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FOUNDER / DIRECTOR Mikhaile Solomon is a designer and arts advocate with backgrounds in a myriad of arts disciplines including the theatre, dance, and architecture. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Florida in Theatre Arts and her Master’s of Architecture from Florida International University. Mikhaile enjoys working on projects that give her the opportunity
photo credit: Rod Deal
to share her love of art, design, and architecture with the communities. In the past few years, she worked as Assistant Producer for Art Africa Miami, an Art Fair exhibiting and celebrating art work from the Global African Diaspora. She is currently embarking on a startup project, Prizm Art Fair which promotes the work of artists of color, who reflect global
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marie Vickles, is an independent curator, arts educator, and artist based in Miami, Florida. She has organized exhibitions, programs and workshops across the United States and the Caribbean for over ten years. She completed her studies at F.I.T. in New York City, and Florida State University which includes degrees in both Visual Arts and
trends in contemporary art, through a blockbuster exhibit held during Art Basel/Miami. She hopes to use her varied skills in arts and design to set precedents for the future of Miami’s arts and culture scene.
photo credit: Ingrid Espinal
Public Administration. She has worked professionally as a visual artist, textile and graphic designer with her artwork and designs featured at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Marie Claire Magazine, and Essence magazine. “Prizm Art Fair presents a new aesthetic inspired by varied
forms of traditional art-making paired with contemporary techniques and technology. Featured artists present works that inspire and challenge the conventional notions and perceptions of what art from the African Diaspora is.
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FEATURED ARTISTS AMBER ROBLES-GORDON ANTHONY BURKS ANTHONY LIGGINS ASSER SAINT VAL BAYUNGA KIALEUKA CHRISTIAN DURAN ERNANI SILVA FRANK FRAZIER JAMES A. RUSH JASON APONTE KIRA TIPPENHAUER LERONE WILSON YEELEN GALLERY JEROME SOIMAUD
JONI YOUNKINS-HERZOG MARK DIAMOND LONI JOHNSON NAJEE DORSEY NFN KALYAN STEPHEN ARBOITE ROBERT MCKNIGHT VERNANDO REUBEN T.ELIOTT MANSA GALLERY GUICHARD DANNY CAMPBELL BRUCE JEFFERSON
ANTHONY BURKS
Anthony Burks Sr., A native Floridian, is one of the most unique, conceptual fine and commercial artists in America. His prolific work spans numerous forms of media including pastels, watercolor, pen, ink, and colored pencil. Burks collection of work has been exhibited at galleries, museums and events such as: Collaboration: African Diaspora Exhibition in part-
nership with The Armory Art Center, Collaboration: Florida Endangered Species Exhibition at the Paul Fisher Gallery, He is co-founder of A.T.B. Fine Artists & Designers LLC and Collaboration. My works, result from the blending of my mind and heart. It is a gift from God that I love and cherish immensely. Change is a challenge for many artists; however, I have
learned to embrace it. I have achieved diversity by incorporating bright colors and abstract images into my works. I want my audience to be as free in viewing my work as I am in creating it. I am willing to tackle the next stage of my artistic journey.
5 AMBER ROBLES-GORDON
My artwork is a visual representation of my hybridism: a fusion of my gender, ethnicity, cultural, and social experiences. I intentionally impose colors, imagery, and materials that evoke femininity and tranquility with the intent of transcending or balancing a specific form. I associate working with light, color, and energy as a positive means to focus on the healing power
found in the creative process. I believe colors have both feminine and masculine energies and each color represents a specific aspect of nature. I desire my artwork to embody my spiritual connection to color and project a sense of energy to positively affect others.Using found objects allows me to symbolically articulate the need to recycle energy and
power inherent to discarded materials. Through my work I seek to examine the parallels between how humanity perceives its greatest resources, men and women verses how we treat our possessions and environment.
seum, Michener Art Museum, and the Museo Americano. He believes in the potential for his art to act as an unspoken language that connects people together. The paintings represent a spiritual journey of the enlightened mind, heart and spirit. Liggins finds joy and freedom in making art that can create personal connections with people who share his passion for life.
