A MOCA meeting of Mermaids and a Place to Call Home

Germane Barnes’ installation, “Play-House,” is the second part of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami’s “Welcome to Paradise” courtyard series. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

Architecture is always aesthetic, yet sometimes also narrative. That is one message from Germane Barnes’ installation, “Play-House,” his homage to the shotgun house, home to many Black Americans after Reconstruction and up through the first half of the 20th century. The installation is the second part of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami’s “Welcome to Paradise” courtyard series, which is curated by Adeze Wilford.

Meanwhile, a series of highly unusual mermaids greet visitors from the museum’s fountain as they approach the North Miami venue. “Les Sirènes,” by Haitian-American artist Christopher Mitchell, harkens to the island’s myths and folklore.

While the two works are very different, they share a link with the Black experience in the Americas.

The mermaids inhabiting the fountain in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art by Christopher Mitchell are based on Haitian myths and folklore. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

Barnes, assistant professor and director of the Community Housing & Identity Lab at the University of Miami School of Architecture, has been researching the history of the shotgun house. It first piqued his interest after he won a grant from the Graham Foundation to study porches. The Chicago-based foundation funds architecture projects in dialogue with the arts, culture and society. Barnes’ porch project, “Sacred Stoops: Typological Studies of Black Congregational Spaces,” left him wanting to know more about the shotgun house, a presence in the lives of African-Americans, particularly from across the South.

The installation is an actual playhouse – a full-size structure suitable for exploration by both kids and adults. It recreates a somewhat abstracted version of a shotgun house. While not having kitchens and bathrooms, it has a ball pit for kids to jump into, rings to swing on and other interactive features. The idea was to pull visitors into the installation in the best way possible. “What if we turn it into a playhouse?” Barnes says, of his early brainstorming with Wilford, adding that kids can literally be a part of history.

“First and foremost, people find their inner child. then perhaps learn a bit more about the history of South Florida and the way that things were built,” he says. Many will be most familiar with the home style from New Orleans architecture, where the design is ubiquitous. However, iterations are found throughout the South, though many are quickly falling prey to development.

“We are collapsing these narratives on top of each other,” says Barnes.

Barnes brings students to the six or so remaining shotgun homes in Coconut Grove as part of his teaching practice.

Rings are an interactive part of Play-House, which uses humor and the curiosity of
childhood to convey a serious message. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

It is Wilford’s second year curating the Welcome to Paradise exhibits. Like “Bound//Unbound,” this season’s earlier installation by local artist Alexandra Fields O’Neale, which focused on the Saltwater Underground Railroad (whereby enslaved or escaped individuals boarded boats to the Bahamas), “Play-House” brings to light the oft-hidden history of Miami, says Wiflord.

“It’s about preserving a legacy of homes and styles of architecture and living being very quickly removed from the Southern landscape,” she says.

The homes could be built quickly and easily. In Miami, they often arose where Black workers lived, segregated from where they labored, on, for instance, Miami Beach. Later, Black entertainers, performing for white patrons, helped create the vibrant culture in Overtown which had its share of shotgun homes as well.

“I think you can’t ignore the history of this city and that was a part of it – that is where they were able to live,” says Wilford about the segregation, noting that it remains important for residents and visitors to understand how the city came to be.

With horns and playing a horn, this mermaid sports chains around her tail. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

“Les Sirènes” reaches for a different aspect of the past. In the fountain are life-size two-dimensional mermaids. Yet they are not your usual sea-maidens. Sporting impressive fish tails, the sirens are all photos taken by Mitchell of Black women modeling his vision of the mythical water spirits from Haitian folklore. These watery denizens are clothed in costumes, some revealing, that conjure both awe and thoughts about yes, how  would sea-folk dress themselves? White and black costumes play off one another as do interesting touches, like conical horns adorning one maiden.

“They are all based on verbal stories,” says Mitchell. Raised in New York, but of Haitian heritage, Mitchell and his family frequently traveled to the island. After graduating from SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Mitchell, whose main medium is photography, moved to Haiti about a year before the devastating 2010 earthquake.

While there, he traveled the country, including helping people after the earthquake find relatives and friends when communication was down. In his journeys, he heard many stories about female water spirits that inhabit the ocean, rivers and other water features. The sea-women are often cautionary figures, sometimes luring people to their doom: But to be respected.

A mermaid with a bird sports an astonishing yellow tail. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

He created seven mermaids for the show, working closely with MOCA Curatorial Assistant Kimari Jackson. The selection of Mitchell came from MOCA’s open call initiative, designed to cast a wider net in the art community.

The artist says he wants visitors to appreciate the island’s culture minus the scariness aspect that some attach to Haitian art.

“I want it to be a very beautiful and intriguing part of Haitian culture on public display in a Haitian neighborhood,” says Mitchell. “There is so much beauty that comes out of Haiti – I wanted to show that side.”

WHAT: “Play-House” and “Les Sirènes“

WHEN:  “Les Sirènes”  is on display through Sunday, Sept. 8; “Play-House” is on display through Sunday, Nov. 17 

WHERE: Paradise Courtyard, and Fountain, outdoors at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami

COST:  Free

INFORMATION: 305-893-6211 or mocanomi.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

‘Brushes with Cancer’ at The Arsht: Journeys Seen from an Artist’s Perspective

Caryn Frishman unveils her painting inspired by Ashley Smith for the Arsht Center’s Brushes with Cancer program. The art will be unveiled for a viewing and a silent public auction on Thursday, Sept. 12 at the Arsht Center. (Photo by Gregory Reed/courtesy of the Arsht Center)

All agreed the progress of the work should be kept a secret. And so, it continued all spring and summer long. The great unveiling of “Brushes with Cancer” arrives on Thursday, Sept. 12 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

The work was to be portraiture, but not necessarily what “portraiture” usually conjures.

Earlier this year, the Arsht sent out a call. Would cancer patients/cancer survivors/cancer caregivers be interested in talking to Miami visual artists? Would the former be interested in the artists’ visual takeaways from those conversations? Would artists be interested in opening up their practices to focus intensely on another’s story?

Interested calls did come in. Out of them, 19 pairings, most highly random, were formed: artist and “inspiration,” for that was the name given to those who had known cancer up close and personal.

Watercolor artist Rosa Henriquez was skimming through Arsht performance offerings when she first read about the “Brushes with Cancer” initiative. “I’m not sure precisely why I felt moved to join in,” says Henriquez. “I had not lost anyone terribly close to me to cancer. Maybe I was interested because so few people are comfortable talking about the illness.”

Artist Rosa Henriquez with her Brushes with Cancer inspiration Morgen Chesonis-Gonzalez. (Photo by Gregory Reed/courtesy of the Arsht Center)

Morgen Chesonis-Gonzalez, Henriquez’s Inspiration, was more than simply comfortable talking about cancer; she found herself profoundly in need of just that.

When Chesonis-Gonzalez had received her breast cancer diagnosis –  her children were just 11 and 13 – Miami was smack in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. And so, she went to her surgery alone. Every chemo infusion alone; each radiation treatment alone; each doctor’s visit alone, albeit with her husband, seemingly a million miles away in the hospital’s parking lot, on his telephone taking notes.

The treatment was grueling: it lasted ten months. With her immune system gravely compromised, friends and family couldn’t drop by to even touch her hand. Now, four years after the initial diagnosis, Chesonis-Gonzalez remembers. “I knew I was deeply loved, still I pray I will never feel that lonely again.”

Enter Henriquez.

Once the two were partnered, even before they spoke, Henriquez sent off a barrage of questions to her Chesonis-Gonzalez – queries about favorite flowers, favorite cocktails, favorite sports’ teams and on and on.  “After all,” the artist explains, “if I had been entrusted to tell the story of this woman, I wanted to tell a whole woman’s story, not just the story of her illness.”

