Art shows and events stream through my inbox day after day. Recently, two exhibition announcements arrived back-to-back, both circling around the concept of bridges. My brain got snagged on the idea of bridging gaps-both metaphorical and real as the gaping maw of our personal differences appear to take precedence over connectedness.
I looked up the various types of bridges while contemplating methods connecting widening divides-between past and present, what was once familiar, now feeling dismantled. It turns out there are seven main bridges (beam, arch, suspension, cable-stayed, truss, cantilever, and tied-arch) defined by their structural design, spanning methods, and how they handle tension and compression forces.
Driving through modern downtown Miami, I navigate a weekly shifting maze of roadways while enormous arches rise for the new Signature Bridge Project significantly delayed (now 2029) because of rising budgets. The structure will be named the Fountain Bridge, tying its impressive spans into a “water-like expression of Miami's connection to water,” is the explanation.
Side note #1: I cannot seem to write one sentence of this piece without mentally linking every nuance to our greater daily issues as a planet.
Side note #2: Is anyone else slightly amused that these new Miami “arches” are being designed by a firm called Donald MacDonald Architects? Just wondering.
On Lincoln Road, the Oolite Arts Center, one of Miami-Dade's long-standing staples for supporting studios and their working artists, offers its own interpretations of the bridge concept. On view through Sunday, May 24, “Crossing the Bridge” looks back in order to gaze forward. Five Oolite alumni artists return to reflect on history and meaning, on the tension between concept and reality.
The exhibition gestures both to the literal act of crossing the bay from Miami to Miami Beach and to the more personal bridge each artist spanned between earlier work and the present moment.
Each of the five chosen artists mutually sharing history with Oolite becomes the connective tissue in moving forward.
Edouard Duval Carrié, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and part of Miami's cultural bedrock, arrived in South Florida in the mid '90s. Carrié underlines Haiti being the first Black republic in the world in showing his stunning “President Heads” series, which uses engraving on plexi the blue color of Dutch Delft pottery.
He is joined in this exhibition by fellow Oolite alumni Kerry Phillips, Najja Moon, Susan Lee-Chun and Yanira Collado, each bringing their distinct approach to contemplating what lives inside them and outside us all.
Kerry Phillips embraces four decades of physical bits collected from Oolite alumni giving thought to why most of us keep many physical manifestations of snippets of lives gone by.
Najja Moon's free movement drawings go forward to an exuberant future.
Artist Susan Lee Chun is separated from the group in a zen-like quiet space, where, during the opening, she served up a pleasant Korean barley tea called “boricha,” bringing us gently into the idea of cultural differences and connectedness through food. The gesture augments her art surrounding the room while we rediscover the concept of self-soothing.
Miami-based artist Yanira Collado also focuses on the relationship between things and our history both personal and universal. Collado is not alone in thinking through identity using a variety of materials that marry her experiences.
Oolite curators Lauryn Lawrence and Claire Breukel share their thoughts on “Crossing the Bridge”: “In antipathy to the increasing commercialization of art and the formalization of institutions, we have curated an exhibition that forefronts artistic practice, expression and collective thinking within the parameters of Oolite Arts' alumni program, positing it as a nonfinite program that can grow and evolve, continually informed by new and existing artist alumni.”
Attending the opening, it had been too long since I meandered among the open studios, speaking with the artists. Trends are shifting, generations are stepping back somewhat from technology's onslaught and into the hands of a handicraft modernity. Albeit often augmenting with familiar digital tools which can successfully kick up each process, but reinstating the age-old touch of humanity.
Keep your eye on the Oolite web site to take advantage of the public programs accompanying exhibitions.
Leaving Oolite, crossing Biscayne Bay, the long-respected Bridge Red Studios and Project Space is tucked away in a small North Miami enclave. Run by two artists, painter Kristen Thiele and her father, sculptor and painter Robert Thiele, Bridge Red houses ten studio spaces along with gallery and project facilities.
Their latest exhibition, “Streams of Consciousness” (a concept I am clearly indulging in throughout this article) features the work of Pablo Cano. Cano is a sculptor, clay artist, painter, and storyteller who has called Miami home since leaving Cuba in 1962. Deeply respected by the arts community both here and far afield, his visions often develop through extraordinarily inventive marionettes assembled from found objects and a panoply of artistic approaches.
We connected for Cano's thoughts during this swirling maelstrom that is the modern (dis)order.
“My new work is in the spirit of protest..."ICE OUT." (His” ICE OUT Bad Bunny” sculpture is included in this exhibition.)
“The human condition is always important to my work, especially combating hate. DADA art and Art Brute especially influenced how I framed the work and used found objects throughout. I hope people who come to the show will enjoy seeing the many layers of ideas that developed through the years beginning in 1968 to the present.”
DADA was a movement shaped by European writers, artists, and intellectuals protesting what they saw as the senseless destruction of war, their leanings toward performance art also left a mark on Cano.
His connection to marionettes began early on. His mother, an artist of dream-like celestial landscapes and religious imagery was the catalyst that blew into to a lifelong fascination with the fantastical world of ideas and inner thoughts in forming puppets and marionettes, ultimately expanding into the Cricket Theater located in his space in Coral Gables.
A performance at Bridge Red is scheduled during the exhibition for 3 p.m., Sunday, April 12. Expect watercolors, painted backdrops, and marionettes that remain central to a good deal of his work. Using fundamental tools of art, he transforms simple materials into small figures-bodies animated from above by strings, capable of movement, mischief, and magic. I started to contemplate the concept and ultimate meaning of being manipulated by others through strings they hold connecting us.
Cano remains a strong force in our community-an artist whose imagination has helped shape Miami's cultural story in ways both subtle and profound. There are plenty of connections one could draw here. But I'll leave you to build your own bridges.
Bridge Red Studios/ Project Space
Under the Bridge is located on the ground floor of Bridge Red showing Beatriz
12425 NE 13 Ave ., North Miami
www.bridgeredstudios.com
Exhibitions by appointment only. Call or text (305) 978-4856 for appointment
Opening reception, 4 to 6 p.m., Sunday, March 15. Closing brunch, noon to 3 p.m., Sunday April 26
Monteavaro beginning Sunday, March 15. www.underthebridgeartspace.com/upcoming-exhibitionOolite Arts
924 Lincoln Road, Second Floor
Miami Beach
(305) 674-8278
oolitearts.org
Gallery Hours: 12 to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday
Closing Sunday, May 24
