HistoryMiami digs deep for ‘It’s a Miami Thing’ display
Written By Michelle F. Solomon July 22, 2021 at 7:31 PM
The six-floor flagship Burdines store, on the corner of Flagler Street and Miami Avenue, became synonymous with the city’s downtown in 1947. The neon sign adorned the corner of the building until 2005, when Macy’s, which then owned the store, renamed it and took it down. (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum)
“Someone once referred to HistoryMiami Museum as Miami-Dade County’s attic,” says Paul S. George, who has been the museum’s resident historian for more than three decades.
This “attic” is filled with all things Miami. Now, with the museum coming up on 81 years of collecting, and Miami celebrating its 125th anniversary of incorporation on July 28, HistoryMiami’s curators have combed through their vast stash to present “It’s a Miami Thing: Highlights from Our Collection.”
“The core idea behind the exhibit, as the subtitle suggests, is to feature highlights of our extensive archival and objects collections,” says Michael Knoll, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs and chief curator.
These items help “tell the stories of our community,” he says, and reflect the uniqueness of the city — they “help make Miami, well, Miami.”
A letter from the late 1890s from Henry Flagler to Julia Tuttle, as part of their correspondence for Flagler to extend his railway to Miami, is in HistoryMiami Museum’s archival collection. (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum)
“It’s a Miami Thing: Highlights from Our Collection” is scheduled to open with a community celebration on Thursday, July 29, and remain on display through Jan. 9, 2022.
So, what have curators taken out of their trunks for this landmark display?
Highlights include the trademark cape of TV psychic astrologer Walter Mercado and the landmark neon “B” sign from the Burdines store that was a quintessential part of downtown Miami from 1947 until it was taken down in 2005. There are the marvelous maritime treasures from a 1622 shipwreck found sunken off the Florida Keys, and a circa 1980 airboat from the Everglades, a donation from the Airboat Association of Florida, that was delivered and set up specifically for this exhibit.
“The museum is the repository for so much. I could spend months and years and never exhaust everything that’s there,” George says. “You really could spend half a lifetime going through its collection.”
HistoryMiami has some of the rare treasures from a 1622 shipwreck that was discovered off the coast of the Florida Keys. (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum)
The exhibit’s curators know visitors don’t have half a lifetime, Knoll says, so they’ve created a framework to showcase the strengths of the collection, divvying hundreds of items up by type of object, from textiles to objects related to architectural drawings to archival materials that cover everything from historic signs to cherished letters.
The textiles area is where you’ll find Mercado’s cape and another “don’t miss,” according to Knoll: a Bahamas Junkanoo Revue costume, made and worn by ensemble leader Langston Longley.
Turn the corner to the archival section and the area is dedicated to various items related to journalism. “There’s much from the Miami Herald’s history,” Knoll says.
Featured in the archival area are photographs, maps, architectural records, and the one item that never loses its fascination for historian George — a typewritten correspondence from Henry Flagler, considered by many to be the “Father of Miami,” to Julia Tuttle, the so-called “Mother of Miami,” written in April 1895.
During construction of what is now Hard Rock Stadium, crews unearthed interesting finds, which turned out to be Tequesta Tribe artifacts. (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum)
The letter is significant in the exhibit since it coincides with the date of Miami’s incorporation and part of the “It’s a Miami Thing” celebration. In the letter, Flagler agrees that, in exchange for half of Tuttle’s Miami property and the right to build a resort hotel near Biscayne Bay, he would extend his Florida East Coast railroad from West Palm Beach to Miami. Almost exactly one year later, on April 15, 1896, the first train arrived in Miami, and the town was officially incorporated on July 28, 1896.
“In many ways, it is one of the city’s birth notes,” George says. “This [exhibit] can really give a sense of where we’ve come from and, hopefully, what we are going to become. There is such a great variety of artifacts that point to these human experiences.”
The museum, as the official repository for archaeological excavations conducted in Miami-Dade County, also has some “remarkable” artifacts, which visitors will get to see in the exhibition, according to Knoll.
Construction crews digging ground for Joe Robbie Stadium, now called Hard Rock Stadium, unearthed an interesting find — artifacts dating from about 800 A.D. A state-mandated archaeological excavation of the site uncovered arrowheads and pottery associated with the Tequesta, one of the first Native American tribes to settle in South Florida in the 16th century, and copper arrowheads made by Seminoles living on the site in the 19th century.
In 2019, HistoryMiami Museum opened an exhibition of TV psychic astrologer Walter Mercado. He died that same year. The museum has many of his costumes, mementos and ephemera. (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum)
Also included in the exhibit are Spanish treasures salvaged from the 1622 Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck, which was discovered in the 1980s off the coast of the Florida Keys.
But the exhibit wouldn’t be complete without a lasting legacy left by its current inhabitants, Knoll says.
“Inside the gallery, there will be an area to record a video that will be immediately uploaded and added to the exhibition. This is where the public is invited to reflect on and share what their own personal ‘Miami thing’ is,” he says.
For those who want to contribute from home, the museum’s website will feature an interactive portal through which people may record their own “It’s a Miami Thing” recollection and upload it. Those, too, will be added to the exhibit, Knoll says.
In summing up the relevance of HistoryMiami’s exhibition, George thinks back to what Miami has been through in the past year, including the most recent tragedy of the Surfside building collapse.
“The past gives us a perspective on today and a point of view of the future,” he says. “The past is really a source of solace during times of crisis.”
WHAT: “It’s a Miami Thing: Highlights from Our Collection”
WHEN: Runs July 29, 2021, through Jan. 9, 2022; from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdaysthrough Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: HistoryMiami Museum, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami
COST: Free admission through Aug. 31. Starting Sept. 1, admission will be $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and students with identification; and $5 for children age 6 to 12 $5. Entry is free for museum members and children younger than 6.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Knight Arts Challenge has $2 million up for grabs for South Florida creatives
Written By Michelle F. Solomon June 21, 2021 at 2:51 PM
Kunya Rowley is the artistic director of Hued Songs, which began after receiving initial funding from the Knight Foundation. In 2018, Hued Songs presented Spirituals & Òrìṣàs at the Overtown Performing Arts Center. (Photo courtesy of Hued Songs)
Since joining the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 2016, program officer Adam Ganuza has reviewed more than 11,000 proposals from artists vying for its Arts Challenge.
There are three rules to apply: The idea must be about the arts; the project must take place in, or benefit, South Florida; and awardees must match the Knight Foundation’s commitment.
The process starts simply, Ganuza says, with a 150-word proposal: “Just 150 words, which doesn’t require a massive investment of energy to submit.”
Then, if the submission is accepted to move forward, prospective awardees are asked to write a full proposal.
Ganuza recalls being on the other side of this process. When he was production director of Miami Beach’s The Rhythm Foundation, more than $100,000 in Knight funds helped expand its “Big Night in Little Haiti” concert series.
“The very first grant that I successfully received as a grant writer was the Knight Arts Challenge program,” he says. “I didn’t know anything about grants or nonprofit funding before being exposed to the Arts Challenge.
“Now, becoming the administrator of the Challenge, it’s all gone full circle.”
Adam Ganuza is a program officer on the Knight Arts team. Since joining the foundation in August 2016, he has led the administration of the Knight Arts Challenge. (Photo courtesy of the Knight Foundation)
The biennial granting initiative this year will award $2 million to finance ideas from creatives in Miami-Dade, Monroe and Broward counties. Applications may be submitted at the Knight Foundation’s website from July 1 through 11:59 p.m. July 31.
