Tucked away in a serene corner of Florida International University’s main campus at 10975 SW 17th St. is the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum.
The 46,000-square-foot building was designed by Yann Weymouth, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based architect who also designed his city’s Salvador Dalí Museum.
(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
Lush greenery surrounds the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum on FIU’s main campus.
Although a few miles away from the Biscayne Corridor, the exhibitions currently on display at the Frost are worth the drive for their quality and variety, not to mention that entrance is free all day, every day.
So, if you’ve been distracted by the overwhelming number of performances and exhibitions during the cultural season and have struggled to keep up, summer is the time to slow down and circle back to cultural opportunities you may have missed, like this one.
The first floor showcases the work of four documentary photographers in an exhibition titled “How We Remember,” a fitting title considering the social media obsession with documenting our every move. In this case, photographers Christine Cortes, Joel Meyerowitz, Ruth Orkin and Roscoè B. Thické III turned their camera lenses away from themselves and toward their respective communities.
Meyerowitz, a renowned American photographer, documented much of the aftermath and cleanup of the World Trade Center disaster of 2001. Among the 8,500 photographs taken, he captured countless powerful portraits of construction workers, first responders, police officers and firefighters who worked at ground zero in the days and months that followed the tragedy. One portrait on display shows a somber George M. Reilly, who searched the site for the remains of his firefighter son, Kevin Owen Reilly.
(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
A Joel Meyerowitz photograph of George M. Reilly, who searched the World Trade Center site for the remains of his firefighter son, Kevin Owen Reilly, who died Sept. 11, 2001.
The series on display from Cortes shows the streets and hillsides of Colombia on a visit to her ancestral homeland. My favorites pieces are her colorful photo montages on plexiglass, which she created through double exposures, reflections and image layering. Cortes believes that using experimental methods of printing allows her “to observe or represent versions of reality.”
By carefully hanging them away from the wall with clear wire, the images appear to be floating in the room, cleverly allowing the viewer to appreciate their vibrancy from the front and peak through the back.
Orkin’s photography of street life focuses primarily on scenes captured in New York City and Italy. Like many photographers in the 1970s, she made her career as a photojournalist for publications such as Life magazine, for whom she photographed countless celebrities.
One of her best vantage points turned out to be a bird’s eye view from her apartment window. Among the ones I was most drawn to was a photo of two young couples walking near Central Park and Lincoln Center, as well as another of a child playing with their toys in a park while the adult is surrounded by pets. Cats on their own set of wheels appeared ready to hitch a ride behind bicycle training wheels.
(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
A playful and untitled 1975 gelatin silver print by Ruth Orkin.
Orkin, whose career spanned several decades, was a trailblazer in photography who undoubtedly paved the way for future generations of women artists like Cortes.
Thické, a veteran of the U.S. Army, has focused his lens on Liberty City and Miami Gardens, but the 750-unit Liberty Square housing project served as a major inspiration, where he sought to show “a lot of love in these communities” rather than just its dark side. Photographing strong, independent women is another hallmark of his work on display.
Collectively, the exhibition richly captures the fleeting moments of everyday life as well as the essence of human relationships.
(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
An untitled Ruth Orkin gelatin silver print of two young couples walking near New York’s Central Park and Lincoln Center in 1974.
Climb the stairs to the second floor (or take the elevator) and you’ll be transported to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries for “Allegories for Learning.” Here the red walls are adorned with sketches from Italian artists made predominately with quill pens and black and brown ink, as well as charcoal. The off-white paper sketches mounted on warm crimson walls with soft lighting provide the perfect contrast.
Biblical themes were a popular choice during the period, as well as the mystical and Greco-Roman mythology. The works included in this exhibition reflect those preferences and reinforce the power of drawings as a rich and varied medium.
“How We Remember” is on display through September 12; “Allegories for Learning,” on loan from the Georgia Museum of Art, is on display through Sept. 10.
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(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
“How We Remember” opens with photography by Joel Meyerowitz.
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(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
Roscoè B. Thické III photographs strong women among other scenes in Liberty City and Miami Gardens.
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(Emily Cardenas for Biscayne Times)
“Allegories for Learning” features mostly pen-and-ink and charcoal sketches from Italian artists of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.