But soon enough the cancer stories emerged, still raw.

How to translate all this onto a canvas? Not a decision to be taken lightly. Henriquez felt honor bound to make that decision alone, as a worthy partner to her “Inspiration.”

“Brushes with Cancer” inspiration Ashley Smith, left, and artist Caryn Frishman. (Photo by Gregory Reed/courtesy of the Arsht Center)

Meanwhile, cancer survivor Ashley Smith wasn’t sure she should even apply to the program. “After all, I had never had to undergo chemo for my melanoma,” she says. “So many others had suffered more than me.”

Never mind that for a time her surgery had left a long streak of black and bloodied stiches on her face. Never mind that for months afterwards, she found herself unable to leave home for fear of the sun.

Artist Caryn Frishman, herself a breast-cancer survivor, set Smith straight. “Once anybody hears that diagnosis, they are forever changed.” And so, their collaboration, a series of conversations, began.

Like Henriquez, Frishman felt it important to carry the work alone without any direct feedback from Smith.

“I wasn’t quite sure how to start,” the artist recalls. But after a time, it became very clear.

“I concentrated on what I felt from Ashley during our conversations. I wanted to celebrate her warmth, her incredible light.”

In a very private unveiling before the Arsht’s Sept. 12 celebration, the two women wept. Frishman had painted a mandala of seemingly endless light, a bright yellow mandala, the sun now transformed.

There were tears, too, in Henriquez’s private unveiling for Chesonis-Gonzalez as well.

The work was more figurative but no less transcendent than that of Frishman’s.

“Imagine, something was made just to witness me,” says Chesonis-Gonzalez. “There on the canvas was the me I can so easily forget, especially in the day-to-day of living.  I did have fierce strength; it is here on the canvas reminding me.”

And then there is the curious synchronicity of a certain tattoo.

Hairless during the height of her chemotherapy, Morgen Chesonis-Gonzalez used henna to tattoo her head with a Nordic talisman. (Photo courtesy of Gerardo Gonzalez-Quevedo)

Hairless during the height of her chemo, the woman had turned to her familial background. Using henna, she had tattooed her head with a Nordic talisman, one said to offer protection and also serve as a navigational tool. There are several such talismans in Nordic lore, but one seemed to speak most loudly to her.

Amazingly, Henriquez never saw that talisman but there it was in her painting.

According to both artists, theirs was not a gift to the cancer survivors but rather the trust and vulnerability of the cancer survivors was the gift to them.

So how was it that the Arsht, a performing arts center, decided to take on what was essentially a visual arts project?

Philadelphia native Jenna Benn Shersher is the founder of nonprofit the “Twist out Cancer.” (Photo courtesy of Eileen O’Hare)

An Arsht board member had done some work with the non-profit “Twist out Cancer,” an organization that sees the arts as a vital therapeutic tool in support of cancer patients. When he spoke of his experience, the Arsht Center wanted to learn more.

That meant discovering the work of cancer survivor Jeena Ben Shersher whose advocacy for cancer patients can only be described as extraordinary. Her work began by accident. A Philadelphia native, Ben Shersher was just 29 then and deeply isolated due to immune suppressants after difficult treatment for a rare form of blood cancer.

“Looking in the mirror, I couldn’t recognize my body, or even my face,” she remembers. Before her illness, Ben Shersher was always dancing. Trying to find herself again, one morning she set out to dance but could manage nothing more difficult than the Twist. Still, she was enough proud even of that to post her video on YouTube. There was a torrent of response. Not long afterward, she stood twisting on a stage in front of 7,000 people in Chicago’s Grant Park.

“Everyone everywhere was twisting,” she recalls. ‘Even folks in wheelchairs . . . The phrase ‘Twist out Cancer’ had become a battle cry.” With that Ben Shersher’s direction became clear and her non-profit was born.

“There is a shame that can come with a cancer diagnosis,” she admits. “People don’t talk about what is hard.  My hope is to make a space for people to talk, to lessen not only the anguish but the terrible isolation.”

Not long after establishing “Twist,” Ben Shersher noticed a call out by another young woman in the throes of same treatment for the same rare blood cancer as she had been diagnosed with gray zone lymphoma or GZL. “The woman had described a world gone gray. Everywhere everything she saw was gray. ‘Was there an artist anywhere that would paint something for me using no grays at all?’ the woman had asked.”

And so, “Twist out Cancer” found itself expanding, taking on a new project, christening it as “Brush with Cancer,” which now 12 years later has both a national and international presence in nearly a dozen cities.

“We are learning how important it is not only for people to tell their story, but to also see it through someone else’s eyes,” according to Benn Shersher.

Artist Rosa Henriquez and Morgen Chesonis-Gonzalez with the painting by Henriquez. (Photo by Gregory Reed/courtesy of the Arsht Center)

What has perhaps touched her the most about “Brush with Cancer” is the depth of the relationships that so often develop between partners.

Both Arsht “Brush with Cancer” partners agree, now calling themselves sisters.

Indeed, Frishman refers to the exchange as nearly sacramental, “one of the core memories of my life.”

The work of the 19 artists who participated in the Arsht pairing will be available for viewing, curated by Rosie Gordon-Wallace, founder of Miami’s Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts.

The “inspirations” will be there as well.

At the Thursday, Sept. 12 unveiling, the works will be available to purchase through a silent public auction. The art will be on display through mid-October inside the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall lobby. Free guided tours of the Arsht Center are held at noon every Monday and Saturday and the art will be part of the tour. An online gallery at arshtcenter.org has also been set up for anyone to view the works. Remaining works that have not been sold will be available for purchase online. Proceeds will support the next “Brushes with Cancer” program.

WHAT: “Brushes with Cancer” art viewing and silent auction

WHERE: The Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami.

WHEN:  7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 12. Also, on view through mid-October inside the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall lobby.

COST:  Free reception. RSVP at arshtcenter.org/brusheswithcancer.

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 and arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

‘Magic City’ Exhibition in Doral Ponders The Complexities of The 305

Mark Herrera’s work explores the intricate topics of immigration at DORCAM’s exhibition “Magic City: Contemporary Visions of Miami” in Doral. (Photo courtesy of Logan Fazio)

Many exhibitions revolve around Miami as a theme, but few are unafraid to trigger uncomfortable conversations about gentrification, climate change, and other pressing issues. However, we can’t have an honest conversation about our city without these topics crossing our minds. That’s why “Magic City: Contemporary Visions of Miami” feels like a true reflection of what Miami is; showcasing artistic representations of its nightlife, nature, architecture, immigration, recreational drugs, and the impact of severe weather.

Curated by Ronald Sánchez of Laundromat Art Space at the new Doral Contemporary Art Museum (DORCAM) location at CityPlace Doral, the exhibition is a vivid exploration of the multifaceted essence of Miami.

Stephanie Silver captures in detail some iconic buildings in Little Haiti. (Photo courtesy of Logan Fazio)

As Sánchez explains, “The artworks are all carefully placed to guide the viewer through Miami’s many layers—from its vibrant nightlife and iconic architecture to the urgent realities of climate change and immigration.” The artists bringing this universe to life are Mark Herrera, Claudio Marcotulli, Dre Martinez, Pablo Matute, Stephanie Silver, Julia Zurilla, and Chantae Elaine Wright.

Transforming a 5,000-square-foot former restaurant into an experimental exhibition space isn’t a small feat, but Sánchez is no stranger to working in unconventional settings. As the founder of Laundromat Art Space (a former laundromat in Little Haiti), he has experience crafting unique environments that allow art to resonate differently with its surroundings. “I’m interested in curating in unconventional spaces because the work responds to the space and vice versa,” says Sánchez. For this project, he had to place walls on casters to be able to exhibit the artwork, and even covering a full open kitchen was part of the ambitious take on.