He is an abstract expressionist influenced by world cultures, rhythms of music, and emotions of dance. His mixed media paintings are bright and colorful works that include three dimensional objects, plexiglas, yarn, ebony wood and deep layers. Liggins soulful work connects with the viewer and exudes a particular passion that can be felt by kindred spirits.
ANTHONY LIGGINS
Anthony Liggins is a AtlantaMiami based artist with global reach who is looking to expand his concept. He has been creating exquisite pieces of art for over twelve years and has held twelve major group museum showings in the US and Europe at some of the most highly regarded and sought after venues: the Smithsonian Institute, Oakland Museum, Longmont Mu-
6 ASSER SAINT-VAL
Asser Saint Val’s oeuvre is fuelled by dedicated research into the chemical and sociological properties of Melanin, a biological compound found in the plant, animal, and protista kingdoms that among other things colors human skin, hair and eyes. Having conducted encyclopedic studies of what he refers to as ‘the phenomenon of Melanin’ and its manifestation in the world
the artist explores the way in which science has previously been used to justify false perceptions concerning people of color. His findings, which draw from research into humans of all races, take the form of paintings often titled after scientists who have worked closely within his area of interest. Cumulative and objective, Asser Saint Val’s work serves to document the
importance of Melanin with a specific and conscientious artistic voice. Through paintings that consist of both eclectic symbolism and figurative abstraction, the physiological and sociological significances of this important human constituent are explored.
CHRISTIAN DURAN
Miami-born painter Christian Duran is a New World School of the Arts graduate who earned his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute, in 1998. In 1999, he returned to his hometown of South Florida where he continues to produce and exhibit his work. Duran’s art focuses on themes related to nature, the human anatomy, and religion. Duran’s solo and two person
exhibitions include: Bringing Up the Dead (2009) at the Art and Cultural Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL; Path of Least Resistance (2007) at Ingalls & Associates, Miami; Views from Within: Christian Duran and Vickie Pierre (2006) at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, FL; and Nerve (2004) at Edge Zones, Miami. Group exhibitions include:
Ways of Worldmaking: Notes on a Passion for Collecting (2009) at the Museum at Miami Dade College, Freedom Tower, Miami; 2006 Visual Art Fellowship Traveling Exhibition (2007-9), traveling throughout Florida; Artists of Cuban Ancestry from the Permanent Collection (2007) at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, FL.
7 BAYUNGA KIALEUKA
Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and raised in Miami, Bayunga Nsimba Kialeuka’s artistic lens reflects the polarity that stems from his ability to be of Africa, exuding all that that represents while residing firmly in South Florida’s urban milieu. His work often reflects the fundamental human condition, told in story-like fashion, narrating tales of both
struggle and transcendence. Here the complexity in his work is evident by his use of short, many-colored brush strokes in the muted and primary palette of the Impressionists, while also employing chiaroscuro, the interplay between shadow and light on his subjects. Kialeuka’s influences come from his immediate environment, inspired by the people in his life: friends,
family, fellow artists, and his larger social network. He frequently utilizes themes which capture both rural life in the South, as well as urban locations which are rooted in his personal perception of class, identiy, common access to social resources, community infrastructure, education and consumerism.
I bring a new dimension. I work with canvas, wood, paper, glass, zinc, fire, and other metals. In the process of creating collages, a largely improvisational medium, my thoughts are always with conservation, preservation, and recycling. Turning trash such as paper, empty bottles, broken glass, and discarded lumber into treasures is one of the solutions to the world’s
problem of environmental pollution. It is my hope that my art embodies and incorporates “thrash,” which will act as an inspiration for others. Additionally, I am also intensely concerned with the preservation of the disappearing flora, fauna, peoples, and cultures of my native Brazil”.