Kunya C. Rowley, an opera singer and actor, said it was never a dream of his to start an organization, but the kickstart of a $20,000 award in 2017 for his proposal, “Hued Songs of Strength and Freedom,” led to Hued Songs becoming a full-fledged organization. Incorporated in 2019, it is now a Florida nonprofit.
His proposal idea was to create a concert series of works by African-American composers. What spurred him to take the first step into uncharted waters of applying for a grant was the feeling of accessibility, he says.
“Very often, as artists, there is no one soliciting our ideas, especially as performing artists. Then, here’s this platform that says, ‘Tell us about your idea around arts and our community and what you would build if you had the opportunity,’ ” Rowley says.
Now, with a stated mission, Rowley said Hued Songs amplifies the work of Black and Brown artists: “It is a platform where they can be seen, heard, and paid.”
For many recipients, the Knight Arts Challenge is their first grant, Ganuza said.
“In that way, it’s a bit of a gateway grant – an opportunity for people to engage with philanthropy in a way that has a relatively low barrier,” he says.
Kunya Rowley’s proposal for the “Hued Songs of Strength and Freedom” concert series led to Hued Songs becoming a full-fledged organization. (Photo courtesy of Hued Songs)
The basic through line since the Knight Arts Challenge began in 2008 has been: “What’s your best idea for the arts?” However, this year’s challenge has an added caveat.
Since artists and arts organizations had to adapt in many ways due to the pandemic, the foundation is interested in how they are leveraging technology to attract audiences and enhance in-person experiences.
“COVID-19 has been a major disrupter in every aspect of our lives, particularly in the arts and culture sector,” Ganuza says. “There aren’t many silver linings about this past year and a half, but there are a few lessons that artists have learned around how it is that they can create and present art in novel ways.”
The Knight Foundation wants to “support those organizations and artists that are helping to show the way forward as cities reopen,” he adds. “We want to encourage them to embrace these new forms of expression that mirror the way that audiences are now engaging in art.”
The Arts Challenge awards funds across a range of art forms, from visual arts, popular and classical music, dance, architecture, theater, film and literature.
“The list goes on,” according to Ganuza. “There’s no project that’s too big or too small. The message is that if you have a great idea, the Knight Arts Challenge wants to know about it.”
To submit an idea for the 2021 Knight Arts Challenge, click here.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Review: ‘Metaphysical Hotline’ is a moving sensory experience with a message
Written By Michelle F. Solomon June 10, 2021 at 2:34 PM
“Oil Ancestors: Metaphysical Hotline” is an interactive audio time-travel experience about power and responsibility in an era of rapid global change. (Graphic courtesy of LALA Performance Series)
Driven by a caring for the environment – although it goes so much deeper than that – interdisciplinary artist Fereshteh Toosi’s interactive phone theater performance, “Oil Ancestors: Metaphysical Hotline,” is an entertaining, sensory experience with a message.
The plot, so to speak, is that the Metaphysical Hotline is seeking “curious, open-minded volunteer participants for a research study about power and responsibility in an era of rapid global change.”
The 30- to 40-minute hotline provides an intimate conversational performance about the health of the planet. However, Toosi doesn’t push or prod the participant to be swayed into a particular way of thinking. Instead, they allow for, and hope for, reflection on the person’s ecological position in the world.
The initial conversation is with a medium (Toosi), who channels a futureling, a being from the “seventh generation.” The premise is that the futureling is trying to contact her grandmother but is instead transferred to the hotline participant, who is referred to as an “ancestor” during the call.
While the conversation has a lighthearted tone — as Toosi adopts a younger, inquisitive demeanor for the future being who has a few questions about life in the current environment — underneath the playfulness are some fundamental musings.
The work is the fourth piece in the second cycle of Miami Dade College’s Live Arts Miami’s LALA residency, with performances made in Miami. All the artists selected for the second LALA (Live Arts Lab Alliance) artist-in-residence commissions shared a passion for climate justice, according to Live Arts Miami executive director Kathryn Garcia.
The piece wasn’t originally envisioned as a telephone performance. Toosi said they played around with different ways of delivery, but since the ideas were in development before the COVID-19 quarantines started, they had to come up with a method that would be pandemic-proof, even if the epidemic had a limited shelf life. Which, as we know, it didn’t.
However, the hotline creates an intimacy with its one-on-one format. The live and interactive audio experience recalls elements of an old-time radio play. At different moments throughout the call, the futureling asks whether the participant would like to hear some unearthed historical archives.
One of the recordings is of Zora Neale Hurston, a Florida writer and anthropologist. She relates how she learned the song, “Let’s Shake It,” from a worker laying railroad tracks for Florida East Coast Railway founder Henry Flagler. Another recording featured the 1940s track, “Aladdin’s Lamp,” by The Ink Spots.
“We can think about our present times through the histories, through the recordings played [in the piece],” Toosi said
With “Oil Ancestors: Metaphysical Hotline,” interdisciplinary artist Fereshteh Toosi has created an entertaining, sensory experience with a message. (Photo courtesy of (Photo courtesy of Laura Mitchell)
The hotline conversation evolves from Toosi’s interest in how the past influences the present. Ironically, in speaking with the future being in the present, the speaker is put in the position of influencing the future. It is quite an astounding observation to consider.
“Oil Ancestors: Metaphysical Hotline” is free, and those who wish to participate are asked to complete a questionnaire online. Currently, there are only a few openings left for the run of the phone theater, but Toosi encourages people to fill out the pre-performance questionnaire for either a chance to participate or to help bolster a future archive.
The questionnaire is not a test and doesn’t decide whether someone will get a chance to participate in the piece based on the answers. If accepted, the participant receives a notification with an appointment time.
It is all part of the experience. The preface to the questionnaire states: “There is no right or wrong way to do the questionnaire. This is a space for reflection.”
The questionnaire gets the wheels turning:
What is one of your greatest strengths as a human living in the 21st century?
Have the actions of people from previous generations affected your life?
Please share a story about a meaningful interaction you’ve had with an animal, plant, stone, or waterway.
In a poignant moment near the end of the piece, the futureling extends an olive branch to the ancestor on the other end of the line: “We are really grateful for you and everyone in your time who are working to change how things are happening so that humans can get back on track for survival. The fact that we can find water to drink, and soil that’s safe to grow our food, it’s only thanks to the work that you are doing on our behalf.”
No matter which side of the eco fence you are on, the message of the “Metaphysical Hotline” is tender, but firm. It’s also an extremely well-done performance art piece.
HOW: Take the questionnaire for a chance to participate in the interactive experience at Oilancestors.com/metaphysical-hotline. Many slots are filled, but the artist says appointments may open up due to cancellations.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Review: Superblue Miami is a watered-down immersive experience
Written By Michelle F. Solomon June 4, 2021 at 2:05 PM
“Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour” (2017), by the art collective, teamLab, is part of the Superblue Miami experience. (Photo courtesy of Pace Gallery)
Cover up in a rain poncho, booties and goggles, and enter a space filled with bubbles that is meant to recreate being lost in the clouds. Then, pop into a series of huge rooms with black backdrops where computer-generated flowers blossom in and out as trippy music plays in the background. In another space, behold a giant movie screen that shows a dizzying film before opening to allow visitors to explore a two-story maze of mirrors.
It’s all part of Superblue Miami, the first of many planned experiential art centers set to open around the country. With the tagline “created by artists, completed by you,” the expectation behind this immersive art extravaganza in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood is that of the visitor becoming a part of the work.
Yet, it can feel like a confusing tangle of disjointed installations, instead leaving you questioning how immersed you actually feel after the hourlong experience.