The exhibit activates two floors that can be experienced clockwise. On the lower level, there are paintings capture the local nightlife, light sculptures reminiscent of the sun and local nature moments, small dioramas featuring iconic local buildings from Little Haiti, murals alluding to the local architecture, site-specific installations inspired by topics of immigration and multiculturality. On the second floor, there is an audio-visual installation created using historical footage that aims to bring awareness about climate change’s impact on Florida.

Detail of Julia Zurilla’s video installation capturing the impact that climate change has in the city. (Photo courtesy of Logan Fazio)

Marcelo Llobell, director at DORCAM, emphasized the importance of giving curators the independence to fully express their vision. “I wanted to give Ronald complete creative freedom. I have worked with him for many years, and I know he was the right person to curate this exhibit. At DORCAM, we don’t interfere with the creative process of the curators; we trust in their vision,” says Llobell. Founded in 2017, DORCAM is a nomadic museum dedicated to bringing contemporary art to unconventional venues throughout the west side of Doral, having called public parks, retail spots, and industrial properties home for the last seven years.

A standout piece in the exhibition is the work of Mark Herrera, whose art delves into the complexities of immigration. Herrera’s pieces reflect his deep connection to the immigrant experience, drawing from his own background as the son of Colombian immigrants.

Pastelito by Dre Martinez (Photo courtesy of Logan Fazio)

“I think that’s where my skillset lies—trying to be a translator or some kind of liaison between cultures,” he says. His recent work is influenced by his current position as a reservist at the U.S. Coast Guard, where he witnessed the challenges faced by immigrants firsthand. “One of the main themes of my recent work is how in America, we often look at immigration as a problem, a challenge. But we’re also dealing with human beings, with stories. What I try to do is overlap those two perspectives—sometimes literally—in my art.”

The mixed-media installation that Herrera created for “Magic City” is titled “Haitian Father and Son,” and is made out of found objects off the shores of Key West, where he is currently stationed. The piece features a hand-sewn sail made out of different fabrics, improvised life vests made out of foam, flotation devices, and an image of a father hugging his son embroidered in the middle.

Video artist Julia Zurilla at DORCAM. (Photo courtesy of Logan Fazio)

“In ‘Magic City,’  says Sánchez, “I wanted to offer a wide range of mediums—installations, mural paintings, assemblages, new media—to truly capture the diversity and complexity of Miami. This exhibition isn’t just about seeing art; it’s about experiencing the many facets of our city in a way that’s both thought-provoking and visually compelling.”

WHAT: Magic City: Contemporary Visions of Miami

WHERE: DORCAM at CityPlace Doral, 8300 NW 36th Street, Suite 216, Doral

WHEN: Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Through October 31.  

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (305) 528-6212 or dorcam.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Exiled Cuban Artist Baruj Salinas Dies at 89, Made Coral Gables His Home

Works in the gallery. Baruj Salinas: 1972-2022 (American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Miami, 2022). (Photo courtesy of Ismael Gómez Peralta)

Baruj Salinas (Havana, 1935-Coral Gables, 2024), one of the great Cuban artists of the most lyrical abstraction of the second half of the 20th century, passed away in Coral Gables on Sunday, Aug. 18. He was 89.

Salinas left Cuba in 1953, when he was 18 years old, to study architecture at Kent State University, Ohio, where he graduated in 1958. Still, since childhood, he filled numerous notebooks with drawings. Later, as a teenager, inspired by his mother who painted, he began to add paint to his images: “Landscapes, street scenes, street markets, old buildings…  were some of the things I painted,” he said in an interview.

Of Sephardic Jewish origin, he was born in Havana in 1935 during turbulent times. Two years earlier, after the fall of dictator Gerardo Machado, Cuba was immersed in significant political instability. Several governments succeeded each other until the 1940 elections when Fulgencio Batista y Saldívar was elected president of the republic, a position he held until 1944. Batista returned to power as a military dictator in 1952 and, finally, was defeated in 1959.

Salinas went into exile in Miami that same year, where he lived until 1974. From there, he began to exhibit extensively —above all, with Latin American and American galleries—and co-founded the Group of Latin American Artists (GALA) with other abstract artists such as Rafael Soriano and José Mijares.

His work in painting, sculpture, and engraving is immersed in the sources of abstraction, influenced by the paintings of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem De Kooning. But it is an abstraction of lyricism with a halo of transcendent poetry, combining the ethereal and the intangible, where spirituality becomes a sacred human value as a convergence of culture and nature.

From this stage, exhibitions stand out, such as those presented at the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in Mexico D.F., today Mexico City (1971), the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art (1969), the Centre Culturel Editart, in Geneva, Switzerland (1977), and the Pecanins Gallery, in Barcelona, Spain (1975).

In 1969, he received the Cintas scholarship and repeated it the following year. Then, he decided, in his own words, “to realize the dream of my life, to move to Spain.” He ended up in Barcelona, where he came into contact with artists such as Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, and Alexander Calder. In 1992, the year of the Barcelona Olympics, he returned to Miami, where he began teaching at Miami Dade College, InterAmerica Campus.

From left to right, Arturo Mosquera and Baruj Salinas at the opening of the exhibition “Baruj Salinas: 1972-2022” (American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Miami, 2022). (Photo courtesy of Ismael Gómez Peralta)

Meanwhile, he intensified his collaborations with great poets and essayists such as the philosopher from Malaga, María Zambrano (1904-1991), whom he met during his exile in Geneva and for whom he painted several covers of her books. But he also became close friends and collaborated with great names in Hispanic American poetry, such as José Ángel Valente, Pere Gimferrer, and José Lezama Lima.

Valente, in an article for the Spanish leading art magazine “Descubrir el Arte,” observes that Salinas’ painting was made of “centers and circles, spheres and rotating spaces, explosions, and orbits, sudden energy or concentrated light where the force that condenses on high suddenly takes shape.” It is a painting loaded with forms containing expressionism combusts, whose colors transmit affection and warmth despite the abstract thought that generates them.

Zambrano, in the same piece, described it this way: “The longing that becomes love in Salinas’ painting finds no other starting point than that which follows from the deepest and original part of his human being, to dispossess himself as much as possible, to go back to a time before his action, which is looking, above all, to an agreement with reality, to a congenital appearance with it and not before it; not having created solitude in himself, to see better.”

Back in Miami, he resumed contact with other Cuban abstract artists such as Rafael Soriano and Gay García, whose abstract art also has the poetic halo of lyricism.

A tireless artist, he never stopped painting, not even in his last days. With a jovial and determined character, he continued to work on large solo exhibitions, among the most notable being the retrospectives “Baruj Salinas: 1972-2022” (American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Miami, 2022) and “Encounter with Beauty” (Center for Contemporary Art, Vélez-Málaga, Spain, 2022).

His work has been exhibited and is widely known in Latin America, the United States and Europe and is present in important museums and contemporary art foundations such as, among others, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Library (Madrid), the Museum of Contemporary Latin American Art (MACLA), the Museum of Modern Art (Mexico City), the José Luis Cuevas Museum (Mexico City), the Joán Miró Foundation (Barcelona), the Museum of Israel (Jerusalem), and the Museum of the Americas (Washington).

Salinas leaves an important legacy in painting, sculpture, and drawing. A vast and deeply poetic work that inspires future generations.

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Little Haiti Photographer Ponders ‘Our Sacred Place’ at HistoryMiami

Woosler Delisfort’s “Holy Week” is one of more than 100 photographs on view by the Little Haiti-based photographer at HistoryMiami Museum through Sunday, Jan. 26.  (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

More than 100 pictures were taken over a two-and-a-half-year period, but there is one that is a clear favorite, captivating  Woosler Delisfort to this day.

