet will create a piece for “Aspen Ideas: Climate.” (Photography courtesy of the artist)

Burger says Oka Doner inspired her to include artists in the event. Deeply involved in the planning of “Aspen Ideas: Climate,” Burger notes that while individuals may have their own definition of climate resilience and sustainability, some may be inspired by art or design, food or fashion to ponder their own environmental footprint.

“We are suggesting using art as one of those vehicles to inspire people,” Burger says. “So, we’ve engaged about 15 artists to participate in some kind of visual art and performance art program.”

Oka Doner plans to attend the conference. She says she is curious to see how it will address the “monumental shifts” Miami Beach is facing, commenting that the area is threatened by both rising waters and winds from storms that are stronger than in previous generations.

And there’s the issue of South Florida’s incessant building on vulnerable land that is cause for concern, she says.

Performances at “Aspen Ideas: Climate” will include work by Michelle Grant Murray. Pictured is Rose Water Dance by Olujimi Dance choreographed by Grant Murray. (Photography courtesy of the artist.)

“It’s a cultural issue. We live in a culture that if you overeat too much you can take a pill. If you have too much sugar, you can go to the doctor for insulin. There’s been a pill for everything. And we have not taken personal responsibility. The planet is not here for our use and that’s how it’s been perceived.”
Oka Doner believes that developers are looking to big tech to solve the problem, or as she says, “deliver the pill.”

She continues: “They’ve sold that you can build up, and that things will evolve. Well, perhaps they could evolve but the problem is nobody knows when a Katrina-like moment will come.”

Pondering where we are today, Oka Doner says that the culture has shifted from where we were even a decade ago.

“I think the values of zero sum, winner take all, are much more apparent.” She expresses disappointment by “the inability of adults of grown adults to sit in a room and do what’s best for the community not for their constituency.”

How to move toward solutions?

She does not mince words.

“We need a council of elders. We need everyone working together.”

WHAT: “Aspen Ideas: Climate”

WHEN: May 9-12 with programming, receptions, field trips, performances, and art activations.

WHERE: New World Center, 500 17th St, Miami Beach; Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach; Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, and other venues across the city.

COST: Outdoor art activations and Wallcast evening programming is free. Full day tickets, $150-$250.

INFORMATION: aspenideasclimate.org

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‘Forest: Ancestry and Dystopia’ is homage to the Amazon

Luciana Magno’s “Belterra” is featured in “Forest: Ancestry & Dystopia” at Miami’s Fundación Pablo Atchugarry. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Now’s your chance to step into a hidden world filled with fragile ecosystems, breathtaking natural resources and ancestral communities.

An exhibit titled, “Forest: Ancestry and Dystopia” — a lens-based homage to the Amazon tropical rainforest — is running through July 16, 2022, at Miami’s Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, 5520 NE Fourth Ave. Presented by The55Project Art Foundation, it features the work of 16 Brazilian artists who are known for capturing the heartbeat of the Amazon, reflecting the essence of its people, and sounding the alarm so that others can work together to  protect it.

“We want to create clarity and an awareness when it comes to this topic,” said Flavia Macuco, executive director of The55Project. “We want people to know that we have indigenous cultures. We have the forest that we need to preserve. We have deforestation, and we also have a mining problem. It’s very important that we bring this message to Miami.”

As part of this messaging, the exhibit includes a range of activities aimed at educating a new generation of informed citizens, including workshops, school field trips and a sensory-friendly exhibit tour for those with autism spectrum disorders.

“Falling Sky/The end of the world” is from Claudia Andujar’s Yanomami Dreams series. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

For Macuco, the exhibit and related activities perfectly align with the goals of her organization.

“The55Project has a mission to bring cultural history and cultural projects from Brazil to create an exchange with local American communities,” she said. “People enjoy it because sometimes they can only see the Amazon forest or indigenous people through the news, so when this exhibition started, we felt that we are doing our job in creating this opportunity to exchange ideas, and to create educational programs for the kids, and to open their minds to the problems that they will face in the future.”

Eder Chiodetto, former curator of photography at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art in Brazil, carefully selected each piece for the show.

“I looked for artists like Claudia Andujar, who opens the exhibition showing the deep wisdom of the Yanomami indigenous people,” said Chiodetto in an email. “It is one of the most touching works I know, because Andujar is an artist who makes very original use of photography to show the dreamlike universe of a unique and complex culture that is not her own.”