Part of the disjunction comes from the odd juxtaposition. All of the inaugural installations in the exhibition, entitled “Every Wall Is a Door,” deal with elements of nature: clouds, flowers, light and trees. But artificiality abounds – computer-generated images of flowers; soap bubbles that form clouds in an enclosed room where visitors slog through while suited up in plastic gear; a shallow pool where the image of the visitor is distorted into a shadowy tree-like figure. Nothing seemed connected with the natural.
In the lobby area, visitors first encounter “Meadow,” created by Amsterdam-based Studio Drift. The beautiful kinetic sculptures are upside-down mechanical flowers, which open and close, but the visitor is merely looking up at the ceiling to take in the intricate design and its movement.
For an extra fee, visitors may enter “Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life,” created by the art collective, teamLab.
“Meadow” is the creation of Amsterdam-based Studio Drift. (Photo courtesy of Studio Drift)
Soap (the guide pointed out that organic soap is used) forms the bubbles that stream out of overhead chutes and from metal pillars perforated with holes. As explained by teamLab, the bubble-bath clouds are a floating sculpture where visitors immerse their bodies and then “the sculpture will break and naturally repair itself like a living thing.” It is fun playing around in the bubble room, much like splashing around in a tub without water. It didn’t, however, render an effect of floating in clouds or of being part of a sculptural creation.
(Visitors have the choice to wear a poncho and booties, which is suggested, as the soap has a sticky residue. Lockers also are available to keep purses, cellphones and other valuables dry, much like those found at a theme-park water ride.)
After discarding the “wet gear,” visitors may head to the next installation, also by teamLab, which features computer-generated flowers blooming all around. Apparently, when one steps on the flowers projected on the floor, the petals are meant to scatter and wither. But without clear explanation, some may not know they must stand in place to make the installation interactive.
Where to go next? A holding area awaits and visitors are instructed to don another pair of disposable booties, so as not to mar the floors inside the next two exhibition rooms.
Following a guide’s brief introduction, visitors descend black stairs into a large, white room for “AKHU,” created by experiential artist James Turrell. The white floor slopes downward in the spatially odd enclosure. On the back wall is an oversized oblong of light, which gradually changes color from pink to green to tan, tinting the room.
As part of Es Devlin’s “Forest of Us,” a film first plays, then the walls open up to reveal an infinity maze. (Photo courtesy of Andrea Mora)
Turrell, a pilot with a degree in psychology, refers to his light installations as “Ganzfeld” (for the Ganzfeld Effect, which – used in psychology – happens when the brain reacts to a lack of visual stimulation).
To fully experience Turrell’s work, one must linger with it for a while, to take it in and become immersed in how he plays with space and light. Turrell’s work requires a degree of surrender, but the experience of “AKHU” is stunted since, after 10 to 12 minutes, visitors are ushered out to the next installation.
The final experience is Es Devlin’s “Forest of Us.” A three-minute film plays, with a whirling array of people, nature and bronchi, and then the walls open up to reveal an infinity maze that its creator says is meant to resemble the human respiratory system. One couldn’t help but recall Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” which were displayed at ICA Miami during 2019-2020. But where Kusama’s illusion created endless reflection, Devlin’s twists and turns and the harsh lighting have become more of a selfie spot, as visitors line up against the mirrored tiles or lay on the floor looking up into the mirrored ceiling to snap their photos.
After more than a year of soulless disconnection amid the pandemic, of viewing art through Zoom screens, Superblue Miami should have allowed us to break out of the confines and once again embrace a feeling of connectedness. However, despite the obvious longing to involve and envelop its visitors in the works, the aloofness that looms over the inaugural exhibition makes everything disappear into the darkness of the space. And starting out by being covered head to toe in protective gear doesn’t leave much room to feel fully immersed in art.
WHAT: Superblue Miami’s “Every Wall Is a Door”
WHEN: Ongoing through at least 2022
WHERE: 1101 NW 23rd St., Miami
COST: $36 for adults; $34 for seniors age 65-plus, students, military and frontline workers; $32 for children age 3-12; plus an extra $12 for the “Clouds” experience
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Miami-based artist William Osorio keeps pushing boundaries with ‘Margins of Truth’
Written By Jonel Juste May 18, 2021 at 12:54 AM
For the Cuban-born and Miami-based William Osorio, the question of identity is personal. (Photo courtesy of LnS Gallery)
“Margins of Truth” is the title of William Osorio’s exhibit at LnS Gallery in Coconut Grove – and it is, he says, a paradox.
“When we think of truth, we think of something that is absolute and complete. When I use the word ‘margins,’ I am confining truth to a space. When something has margins, it has limits, and there is something outside of the limits, which is the possibility of all the truths to come to existence,” says the Cuban-born and Miami-based artist. “Truth here has to do with reality, the reality of all the beautiful things in the world, but also the suffering.”
Absorbing his work, on display through May 22, it is noticeable that some of his paintings reflect the reality of the past year. His COVID-inspired works illustrate the state of inertia the whole world found itself starting last year. Pieces such as “Conversation with Simone,” “Paraiso I” and “Paraiso III” show the stillness of time and bodies waiting to return to normal or adapting to a new normal. Some subjects are on a sofa, others in hammock or reading.
“His works are mirrors in many ways of what we’re going through today, the challenges we’ve gone through over the last 18 months since COVID, having to deal with interior spaces, having to understand our position on a global scale,” says Sergio Cernuda, curator and co-owner of the LnS Gallery. “This is an important exhibit that allows you to dialogue with this perspective of inner spaces. It’s exciting to have an artist being so dedicated to do what an artist needs to do, which is to document and discuss what’s happening in their surroundings and our time.”
Cernuda says he met Osorio about four years ago by following the Instagram hashtag #MiamiArtist.
“I saw one of his paintings, so I clicked on it and I really loved the talent,” Cernuda says. “I visited his studio and that was the debut of a successful relationship.”
That is the power of the Internet and hashtags. This is now Osorio’s second solo exhibition at LnS Gallery.
“We believe that he is an artist that keeps pushing the boundaries of painting, [with] a figurative expressionist style that continues to challenge the idea of painting,” Cernuda says. “It’s an honor to have his paintings on our walls and showcase one of the local talents in Miami.”
“Paraiso I” by William Osorio. (Photo courtesy of LnS Gallery)
The question of identity
Osorio’s “Margins of Truth” also explores the concept of identity as more of a journey than a destination, according to LnS Gallery. To the artist, the question of identity is personal.
“For me, it became a personal experience when I left Cuba, which is an island,” he says. “An island is a sort of planet in itself. When you leave the island, you realize that a lot of specific anthropological characteristics that you believed in were only yours and part of who you were.”
When Osorio arrived in the United States in 2007, he began meeting people from everywhere, “which is different from Cuba, where we have a very close political system and less foreigners.”
“At that point,” he adds, “I realized that leaving Cuba was the beginning of me climbing that self-mountain that was going to be my identity.”
He concluded that identity is something that is constructed by history and traditions. However, he insists, some traditions are not ethical today, being more destructive than constructive.
“Building an identity becomes a process of removing skins that have been given to you by your past and finding the skin you want to be seen in,” he says.
“Contingency I” by William Osorio. (Photo courtesy of LnS Gallery)
The art of Osorio
Though he has some formal training – having studied sculpture and painting in his hometown of Holguin – what defines Osorio as an artist, according to LnS Gallery, is “his rejection of continued studies through the traditional academic path,” and “the spontaneity and expression that he aims to achieve within his artwork.”
Explaining his approach to painting, Osorio says he wants “to put a light into the kaleidoscope of the human condition.” In order to achieve that, in addition to philosophy and literature, the artist lets several movements influence his work, such as action painting, also known as abstract expressionism. Geometric figures are a constant in Osorio’s works. Artists Francis Bacon and Jackson Pollock are some of his influences.