It’s called ”Holy Water.”

“You see two women, two mothers, two Mambos holding this child in front of the ocean,”  explains Delisfort describing the Haitian Voodoo priestesses.

He becomes transfixed and as the ripple in time slowly, deliberately erupts before him, he reaches out and captures it, then promptly funnels it through a photo lens, forever bottling the scene.

It was, for him, simply magical.

“Holy Water” features two Haitian Mambos and a child by the ocean. This image, one of the artist’s favorites, will be on view at HistoryMiami Museum through Sunday, Jan. 26. (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

“I remember just standing there and just allowing the picture to actually create itself . . . but just that moment between those three individuals connecting with each other and having the ocean and actually seeing the sunrise coming out. It really tells a story of what a sanctuary is.

“It also tells a story of the way we practice when it comes down to our African spirituality, he continues. “How we use nature, a form of not only sanctuary,  but also our connection to our divine self. So when I see that image today it will always hold a piece of my heart.”

Delisfort, a self-taught Little Haiti-based photographer, is willing to share these sentiments with a wider audience during HistoryMiami Museum’s newest display, “SANCTUARY: Our Sacred Place.”

The image is just one of many entries in Delisfort’s pictorial diary on Miami’s Indigenous, African and Caribbean communities.

In the exhibit, he uses his camera as a conduit. A way of offering an intimate tour of various cultures, the ways they sip from cups of redemption brimming with spirituality.

“Remembrance” is just one of many entries in Woosler Delisfort’s pictorial diary on Miami’s Indigenous, African and Caribbean communities.
(Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

The exhibition continues through Sunday, Jan. 26.

Ireọlá Ọláifá, who co-curated the showing along with Marie Vickles, an independent curator and senior director of education at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, has worked with Woosler Delisfort since 2018 curating exhibitions that include “I Am My Ancestors Wildest Dreams” and “GODMama” at the Little Haiti Cultural Center and M.U.C.E. respectively.

Vickles was the lead curator for “SANCTUARY: Our Sacred Place.”

Ọláifá says that there will be those who will be astonished at what they see and especially true given that God often shows up in the most unexpected places.

“I think that there will be an element of shock for the audience,” says Ọláifá.

“Rhythms of the Sermon” is on view in “SANCTUARY: Our Sacred Place” at HistoryMiami Museum. The exhibit by Woosler Delisfort, a self-taught Little Haiti-based photographer, will feature over 100 images.
(Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

“‘We see that at the end of the day, everyone is seeking a connection with this Higher Power, with Spirit. And each community has a different name for what they deem as Spirit, and they have a different structure. And I think that’s because we’re so entrenched in these different practices.”

Ọláifá also pointed out that if a viewer takes a deeper look, parallels between various forms of worship are not only striking, they are clearly evident.

“In the exhibition, for example, ‘Holy Week’ follows the Coptic Ethiopian Church alongside a Haitian Catholic Church, and we see how they both deal with the week of Jesus, what they would call Easter in their religion. And so people are going to be looking at these two different practices, but then seeing so many similarities.”

In addition to Delisfort’s exploration of sacraments and the sanctified, Vickles is proud of the exhibit’s “local arts connection to South Florida’s past and present.”

This is fitting given Delisfort’s dedication to his craft and active presence in a community where he was born and raised.

“The Moon & Star” by Woosler Delisfort.  (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

In 2018, he was recognized for his efforts when he was given one of Oolite Arts’ Ellies Award in film for “This is Little Haiti.”  The project consisted of a documentary film and website that sought to peel back the layers, taking a look at the people and culture of those who reside there.

Recently, he was also selected as the inaugural recipient of HistoryMiami’s photography fellowship.

Sponsored by its Center for Photography, the fellowship encourages emerging documentary photographers who focus on local stories. Recipients are also given an opportunity to mentor Miami students enrolled in the museum’s Youth Photography Fellowship.

His most recent exhibit “SANCTUARY: Our Sacred Place”  falls right on the heels of his selection for the fellowship and is just the latest example of a continuous effort of Delisfort’s to use photography in a thought provoking way.

“San Lazaro” will be unveiled at the opening night of the exhibition on Thursday, Aug. 22. (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

Ọláifá hopes that his images will spark a path, opening the doors to meaningful discussions.

“Part of Woosler’s work with this exhibition was to make sure that everyone in the Miami community and beyond could visit this exhibition and feel a sense of likeness and be more open to understanding other people’s spiritual path.”

She also discusses the current divisive climate in today’s America.

“I think that a lot of times the conversations are divisive because people don’t understand,” she added. “They don’t know. And a lot of us are tricked and instilled with so much fear that we even think that the act of asking and discovering and exploring in itself is a sin.”

Ọláifá says that reaching an understanding sometimes involves a willingness for someone to step outside of  their comfort zone.

Besides, she believes that you might be surprised at what you see.

“(Woosler) did a great job in weaving together different themes so that people can see a glimpse of what your neighbors might be practicing. And guess what? “It doesn’t look too far off from what you’re practicing.  So when they invite you to a service, maybe you should just go . . . to go and just see why this person has chosen this sanctuary as their sacred place, as opposed to yours.”

She speaks of empathy as opposed to indifference.

“I think that overall, that is what gives humans a sense of compassion for one another, and it really starts to break down this wall of divisiveness that is so rampant in our culture.”

WHAT: “SANCTUARY: Our Sacred Place”

WHERE: HistoryMiami Museum, 101 West Flagler St., Miami

WHEN: 7 to 9 p.m., opening on Thursday, Aug. 22. Regular hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Through Sunday, Jan. 26.

COST: $15 general admission, $10 for seniors and students with ID, $8 for children 6 to 12 years old, children under six free admission. Also free for active-duty military personnel and their families, History Miami members, visitors with disabilities and their accompanying caregivers, Miami-Dade County employees,  veterans and teachers with registration. SNAP EBT cardholders allow up to four people at no cost. Contact the museum for school and group rates.

INFORMATION: 305-375-1621. or historymiami.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Lucia Maman Examines ‘Otherness’ in Astonishing Miami Design District Show

Lucía Maman’s show “Temples of Otherness” is now on display in the Miami Design District through Sept. 8. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Davanzo)

A specific memory permeates the work of Argentinian artist Lucía Maman. When she was 14, she remembers seeing a butterfly on the ground, flapping its wings. A male schoolmate walked up and stepped on it.

“I was, I don’t know, 14, I didn’t imagine someone (capable of) killing a butterfly,” she recalls. “And I asked him, why did he do that? And he said, ‘Because I can.’ And that answer really stuck with me.”

The boy’s reply sparked within Maman other, more existential questions: Why do we value some forms of life over others? And why do we consider some “deformed” or “imperfect?” These troubling dilemmas are at the heart of “Temple of Otherness,” an exhibition of Maman’s paintings now on view in a white-walled gallery space in the Miami Design District. Curated by fellow artist Luna Palazzolo, founder of the artist-run space Tunnel Projects in Little Havana, the show is drawn from portraits, still lifes, and other figurative works painted in a sober, naturalistic style with muted colors.

Lucía Maman uses muted colors for her paintings, which depict families, children, and other subjects. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Davanzo)

Many of the images were taken from medical file photos (for ethical reasons, Maman made sure not to depict any living people). There are hands, some missing fingers, others with fingers detached. There are eyes, both metaphorical (a fortune teller’s crystal ball) and actual, such as the single detached eyeball delicately held in a man’s fingers like a precious keepsake – the lengthy title of the work ends with the phrase “what do the eyes of a dead man see?”

