Perez Art Museum, Edo Bertoglio (Swiss, born 1951). Jean-Michel Basquiat on the set of Downtown 81, 1980–81(image from PAMM)
Dystopia, dyspepsia, disturbia. Our climate is fraught with political dissing, personal dissing, cultural dissing, governing dissing, media dissing . . . distancing ourselves from one another. (Definition of “dis”: to speak disrespectfully or to criticize)
To aid in slogging through the distraught mindset we seem faced with daily in our techno-connected world of disconnect, I sifted through Miami's gallery contents. Art reflects current waters. Meandering through the thoughts of artists can, one hopes, bring thoughtful pondering, focusing ideas into a version of cohesive understanding of the disparate summertime blues as we sweat through the existence (or non existence if you must insist) of our climate change, both political and weather-wise.
Misinformation and disinformation runs like an unraveling thread through our days. Art mirrors the temperature of time, perhaps it can dissect the sinewy cords and discords that bind, dispel the dissonance that foments through a suffocating barrage of information each and every moment. We must take the time to think for ourselves. Quiet solo gallery/museum time might be the ticket to existential sorting of thoughts.
MOCA's Intersectionality (image courtesy of MoCA).
MoCA
770 NE 125th St,, Miami 33161,
Intersectionality, through Aug. 14.
Curated by Richard Haden, the summer exhibition refers to the Intersectionality movement. It is a term coined by American professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. She taught Civil Rights, race studies and Constitutional Law at both UCLA and Columbia. Intersectionality deals with cultural patterns of oppression in race, gender, class, ability and ethnicity. Haden’s background as artist, writer and activist as well as independent curation, prepared Haden for effectively organizing this latest amalgam (along with last years MoCA show titled "Temporary Autonomous Zone”). His bio pins a wordy explanation of his modus operandi: Haden “maintains a lifelong progressive autodidactic lifestyle.”
Coral Gables Museum
285 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, 33134,
Coral Gables Sister Cities: Partners in Peace, an ongoing exhibit.
The sister cities movement began in 1956 by President Dwight D.Eisenhower as an international peace program. This exhibition focuses on the Cold War and seeks to promote cultural understanding and world peace.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA), Installation view: Laura Lima "The Inverse" . June 3 – October 30, 2016. (Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio)
PAMM, Perez Art Museum Miami
1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami 33132,
Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, on view from Aug. 12 to Oct. 16.
Basquiat examines the observations of street life and popular culture with themes of race, class and world history. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum
In PAMM’s Project Gallery: Carlos Motta, Histories for the Future, through January 15, 2017.
Motta “explores sexuality, gender, identity, and minority culture in his works to challenge dominant histories”.
ICA Miami (Institute of Contemporary Art)
4040 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami 33137,
Laura Lima: The Inverse, through Oct. 30.
This very large and site specific installation “considers the nature of perception, social relationships, and human behavior, while creating profound and startling aesthetic experiences.” Close to a mile of dramatically thick, dark rope twines about the ICA space, enveloping the Atrium Gallery ominously in its web. The Brazilian artist explains the point: “This simplicity forces the viewer to consider how each person brings their own history to the piece, on account of their gender, race, class and other social determinants. In doing so, my work is an attempt to address the tension of our bare forms and their histories.”
FIU Frost Museum, Beatriz Monteavaro, Antics in the Forbidden Zone from Resonance/Dissonance exhibition (single channel video still from Frost Museum)
Also at ICA
Ida Applebroog: Mercy Hospital, shown through Oct. 30.
“Applebroog is renowned for her provocative and prescient examinations of gender and sexual identity, power, politics, and the role mass media plays in desensitizing the public to inequity.” These drawings were actually executed while ensconced in the hospital, encompassing a selection of text, cartoon, image and abstraction.
FIU Frost (Floirda International University)
10975 SW 17 Street, Miami 33199,
Resonance / Dissonance, through Sept. 18.
The theme continues in FIU’s exhibition with the explanation so prevalent in these presentations I have stressed: “the artists have used the medium to explore the themes of gender, violence, sexuality, politics, popular culture and the body.” FIU’s Frost Museum goes on to underscore an important concept in these disparate times: “….resonance can be personal and purely emotional. For something to resonate, it must evoke something meaningful and important to a person, like an emotion, a memory, an image, an idea, or a belief. Dissonance is a harsh, disagreeable combination of sounds; discord.”
“Dissonance is also a lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony; a state of conflict that cannot be resolved and can affect beliefs, emotions, and physiology.” That above phrase sums up these thematics.
Go. Think. Conclude.
Take time to purchase a Museum Pass offered thorough the Miami Dade Public Library system.
Visit: www.mdpls.org/museum-pass/museum-pass.asp