He is also an avid reader of international philosophers and poets, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, John Milton, Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges – whose books were in plain view during a recent visit to the LnS Gallery.
One of Osorio’s missions is to achieve authenticity. He admits, however, that it’s hard to be authentic while being fed information from everywhere, surrounded by meanings.
“We live in a system where everything already has a meaning. And the work of an artist is to create new things. How do you do that?” he says. “As human beings, we have the possibility to bring the infinite to the finite. That is how we create.”
WHAT: “Margins of Truth”
WHEN: Public hours of exhibition are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday, through May 22
WHERE: LnS Gallery, 2610 SW 28th Lane, Miami
COST: Free; timed ticketing will use timeslots to allow visitors in and out of the space; visitors are urged to reserve their spot online
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
New PAMM exhibition to pull back the curtain on Miccosukee symbols, stories
Written By Michelle F. Solomon May 14, 2021 at 3:49 PM
Felipe Mujica’s “Pyramid” (2021) will be on display at Pérez Art Museum Miami. (Photo courtesy of Luis Corzo)
Miccosukee tribal member Khadijah Cypress learned patchwork by watching her grandmother weave strips of contrasting colored fabrics by hand. The bands of the intricate patterns were then sewn into clothing – horizontal stripes layered into rows, which created a skirt, dress or shirt.
These patterns are now at the heart of an exhibition opening May 20 at Pérez Art Museum Miami.
With “The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls,” Chilean artist Felipe Mujica has woven Cypress’ Miccosukee patchwork and symbols of South Florida into large, abstract-design fabric panels. Together, they are telling a collaborative story.
“The patchwork themselves are abstract and that’s something I wanted to incorporate in the work,” Mujica says. “To see that applied to a much larger scale and in dialogue with architecture and in relation to space, there is an expansion of their knowledge into another field. And for me, it is vice versa. My work expands and incorporates their knowledge.”
This site-specific commission at PAMM – Mujica’s first large exhibition in a museum – will feature more than 20 panels, measuring about 6X4.75 feet each.
“Sometimes people will refer to them as flags or banners, but I call them curtains,” Mujica says. “There’s a connotation or a symbolism that shifts the conversation with that reference.”
Miccosukee tribal member and patchwork artist Khadijah Cypress opened a community center on the reservation, which is in the heart of the Everglades in Miami-Dade County, to teach the tradition of patchwork. (Photo courtesy of Courtney Cypress)
Perhaps he is helping to pull back the curtain, so to speak, on these traditional handicrafts that hold so much history and tradition, knowledge and culture – all transferred through the artisans’ hands in the work.
The Miccosukee patchwork designs by Cypress in Mujica’s fabric panels include symbols and patterns of abstractions of South Florida, including lightning, rain, river and wind. Mujica says he is drawn to the Miccosukee patchwork abstractions because of their symbolism and meaning.
“Most of the abstractions are something from nature – the elements or animals,” he says.
Mujica typically starts out with a design on a sketchbook, then the works evolve with the patchwork creators.
“He had designs, yes,” says Cypress. “I told him, ‘I’m just going to make whatever patchwork I can think of and we can figure it out later.’
“When we got together, I was looking at the designs he made and some of them reflected the patchwork, and that’s how we were able to put it together.”
While Mujica chooses the background textiles – mostly all of them, except for a few that will appear in outdoor spaces, are made of 100 percent organic cotton – in this case, Cypress selected which patchworks to produce and their color combinations. How the patchwork relates to the background and to the drawing Mujica creates from the outset is what he says creates the dialogue of the pieces.
“Each curtain’s title will have the name of its patchwork: Big Storm, Fire, Snake Skin, Steps, Worm, Turtle, Frog, Bird, Diamond, Man on Horse, Pyramid, Lightning,” he says. “And with most of the color combinations decided by [Cypress], this brings into the project both her personal and cultural self.”
Also, how the curtains interact in the space and with the visitor is meant to evoke interpretation.
“He’s interested in how the viewer experiences the work physically as well as visually,” says PAMM associate curator Jennifer Ignacio.
Some of the curtains will be hung by a single string. “Imagine a flat panel hung that way,” Ignacio says. “It is going to move around and rotate as the air flows. It is not going to be static.”
Others will be hung by two strings. “That is when the artist is making the decision of exactly where he wants them – that maybe those, he doesn’t want to move around,” she adds.
Chilean artist Felipe Mujica, now living in New York, collaborates with indigenous communities and its artisans to introduce traditional forms on his large, abstract design fabric panels. (Photo courtesy of the artist)
A third set will be hung by wire on a cable. “This is a way more direct way to interact. Viewers are meant to move them across the room,” she says.
In all three cases, the installation will be in constant movement, “whether that is created by the viewer or as a result of the space itself,” she says.
Ignacio first noticed Mujica’s work at the 2016 São Paulo Biennial in Brazil and says she knew in an instant that he was someone PAMM wanted to bring to Miami. At the root of his practice is the collective, where he works with traditional artisans and introduces the forms onto a different medium.
What she saw at the biennial was the partnership he had created with Brazilian designers and a local community of embroiderers from outside of São Paulo. He also previously partnered with Wixárika tribal artisans from Zacatecas, Mexico, incorporating their traditional beading method into his panels.
“We wanted to have him here and to show his work, but also in a way that invited him to look at Miami and connect with a community here,” Ignacio says.
Mujica’s collaboration with South Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe happened through an introduction by PAMM’s curatorial team.
“It was so out of the box,” Cypress says, about the idea of her patchwork merging with Mujica’s textiles.
To think of them being incorporated in a museum work of art was astounding to her, she says.
“If you were to tell me I could come up with something like that, I wouldn’t think I would know how to do it,” Cypress says. “I’ve always made patchwork for skirts and traditional things,” she says.
Cypress started a community center on the Miccosukee reservation, where she lives in the Everglades. It is there that she teaches others about patchwork and fosters the traditional craftwork of the tribe.
“It ended up being a marriage between the two interests, but coming from different angles,” Ignacio says. “[Cypress] is already building collaboration and building community within her own community and that is what Felipe’s work is about – he builds bridges working with these communities.”
The exhibition is also meant to serve as a platform for environmental and cultural issues of importance to the Miccosukee Tribe. The museum is planning educational and historical talks to bring attention to these topics, and Cypress welcomes the exposure.
“When we speak out, it feels like we’re just talking into a void,” she says. “I know some people are into art and hopefully it expands their world.”
WHAT: “Felipe Mujica: The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls”
WHEN: From spring 2021 to spring 2022; opens Thursday, May 20
WHERE: Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd.
COST: Visitors must reserve tickets at this time due to COVID-19 protocols. Tickets are $16 for general admission and $12 for seniors age 62 and older, students and children age 7-18. Admission is free for children age 6 and younger and first responders and health-care professionals.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Commentary: Miami ‘chonga’ culture as a tool of empowerment
Written By Nicole Martinez May 6, 2021 at 11:09 PM
University of Florida professor Jillian Hernandez is author of “Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment.” (Courtesy of Crystal Pearl Molinary)
Growing up between my mother’s house in Miramar and my grandmother’s in Hialeah, I straddled two entirely different worlds. The order and austerity of my suburban neighborhood sat in stark contrast to the industrial wasteland that jostled with the chaotic hum of Caribbean influence. According to Jillian Hernandez, author of “Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment” (Duke University Press Books; $27.95), the key to transitioning between these two worlds was dressing the part.