And there are children, some with faces affected by congenital conditions, some held by their mothers or standing naked for the camera. A centerpiece of the show features children with prosthetic devices from across time, their skin tone hinting at different eras – one girl in black and white wearing an unpleasant-looking back brace, others with flesh-tones wearing modern prostheses, and several featureless, blue-green beings wearing strange, futuristic devices. The idea of transhumanism, of augmenting the body to achieve a higher form, comes into play here – technology is used as a way to make the disabled “normal,” but why are we judging them as abnormal, and under what criteria?

“Temples of Otherness” makes us question our relationship with disabilities and genetic deformities. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Davanzo)

These moral quandaries, translated through Maman’s somber style, are what allow the show to feel solemn and dignified, rather than creepy or exploitative. A room full of images of body parts and medical photos would seem like a lurid cabinet of curiosities in the wrong hands. But here there is pathos and consideration instead.

One painting, “Career,” depicts a boy, no older than 10, and his family, all of whom suffer from Stickler syndrome, a genetic condition that causes hearing and vision impairment. Maman found the original photo in a Guardian newspaper story about child carers; the boy, in the foreground, is the only family member that doesn’t have the condition, and as a result he cares for the others. The artist has also painted handprints over the other family members. “Hands can be a symbol of manipulation, of power,” she says, “but at the same time, they can be a symbol of care, and of loving. And so that double discourse, I think, is really interesting.”

Organizer Karen Grimson felt Maman’s large-format paintings were a perfect fit for the large white gallery walls in a space in the Miami Design District. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Davanzo)

Even the show’s more diminutive works are thought-provoking. A small portrait of a moth references Maman’s butterfly story – butterflies and moths belong to the same taxonomical order, Lepidoptera, yet we traditionally think of one as beautiful and the other as an ugly pest. Another small painting features a zygote – a fertilized cell, the earliest stage of biological development at which the being it will become is indistinguishable from any other, the starting point from which all humans derive, “normal” or otherwise.

Such a probing, relatively intellectual show may seem like an odd choice for the Design District, generally known as a luxury shopping mall. But according to Karen Grimson, director of cultural programming for the District, Maman’s work is “a natural match” for the development, which has been trying to attract a more “cultural” audience in addition to high-end retail consumers.

“Her work stood out,” says. “It’s exciting because she hasn’t shown these works before, we were very happy.”

Grimson first encountered Lucía’s work at the Maman family’s gallery in Allapattah. Lucía’s father Daniel Maman, a gallerist and art advisor, opened Maman Fine Art with his wife, Patricia, in Buenos Aires in 2001. A Miami branch, originally also housed in the Design District, followed in 2013.

Most of the paintings on view in “Temples of Otherness” have never been publicly displayed before. (Photo courtesy of Brooke Davanzo)

She also felt the large scale of the paintings made them ideal for the white-walled gallery space, which will host Jeffrey Deitch and Gagosian for their usual Miami Art Week show in December. Nicknamed “Piccadilly” by District employees after the Piccadilly Gardens restaurant that once called it home, the beautiful old building stands out in the area thanks to its distinctive brick arches and inner courtyard.

Along with the art show, Piccadilly is also paying host to a newly-opened record store, Terrestrial Funk, and across the street are other locally-owned creative businesses, the streetwear label Andrew and the artsy book store and gallery Dale Zine. Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler’s Bigface Coffee is also set to open nearby. The new businesses have given NE 40th Street a bit of cred among local creatives, but out of everything on the block, Maman’s arresting show stands out and draws us in the most.

One of the most affecting works in the show was a painting just inside the door. I initially mistook this image as a butterfly’s chrysalis, pinned to a board in a lepidopterist’s workshop. Later, a wave of sorrow and pity overtook me as Maman corrected me: It was a bird. Right there, I was forced to confront the very question the show proposed. Between the bird and the butterfly, why did I value one’s life over the other’s?

WHAT: “Lucía Maman: Temples of Otherness”

 WHEN: Through Sunday, Sept. 8.

 WHERE: Miami Design District, 35 NE 40th St., Miami

 COST: Free

 INFORMATION: miamidesigndistrict.com

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

AnEyeDiary’s Summer Pop-Up at the Historic Dorn Building Is Artists’ Choice

Works by Miami-based artist Juliana Bukowitz are featured in AnEyeDiary’s “Summer Show” at the Dorn building in South Miami through September. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

AnEyeDiary started in 2019 as a passion project by photographer and art curator Cristina Villamil and architect Luigi Vitalini. Their first collaboration in the art world dates back to 2015 when they co-sponsored a collective exhibition at the Ingraham Building for Dwntwn Art Days, an homage to non-designated buildings disappearing from downtown Miami area.

In July, AnEyeDiary celebrated the opening of its seventh exhibition, this time at the historic Dorn building, located at the corner of Sunset Drive and Dixie Highway in South Miami. Throughout the years, they have worked with more than 20 artists residing in Miami, all with diverse backgrounds. Their past pop-up exhibitions took place at locations around Miami, including the Art Cafe in Allapattah, Viernes Culturales and Futurama in Little Havana, South Miami Arts Fest with the longest-running show at a former shoe storefront in South Miami from 2020 to 2022.

“We want to not only highlight the work of independent artists but also the beauty of storefronts around the city that are underutilized,” shares Villamil.

“Bustop,” photography by Peter Kastan. (Photo courtesy of AnEyeDiary)

The Dorn building, a designated historic landmark built in 1925, serves as the backdrop for the latest show, which opened on Friday, July 26. “The building was in shambles when we started, with debris and unfinished renovations. It was a challenge, but we saw an opportunity to revitalize it and give it new life through art,” says  Vitalini while discussing the challenges and rewards of transforming this space.

Villamil and Vitalini’s vision for AnEyeDiary extends beyond exhibiting art. Their goal is to bridge the gap between the traditional gallery world and emerging artists who lack formal representation. “We wanted to create a community project that promotes talented artists who aren’t full-time career artists, making their work accessible and affordable,” says Villamil.

“Estelle3,” drawing by Andrea Colusso. (Photo courtesy of AnEyeDiary)

For its “Summer Show” exhibition,  Villamil and Vitalini,  decided not to set a specific theme for the show, allowing the artists to present the work they felt most passionate about. “It’s about giving them the freedom to express themselves without constraints,” says Villamil.

Among the featured artists is Juliana Bukowitz, whose journey in art began during her adolescence in Rome, where the worlds of art and history collide. Her passion for ceramics, influenced by her time in the ancient city, is evident in her work with a career expanding over 30 years. “In Rome, I had my first experience with clay, and it was transformative. The process of working with clay, feeling its texture, and creating something lasting is therapeutic and deeply fulfilling for me,” shares Bukowitz.

Although she says her first experience working with clay was challenging and didn’t yield the expected results, it ignited a deep passion for the medium. “I tried to make a pot and I couldn’t make it, but I could never forget that experience — touching the clay, touching the earth, trying to make that happen,” she recalls.

“Opus Iterum” by Juliana Bukowitz is a site-specific assemblage of work in AnEyeDiary’s “Summer Show” at the Dorn building in South Miami. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

The Miami-based artist, who is originally from Brazil, is particularly fascinated by ceramics due to its historical connections. “When you go to museums, you see many ceramic artifacts. The first tablet for writing was conceived through clay before papyrus was used. While papyrus is much more delicate and harder to preserve, ceramics can break but are easier to find in shards and piece back together. It has this beautiful lasting quality.”

For this exhibition, Bukowitz created a body of work that not only features ceramic, but also includes washed cardboard, wax, and mixed media as well, but with an underlying topic. “My works tell stories about our contemporary life as if they were found a hundred years from now, showing who we were and what we did,” she says. “So, imagine a hundred years from now, they’re digging through and they’re going to see things that talk about who we were and what we are doing,” she says.