Walda Marques’ “Comigo ninguem pode.” (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Another featured artist: documentary filmmaker Lalo de Almeida, who poignantly captured images of the arson fires that wiped out 30 percent of South America’s Pantanal wetlands.

“Curating this exhibition is a political and poetic gesture that aims to sensitize hearts and minds,” he said. “It shows the wisdom and the transcendental nature of the forest vis-à-vis excessive capitalist ambitions that exhaust resources and murder indigenous people …

“Even the illegal burning of forests and the pollution of rivers in Brazil are largely sponsored by the demands of First World countries, avid for wood and ore. This attitude goes back to the colonization process that seems to have changed its features, but follows the same logic of the expropriation of other people’s territories.”

Chiodetto believes the exhibit is one way to inform people today while also addressing the concerns of tomorrow, serving as a visual reminder that each person has an important role to play: “It is high time for everyone to use their full potential to create awareness of the world we will leave for future generations.”

WHAT: “Forest: Ancestry and Dystopia” exhibit

WHEN: Through July 16, 2022

WHERE: Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, 5520 NE Fourth Ave., Miami

COST: Free

INFORMATION: email info@the55project.com; visit the55project.com or fundacionpabloatchugarrymiami.com

‘Aerial Vision’ at Wolfsonian-FIU coming to a close

The Eiffel Tower, created for the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, was the tallest structure in the world at one point. This drawing study from 1937 is by Andre Grenet, who was married to the granddaughter of Gustave Eiffel. (Photo/Lynton Gardiner)

“Aerial Vision” at The Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach is all about point of view.

Or, as curator Lea Nickless puts it, “how you look at things from different perspectives and how that has an impact…

“The idea of the exhibition is how the early 20th-century technologies of skyscrapers and airplanes provided a previously unavailable platform to see and interpret the world.”

On display through April 24, the exhibition utilizes paintings, prints, drawings, magazine covers, postcards, sheet music, collector plates and other objects to show how these inventions gave birth to a new era that was born practically overnight.

A chandelier (1937) by architect Kjell Westin for The Norma Restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, has transportation images etched in glass. (Photo/Lynton Gardiner)

“This new view affected everyone … artists, architects, urban planners and designers,” Nickless says, adding that it sparked creativity and introduced novel approaches for living, working and traveling. “Everything in the exhibition is a result of an interpretation of this new view by a visual thinker.”

In effect, the exhibition is a result of Nickless’ ever-evolving views of the pieces in The Wolfsonian collection, which she says today numbers 200,000 items and counting. It’s not a stretch to say that Nickless has an encyclopedic knowledge of the collection. She began working as an assistant at Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr.’s first gallery in 1984, at what was then known as Miami Dade Community College.

“It was called the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection of Decorative and Propaganda Arts,” she says.

In 1997, Wolfson gifted his Mediterranean Revival-style Washington Storage Co. building on Washington Avenue to Florida International University. The gift included about 70,000 items, which Wolfson had amassed from his expeditions throughout the world. There’s also a library with about 50,000 rare books, periodicals and other reference materials.

Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr. at The Wolfsonian-FIU. (Photo/Roldan Torres)

Many times through the years, Nickless says she kept encountering items from The Wolfsonian’s collection that reflected a point of view, such as classic airline posters that showed the view from above and other pieces with a perspective from below.

“Suddenly you are looking at the world in a different way,” Nickless says.

In tandem with how Wolfson himself views his objects – he’s interested in what he says is the “narration of the pieces” he collects, not just the individual items – Nickless kept returning to the concept of creating a perspectives exhibition.

Together with Richard Miltner, exhibition designer at The Wolfsonian, they arranged approximately 165 works from the collection into nine chapters: Aerial Art, The Sky’s the Limit, Urban Heights, Selling the View, Portraits of Power, Every Roof an Airport, Heightened Anxiety, A New Domain, and Free Falling.

This anti-war painting by Virginia Berresford, titled “Air Raid II” (1937-1938), depicts a woman’s outstretched hand gesturing skyward in defiance of incoming bombers. (Photo/Lynton Gardiner)

“Aerial Vision” pays close attention to detail including Miltner’s design of the space.

“For me, I like to say it’s not about my design, but looking at the objects and interpreting it that way,” Miltner says. “I did pick up on how there are specific shapes that are used [in the works], such as the architecture.”

