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5 years ago
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South Florida has become a considerable pocket of art in the last 12 years. Maybe even longer. Being so close to the equator makes the southernmost region of the United States pretty hot, climatically so, but in respect to artists turning heads in the city and bringing attention to the area (particularly Miami), artists with distinct backgrounds and practices are turning up the heat, making it hotter than before by addressing pressing issues.
Discussions such as climate change, gentrification, South Florida's wildlife in the Everglades, preservation of local cultures and historical sites, or identity-politics seem to be on the artist's minds and leak well into the works.
Every blossoming artist has a unique perspective and aesthetic to offer the public. Competition between peers shouldn't be a factor in success, but instead should be acknowledged and applauded. Miami's sundry is key to the city's progress in the arts. It can be pretty hard to keep up with the talent and "who is who," but even more so trivial to find individuals who care enough to spread the spotlight onto the enormous mass of creatives.
Amid the roaring sea of Miami artists, two women producers Elysa Batista, and Maria Theresa Barbist decided to pair up as a team. The result was the birth of Rocking Chair Sessions- spontaneous interviews with a list of preordained invitees from the arts community. The meeting's format discloses both professional and personal information to the public, making it [...]
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5 years ago
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Most Miami art week events are drawn to glitz and glam, vying to compete for a mention in the press or passed as gossip around town as the hottest soirée happening during its short life in Miami. The majority of art fairs push old and new artist names to the public while attempting to cash in revenues from lucrative collectors. They all play a part within the same hob-snob social games commonly celebrated in art communities across the board. It's just more intensified during this time of year.
Luckily, the RFC ( Rubell Family Collection) opened it's doors to the public with a refreshing solo exhibition of Purvis Young's messy Zulu inspired, folk art and new acquisitions. Over one-hundred works were displayed, created over Young's lifespan, shedding light on "universal themes."
Although Young is a prominently dominating name in the art world and his personal affairs disclosed to the public, there is still a sense of privacy or even distance that exists between his work and the public. This space became more apparent to me as I walked through the exhibition. Because the RFC exhibition space is vast and fixed in white walls, Young's smaller works became shushed from the viewer's direct gaze, but it was precisely his genius overcast brushstrokes what gesticulated the viewer to step in and absorb the extended, languid arrangements. Similarly to his reflective persona, his gestures seem pensive, drenched in the desire to understand humanity's fate, twisted by war, suffering,[...]
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