Two exhibitions with a focus on diverse artists from the American South have opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (MOCA), where they’ll run until Oct. 1.
One of them is “Lonnie Holley: If You Really Knew.” Originally from Birmingham, Ala., Holley dove into the world of art and music after having a chaotic upbringing marked by instability and sorrow. His art consists of sculptures made from everyday materials found in his surroundings that honor the people and places he’s known.
(Zachary Balber)
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami is showcasing Nereida Ferraz’s “Spring,” “Summer” and “Fall,” and Carin Wagner’s “Vulnerable and Vanishing Trees” in a new exhibition.
The show features artwork from Holley’s decadeslong career, such as “Without Skin/The Water This Time,” which includes a firehose to represent the suppression methods used during the Civil Rights Movement. The work commemorates the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that took the lives of four young Black girls. According to Holley, the cross in the piece references the church’s role as a gathering place for Black Americans and the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation tactics.
“Our grandmothers and grandfathers had to run while the dogs and firehose were turned loose on them. During the bombing, people were in their Sunday best, and my grandmother even helped to dig the graves for the children (killed at) the bombing,” said Holley. “There’s a lot of ways the memories affect and stay with you. All the memories have been torn to pieces – of the bombed children’s bodies, the concrete and whatever else can fit into that box.”
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Addison Wolff with their featured sculpture “Pull Up to the Bumper” in the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami.
The South Florida Cultural Consortium (SFCC) is the second exhibition that features artists sharing their activism and personal messages. The show includes 12 artists representing the five counties in the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Program. Since its inception in 1988, the initiative has offered the largest regional, government-sponsored artists’ grants in the United States.
The LGBTQ+ Experience
Sculptors such as Addison Wolff and Ema Ri incorporated aspects of the LGBTQ+ community in their art despite state laws targeting queer individuals and history, like the recently passed bill restricting gender affirming medical care in Florida and the much-criticized “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibiting lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Moira Holohan’s “A Sinking Feeling” series consists of colored pencil, gouache and hemp cord on wood panel.
Wolff’s “Pull Up to the Bumper,” referencing Grace Jones’ 1981 disco hit, pulls inspiration from Bernard Perlin’s 1957 painting, “The Bar,” to reflect on queer bar culture and its significance in building community. Wolff’s art explores the LGBTQ+ community’s history with handkerchiefs embedded into the bold sculpture to reference gay men’s discreet code to signal their interest in one another in the 1970s.
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Farley Aguilar’s “Drummer Boy and Shadow.”
“We weren’t allowed to be out and open in the past, so bars were our community centers where we organized, gained visibility and strengthened our community,” said Wolff. “Part of art is that you want to see a representation of who you are in it.”
The sculpture is loosely based on the human form, with flailing arms, large orifices and wide curves, much like Miami native Ema Ri’s series. After graduating from the New World School of the Arts, Ri explored different materials for their work and stumbled upon using walls to articulate concepts about the body.
Ri’s “Borderland” and “Memory Bank” highlight how walls mimic skin, such as patching up a hole in the wall or removing a hung frame, akin to the scars and bruises left on people. Their work was inspired by their experience as a queer-identifying, second-generation Cuban American and the challenges that came with those identities.
“My work has a lot to do with escaping, such as not fitting in a body that I was assigned to, or not fitting in my community, whether it’s my Latino or gay community,” they said. “I’m straddling these borderlines between worlds but navigating them to survive.”
The Homeland
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Carrington Ware’s “Reimagined Memories” dives into stories and memories of growing up in the South.
Nereida Ferraz, a Cuban-born Miami-based artist, focuses on identity, culture and gender in her featured works, “Spring,” “Summer” and “Fall.” During her visit to Cuba, Ferraz was influenced by the tension shepherded in by spring and summer with destructive hurricanes and severe thunderstorms. She created the series to reconnect with her homeland and, much like Wolff and Ri, rebuild a fleeting sense of community.
“I was beginning to feel that Cuba is where everybody’s always leaving. You have friends to visit, but you go back, and they’re all gone,” said Ferraz. “I kept feeling this abandonment, so my work focuses on creating conversations about displacements, identity and destiny, but also the need for community, warmth and life.”
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Carin Wagner’s “Vulnerable and Vanishing Trees.”
According to Ferraz, “Fall” addresses displacement, a familiar sentiment within immigrant communities, and symbolizes a yearning for others who left the country.
“In a sense, we are all immigrants. My grandparents came from Spain, and we have all been displaced by generations. It’s something you must experience in your lifetime – to leave everything you have behind and start completely brand-new,” said Ferraz.
The Environment
Art by Carin Wagner and Beatriz Monteavaro highlight the growing concerns about the loss of biodiversity in forests and the increasing contamination of Florida’s shores.
Wagner’s haunting work, “Vulnerable and Vanishing Trees,” calls attention to the hundreds of endangered and vulnerable species of trees through photography. The images’ negatives of the trees symbolize their removal from the environment, and she projects them on silk to allow transparency.
“All these species are at risk of vanishing completely, and I wanted it to represent a ghost forest, which all these trees are now part of,” said Wagner.
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Beatriz Monteavaro blends her love for science fiction and South Florida’s sea life into her art.
Wagner’s work began in environmental protection and focused on trees in the United States after becoming aware of their vulnerability and significance, not only to humans but the shelter, food and support they offer to hundreds of different species of animals.
“People know about endangered animals but don’t know how trees carry all life on Earth,” said Wagner. “I want people to be aware of each species we stand to lose, what happened to them, why it happened, and what we can do to save them.”
Monteavaro, a Cuban refugee who grew up in Hialeah, was motivated to create “I Dream of a Day When They May Rise Above the Billows to Drag Down in their Reeking Talons the Remnants of Puny, War-Exhausted Mankind” from her various interests. It included series such as “The Masters of the Universe” and HP Lovecraft’s ideas of aliens living underwater, using bold colors, castles and sea animals depicted in exaggerated sizes.
(Jazmine Santillana for The Biscayne Times)
Nereida Ferraz’s “Spring,” “Summer” and “Fall.”
The painting incorporates sea life for the first time in Monteavaro’s work based on the walks she takes alongside the beach on Biscayne Bay. The art blends science fiction elements with sea life to portray the sea as a new frontier and emphasize the menacing nature of alien figures and crustaceans.
“My work has to do with science fiction and monster movies, but I wanted to make people try to be more conscientious about plastic and waste when you’re around the water,” said Monteavaro. “I like humans, but these animals aren’t guilty of being jerks. They’re just doing their thing. We’re the ones that are overtly being jerks.”
The distinct artist group has brought challenging and engaging work to the community, and many of the artists who spoke with the Biscayne Times shared pride in the collective outcome.
“This is a beautiful exhibition. We made work that moves people and connects people,” said Ferraz. “I’m proud of Ema and all the artists here. It makes me feel like this is truly Miami. It’s home, and this is what we have.”