The exhibition showcases some of The Wolfsonian’s one-of-a-kinds, including Art Deco bronze elevator doors from a Boston hotel circa 1929; a copper spire from the 29th floor of The Woolworth Building, which was the world’s tallest skyscraper from 1913 to 1930; an oversized beer glass with skyscraper imagery promoting Ohio’s tallest glass of beer; and two realty-scape paintings, one of which was commissioned by the Greater Miami Development Co. to promote land sales in South Florida.

One of the most important pieces, Nickless says, is a 14-foot-tall watercolor rendering, circa 1929, of The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: “We have never shown it before because of its dimensionality.”

The exterior of The Wolfsonian-FIU, in the building that formerly housed the Washington Storage Co. (Photo/Lynton Gardiner)

Almost 100 percent of the pieces are from Wolfson’s collection. (At age 82, he says he continues to collect every day and has no intention of stopping.)

Three pieces are from Wolfsonian staff members who are also collectors: two vintage photographs of Miami by Richard B. Hoit from development director Michael Hughes; and an 1955 aerial map of Miami and Miami Beach from accounting coordinator Larry Wiggins.

Selecting the pieces for “Aerial Vision” was a difficult task, Nickless says, and the exhibit features just half of what was on her original checklist because of space constraints, among other issues.

“The material is rich and deep. There is so much,” she says.

With expansion plans underway at The Wolfsonian, there would eventually be triple the space to show off the massive and continually growing collection. The new space is expected to add 35,000 square feet by late 2026 or early 2027, according to Casey Steadman, director of The Wolfsonian-FIU.

More space means more opportunities to display what’s now kept in storage as well as any of Wolfson’s new finds – pieces that he says “each are a part of a great chapter in this book of objects.”

WHAT: “Aerial Vision” exhibit

WHEN: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays and Saturdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays, through April 24, 2022

WHERE: The Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

COST: $12 for general admission; $8 for seniors, students with ID, and children age 6-18; and free for Florida residents and students, faculty and staff of the State University System of Florida. Free Fridays weekly from 6-9 p.m.

INFORMATION: 305-531-1001; wolfsonian.org

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Purvis Young art featured in his beloved Overtown

The Purvis Young exhibit is on display in the Premium Lounge at the MiamiCentral Brightline Station in Overtown. (Photo courtesy of Brightline)

Purvis Young’s artwork was a running commentary on his surroundings, a window into the concerns of his soul.

Originally from Miami’s Liberty City, the late artist was a well-known neighborhood fixture in Overtown and chronicled life there.

Now, in time for Black History Month, some of his pieces are on view in his beloved Overtown — thanks to a partnership between the Brightline intercity rail system and The Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida.

The free exhibit features 19 original pieces inside the Premium Lounge of the MiamiCentral Station, 600 NW First Ave., with a QR code video showing Young describing his artwork and his creative process. Both the art and videos were supplied by The Black Archives, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve materials that reflect the African-American life, experience and culture in Miami-Dade County.

“Purvis Young was a modern-day griot in terms of how he documented the Black experience through his eyes and what he saw in his environment,” said Timothy A. Barber, executive director of The Black Archives. “All of his artwork was created from what many people would consider trash that was thrown out: carpet, metals, telephone books. He took that trash and made it into a treasure through his artwork.”

Young, who died in 2010 at age 67, was a prolific, self-taught artist. His interest in art reportedly was sparked while imprisoned as a teenager, during a three-year sentence for breaking and entering. After his release, he was readily found at the library, where he spent his time devouring art books and studying greats such as Cezanne, Rembrandt, El Greco and Van Gogh.

When he wasn’t at the library, he was most likely puttering around in Good Bread Alley, so-called because, at one time, residences and bakeries were said to sell bread there. But the construction of Interstate 95 in Overtown brought a downturn to the area.

Young refused to give up hope, most days hard at work, urgently attempting to transform the alley into an artistic oasis. Through his vision, Young ultimately took the art world by storm.

“Here is a man that was considered crazy and homeless. He painted on wood, metal, whatever he could find, and hung them outside of abandoned buildings,” Barber said. “Now this is the same artwork in museums across the world.”

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Keon Hardemon speaks at the launch of the Purvis Young exhibit. Brightline president Patrick Goddard is pictured at far right. (Photo courtesy of Brightline)

Nationally, Young’s pieces have been featured at institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Young’s passing did little to lessen his impact. One of the reasons Young’s artwork is so important, Barber said, is because he looked beyond blight and focused on aspects that most would readily overlook.

“He drew people with a halo above their heads because he saw the good in everything that was happening in the community,” Barber said. “Showcasing his work allows for people to dream big.”