As the women who raised me always taught me: Makeup, heels and dresses were essential adornments for even the most rote errands. I was conditioned to be “presumida,” to take studious care in my image and appearance, and I took to the practice fondly, even as a little girl. I loved choosing my outfits, which I would often select in emulation of my favorite pop stars or film characters. As I grew up, my ideal shifted — and with it, I switched to bigger earrings and dark lipliner, and I smoothed my curly hair into a slick center part with hair clips, letting my ringlets spill out over them in an unruly mass.
As I transitioned into adulthood and a professional career as a cultural worker in the Miami art world, the colorful, oversized shirts I would excavate from thrift stores, paired with high-waisted shorts and a top exposing just a hint of midriff, would become a sort of calling card of my personal style.
Hernandez would declare the act of being “presumida” as one of rebellion in the face of white supremacy. It served as a means of obtaining legitimacy and acceptance from a culture that couldn’t have been more different from my own. But despite my best attempts, I moved through these worlds with apprehension — as my female classmates mocked me for being too “dressy,” as my male classmates created a fantasy out of my “Latinidad,” and as my personal style stood out in a sea of pristine black and white.
A screenshot from Laura Di Lorenzo and Mimi Davila’s “Chongalicious” video.
Within the messiness of my own personal history lies the heart of Hernandez’s empathic research into the politics of identity and aesthetics for Black and Brown girls. A culture of excess as a cloak for belonging “is why Celia Cruz wore spectacular gowns and wigs, why the late Chicana singer Selena bedazzled her bras with sequins and rhinestones,” and why the author’s Puerto Rican grandmother wore impeccable hair and makeup to work as a seamstress, just as my own Cuban grandmother did to cut hair in the garage of her North Miami home. Done in the spirit of assimilation, this culture of excess ironically only succeeded in othering and dividing us even further, as Hernandez’s rigorous study of body and identity politics uncovered.
“Aesthetics of Excess” is grounded on learnings obtained through Hernandez’s seminal program, Women on the Rise!, an outreach initiative that offered instructional art-making and praxis to young Black and Latina women in Miami. In the WOTR workshops, local female artists such as Hernandez, Anya Wallace and Crystal Pearl Molinary shared images by and of contemporary artists — including Ana Mendieta, Laura Di Lorenzo and Mimi Davila, Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, and Nicki Minaj — prompting discussion and active art-making like collaging and drawing, based on their reactions to the bodily aesthetics of these women’s images and works. She launched the program in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, in 2004. But as many of Miami’s longtime arts patrons know, MOCA’s board later decamped to the Design District, and the ownership of Women on the Rise! fell squarely within this dispute.
(Book cover courtesy of Crystal Pearl Molinary)
Hernandez threads this turmoil as a case study that proves much of what the book declares.
The book focuses predominantly on the “chonga” aesthetic, a look that is marked by hypersexualized clothing, bold jewelry and crinkled hair. If you’re a Black or Brown girl who grew up in Miami, chances are you went through a chonga phase. Based on consistently negative reactions from both WOTR participants and the public at large, and experiencing simultaneous appropriation and disapproval of the program by museum donors and workers, Hernandez examined why it continues to make people so uncomfortable.
According to her, the chonga aesthetic is simply the wrong kind of excess — it’s the kind of bodily appearance that doesn’t allow Latinos to assimilate into white culture and thereby raise their social status.
“I am struck by the continued negative responses to images of Latinas that embrace the aesthetic of excess,” says the University of Florida professor, during a phone interview. “I think that there’s still an investment among Latino people who aspire to success through association with whiteness to distance themselves from the aesthetics of excess.”
Noting that Black women viewed the chonga aesthetic as cultural appropriation, while white Latinas viewed it as trashy, Hernandez discusses how the Chonga persona is often viewed as an aggressor and is widely the subject of mockery and disdain. She breaks down the race barriers that exist between Latin, Afro-Latin and Black women as oppressive tools that keep us from uniting in a shared activism against white supremacy.
“Black girls view Latina girls as more privileged, which might seem surprising given the landscape of visual culture,” she says. “Even though we do have these representations of Black women that are very complex and affirming, Black girls and black women are still policed much more heavily than Latino girls.”
Women on the Rise! artists making collages. (Photo courtesy of Women on the Rise!)
Building upon the lack of Latina representation in visual culture, Hernandez highlights how the contemporary art world is loath to exalt Latina perspectives and embodiments unless they’re created by the “right” kinds of artists — pointing to the staged “chonga cheerleaders” photographs of Luis Gispert, for example, and the more candid chonga imagery produced by Nikki S. Lee, both of which received wide acclaim.
She addresses how Davila and Di Lorenzo, who went viral with their video parody, “Chongalicious,” faced being pigeonholed into these personas. She additionally notes that she’s been unable to place an exhibition about chonga aesthetics at a single Miami exhibition space.
“It feels like such a part of the identity here in Miami, and the fact that it is kind of tossed aside and not considered a part of the history is really concerning,” she says. “But I think it just goes back to a lack of representation generally in the mainstream.”
Dissecting the politics of aesthetic excess is complex work. It requires Latina women to reckon with their oppression. But reading Hernandez’s work suggests that excess is ultimately a tool of empowerment, designed to make us more visible and break down barriers of class, gender and race.
As Hernandez notes, aesthetic excess can make class burn — we just have to be willing to dress the part.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Artists Open: Enter Miami-Dade studios and watch art happen
Written By Michelle F. Solomon April 29, 2021 at 7:51 PM
Artists Open founder Kathryn Mikesell wears a design by Fountainhead Studios artist Pangea Kali Virga while photographed in Stephen Arboite’s studio. (Courtesy of World Red Eye)
Miami artist Nina Surel compares attending the Artists Open to peeking inside a restaurant’s kitchen to see how an exquisite dish comes together.
“It is like you are seeing the ingredients, seeing the work in progress — not just the final product, not just the art that makes it into a gallery or a museum,” says Surel, who is founder and coordinator of Collective 62, an artist-run space in Liberty City.
Surel is among more than 250 artists throughout Miami-Dade County who will swing open their doors on Saturday, May 8, to usher in the public as part of the second in-person Artists Open.
Presented by Fountainhead Residency and Studio, the event isn’t about seeing a finished work of art, but rather about meeting artists, seeing their process, discovering the art community that exists in Miami-Dade, says Kathryn Mikesell, co-founder of Fountainhead and founder of Artists Open.
Nina Surel at Collective 62. (Courtesy of Collective 62)
Having helped start Fountainhead as a place to allow artists the freedom to create and to show people that art is accessible, Mikesell had always dreamed of organizing a countywide open-studios experience.
“This is something that is done all over,” Mikesell says. Miami-Dade, with its wealth of artistic talent, deserved one too.
The first in-person Artists Open took place in 2019, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. She recalls contacting artists from around the country who had participated in other open-studio formats — and she learned what she wanted Miami-Dade’s Artists Open to be and what she wanted to avoid.
“So many artists I talked to from other places said they felt that eventually they came second to what became more of a party or an outing. When food and performances became involved, the purpose got lost,” she says.
Her Artists Open doesn’t have ancillary events, so as not to take away from the stars of the show: “My objective is very simple: to highlight the artists,” she says.
Kathryn Mikesell discusses the inspiration behind the creation of Fountainhead. (Video courtesy of Florida International University’s Inspicio e-magazine)
“It’s about going into the artists’ studios and meeting with them and learning about their inspiration. Finding out why they do what they do. It sounds so obvious, but I want people to clearly understand the value of the artist, not just the art that is made by them.”
As with many events, the pandemic forced the Artists Open online last year. Throughout six months, more than 90 artists offered virtual tours of their studios via Instagram Live.
