MIAMI, FLA.- This spring,
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU unveils a diverse slate of innovative exhibitions that focus on space, place, location and dislocation.
They are:
Together/Apart: Modern and Contemporary Art of the United States (on view from Jan. 21, 2023 through Feb. 2, 2025) displays the rich collections of the Frost Art Museum and the Wolfsonian Museum-FIU. The exhibition is organized around three themes: Identity: Expressed, Imagined and Constructed; Re-Design: Expressing Identity though Form; and Place and Space: Where Identity Lives. This exhibition taps into the rich collections of both museums to showcase works by 20th-century and contemporary artists that tell stories about identity in the U.S. from myriad perspectives.
Chitra Ganesh: Dreaming in Multiverse (on view from Jan. 21, 2023 through April 16, 2023) draws on Buddhist and Hindu iconography, science fiction, queer theory, comics, Surrealism, Bollywood posters, and video games to inform Ganeshs illustrations and drawings. This exhibition presents a major wall installation, a series of recent prints, and several video animations that exemplify her practice of experimental storytelling. The project notably centers on women and queer relationships, reorienting traditional narratives around experiences and communities that have been marginalized or ignored throughout history and in the contemporary art world.
An Elegy to Rosewood (on view from Jan. 25, 2023 through April 16, 2023) commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the Rosewood massacre and celebrates the inclusion of this major historical event in U.S. history. After a later-dispelled accusation of an assault on a white woman in 1923, members of the Ku Klux Klan set out to destroy the small town of Rosewood, Florida, leading to the murders of Black citizens of Rosewood and the decimation of a thriving Florida community. Comprised of historic photographs and preserved heirlooms from the surviving Jenkins family, this exhibition will explore their story and tenacious desire to acknowledge this history.
Everything, Earth and Sky: An Exhibition of Haitian Art (on view from Feb. 4, 2023 through May 28, 2023) highlights a theme prevalent in Haitian art: the depiction of space. From schools, communal plazas, and government buildings to Haitis fauna and the ever-present ocean, these works present different interpretations of physical space and the use of public places. Some works clearly relate contemporary political challenges in Haiti and others portray the rich and varied iconography of Vodou. This exhibition and accompanying catalog are a part of the museums ongoing efforts to make its significant collection of Haitian paintings from the 1980s and 1990s accessible through research and digitization.
While these four exhibitions range in artistic practice and subject matter, they share a connective thread in the theme of home and community, said Jordana Pomeroy, director of the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU. A sense of belonging is something every human seeks, regardless of nationality, religious background, and cultural upbringing. Many of the stories told in our four engrossing exhibitions this season explore that sentiment and inspire ideas of finding a secure community or overcoming an insecure space.