Barber hopes those who view the exhibit will be inspired to explore the artist further by visiting The Black Archives, which is headquartered within Overtown’s The Historic Lyric Theater and is home to hundreds of the artist’s works.

“We want people to know that The Black Archives is a repository for Black history from 1896 to the present. We’ve been around since 1977, and we are certainly happy that we have been given the opportunity by Brightline to showcase what the Black Archives are,” Barber said.

Brightline has also made a $5,000 donation to the organization.

“This is the first time that we have done an art exhibition in conjunction with Black History Month,” said Patrick Goddard, president of Brightline. “We are always looking for an opportunity to shine a spotlight on our communities …

“Overtown is a destination that has a lot to offer, and there’s a lot for all of us to learn.”

For those who haven’t experienced the art of Young yet, Goddard said it’s something that must be done in person.

“I’m not an art curator, but I find that Purvis Young’s artwork is the type of art that you have to see in person,” he said. “It’s so much more impactful that way.”

WHAT: Purvis Young art exhibit

WHEN: February 2022

WHERE: Brightline MiamiCentral Station, 600 NW First Ave.; accessible to riding public as well as from outside the lounge

COST: Free

INFORMATION: gobrightline.com/offer-details/307

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Hampton House portraits provide peek into the past

Raymond Elman’s series features portraits of Hampton House board chairperson Jacqui Colyer and former astronaut Winston Scott. (Photo/Lee Skye)

Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. Muhammad Ali. Josephine Baker. Aretha Franklin.

A revolving door of civil rights activists and celebrities – a who’s who of the glitterati – made Miami’s Hampton House a hub of activity and attention during the 1950s and ’60s. Situated in the Brownsville neighborhood, the motel was in the “Green Book,” offering refuge for Black travelers who needed a place to stay in segregated South Florida.

Today, it’s known as the Historic Hampton House, a museum that’s a hidden gem to many in the community. But now, there’s an opportunity to peek into the motel’s past through those who knew it best, including figures such as Enid Pinkney, crucial for her Hampton House preservation efforts; former astronaut Winston Scott; and Khalilah Ali, ex-wife of Muhammad Ali.

They, among others, are featured in a series of 40×60-inch, mixed-media portraits on view throughout Black History Month. The interactive exhibit is the project of artist Raymond Elman, who is founding editor-in-chief of Inspicio Arts, an arts publication platform sponsored by Florida International University. (Inspicio Arts has a video-sharing partnership with Artburst Miami.)

The series of portraits includes QR codes that visitors may scan to view video recordings of each person featured. (Photo/Lee Skye)

“I realized that African-Americans who grew up in Miami didn’t know [Hampton House] existed,” Elman said. “I teach at FIU and I have African-American students. I would ask them if they were aware of the Hampton House. They never heard of it. So I wanted to do whatever I could to try and shine a spotlight on it and help give it the attention it deserves.”

The interactive part of the exhibit: QR codes for each portrait.

“You can come in with your phone or your iPad, and scan the QR code and it will take you to video clips where the people in the portraits are talking about their experiences at the Hampton House. It’s really interesting,” Elman said.

The portraits will remain on-site at the museum, but visitors are encouraged to call ahead to confirm details. Anyone interested may also view them during the Historic Hampton House event, “The Greatest Weekend,” a three-day inaugural festival that starts Feb. 25, 2022. Co-presented with FIU’s Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab, the festival will commemorate the anniversary of the Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) and Sonny Liston boxing match in Miami Beach. Clay earned the World Heavyweight Championship title and the events of later that night at the Hampton House were eventually fictionalized and turned into a play then movie titled, “One Night in Miami.”

Elman said the mixed-media portraits are a departure from his previous artistic focus. For the first 20 years of his career, he immersed himself in abstract art, then moved on to portraiture. After moving to Miami, Elman met Pinkney, who is known for resurrecting the Hampton House after it fell into disrepair.

“She’s the one who raised millions of dollars to restore it,” Elman said. “She was able to galvanize and pull together a team that did all the things that needed to be done to make this happen.”

Artist Raymond Elman was inspired by the Hampton House after meeting Enid Pinkney, who is known for her efforts to preserve it. (Photo/Lee Skye)

The roster of distinguished guests from the motel’s past inspired Elman to capture the memories through the portraits and video recordings. An Ellies Award in 2018 from Oolite Arts helped finance the project.