Other Miami-based artists in the show include Andrea Colusso, who integrates his experience in set design and painting to create surreal, space-themed watercolors and drawings. Peter Kastan’s photography captures the serene beauty of the Indian River Lagoon and his travels between Florida and Asia. Thomas A. Spain, a retired architecture professor, offers intricate pencil drawings and watercolors that explore the interplay between natural landscapes and architectural landmarks.

“Front Façade,” pencil drawing by Tom Spain. (Photo courtesy of AnEyeDiary)

The exhibition also features a unique collaboration between Vitalini and the sustainable furniture design project, Morto A Galla. This includes repurposed furniture and a modular bookshelf system, combining everyday life designs with an artistic approach.

Villamil and Vitalini’s partnership feeds into AnEyeDiary’s resilience with the project surviving the pandemic and riding the wave of changes that the nomadic spirit of the venture brings, creating what Luigi likes to call “an outsider’s gallery.”

“I think that Cristina and Luigi are putting a very interesting group of artists together that have different languages, different backgrounds, different media to present, and they give us so much freedom to really express ourselves. They don’t force us to curate anything in particular. And I love that,” says Bukowitz.

WHAT: AnEyeDiary Summer Show

WHERE: The Dorn building, 5900 SW 72 St., South Miami

WHEN:.11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 1 to 6 p.m., Saturday, and by appointment. Through September.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (305) 342-6509, aneyediary19@gmail.com, and instagram.com/aneyediary/

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Exhibition ‘Self Care’ Is A Window Into Artist’s Soul

Ignacio Font’s “travel: Paramaribo – Tennesssee-Maryland,” diptych, mixed media on gessoed canvas, May 2024, is one of the works in the solo exhibition “Self Care: Mineral Spirits, Elixirs and Other Home Remedies” through Friday, Aug. 9 at the Steven and Dorethea Green Library at Florida International University. (Photo courtesy of Jean Blackwell Font)

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Ignacio “Iggy” Font remembers taking a trip to New York with his parents. It was the year before his family moved to the United States. He was 10 years old, he says, when the family took a stroll through the Museum of Modern Art.

“I’ve loved art since then. My parents with my sister in a stroller kept walking through the museum,” he recalls. “I had stopped. I saw this painting and I looked up and it was this large piece by Jackson Pollock. It was the first time I felt goosebumps and, it was the first time I felt like I was entirely accepted and was given the permission to be who I am.”

Font says he got lost in the work and that feeling never left him. The feeling shows through in the works in his solo exhibition. which features a variety of media including painting, pastel and photography, on the second floor of the Steven and Dorethea Green Library at Florida International University.

The unusual title tells the story — “Self Care: Mineral Spirits, Elixirs and Other Home Remedies,” which opened on Thursday, June 20 and closes on Friday, Aug. 9. Font says it is his art that is his self-care and his elixir.

Ignacio Font, “13 Steps,” mixed media on paper, July 2020 to June 2024. (Photo courtesy of Jean Blackwell Font)

“This is where I land,” he says while walking past each piece. “Every one of the works has some sort of relationship to something going on in my life or something important to me. So, I think that’s where the title came from – this idea that these are the ways that I deal with difficulties and walk through them. These are the places where I put it all down and then I can walk away without feeling like I haven’t dealt with something.”

It’s the first time he’s exhibited “13 Steps,” which, Font says, took four years to complete. Thirteen individual pieces, 12 X 9 inches each, in this case are shown to represent a staircase – seven to the left, then six to the right each (45 X 129 inches). While existing as a whole, each stands individually in a portrayal of struggle and energy.

“I finished it the day before we opened the show and it’s just been, well, it’s been a very difficult piece for me, so it just took a long time to make.”

His partner in work and in life, his wife, Jean, suffered a serious injury after she fell down a flight of stairs at their art studio in 2020. Some of the individual pieces mix words within the paint, which he says relate to the night of the fall – “how the night started and how it ended.” Another has lyrics from a classic Commodores song, an ode to his wife’s strength: “She’s a brick house,” he says.

Words from a song by the group The The, “Love Is Stronger Than Death,” are infused in one of Font’s works about his father’s death, part of a series of brightly colored works. “It is probably one of the brightest . . . the most colorful that I have . . . because I did come to terms with his passing away that he was part of my life, so not a loss.”

“epitapth: ten paintings about you,” Ignacio Font, mixed media on canvas, March 2022,  is a series of works that the artist says have to do with his father’s death and are some of the most colorful in the exhibition, “Self Care: Mineral Spirits, Elixirs and Other Home Remedies.” (Photo courtesy of Jean Michel Andre)

The oil on canvas, “Saint Judas Tadeo,” full of vibrant blue and green is reminiscent of a garden, another of Font’s meditative passions. The painting is an ode to Saint Jude Thaddeus, the most popular patron saint of impossible causes.  “We light a candle to him all the time in the studio and at the house,” says Font.

Ignacio Font, “Saint Judas Tadeo,” oil on canvas, July 2018, 20 X 24 inches (Photo courtesy of Jean Michel Andre)

One of the largest and most intricate is “journal,” created during COVID from June 2020 to January 2021. The 72 by 144 mixed media on canvas is a whirl of energy with much to take in. Near the bottom with the word “distrust” in cursive writing is a yellow cone with smoke billowing out of the top. On the right is a child with something resembling a pillowcase over their head and in the middle is a large tree. On the left is the suggestion of a man’s head, maybe a self portrait? It is one of the most fascinating of all the works in the show.

Font points out different areas of the piece. “There were the protests. So, you see that cone with the tear gas? One of the things that you can do to dissipate that kind of aggressive action of tear gas is you put it in a cone or a case, put water in it and shake it and it renders it null and void.” He says the child depicted is his granddaughter, with whom he plays games of peekaboo. “And I was thinking about her and her future.” The words scattered throughout are influenced by the poet laureate of New York state from 2012 to 2014, Marie Howe.

The most intricate in the exhibition is “journal,” mixed media on canvas, June 2020 to January 2021, 72 X 144 inches. (Photo courtesy of Jean Michel Andre)

“I was driving and listening to NPR and she was reading a poem.” The poem was from her book “Magdalene.”

“I fell in love with her words and had to find any book by her.” The one he picked up reflected on sorrow. “It’s about if we take on sorrow, what we do with our lives.”

The tree, he says, represents a pendant that he received from his most “difficult” stepdaughter. “But we had come to terms by then and we have grown and that was a very giving thing.”

The artist stands in front of his work “epitaph: ten paintings about you” at the Fridge Fair in Coconut Grove in 2023.  (Photo courtesy of Jean Blackwell Font)

He isn’t afraid to speak emotions in his work – to lay them bare.

“I think that’s part of healing. Part of healing is coming to terms with it, to being transparent.”

Font says all of his works are a reflection of his life. “I’m not a political person, I’m not overly religious, what I know is my life.”

WHAT: Ignacio Font: “Self Care: Mineral Spirits, Elixirs & Other Home Remedies”

WHERE: Steven and Dorothea Green Library, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St., Miami

WHEN: Library hours, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Through Friday, Aug. 9.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (305) 348-2451 or library.fiu.edu.

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Buzzy KDR Gallery Celebrates Snow Birds in ‘Florida Room’ Show

Cici McMonigle, “New Shoes New Me,” 2024, acrylic on wood, is part of the KDR gallery exhibition “Florida Room No. 3: Snow Birds” through Aug. 14.  (Photo Courtesy of KDR Gallery)

A dance floor packed with sweating bodies, Robin Williams’ “The Birdcage” projected on the walls, plastic cups that change color from hot pink to purple – this was no ordinary art opening. For one sweltering night on Saturday, July 28, KDR in Allapattah transformed into Miami’s hottest club.