“They were raw, and I just loved the virtual experiences,” Mikesell says. “But when it came to this year, this is the time. People are hungry to get out and thirsting for art, and artists need to be heard and seen.”
With safety protocols in place (such as social distancing and mask requirements), and with the greater availability of vaccines for different ages, she feels this is the right time.
“The longer we waited, the more things would be happening, competing,” she says. “If we had to work all day and night to get this year’s in-person visit day ready, we would.”
Ian Fichman at Bakehouse Art Complex. (Photo courtesy of Pedro Wazzan)
After a year of economic and artistic challenges, “this is important right now to have artists in the limelight,” she adds.
Among the participants are individual studios as well as large complexes including Doral Art Studios, Bridge Red Studios in North Miami, and Oolite Arts in Miami Beach. Visitors will also find the welcome mat out at hotspots such as the Little Havana Art District, Bird Road Art District and Leah (Hialeah) Arts District, and in the many artist complexes in Miami neighborhoods such as Little Haiti/Little River, Wynwood and Liberty City.
Painter Mette Tommerup, who works out of Fountainhead Studios, says she appreciates that Artists Open “puts everyone on a level playing field.”
Collective 62’s Surel agrees and credits Mikesell for ensuring the event is open to all. “For Kathryn, there’s no status of who is better or best. For her, just being an artist is enough,” Surel says.
Founded in 2017, the studio has grown from six to 16 artists, Surel says, and has become an all-female creative community with artists from throughout the United States and the world, including from Morocco, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United Kingdom.
Mixed-media artist Vickie Pierre at Fountainhead Studios. (Photo courtesy of Fountainhead Residency and Studios)
“It’s so refreshing for us to be able to open studios again,” Surel says.
Jean Jaffe, who is part of Collective 62, says Artists Open will give visitors an opportunity to explore Miami-Dade communities.
“You get a history of the area,” says Jaffe.
It was also designed to open a dialogue between artists and the community. Mikesell hopes personal relationships will be developed, bringing another layer of meaning to an artist’s work.
“My wish is that Artists Open is only a start for those who visit. That when they connect, they follow the ones they like, that they bring them into their lives, that they buy their work and introduce it to friends,” Mikesell says. “It’s not just about this one day, it’s about what I hope will bring art and artists into people’s lives from that day forward.”
For more information on Kathryn Mikesell, check out Florida International University’s Inspicio e-magazine, which has a series of video interviews at this link.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Still time to catch HistoryMiami’s Muhammad Ali exhibit
Written By Jonel Juste April 26, 2021 at 8:06 PM
All photos shown here are part of the “Muhammad Ali in Miami: Training for the ‘Fight of the Century’” exhibit at HistoryMiami Museum, through Aug. 29. (Courtesy of Larry Spitzer/Louisville Courier-Journal)
Fifty years later, the world still remembers the famous “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. But what some may not know is that Ali trained in Miami Beach for that bout.
HistoryMiami Museum is shining a light on the relationship between South Florida and “The Greatest of All Time,” with an exhibit of rare images that’s on display through Aug. 29.
“Muhammad Ali had a deep connection with the city of Miami, which plays an important role in his life and career,” said Michael Knoll, the museum’s chief curator and the director of curatorial affairs. “We hope that visitors are going to connect with the story of Muhammad Ali in Miami, and hopefully be inspired to learn more about his connection to the city.”
The exhibit, “Muhammad Ali in Miami: Training for the ‘Fight of the Century,’” features 20 silver gelatin photographs from the “ALI/MIA” portfolio, obtained with the support of the Knight Foundation. They were selected and handmade by Miami Beach-based photographer Andrew Kaufman. Seventeen of the images document Ali’s time training for the 1971 match at the 5th St. Gym in Miami Beach.
“These photos captured a historic moment for Ali. He was just returning to boxing after his conviction for refusing to register for the draft in 1967 had been overturned,” the museum’s executive director, Jorge Zamanillo, said in a statement. “These photos show him preparing to return to the biggest stage in sports at that time, and we hope everyone will visit the museum to view an incredible and rarely seen collection of images.”
(Courtesy of Larry Spitzer/Louisville Courier-Journal)
The three other images — which capture Ali’s final fight, dubbed “Drama in Bahama,” against Trevor Berbick — were taken in 1981 by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Larry Spitzer and Jebb Harris of Louisville’s Courier-Journal.
The images are displayed within a new photography gallery dedicated to exhibiting selections from the museum’s extensive collection, Knoll said.
“We created a new gallery to specifically highlight our photography collection. We did that to share more of our collection and tell more of Miami’s stories,” he said.
ALI & MIAMI, STRONG ROOTS
Ali’s personal physician and cornerman, Ferdie Pacheco, has oft been quoted as saying: “Cassius Clay was born in Louisville, but Muhammad Ali was made in Miami.”
He arrived in South Florida in 1960 — and both Miami and Miami Beach would bear witness to many moments and milestones: He was known to enjoy the music scene at the Hampton House, near Brownsville, a historic Black neighborhood west of Liberty City. He trained at 5th St. for his 1964 fight vs. Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Convention Center and became heavyweight champion here. He later announced his conversion to Islam here and changed his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X then to Muhammad Ali.
But, of course, most of the exhibit focuses on the “Fight of the Century,” and his preparation in Miami Beach.
(Courtesy of Larry Spitzer/Louisville Courier-Journal)
About four years prior, Ali had been stripped of his title for refusing to sign up for the draft for the Vietnam War. He stated that he would not fight for a country that was still oppressing its own people, according to HistoryMiami Museum. But Ali headed back to the ring with great confidence.
On March 8, 1971, the world watched, with more than 300 million viewers reportedly tuning in to see the two undefeated heavyweight champions facing off. Ali lost that match. Still, he went on to fight Frazier twice more and beat him twice.
The exhibit at HistoryMiami, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is free and open to the public. Its collection boasts more than 2 million images documenting South Florida history from the late 1800s to the present, according to the museum. These include photojournalism, aerial photography, street scenes, architectural photography, and images of everyday life.
WHAT: “Muhammad Ali in Miami: Training for the ‘Fight of the Century’”
WHEN: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 29
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Review: Seeing MOAD’s ‘The Body Electric’ during pandemic conveys new urgency
Written By Elisa Turner April 15, 2021 at 9:45 PM
Juliana Huxtable’s “Lil’ Marvel” (2015) is part of “The Body Electric” exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College. (Courtesy of the artist)
A strange, life-saving paradox pulsates at the heart of “The Body Electric,” an ambitious contemporary art exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College. It tackles controversies concerning race, class and gender, while showing how art and technology have converged since the mid-1960s.
In its title, there’s an unexpected nod to 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman’s famously sensual and exuberantly titled poem, “I Sing the Body Electric,” celebrating the union of body and soul.
Yet voices in this Miami body electric are surprisingly soft.
“The Body Electric” brings together 59 artists from several generations. Influencing their art are sights and sounds from the historic impact of television and the 1960s Sony Portapak, the first widely available, portable video-recording system that could be carried by one person. There’s a significant video presence — the exhibit presents 34 works in video with sound, out of 90 individual works on display.
But here’s the paradox for an exhibit with so much video: For life-saving reasons brought on by the global pandemic, headphones — which allow visitors to hear videos privately without interrupting the experience of others — are banished. As a result, the sound in videos is available to all visitors, but it is by necessity less than optimal, except in the few cases where a video installation merits a single gallery.
Hito Steyerl’s “How Not to Be Seen” (2013). (Courtesy of the artist)
It’s often tough to parse remarks from Black artist Howardena Pindell in her seminal 1980 video, “Free, White and 21,” as she describes encounters with racism and sexism. At one point, she wraps her head in bandages to symbolize being silenced and treated as invisible.