“I realized what an extraordinary place the Hampton House was and the tons of legendary people who would either stay there or perform there during segregation,” he said. “They all came back to the Hampton House after-hours. People like Frank Sinatra used to come there because it was the coolest place to be.”

Jacqui B. Colyer, chairwoman of the Hampton House board, seconds that: It was “the social center of the South. It was the place where everybody wanted to be and to be seen.”

The Hampton House was also known as a hub for those fighting racial injustice. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was said to have its beginnings there.

“The manager at the time said that Dr. Martin Luther King practiced that speech in front of many of the guests because he was just testing it out to see what people thought,” said Colyer, who is among those featured in a portrait.

The exhibit, she said, offers a great opportunity to learn about the motel and highlights the determination and ingenuity of the African-American community.

“The Historic Hampton House is a treasure in this community,” Colyer said. “It’s a treasure because it speaks of a time when the African-American community was resilient, when the community figured out a way to make the best of a situation that it was stuck in.

“And that’s what I tell people all the time. ‘Green Book’ hotels were just basically making a way out of no way. And the community really worked hard to show that not only were they deserving, but they were equal, and that they should have what everyone else in America has, and that’s freedom.”

WHAT: “First Person Portraits: Hampton House Performers & Patrons”

WHEN: Exhibit is ongoing, but visitors are encouraged to call for details.

WHERE: The Historic Hampton House, 4240 NW 27th Ave., Miami

COST: Museum general admission is $25 for adults, $10 for children age 12 and younger; and $15 for students with ID and seniors age 65 and older. Tickets for The Greatest Weekend may be purchased by clicking here.

INFORMATION: historichamptonhouse.org/visit-museum

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‘Matters of the Inner City’ exhibit examines the Black experience in Miami

Artist Charles Humes Jr. addressed a standing-room crowd of more than 50 during a reception at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s Amadlozi Gallery. (Photo/Gregory Reed)

From boyhood, Charles Humes Jr. wanted to be an artist.

“I thought that this was going to be my career. I was going to be famous, I was going to  sell my works and that was all that I would do, that was all I wanted to do,” said the Miami native. “But then reality set in.”

There were bills to pay, a family to support. So for more than 30 years, Humes shared this passion as an art teacher with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Now, the artist gets to enjoy his first solo exhibition in decades, on display at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s Amadlozi Gallery through Feb. 19, 2022.

“Matters of the Inner City” showcases work in a variety of media, examining “the psyche and state of the Black experience in Miami and its inner cities,” according to his artist statement.

Having retired, Humes found himself, as many did, with time on his hands and a lot on his mind in 2020, living through the COVID-19 lockdown and the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.

“I said to myself, ‘Well, you know, what about here in Liberty City? What can I do as a visual artist to make people aware of the situation and struggles that Black people, people of color, are dealing with?’”

“Matters of the Inner City” showcases works in a variety of media, examining “the psyche and state of the Black experience in Miami and its inner cities,” according to Charles Hume Jr.’s artist statement. (Photo/Gregory Reed)

The results include stunning pieces that make use of a technique Humes calls mosaic collage, featuring meticulously trimmed bits of paper taken from printed material. Humes adheres the scraps to create depth and shadows. They also make statements, if one reads the fine print.

Full-sized photographs of these works fail to convey their intricacy.

While the exhibition is a collection of beautiful artworks, some of the pieces have quite humble beginnings.

“A lot of the works I guess you could call the real found art,” said Humes, relating how he would go “foraging,” looking around for discarded materials he could put to use.

Once he found a bunch of rolled canvases behind a furniture store: “It was my lucky day, I said, ‘Bonanza!’”

The stuff was soaked and soiled, he said, but you’d never know that to see it adorned and displayed as it is now.

Other works on exhibit, notably drawings, are simpler. At this point in his career, Humes said he’s less concerned with producing beautiful work than with getting a point across.

“Matters of the Inner City” was produced with the support of Oolite Arts. (Photo/Gregory Reed)

“I’ve been criticized for that because sometimes it looks like a work is not finished, it’s a little bit hard or uneven, but that’s just the way it is,” he said.

“Matters of the Inner City” was produced with the support of Oolite Arts; Humes won one of its Creator Awards in 2020. He spoke before a standing-room crowd of more than 50 at a Jan. 22 reception at the gallery.

During Miami Art Week 2021, Amadlozi Gallery hosted “Le Art Noir, Diversity in Color,” in partnership with former Miami Dolphins player Louis Oliver. Its next exhibit, featuring mixed-media folk art, is expected to open in March.

