Dr. Donette Francis
2021 Art Circuits’ Critic’s Choice art writer
Donette Francis is an Associate Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Miami, where she is a founding member of the Hemispheric Caribbean Studies Collective. She is the author of Fictions of Feminine Citizenship: Sexuality and the Nation in Contemporary Caribbean Literature.
ART CIRCUITS
CRITIC'S CHOICE MARCH 2021
This month marks a year since the global coronavirus changed our lives forever. As we reflect on losses and gains, failures and triumphs, we know a return to a pre-pandemic normal is neither possible nor desirable.This moment, therefore, provides opportunities to reimagine a new normal capable of housing our collective freedoms. This month’s selections showcase the interconnections between poetry and the visual arts, the dynamism of the local, and the nearness of the global. We march on to better tomorrows, allowing art to guide our visions.
Institutions
Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)i
Inter|Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City
On View through May 31, 2021
Miami Design District, Moore Building
Curated by Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Inter|Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City returns home to the Design District’s iconic Moore building after runs at The Corcoran Gallery in the nation’s capital and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in North Carolina.The exhibition features 27 artists from 18 countries representing many intersecting communities.It is a fitting homecoming to celebrate Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s 25th anniversary championing Caribbean art and developing emerging artistic talent.
Miramar Cultural Center
Windows to Our World, Murals
On View until September 2021
The diversity of the earth’s biosphere takes center stage in the murals displayed on the edifice of The Miramar Cultural Center.In one show, Windows to Our World makes use of the building’s architectural cathedral frame to highlight South Florida’s cultural melange celebrating Black History, Hispanic and Caribbean Heritages and their deep connections to the land. Featuring muralists: Ivan Roque, Jenny Perez, Jose Felix Perez, and Nate Dee.
Museums
Emerson Dorsch
Felecia Chizuko Carlisle: Patterns of Interference
On View through March 27, 2021
Conceptual artist Felecia Chizuko Carlisle manipulates lighting, sound and geometric objects to create an immersive sensory gallery experience. Though photography and video, the installation evokes the poetry of movement while transforming perception of exhibition scale.
Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
The Artist as Poet
On View through
Curated by Maritza Lacayo
The Artist as Poet directly engages the influence of surrealist poets on the plastic arts. Spanning a century of modern and contemporary art from 1917 to 2017, the exhibition features work that inserts the poetic vibrancy of language to subvert the art object. Artists The include Guillaume Apollinaire, André Breton, Joseph Cornell, Aimée García Marrero, Glenda León, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Gordon Matta-Clark, Shirin Neshat, Michael Richards, Purvis Young, and Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).
Visit the exhibition here
Galleries
Locust Projects
GeoVanna Gonzalez, How To: Oh, Look at Me
On View March 6 through May 22, 2021
GeoVanna Gonzalez’s sculpture draws inspiration from the words “We are, all of us, edgeless, / and senseless” in Martin Jackson’s open-sourced poem, “No Rothko.”In reconstructing both physical and online interactive environments, How To: Oh, Look at Me invites viewers to quietly dwell with the first-person as they meditate on our relationships to ourselves, others and the broader world.
Oolite Arts
Dreams of Unknown Islands: Sasha Wortzel
On View through April 4, 2021
Curated by Kristan Kennedy
The final invocation to dream our collective freedoms comes from artist Sasha Wortzel, who invites six artists to stage seven sunsets on Friday evenings at 6:16pm from February 19th through April 2nd @OoliteArts on Instagram.Artists include Saretta Morgan, Tourmaline, Adee Roberson , Samuel Tommie, Betty Osceola, and Sacha Yanow. This sensorially-immersive and communally-interactive experience compliments Wortzel’s solo exhibition, Dreams of Unknown Islands, which invites healing and meditation through video, sound,sculpture, and the Mourner’s Kaddish, a 13th century Aramaic prayer.
Curated by Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Inter|Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City returns home to the Design District’s iconic Moore building after runs at The Corcoran Gallery in the nation’s capital and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in North Carolina.The exhibition features 27 artists from 18 countries representing many intersecting communities.It is a fitting homecoming to celebrate Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s 25th anniversary championing Caribbean art and developing emerging artistic talent.
Miramar Cultural Center
Windows to Our World, Murals
On View until September 2021
The diversity of the earth’s biosphere takes center stage in the murals displayed on the edifice of The Miramar Cultural Center.In one show, Windows to Our World makes use of the building’s architectural cathedral frame to highlight South Florida’s cultural melange celebrating Black History, Hispanic and Caribbean Heritages and their deep connections to the land. Featuring muralists: Ivan Roque, Jenny Perez, Jose Felix Perez, and Nate Dee.
Museums
Emerson Dorsch
Felecia Chizuko Carlisle: Patterns of Interference
On View through March 27, 2021
Conceptual artist Felecia Chizuko Carlisle manipulates lighting, sound and geometric objects to create an immersive sensory gallery experience. Though photography and video, the installation evokes the poetry of movement while transforming perception of exhibition scale.
Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
The Artist as Poet
On View through
Curated by Maritza Lacayo
The Artist as Poet directly engages the influence of surrealist poets on the plastic arts. Spanning a century of modern and contemporary art from 1917 to 2017, the exhibition features work that inserts the poetic vibrancy of language to subvert the art object. Artists The include Guillaume Apollinaire, André Breton, Joseph Cornell, Aimée García Marrero, Glenda León, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Gordon Matta-Clark, Shirin Neshat, Michael Richards, Purvis Young, and Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).
Visit the exhibition here
Visit the exhibition here
Galleries
Locust Projects
GeoVanna Gonzalez, How To: Oh, Look at Me
On View March 6 through May 22, 2021
GeoVanna Gonzalez’s sculpture draws inspiration from the words “We are, all of us, edgeless, / and senseless” in Martin Jackson’s open-sourced poem, “No Rothko.”In reconstructing both physical and online interactive environments, How To: Oh, Look at Me invites viewers to quietly dwell with the first-person as they meditate on our relationships to ourselves, others and the broader world.
Oolite Arts
Dreams of Unknown Islands: Sasha Wortzel
On View through April 4, 2021
Curated by Kristan Kennedy
The final invocation to dream our collective freedoms comes from artist Sasha Wortzel, who invites six artists to stage seven sunsets on Friday evenings at 6:16pm from February 19th through April 2nd @OoliteArts on Instagram.Artists include Saretta Morgan, Tourmaline, Adee Roberson , Samuel Tommie, Betty Osceola, and Sacha Yanow. This sensorially-immersive and communally-interactive experience compliments Wortzel’s solo exhibition, Dreams of Unknown Islands, which invites healing and meditation through video, sound,sculpture, and the Mourner’s Kaddish, a 13th century Aramaic prayer.