An excerpt from the 1986 video, “What You Mean We?” by performance artist Laurie Anderson, shows her in what appears to be a zany dialogue with a chain-smoking digital double, but faint sound can render her performance largely sterile.
Such frustrating experiences were never meant to happen. Before traveling to Miami, “The Body Electric” first opened during the heady pre-pandemic days of 2019 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which organized this exhibit.
After Minneapolis, the exhibit’s next stop was Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where it closed in February 2020, shortly before life as we used to know it shut down. The exhibit then opened in November in Miami at the Museum of Art and Design at MDC as a pandemic ravaged the globe, necessitating near seismic changes for many cultural institutions.
Lorna Simpson views her work, “LA ’57-NY ‘09” (2009) at the Museum of Art and Design. (Courtesy of Karli Evans)
Experienced today in Miami, “The Body Electric” anticipates how many of us have lived much of our life through computer screens during lockdown and quarantine. Zoom technology has replaced physical meetings, sending forth endless electronic versions of human bodies.
Seeing this art through the unintended lens of a pervasive dependence on technology to navigate millions of social encounters conveys new urgency. As more technology pervades daily life, the art illustrates how we invite more surveillance, more ethically questionable manipulation of information.
Curiously, that dark potential isn’t really apparent in pioneering works by Nam June Paik, considered the founder of video art and widely known for wanting to “humanize technology.” “The Body Electric” includes his iconic 1969 “TV Bra for Living Sculpture.” Avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman wore a “TV bra” instead of a real one while playing the cello in a five-hour performance in a New York gallery.
While the TV bra seems almost anti-climactic as an object, with its ungainly welter of Plexiglas boxes and vinyl straps, a 1971 silent film transferred to video shows her legendary performance. Her body truly becomes a kinetic sculpture merged with technology.
Produced much later, “Surface Tension” by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer may have humanized technology by creating a giant video eye, but its impact is ominous. This nightmarish, oversized eyeball tracks the museum visitor walking near the video.
According to the wall text, Lozano-Hemmer was inspired by camera-guided bombs raining destruction on Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991. During the Iraq War beginning in 2003, he reformatted “Surface Tension.”
Today, it’s a metaphor for constant 21st-century surveillance, such as data mining conducted by social media and internet sites. As such, it reminds us how Facebook posts were used to identify participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol.
Ed Atkins’ HD video: “Happy Birthday!!” (2014). (Courtesy of the artist)
Presenting numerous self-portraits, this exhibit foreshadows and parallels ubiquitous “selfies” posted on social media. Boundaries between what’s real and what’s virtual start to dissolve.
There’s Cindy Sherman’s 1981 “Untitled #92,” a feminist riff on erotic centerfolds, in which Sherman adopts the pose of a porn magazine model but with a disturbed and anxious facial expression, forestalling many viewers’ desire for vicarious pleasure.
Black-and-white photographs by Lorna Simpson also take cues from images of women in the media. Simpson’s 2009 “LA ’57-NY ’09” offers a witty critique of vintage photos of Black pinup models. They seem indebted to white notions of beauty popularized in movies. Simpson was said to be inspired by a 1957 photo album purchased on eBay that featured anonymous Black women in Los Angeles posing flirtatiously. In 2009, she took portraits of herself posed in similar fashion, presenting them side by side, shining a light on dated images of “prettiness” from another era.
The 2015 self-portrait, “Untitled (Lil’ Marvel),” by Juliana Huxtable possesses the fierce hustle of a Marvel Comics heroine highly seasoned with a Black supermodel’s sexy confidence. A transgender artist, Huxtable is known for creating gender-fluid avatars, electronic images that can be manipulated by computer users such as video gamers.
Ed Atkins dives into avatar technology as well. His 2014 “Happy Birthday!!” in HD video uses computer graphics to create a robotic male figure that seems anything but happy while embracing another robotic figure.
Clever computer-generated scenarios contrast with chilling commentary on surveillance technology in Hito Steyerl’s “How Not to Be Seen,” commissioned for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Relevant today, it presents a mock tutorial with absurd advice for eluding detection in a world of watchers.
Dark irony caps this observation near the end: “Today the most important things want to remain invisible. Love is invisible. War is invisible. Capital is invisible.”
WHAT: “The Body Electric”
WHEN: Through May 30. Public hours of exhibition are 1-6 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays-Sundays, and 1-8 p.m. Thursdays.
WHERE: Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College, Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Blvd.
COST:Museum admission is $12 for adults; $8 for seniors and military; $5 for students; and free for children age 12 and younger, as well as Miami Dade College students, faculty and staff. General admission is free from 4-8 p.m. Thursdays. Tickets are available for purchase online or in person at Freedom Tower.
VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING: MOAD Talks is offering live events and prerecorded presentations that unite artists, curators, critics and others to discuss the effects of art, science and technology on contemporary life. MOAD Talks are free, but advance registration is required for live events. Visit the website for the schedule and registration information.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
MOCA’s Michael Richards exhibit offers ‘a homecoming of sorts’ for the late artist
Written By Sergy Odiduro April 14, 2021 at 10:12 PM
This photo by Etienne Frossard shows Michael Richards’ work, “A Loss of Faith Brings Vertigo” (1994), which will be part of the latest exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. (Photo courtesy of The Michael Richards Estate )
Michael Richards had a special connection to South Florida.
It was where he debuted his largest solo exhibition at the now-defunct Ambrosino Gallery, just across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA). It’s fitting then that MOCA is the site of a new exhibit featuring the artwork of the late artist, “Michael Richards: Are You Down?”
“This is a homecoming of sorts,” says Alex Fialho, co-curator of the exhibit. “This is a major opportunity to see all of the work that Michael created in his lifetime in one exhibition, including at least four newly conserved large-scale sculptures.”
The exhibit, available from April 21 through Oct. 10, will mark the first time that many of Richards’ pieces will be on display since his untimely passing during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at New York’s World Trade Center. The museum has planned free online programming as well, including children’s events, conversations with the curators, and virtual tours.
“Michael Richards: Are You Down?” (named after one of his pieces) was a labor of love for its co-curators, Fialho and Melissa Levin, who discovered the artist after writing an essay about him for an unrelated project.
“It piqued our interest … so, at the end of 2015, we embarked on a journey of trying to curate an exhibition dedicated to his work,” Levin says.
Their research included speaking with those who knew him best.
“Every conversation was a revelation,” she says. “Some were lighter than others, and some were really emotional. As you can imagine, for some people, it really was the first time that they were opening up about Michael since his passing.”
Eventually their efforts led them to Dawn Dale, Richards’ cousin and the steward of his estate. There, in her garage, they discovered a treasure trove of items, some of which had never been on display.
“It turned out that Dawn had been holding on to unopened boxes containing Michael’s artwork and other ephemera since his passing in 2001,” Levin says.
Their visit caught Dale by surprise: “It was unexpected, but it was nice that somebody cared about him and his art.”
“Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian” (1999), shown in this photograph by Henrik Kam, depicts a life-sized likeness of Richards as a Tuskegee airman impaled by miniature planes. (Photo courtesy of The Michael Richards Estate)
Though she admits that she’d had a limited interest in her cousin’s artwork while he was alive, she has become the standard-bearer for his legacy after his death.
Richards was an artist-in-residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center in the Twin Towers, working on one of his projects when the planes hit.
Dale said she’d had no idea that he was there, thinking he was in Harlem instead. “I was devastated,” she says.
Dale pushed through her grief and immediately went to work retrieving his artwork and gathered them in a centralized location. When one of his sculptures was in danger of being thrown away, she says she sprang into action and saved it.