Now back to doing his life’s work full time, Humes looks forward to a show in Miami Beach later this year. And he has an idea for a set of pieces inspired by Paul Cadmus’ “The Seven Deadly Sins” series.

“But it may take on a whole different meaning  than just greed and avarice and all those things,” he said. “I’m going to connect it with what’s going on here in Miami.”

WHAT: “Matters of the Inner City,” a solo exhibition by Charles Humes Jr.

WHEN: Through Feb. 19, 2022. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Appointments available; call 305-638-6771 for details.

WHERE: Amadlozi Gallery at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami

COST: Free

INFORMATION: ahcacmiami.org

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‘Prelude to 2100’ at Deering Estate envisions Miami in the future

Actor Dito Sudito portrays the Indonesian-born Buana, a character in Susan Caraballo and Juan C. Sanchez’s play, which is part of “Prelude to 2100.” (Photo/Armando Rodriguez)

“Prelude to 2100” is artist Susan Caraballo’s vision of a future Miami besieged by climate change.

Set decades from now, this immersive arts experience allows us to see much of what we’ll need in order to live in a world that could change in ways we can’t — or don’t want to — imagine.

Collaboration. Community. Ingenuity. Adaptation.

And inspiration. “I’m trying to create ways to think about our future. What are things we could do now?” says Caraballo, the project’s curator and producer. “Part of the challenge is people feel they can’t do anything [about climate change]. How can you make people feel empowered? Because you have to have hope.”

“Prelude to 2100” is set for Feb. 3-4 and 6 at the historic Deering Estate in south Miami-Dade County, bringing together more than 30 Miami artists from the theater, dance, visual arts, music, performance, and harder-to-define creative arenas.

The central concept and theater performance imagines the Deering Estate in 2050 as a co-housing complex, where its residents — climate refugees from throughout the United States and the world, are hosting an open house to interview potential new members of their community. Actors play the residents in interlocking scenes written by Juan C. Sanchez, the playwright known for the popular “Miami Motel Stories” immersive theater project.

They are surrounded by other pieces and performances that present ingenious reactions to a Miami transformed by higher seas, hotter temperatures, more frequent hurricanes, and other possible consequences of a changing climate. Most pieces are interactive in ways that provoke visitors to think about how they contribute, negatively or positively, to that transformation.

Susan Caraballo, creator of “Prelude to 2100,” was one of the artists chosen for MDC’s Live Arts Lab Alliance (LALA) Artist-in-residence Program and its EcoCultura series. (Photo/Armando Rodriguez)

For example, artist Kerry Phillips, whose work straddles the worlds of installations and performance, has created a thrift store/library of things where people can borrow or buy things they need. The idea of a library of useful things is among the real-world strategies in the “degrowth movement,” which advocates moving away from consumption-driven, constant economic growth and toward a system that prioritizes environmental and social well-being. Proceeds from purchases at Phillips’ spot will go to climate-change nonprofit groups.

Ticket-buyers to “Prelude to 2100” will get $5 worth of artist Carrie Sieh’s special hyperlocal currency, which they can use to purchase from Phillips’ store, buy drinks or food from on-site vendors, or donate to a climate nonprofit organization. The idea is to get people thinking about the effects of their spending.

To get one of artist Laurencia Strauss’ bubble pops — ice cream popsicles in the shape of the Miami skyline — guests will need to write down an idea for dealing with climate change. Once the treat is consumed, the leftover wooden stick will reveal an inscription the advice of previous participants.

While the overall concept is Caraballo’s, bringing together different artists to contribute other ways to express that idea was equally crucial to “Prelude to 2100,” as artistic collaboration became a metaphor for how she believes people will need to work together to deal with the climate crisis. She and Phillips came up with the thrift store/library idea together. She and Sanchez worked on the story and characters for the central theater piece, also shaped by director Jennifer de Castroverde, sometimes adapting characters to fit the actors.

“Am I the curator or the collaborator?” Caraballo says. “I wanted to use people’s talents and art and integrate them into a story similar to the way you curate an exhibit. This is doing that, but on a multidisciplinary level.”

“Prelude to 2100” has a multipronged history and network of participants and supporters. It’s presented by the Deering Estate, Caraballo’s #ARTiculatingClimate initiative, and Miami Dade College’s Live Arts Miami performing arts series. Caraballo was one of the artists chosen for MDC’s Live Arts Lab Alliance (LALA) Artist-in-residence Program and its EcoCultura series, which gave six (mostly dance) Miami artists grants to create, market and produce works addressing climate change.

