FEATURE // ART OF CARIBBEAN MIAMI
CURATING THE ART OF BLACK MIAMI
n a e i r a C WRITER MONIQUE MCINTOSH
THIS DECEMBER, art aficionados will descend on the Magic City for Miami Art Week—a collection of art fairs, museum exhibitions, gallery shows and cultural events surrounding Art Basel Miami (December 5-8). The event has become fertile ground for a new generation of influential curators celebrating Caribbean art—breaking up the old guard of institutional gatekeepers. Now art lovers can discover a plethora of Caribbean voices from several exhibitions, many nurtured under the Art of Black Miami umbrella—a city initiative celebrating diverse artistic view-
points from across the black diaspora. By promoting these groundbreaking showcases, the program also seeks to highlight the diverse creative communities thriving in Miami’s heritage neighborhoods, from Little Havana to Little Haiti. Before the shows begin, meet some of the curators broadening the Caribbean art landscape, and learn what they have in store this year in Miami. Whether academics, gallerists, or artists in their own right, these voices are reframing conversations about art, celebrating more inclusive and diverse viewpoints.
DEBORAH JACK Water between us remembers...
Maria Elena Ortiz and Marsha Pearce Curators of The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art, Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
Since its inception, Miami’s flagship museum has embraced the city’s status as a global crossroads with diverse programming. This is thanks in large part to talented curators like the minds behind this new exhibition celebrating contemporary Caribbean art—PAMM Associate Curator Maria Elena Ortiz and University of the West Indies (St. Augustine) lecturer Dr. Marsha Pearce. Hailing from Puerto Rico and Trinidad respectively, both aim to reframe Caribbean art beyond the colonial histories that have traditionally divided national identities. “Right now, there is a very strong
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longing among artists from different Islands to connect with one another,” notes Ortiz. In response, they have experimented with moving away from the conventional curatorial use “of predetermined categories,” explains Pearce. “We instead posed questions to the artists, and allowed themes to emerge from their work, finding shared concerns that cut across
linguistic and physical boundaries.” Both curators also seek to challenge stereotypical ideas surrounding Caribbean art, highlighting more abstract and experimental works. “We’re still fighting existing expectations of what the Caribbean aesthetic should look like,” says Pearce. “So we’re always thinking about how we can expand these perspectives.”
ON DISPLAY: For The Other Side of Now (running through June 7, 2020), the curators invited 14 artists from across the Caribbean to produce work imagining the region’s future. “So much Caribbean art feels entangled with questions about the past, in ideas of trauma and catastrophe,” says Ortiz. “We wanted to explore how contemporary art in the region is moving beyond these tropes.” pamm.org