Drawn by the club music stylings of upcoming local DJ Berrakka, who deftly switched between hip-hop, Latin, pop, and other dance music edits, the stylish crowd lingered long past the opening’s stated wrap-up time of 10 p.m. – late for the gallery crowd (the collectors had all gone home by then) but quite early by Miami nightlife standards. Several of the attendees told me they’d never visited the gallery before.

Ryan Metke, “High Tide,” 2024. Enamel on fiberglass. (Photo Courtesy of KDR Gallery)

Inside the gallery, the art was just as unconventional. There was a fiberglass marlin emblazoned with a certain detergent logo (title: “High Tide”) and a gold-plated wasp nest, both by New Yorker Ryan Metke. Chinese-born Cici McMonigle painted a brown pelican wearing flame-print Converse shoes. An artist named Royal Jarmon depicted, with intentional crudeness, a White Ferrari (à la Don Johnson in “Miami Vice”) reflected against itself like a Photoshop effect.

Notice a theme? The name of the show is “Florida Room No. 3: Snow Birds.” It’s the latest in a series of art shows at KDR in which artists are chosen to make and submit art that reflects the unique culture of the Sunshine State. The first edition had focused on Miami artists, while the second used the Biscayne Bay as its theme; produced in collaboration with the Bridge Initiative, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, the show raised funds to campaign to place the bay on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cynthia Talmadge, “Frank E. Campbell (Snow)”, 2018. Oil on linen, painted wooden frame. (Photo Courtesy of KDR Gallery)

This time, however, the gallery felt the need to shake things up. “Initially, the Florida Room show was kind of a way to have a summer group show,” says Katia David Rosenthal, KDR’s founder. “With this one, I had every intention of shifting the subject matter.”

They would look beyond Florida, inviting artists from out of state (the titular “Snow Birds,” reinterpreting the local pejorative for winter tourists) to send work based on their own interpretations of Florida culture. Some took the theme more literally than others – Ivorian-American artist Monsieur Zohore sent an ice sculpture of a pair of birds, complete with a mini freezer for storage, titled “Snowbirds” that he had on hand. Others focused on the state’s natural bounty: Metke’s marlin and beehive were joined by a lovely sculpture by the artist of a pelican diving, while Panamanian Isabel de Obaldía supplied a glass sculpture of an iguana.

Ryan Metke, “Anatomy of a Feather,” 2024. Polymer Gypsum, Steel. (Photo Courtesy of KDR Gallery)

Rosenthal and Smith got the idea for the show from a series of photos by Andy Sweet, whose images of the dwindling community of Jewish retirees on South Beach in the late 1970s was published recently under the name “Shtetl in the Sun: Andy Sweet’s South Beach 1977-1980.” A handful of photo prints by Sweet were included in the show, depicting sunbathers on the beach, a pair of overly tanned bronze bubbies with big hair, and other scenes.

“This collection of these images really sort of got my mind going about the way that Miami is constantly changing. It’s in flux all the time,” says Smith, who was raised in Florida but only recently returned to the state after living and working in New York. “I thought this idea of the snowbird was really something that has been around for a long time, but feels particularly important now, with this huge influx of mainly New Yorkers coming to Florida in the last four or five years during the pandemic.”

Royal Jarmon, “Vice White,” 2024. Acrylic on canvas. (Photo Courtesy of KDR Gallery)

KDR also came about as a result of the pandemic. Rosenthal had been working for the late Bill Brady at his eponymous gallery and needed an outlet of her own to stave off boredom as work slowed at her main job. She opened KDR305 in a room of her family home in the Shenandoah neighborhood. While she has since dropped the “305” from the brand and moved to the larger Allapattah space, which features a big courtyard perfect for parties, she still activates occasionally for small-scale art shows.

The gallery has quickly gained a name for itself with a roster of bold contemporary artists, including Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, Joel Gaitan, and Susan Kim Alvarez, among others. The gallery has been very successful at getting artists placed in museums, and its booths at NADA Miami have consistently gained attention from press. Earlier this year Miami New Times even declared KDR the Best Art Gallery in Miami. Amid all that buzz, Rosenthal has made sure KDR’s Floridian pride does not go unnoticed.

WHAT:  “Florida Room No. 3: Snow Birds”

 WHERE: KDR, 790 NW 22nd St., Miami

 WHEN: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, through Aug. 14.

 COST: Free

 INFORMATION: (305) 392-0416 or kdr305.com

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

An impassioned visual immigrant journey by William Osorio at Miami’s LnS Gallery

William Osorio, “Campeche to Cancún” (from the series “The Path to the Volcanoes”), 2023, oil on canvas with recycled clothes, textiles, and dried flowers hand sewn on rug, 96 x 120 inches, 243.8 x 304.8 cm. Collection of Jorge M. Pérez. (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

One of the fundamental traits of Matterism, also known as Matter Painting, is the use of non-traditional materials such as sand, wood, wax or textiles in the creation of works, bordering between painting and sculpture.

Artists in this practice include the Germans Joseph Beuys, with his famous “drawings as objects”, and Anselm Kiefer. The latter, in one of his famous pictorial series, uses combinations of women’s and girl’s dresses graded with brownish earth, juxtaposed with tangled wires and sandy surfaces. Some observers associate these symbols with the victims of the Holocaust, while others consider that Kiefer intends a notion of nostalgia and autobiography, suggesting intense and deeply personal reflections.

William Osorio in his studio, pictured with “La danza de la razón” (The Dance of Reason), 2023, oil on canvas hand sewn on rug, 144 x 185 inches, 365.8 x 469.9 cm.  (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

It is this same creative vein that links the density of oil painting with the use of textiles and objects in a visceral documentary fashion in “The Path to the Volcanoes,” a selection of recent works by Cuban artist Wllliam Osorio.

On view at LnS Gallery through early August, Osorio’s intimate and reflective works act as windows that attempt to reconstruct a part of the recent Cuban exodus as a result of the regime’s crackdown on civil liberties after the July 11, 2021 protests. Painted in oil on canvases sewn to thick carpets, these works also add to their narrative such objects as hoodies, backpacks, purses and even children’s socks, worn by Cuban immigrants on their journey from Nicaragua to the U.S. border in search of freedom.

‘The title, ‘The Path to the Volcanoes,’ alludes to the journey that (Cubans) take to visit the volcanoes in Nicaragua which are a popular tourist attraction, acting as their ticket to freedom. Upon arrival their journey to the states begins, as they walk through central America to the United States border only taking what they can carry on their back. This body of work re-illustrates moments along each individual’s journey to freedom, to a new life,” says Sofia Guerra, the exhibition curator.

In painting these works, Osorio referenced the compelling photographs taken by his brother-in-law during his migratory journey. The images captured individuals—elderly people, teenagers, parents with their young children—who made up the group with which he made a heroic (and dangerous) journey. “For me,” says Osorio, “it has been a recurring theme in the history of literature and art since the beginning of time: it is the hero searching for the road. It’s in Odysseus, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in Cervantes… It’s everywhere, even in Hollywood movies. It’s about the search for a path, restructuring identity, crossing thresholds”, says the 35-year-old artist, who arrived in the United States in 2007 and lives in Miami.

Installation view of “The Path to the Volcanoes,” a focus installation by artist William Osorio. (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

On how he obtained some of the personal objects and garments he incorporates in his works, Osorio stated they were provided by people who crossed the border to enter the United States. “Friends and family close to me and who came that way, and some of them gave me something,” he says. “It’s like re-documenting the experience of others through real objects that were used by them during their crossing.”

From a curatorial standpoint, Guerra was interested in grouping the works by combining Osorio’s large-format pieces with his works on paper, displaying the variety of the painter’s artistic options within the series. “Osorio can create works that are massive and balanced, but also smaller and more intimate.”