“Prelude to 2100” includes fellow EcoCultura artists, including choreographer Michelle Grant-Murray, whose “UnEarth” uses an ancient African diasporic legend to explore collective and ancestral memory through the Black female body. Choreographer Sandra Portal-Andreu’s dance solo, “Terra Firma,” is performed by Stephanie Bastos — and inspired both by collaborator Betty Osceola, a Miccosukee poet, Everglades educator and activist, and by Portal-Andreu’s investigation of her own identity as the daughter of immigrants.

“What is the native community’s relationship to the land that we aren’t taught?” says Portal-Andreu. “As an immigrant in this space, what am I missing in terms of history and culture and knowledge? It is about land acknowledgement, but also about honoring the memories created in this place.”

Stephanie Bastos, pictured, performs Sandra Portal- Andreu’s “Terra Firm.” (Photo/Mateo Serna Zapata)

Grant-Murray and Portal-Andreu’s desire to look to an ancient human past resonated powerfully with Caraballo.

“We need to look to the past, to ancestors and indigenous knowledge, to look to the future,” she says.

EcoCultura was Live Arts Miami’s response to a crucial Miami problem: “We started EcoCultura because we were driven to do something about the ever-worsening climate crisis,” says Live Arts Miami executive director Kathryn Garcia. “We believe that artists are powerful agents of change and transformation, the social catalysts of social and environmental justice.”

Garcia believes Caraballo’s “Prelude to 2100” is a potent way to provoke that change.

“Susan is facing head-on all the anxiety we live with about what Miami will be like in the future by immersing us directly in it,” she says. “She is proposing alternative ways of living that are in better balance with the natural systems we depend on. So, it is at once realistic and full of imagination. That seems to me the perfect metaphor for how we should all proceed as we confront the climate crisis.”

“Prelude to 2100” is also inspired by Caraballo’s desire to change her own life. In 2016, she was feeling burnt out by the relentless professional hustle of working as an independent curator, while also driven to act on the social justice and climate issues she felt were upending the world. She received a 2019 Knight Arts Challenge grant for the project, #ARTiculatingClimate: Art Actions for Change.

But even as she got the grants and residencies, the pandemic forced her to slow down, as well as to manage the changing obstacles created by COVID-19. That process got her thinking about how she, and everyone else, will have to change along with the climate.

“We need to slow down,” Caraballo says. “We have to be sustainable; we’re working ourselves to death. It’s not what life is about.”

The latest adaptation came when the Omicron wave prompted Deering and Live Arts Miami to cut performances of “Prelude to 2100” from two weekends to one, and to move the painstakingly staged play outside. After two years of working toward the event, this could have been intensely frustrating. But Caraballo seems to be taking it in stride.

“If we want to survive,” she says, “we have to adapt.”

And isn’t that the whole point?

WHAT: “Prelude to 2100”

WHEN: 7-10 p.m. Feb. 3-4 and 6-9 p.m. Feb. 6

WHERE: Deering Estate, 16701 SW 72nd Ave., Miami

COST: $20 a person

SAFETY PROTOCOLS: Facial coverings will be required indoors, and all visitors and staff must maintain social distancing.

INFORMATION: liveartsmiami.org/events/prelude-to-2100

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Known as godmother of Miami’s arts scene, Mira Lehr is on fire

Mira Lehr in her Miami Beach studio. (Photo by Michael E. Fryd)

To many, she is the godmother of Miami’s arts scene.

Trailblazing eco-feminist artist Mira Lehr has dramatically shaped the creative landscape, clearing a path for those who are up and coming. Her work has been showcased by notable art institutions and squirreled away by private collectors.

She’s now in her late 80s – and the honors don’t stop coming. Just last year, she was part of the Visiting Artist Residency program at the University of Central Florida’s Flying Horse Editions studio, and her resulting artwork debuted during Art Basel 2021. And this spring, Milan-based publisher Skira Editore is expected to release an homage to her life and career entitled “Mira Lehr: Arc of Nature — The Complete Monograph.”

Lehr is a firm believer that this is no time to slow down.

“I love being an artist. It gives me a great sense of creation,” she says. “I don’t know why, but it almost feels like you’re a little mini god.”

Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., Lehr demonstrated an early propensity for artistically creating new galaxies. She recalls how her love affair began.

