Ebony G. Patterson......A waiting black horse, for those who bear/bare witness. 2018.
On display at PAMM.
Hand cut jacquard tapestry, with glitter, appliques, pins, embellishments, fabric, tassels, brooches, acrylic, glass pearls and beads, hand cast embellished heliconias, shelf, embellished resin owls. Courtesy of artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago
Art Basel is about to touch down on Miami Beach soil in less than a month. Who could imagine that it is already almost upon us? Mark your calendars for Dec. 6 through 9 at the glistening new and certainly improved Miami Beach Convention Center. Are your artistic chops honed to perfection or do we need to jump start our engines. The seasons “A” list exhibitions are being rolled out in Miami’s museums as we speak. While you’re still fresh, it might behoove us all to take in what South Florida is offering before our eyes bulge out from overuse and our finely tuned sensitivity wanes. Let’s get on this.
The climate: As a polarizing political aura wafts increasingly into a rancorous meld, the Macbeth soliloquy comes to mind:
“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.”
Avoiding the idea of baboon’s blood to heal our troubles, I wondered how the art world is channeling these times. I poked around several venues to see what we could see.
The Perez Art Museum (PAMM) has several worthwhile moments to share.
PAMM’s Chief Curator Tobias Ostrander offered a brief synopsis on its captivating Ebony G. Patterson exhibition:
“Patterson creates a mysterious ‘night garden’ environment for her works which address violence perpetrated against black and brown bodies globally. Her exuberant use of floral patterning and other embellishments honor and dignify her figures, shrouding them in beauty.”
Ebony G. Patterson...they stood at a time of unknowing...for those who bear/bare witness. 2018. On display at PAMM.
Hand cut jacquard photo tapestry with glitter, appliques, pins, embellishments, fabric, tassels, brooches, acrylic, glass pearls and beads, hand cast heliconia. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago
Visually these pieces are stunning and complex, calling us ever closer to examine weighty messages within. Combining beauty and brutality, myth and reality, the dichotomy Patterson reveals floats to the surface as the viewer gazes upon her deeply thoughtful assemblage. A wide variety of material is thoughtfully juxtaposed into one elaborately pleasing image, an initial impression that quickly becomes disturbingly complicated as you spend time with Patterson’s creative mind.
The exhibition grabs you immediately into her inner world of symbolism beginning with a three channel video “The Observation: The Bush Cockerel Project,” a fictitious Historical Narrative from 2012, addressing the many yin yang issues faced in the journey of existence with this Jamaican born mixed media artist. Several of the pieces have been created especially for this show. "Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . .” On Display: Nov. 9, 2018 – May 5, 2019
Documentary photograph of “Surrounded Islands” Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida 1980-1983
woven polypropylene fabric surrounding 11 islands. Styrofoam, steel cables, and anchoring system 6.5 million square feet of fabric overall
Photo: Wolfgang Volz
Cristo 1983
Don’t leave the museum yet. PAMM is showing, for the first time in the U.S., the documentary exhibition of images from the 1983 Cristo installation of flamingo pink fabric that the artist, and collaborator /wife Jeanne Claude (1935-2009), chose to surround eleven uninhabited islands in Biscayne Bay. Jumpstarting Miami out of a diminished phase of its history in the early 1980s Cristo, along with the Miami Vice TV show (1984-1990) ignited an exotic rosy new light onto our palm ringed shores. Sudden turn-arounds happen, we are pleased to re-imagine. The 35th anniversary of Cristo’s documentary exhibition “Surrounded Islands” (1980 -1983) coincides with genesis of the Center for Fine Arts, which heralded the beginnings of a now glossy new Perez Museum. I plucked a phrase from the PAMM blurb to consciously remember the power of individual effort.:
“It is a narrative of empowerment, exemplifying the idea that lone individuals are capable of marshaling large civic forces to bring their dreams to fruition—that with determination, willpower, and compelling vision, anything is possible.”
On Display: "Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980–83 | A Documentary Exhibition” Oct. 4, 2018 - Feb. 17, 2019
Perez Art Museum Miami
1103 Biscayne Blvd
Miami, 33132
www.pamm.org
Let’s next turn our eye to Florida International University’s Frost Art Museum and the collaborative installation titled“The Writing on the Wall,” a collection of hand-written and typed pieces amassed by Dr. Baz Dreisinger from inside U.S. and International prisons during her years teaching in penitentiaries. Collaborator and conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas and Dr. Dreisinger present essays, poems, letters, stories, diagrams, and notes taking us into the daily prism of those facing modern incarceration around the world….a journey of which most have little close up knowledge, creating a disconnect with people existing within confined boundaries of a prison system in crisis. “The Writing on the Wall” is a part of the For Freedoms initiative founded by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman focusing on civic engagement. (“Inspired by artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms -1941”) “Writing on The Wall”: On Display: Aug. 29 - Dec. 9, 2018
Another Frost exhibition on view is “Relational Undercurrents, Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago”. Beautiful pieces. This sharp, dynamic work is a major exhibition from artists of the Caribbean basin addressing the obfuscated concept that this area is unto itself, disconnected to the world it inhabits. Curated by Tatiana Flores, Associate Professor of Art History and Latino and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University.
A word from Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, Director of the Frost Museum:
“Because of Miami’s geographic proximity to the Caribbean nations, as well as our cultural mosaic which Caribbean cultures have shaped, it was important for us to bring this exhibition to Miami during Art Basel season,”
“Our new season opens up a dialogue about global commonalities rather than differences, from ecological changes to societal values around the world.”
"Connectivity. Selections from the Collection of the Frost Art Museum” Untitled (Solar Shields) by Cecelia P. Arboleta. On Display at FIU's Frost Art Museum.
“Relational Undercurrents Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago” Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018 - Jan. 13, 2019 Special tour: Jan. 8, 2019, 1 to 2 p.m.
Also pertinent is the ongoing exhibition: “Connectivity Selections from the Collection of the Frost Art Museum” examines “how art objects, created across cultures and during different time periods, relate to one another and to myriad publics.” Forty years of FIU collections that are relevant on many levels.
Amy Galpin, Chief curator of the Frost Art Museum FIU responded to my query on the impact our current national and international climate has on what and how FIU choses and curates the work to make a strong statement on the world stage relating to interpersonal relationships at a humanistic level.
Relational Undercurrents Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago”, Black Bullets by Jeanette Ehle. On display at FIU's Frost Art Museum.
AG: “We present relevant exhibitions for campus and community that encourage dialogue and reflection,”
“Empathy for me is an important term. You may not agree or like everything you see, but perhaps you learn to think about someone’s experiences in a new way.”
Frost Art Museum at FIU
10975 SW 17th St
Miami, 33199
www.frost.fiu.eduFYI: Miami-centric offerings to see “just because”:
History Miami Museum
"A Peculiar Paradise: Florida Photographs" by Nathan Benn, Nov. 8, 2018 - Apr. 14, 2019Miami Motel Stories: Mimo At The Gold Dust By Selina
"Immersive Theatre to Narrate Miami History in Unconventional Spaces," Juggerknot Theatre Company, Nov. 30 - Dec. 23, 2018WolfsonianMuseum
"Wit as Weapon: Satire and the Great War Deco: Luxury to Mass Market," Ongoing Aug. 9, 2018 - Jan. 13, 2019Jewish Museum of Florida, FIU
"The Art of the Lithograph." Process and historically important printworks by top artists, institutions and collections, Nov. 7, 2018 - March 3, 2019The Bass
The Haas Brothers Ferngully, Dec. 5, 2018-Apr. 21,2019ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
Dec. 6 - 9, 1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139 www.artbasel.com