On that basis, Guerra explains that everything flows harmoniously in space, carefully weaving the threads of the same narrative idea. “The rug paintings have such a large presence that we wanted to make sure the works on paper really highlight the overall narrative and fill any gaps in the storytelling of this series,” says the curator.

“The goal was to try and touch on as many aspects of the journey as we could to show the humanness of this experience.”

William Osorio, “The Kids” (from the series “The Path to the Volcanoes”), 2024, oil on canvas with recycled clothes, hand sewn on rug, 79 x 79 inches, 200.66 x 200.66 cm. (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

There are moments of bonding, moments of rest, sharing meals, a few works that highlight movement and the arduousness of the journey, juxtaposed with some still moments of leisure, according to Guerra. “They all culminate in this moment of finality that we see in ‘Campeche to Cancún,’ which really acts as a grand visual finale.”

For Osorio, this exhibition is a continuation of his formal quest to address themes that are leitmotifs in his life and work. “The theme of identity is central, and the journey as a process of discovery is fundamental in my life. The journey represents a passage across a threshold that allows me to re-signify identity and the world as we know it. It is like the exit from the platonic cave: living in a space where you think things are real and, suddenly, coming out and realizing that they are not. Migrating also implies this: arriving in a world where real life awaits you, although some prefer to return to the cavern to avoid the bright sunlight,” says the artist.

Osario talks about other artists whose work he admires.

“I like the contemporary figurative work of Henry Taylor. Also the abstraction of Julie Mehretu. Speaking of physical gesture, she paints in impressive formats, and to see her working on those cranes is impressive. I’ve seen those videos hundreds of times. To me, Julie Mehretu is one of the coolest artists of our time.”

William Osorio, “Caminante, son tus huellas el camino y nada más X” (Traveler, your footprints are the path and nothing else X), 2024, oil stick and textile on paper, 15 x 11 inches, 38.1 x 27.94 cm. Collection of Jorge M. Pérez. (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

Of course, he also mentions the works of Kiefer. “For painters, Kiefer is like Borges for writers; he leaves you speechless. His production volume is incredible, he never stops working, even in his eighties. His work is superphysical and critical.”

Among Osario’s references in his own work are Gerhard Richter and Julian Schnabel. Of the latter he says: “I enjoy his work, both his painting and his cinema, which is clearly not made by a filmmaker, but by an artist,” he says.

Guerra says that while she has long been a “fan” of how Osario captures emotions in his paintings, the curator says that this exhibition of works adds yet another layer.

William Osorio, “Tonalá” (from the series “The Path to the Volcanoes”), 2024, oil on canvas, recycled clothes, textiles, dried flowers, and ratan hand sewn on rug, 36 x 36 inches, 91.44 x 91.44 cm. (Photo by Sofia Guerra/courtesy of LnS Gallery)

” . . . The added textural element of found objects, clothing, and personal belongings really elevates the message of the work. We live our life with these things in other ways – we know how they feel in our hands, so to see them incorporated into a painting is really just spectacular to me. It bridges the gap between subject and viewer.”

WHAT:  “William Osorio: The Path to the Volcanos”

WHERE: LnS Gallery, 2610 SW 28th Lane, Miami

WHEN:. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, By appointment Sunday and Monday. Through Saturday, Aug. 3.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: 305-987-5842 or lnsgallery.com

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Just in Time for the Olympics, Lowe Art Museum’s ‘Knockout’ Takes On Women In Sports

Monica Kim Garza celebrates the female body in her work in the exhibition “She’s A Knockout” at Lowe  Art Museum at the University of Miami through Saturday, Sept. 14. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

It’s taken decades, but in 2024 it seems as though public enthusiasm for women’s sports have reached a tipping point. Whether it’s college phenom-turned-Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark’s much-hyped entry into the WNBA or the continued growth of women’s soccer around the world, female leagues and competitions have never been more popular.

Now, the art world is starting to take notice, and just in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Featuring 11 artists and 15 sports, “She’s A Knockout,” a new exhibition focusing on women in sports, recently opened at the Lowe Art Museum-University of Miami. The timing may be right, but according to curator Caitlin Swindell, the show has been in the works for a while.

“I had noticed in recent years a lot of exhibitions that incorporated sports in some way,” Swindell, who worked at the Lowe before taking a job at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, says,“but not much I’d seen really focused on women and identity with regard to sports.”

In her painting “Huddle,” Fay Sanders reinterprets an iconic work by Matisse. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

Indeed, there has been an effort from museums to look at sports through the lens of art. Swindell cites the soccer-focused “The World’s Game” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the basketball-themed “To The Hoop” at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina, two shows that blended sports with contemporary art. A show at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, earlier this year also focused on women’s sporting attire from the early 20th century, and Swindell even looked into a 2001 photography exhibition at the Smithsonian titled “Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?” She felt a different perspective was needed.

“A lot of people will say, ‘oh, this is an exhibition about sports,’ which it is in part. But I would say it’s more about identity and using sports as a vehicle to explore different facets of identity,” says Swindell.

Some artists drew on art history. In her painting “Huddle,” American artist Fay Sanders shows a group of girls gathered in a team embrace. The artwork’s colors are designed to resemble Matisse’s famous painting “La Danse,” but Sanders has clothed her subjects, refuting the original painting’s male gaze. Monica Kim Garza, on the other hand, proudly deploys near-nudity in her paintings, in which the American of Mexican and Korean heritage depicts curvy, brown-skinned women reminiscent of Gaugin. Again, instead of objectifying her subjects as the male artist did with Tahitian natives, Kim Garza shows them enjoying their bodies free of shame, surfing and playing tennis and golf.

Bruises turn into marks of honor in Riikka Hyvönen’s roller-derby paintings. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

The body is another emergent theme, especially in Finnish artist Riikka Hyvönen’s work. Her series “Roller Derby Kisses” depicts the bruises women sustained during roller derby matches, as well as the flamboyant hotpants that athletes wear. It’s a version of femininity that celebrates toughness without compromising style.

One section, the more documentarian “New Arenas,” shows female athletes making strides in some extremely macho disciplines. For “Sol y Sombra,” Spanish-French filmmaker Bianca Argimón followed Raquel Martín, a female matador who is also coached by a woman, a first for the discipline. The short film pairs training and performance footage with close-up shots of Martín’s elaborate suits-of-lights, commenting on the feminine, aesthetic aspects of a very masculine, gory tradition.

Zoe Buckman’s sculptures combine boxing equipment with fabric art, a medium traditionally regarded as feminine. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

American photographer Eddie Lanieri focuses on female boxers in Louisiana and Texas as part of her “Southern Bells” series. Nearby, British artist Zoë Buckman relates to her own experience of the sport with a series of sculptures: “Heavy Rag,” a punching bag covered with quilted linen, “Bubblegum Boxing Glove,” a small, pink blown-glass sculpture in the shape of a boxing glove, and a pair of hanging sculptures where gloves have been fashioned from various frilly and colorful fabrics.

“She’s A Knockout” examines women’s sports and female identity through art, such as in this photo series by Sophie Kirchner. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

The idea that women can exist and thrive in spaces traditionally dominated by men is central to one of the largest works in the show, a series of 12 photo portraits by German artist Sophie Kirchner called “Male Sport.” Photographed dead-center in square frames, the photos show female athletes immediately after they’ve finished a match in one of three intensely physical sports: Hockey, water polo, and rugby. It’s a work that forces us to question what we expect when looking at women. Are power, strength, and toughness acceptable, or do we prefer beauty, meekness, the things that animate traditional ideas of femininity? Take a look for yourself and decide.

WHAT:  “She’s A Knockout: Sport, Gender, and the Body in Contemporary Art”

 WHERE: Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, 1301 Stanford Drive, Miami

 WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, through Sept. 14.

COST: Free

 INFORMATION: (305) 284-3535 and lowe.miami.edu

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.