“That’s my favorite,” Dale says. “That’s the one with the planes flying into him.
“You look at it and you see Michael.”
Entitled “Tar Baby vs St. Sebastian,” the piece is particularly poignant, especially when viewed through the lens of the Sept. 11 attacks. The life-sized likeness of Richards depicts a uniformed Tuskegee airman impaled by miniature US P-51 Mustang planes.
“I think that is one of the most important contemporary artworks of the last 50 years, ” says Dennis Scholl, president and chief executive officer of Oolite Arts.
The Miami Beach-based organization, which offers a $75,000 annual award in his name, produced the film “Are You Down?” to be shown at the exhibit.
Oolite’s relationship with Richards dates back to 1997, when he started there as an artist-in-residence. He produced the “Tar Baby” piece at Oolite Arts, as part of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts program.
Scholl says the sculpture is just one example of how Richards’ artwork has sparked conversations on topics that continue to affect us today.
“The Great Black Airmen (Tuskegee)” references the first Black military pilots in the United States, while offering commentary on the “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.” (Photo courtesy of The Michael Richards Estate)
“Michael was so far ahead [of his time] and so dialed in to the kinds of issues that now we are all talking about,” he says.
Fialho agrees, pointing to Richards’ “The Great Black Airmen (Tuskegee)” sculpture as another example. The piece references the first Black military pilots in the United States, while offering commentary on the “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,” in which the U.S. government withheld treatment from Black men to study untreated syphilis.
The rippling effect of those experiments, Fialho says, are being felt till this day, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we think about questions about vaccines and trusting governments, the ‘Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment’ is a central reference in a lot of these conversations, particularly in the Black community,” Fialho says.
While exploring the effects of social inequity and racial injustice is paramount, the curators also hope that the exhibit is seen as an opportunity to learn more about the artist.
“We want people to know who he was, and we want people to know about his incredible body of work,” Levin says.
Richards’ personality shines through in the exhibit, Fialho says. “We’re going to feature between 15 to 20 remembrances about Michael and his life, and around half point to how he had this big, beautiful smile.”
The sentiment is unsurprising given the overall impact Richards made on the arts community.
“He was a beloved artist,” Scholl said.
He urges those who are curious about Richards and his artistic contributions to stop in at the exhibit and take a look: “It’s going to be extraordinary.”
WHAT: “Michael Richards: Are You Down?”
WHEN: April 21-Oct. 10
WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 770 NE 125th St.
COST: $10 for general admission; $3 for students and seniors; free for children younger than 12, North Miami residents, city employees, veterans and MOCA members.
SAFETY PROTOCOLS: MOCA is limiting capacity and requiring social distancing and facial coverings. For more on safety measures, go to Mocanomi.org/sample-page/reopening-safety-guidelines.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
Museum of Graffiti exhibit honors the queen herself: Lady Pink
Written By Jonel Juste April 1, 2021 at 10:09 PM
Lady Pink with her work, “TC5 Teamwork” (2018). (Photo courtesy of Sarah Cascone)
Female artists are thriving in the graffiti arena. But it was not always this way.
Forty years ago, the graffiti world was male-dominated, and just a few women practiced the art form. Among them was Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara), who embarked on this artistic journey in 1979.
Through May 20, her story is being told at Miami’s Museum of Graffiti, 299 NW 25th St., in the Wynwood neighborhood. The exhibit, entitled “Lady Pink — Graffiti HerStory,” spans her four-decade career, from her start painting on trains to her renown today.
“This exhibit is the story of a young woman who discovered the graffiti art form in high school and how it opened the doors for her as an artist, made her lifelong friends and mentors and peers within the arts, and gave her an avenue to have a successful career,” says Alan Ket, museum cofounder and curator. “It’s also the story of a Latina artist who found her voice and her activism in her paintings. Those paintings are ones that call attention to all types of injustice and things she believes in.”
Lady Pink’s “TC5 in the Yard.” (Photo courtesy of Museum of Graffiti)
Known as the “First Lady of Graffiti,” Lady Pink is considered one of the most recognized graffiti artists in the world. She was born in Ecuador but grew up in New York City, where she started painting on trains and walls as a teenager and quickly became known as the only female capable of competing with “the boys” in the graffiti subculture. She was perceived as an abnormality, practicing a form of art once considered dangerous and not always legal.
She began exploring graffiti “for the fun of it,” she says. “It was for the excitement of fame.”
But, of course, she faced the challenges that came with being looked down on by her male peers.
“The boys didn’t take me seriously at first, because I am very feminine. So I had to prove myself to them,” she says.
Lady Pink’s “Sisters oh Sisters” (2019). (Photo courtesy of Museum of Graffiti)
And prove herself she did, getting invited to important exhibits, such as what was considered a groundbreaking New York show, “Graffiti Art Success for America.”
“I was pretty much accepted [at that point], even while I was still an amateur. I was accepted as one of them because there were so few females,” she says. “Also, the male artists were feeling the feminist movement as well. They were being supportive and accepting. Not all of them but most.”
The New York artist has since presented her craft around the world, including in Miami. Lady Pink currently has two murals in Wynwood: on Northwest 26th Street and Third Avenue and Northwest 36th Street and First Ave.
“Lady Pink— Graffiti HerStory” is the first exhibition of the queen of graffiti at Miami’s Museum of Graffiti. Art lovers have the opportunity to enjoy a solo exhibition of her works on paper and canvas, as well as photographs by the New York City graffiti artist, muralist and fine artist.
Lady Pink’s “Black Venus” (2020). (Photo courtesy of Museum of Graffiti)
Presented in two adjacent rooms, the exhibit emphasizes the subject matters closest to Lady Pink. The first room has a personal and touching tribute to her teachers and icons of graffiti artists, including Dondi White, Caine One and Doze Green. The second room features pieces dedicated to human rights advocacy and feminism, next to a collection depicting a life dedicated to the graffiti art form.
“She’s a pioneering woman in the graffiti movement,” Ket says. “For more than 40 years, she has designed graffiti, murals and paintings that have been exhibited all over the world. We wanted to showcase her work here because she’s such an important contributor to the art, graffiti and the mural movement as well.”
The museum also wanted to do away with the misconception that women do not participate in the graffiti culture. Today, more female artists are doing graffiti around the world, including Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Christina Angelina (also known as Starfighter), Shamsia Hassani, Evelyn Queiroz (Negahamburguer) and Jules Muck, who painted a mural in Wynwood honoring Lady Pink.
A portrait of Lady Pink by California-based graffiti artist Jules Muck. (Photo courtesy of Jonel Juste)
“There is not a lot of information and history about it, but the more we do research, we find that there are women who have been contributing to the movement since the beginning,” Ket says. “We want to show that there is valuable participation of women in this movement, which is just as good and sometimes better than men’s.”
It’s no coincidence that the exhibition was unveiled in March, which is Women’s History Month.
Says Ket: “It is important for us to showcase female artists’ works to inspire the next generation of women painters.”
WHAT: “Lady Pink — Graffiti HerStory”
WHEN: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, through May 20
WHERE: Museum of Graffiti, 299 NW 25th St., Miami
COST: $16 for general admission; free for children age 13 and younger
SAFETY PROTOCOLS: The museum has established safety-first procedures. Guests must select the time/day they wish to view the exhibition and purchase tickets in advance online.
Miami's postcard image gives way to a more personal portrait in "Ode to the 305: A Love Letter to Miami," on view at the newly opened University of Miami Art Gallery at The Chapel.
Miami-Dade County artists dominate this year's Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. From monumental installations and large-scale paintings to immersive environments, the exhibition continues through Sunday, Aug. 23.
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