“I had those beautiful boxes of Crayola crayons and, when they were brand-new, they came with these wonderful points on them,” says Lehr. “I hated to mess up the points, but I loved working with my Crayola.”

(Video interview with artist Mira Lehr is courtesy of Florida International University’s Inspicio Arts e-magazine. Find more videos with Lehr by clicking here.)

She realized she was good, she says, because “in school the teachers always used to choose my drawings to hang on the board.”

She nurtured her craft and, by the 1950s, had her finger on the pulse of New York’s art scene. She studied with the likes of James Brooks, Robert Motherwell, Ludwig Sander, and married couple Nieves and James Billmyer (“She’s more abstract expressionist, he is more geometric,” she says).

Through the Billmyers, she was able to tap into a wealth of information, most notably from renowned modernist Hans Hofmann.

“The [Billmyers] worked a very long time with Hans Hofmann, so a lot of my knowledge came almost directly from him. I was lucky,” she says.

Then, in 1960, she moved to Miami, where she faced new opportunities but also encountered resistance.

 “I experienced a lot of negative energy about being a woman. When I started out, women were not recognized. If you were married and had children and lived in Florida, you would definitely be considered a dilettante,” says Lehr, who raised four children in Miami. “To be taken seriously was very, very difficult.”

Installation image of Mira Lehr’s painting, “Pandora’s Blossoms,” at Miami’s Deering Estate. (Photo by Zachary Balber)

 She also had to deal with the dearth of a Miami arts scene, but she fought back. In her first year, she created one of the first co-ops for women artists in the country and encouraged New York-based artists to come down to Miami to lead workshops.

“Used to be New York was it. If you didn’t make it in New York, forget it,” Lehr says. “But it’s changed now, Miami has a very big arts scene.”

Those who admire Lehr’s work know that she’s had a lot to do with that – and are thrilled that she has persevered.

“I am a huge fan of hers and have been for a long time now,” said Melissa Diaz, cultural arts curator at Miami’s Deering Estate, which hosted a nature-inspired solo exhibition highlighting Lehr’s work in October 2021. Titled “Regenerative Rhythms,” it included pieces created during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as “Pandora’s Blossoms”  and “Emerging from the Field of Reeds.”

“I really want to underscore how important Mira is as an individual in creating the Miami arts community,” says Diaz. “We often get lost in the Art Basel of it all, and that, of course, has really helped us to build and to grow. But Mira is truly a pioneer and really an icon of the South Florida arts community.”

Not to mention Lehr’s impact on women artists.

“Mira has made space for other female artists by being persistent,” Diaz adds. “Seeing her name out there, especially in the world of abstraction, which was so male-dominated, and pushing her way in and leaning in and creating space for herself, also helps to make space for other female artists who then can get in through the door that she’s created for them.”

This door has also allowed Lehr a platform to discuss the issues and explore the techniques she holds near and dear to her heart.

“I’m always interested in the environment. I’ve always painted things from nature,” Lehr says. “As our environment became more and more compromised, I became more and more worried about it.”

Large-scale installations such as her “Mangrove Labyrinth” offer fierce commentary on issues affecting the planet. Diaz says pieces like this one demonstrate how Lehr’s work continuously offers a new perspective.

Installation image of Mira Lehr’s “Emerging from the Field of Reeds.” (Photo by Zachary Balber)

“Every time I view these works, I see something new,” Diaz says. “There’s a new texture. There’s a new layer. There’s something that emerges or comes through to the surface that speaks to me, and so there’s never, ever a feeling that I have mastered each work.”

Diaz has observed how Lehr’s novel approach also extends to her technique.

“Mira is very relevant because she opens herself up to new ideas, new practices and experimentation,” Diaz says. “I really love her embrace of fire and gunpowder and burning as contemporary art practices. That’s a technique that is very risky. It’s dangerous, and there is a good chance that the entire thing will just go up in flames.

“So the fact that she embraces this kind of chaos and this potential for violence or destruction in her work is really great,” she adds. “I think it keeps her in line with other younger contemporary artists, because she’s constantly pushing herself to try new things and she hasn’t stayed within the limitations of one specific style or practice.”

On her path, Lehr continues inspiring the next generation of artists. She mourns the shift of producing artwork for commercial purposes and ultimately hopes artists will remain faithful to their craft.

“Do your work with confidence, love, and integrity,” she says.  “Work from your heart.”

For more information on artist Mira Lehr, visit miralehr.com.

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