Four Miami galleries exhibit topical themes, push creative boundaries and highlight top resident talent during Miami Art Week.
Portrait of Nereida Garcia-Ferraz with her artwork PHOTO: BY ELLIOT & ERICK JIMÉNEZ, COURTESY OF SPINELLO PROJECTS
Marlon Portales, The Last Man, (2024) PHOTO: COURTESY OF SPINELLO PROJECTS
Founded in 2005 by Anthony Spinello, Spinello Projects is a reputed hub for cutting-edge ideas. On Dec. 2, the gallery opens three exhibitions, including “Body & Spirit,” a group exhibition interrogating human physiological and emotive connections and paintings by notable Cuban American artist Nereida Garcia-Ferraz. Both Miami-based painters, Bernadette Despujols introduces sensual surfaces in “Thank You For the Little Things,” while Marlon Portales showcases contemplative and masterful oil paintings in “The Last Man.” Exhibitions are on view through Jan. 11, 2025, at Spinello Projects, 2930 NW Seventh Ave., Miami,spinelloprojects.com
Portrait of Nina Surel. PHOTO: BY ELLIOT & ERICK
Alonso Brooks founded the nonprofit Afrikin Art and established the annual AfriKin Art Fair to advance African and African Diasporic creative expression. The 2024 fair themed “Threads of Life in Fragments of Time –A Cultural Odyssey” is curated by Brooks and Botswanian curator Atang Sharon Phitshana and includes work by Angèle Etoundi Essamba, Olu Amoda, Elisa Lejuez, among others. Brooks shares, “We unpack the role of art and culture in sustainable development; both are endangered, and we must use every voice to join the fight for a better world.” AfriKin Art Fair opens Dec. 1 with a weeklong program at Maison AfriKin, Scott Galvin Community Center, 1600 NE 126th St., North Miami,afrikin.org
Chukes, Illusion, Ceramic PHOTO: COURTESY OF AFRIKIN
The rigorous and sensorial multidisciplinary practice of artist Felecia Chizuko Carlisle is highlighted in the solo exhibition “Matter is a verb” at Emerson Dorsch. Precisely activating and resituating materials, often hard and rigid, to create poetic moments, Carlisle utilizes tension to instigate awareness of our physical and metaphysical presence. Examining how science and art coalesce, Carlisle explains, “My work is rooted in the idea that vibration is the force that organizes matter, which in turn forms every ‘thing.’” “Matter is a verb” is on view through Feb., 1, 2025 at Emerson Dorsch, 5900 NW Second Ave. Miami,emersondorsch.com
Felecia Chizuko Carlisle, Untitled Enigmatic Object, (2024), Archival Photo PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND EMERSON DORSCH GALLERY, MIAMI, FL
“The Radial Bone” by Ukrainian multimedia artist Nikita Kadan illuminates the impact of oppression on the human form and the environment and questions dominating psyches. Using a sharp and shiny ray as the exhibition’s central visual, Kadan constructs a metaphor for piercing as one would using a weapon. Merging artistic practice with activism, Kadan’s exhibition is a voice for current events and a provocation to address historical colonial mindsets. “The Radial Bone” is on view from Dec. 1 through Jan. 11, 2025, at Voloshyn Gallery, 802 NW 22nd St., Miami,voloshyngallery.art
Nikita Kadan, The Sun II, (2022). PHOTO: COURTESY OF NIKITA KADAN AND VOLOSHYN GALLERY
“My work is rooted in the idea that vibration is the force that organizes matter, which in turn forms every ‘thing.” –FELECIA CHIZUKO CARLISLE
Photography by: Photos Courtesy of Galleries and Artists