ERNANI SILVA
“My art is also therapy for me; it is a cathartic force in my life. My inspiration is life itself. The material itself does not matter—the most important thing is the human feeling conveyed into the material. I work with various mediums and am always concerned with creating new textural forms and compositions. By continually creating to infuse collages and multi-media,
8 FRANK FRAZIER
This sculptor, painter, and collagist cites the Creator as his biggest influence. “The Creator inspires me. He puts whatever I need in me. He also admits that he “loves black women and likes to use them in his art.” Frazier also credits Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Cattlett as his biggest creative inspirations. Speaking on how the Diaspora influ-
ences his art, Frank muses, “I go to Senegal, West Africa a lot. Many of my collages are influenced my travels there.” Frank works with a myriad of media. “I paint with oils, watercolors, and charcoal, anything that’s available,” says Frazier. This statesman of art was “never motivated by money” when producing his art; his love of black history, culture
and creation are his driving force. Frank Frazier shares in addition to his work, shares his lighthearted wisdom. He offers this, “when life gets you down and you feel no one is helping you achieve your goals, remember this, even when somebody has their foot up your behind, you are still in front; You can still make it!” JASON APONTE
As a Figurative Realist Painter, I am extremely interested in the effect of contemporary life on the psychology of the individual. The canvas allows me to present to the viewer elements of the subject’s psychology, such as color, form, and light, ultimately leading to a portrait or scene that presents my take on the minutia of contemporary life.
The natural situations we experience everyday often contain beautiful, unseen elements that are quite telling about the facets of contemporary life that shape our conception of ourselves as individuals, which I attempt to capture with my work. As a classically trained artist, I work towards achieving a realistic representation of my subject.
9 JAMES A.RUSH
“It’s not what you’re looking at that matters, it’s what you see. My goal as a photographer is to capture the essence of universal themes found in our everyday life that sometimes go unseen. The recording of these rare and fleeting moments is how photography showcases its unique ability
to transform the most banal subject into a visual work of art, and real life into a fictional narrative.” James A. Rush
KIRA TIPPENHAUER
Kira is an award-winning and nationally-renowned artist currently living in the city of Miami, Florida. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where she spent the first 18 years of her life, but moved to the United States in 2004 due to the instability her home country was undergoing. During her graduate career, Kira focused her research on the themes of gender, growth,
and identity. Such issues concerned her the most especially being an immigrant woman artist herself and she often addresses these topics during Artist Talks and roundtable discussions at universities, art galleries, and continues to depict these ideas in her artwork. “My work entails the coexistence of both juxtaposing ideas of growth and preservation of the Self.
I convey this ongoing duel through collage and ceramics. As a result, my way of portraying the Self transmits a distinctive visual language, through which I can depict the transfiguration and embodiment of both my personal and universal identities.”
10 LeRone WILSON
My Work represents a medley of different textures that stimulate the senses, making the art not just a thing of beauty to be admired from a distance, but something we can feel connected to through the expression of touch. It’s a way of revealing an image without actually being able to control it, letting it come about itself. This series consists of eight metallic colors varying
in shapes with 1 to 4 inches of wax built up on the surface. The work represents sculptural forms of molten metal that could be forged or welded. Varying in shapes and textures, each piece creates an impression that resembles visual aspects of metal objects that could be rusted metal, polished bronze, delicate sheets of brass, or slabs of welded steel and alumi-
num. Their elegant abstract details invoke minimalist historical references that are surprisingly compelling. The results are unrecognizable surfaces that encourage kind of curiosity as to their function as paintings.
hybrids, psychological mythologies, and manifestations of our bodies- simultaneously grotesque, absurd and sometimes funny. Within my work the human body is displaced retaining ranges of recognizable features-but what remains behind is an interest in the dispersal and fertilization of the feminine mystique. Uti-
lizing many mediums, I lure the viewer in with luscious colors and materials, to contemplate anxious content in close proximity.
JONI YOUNKINS-HERZOG
My search for beauty and purpose manifests in forms that abstract femininity and vitality. Reshaping the body reflects a delight in making allegory; combined with grafting elements onto the human form demonstrating my curiosity about science, medicine and the search for human perfection. My sculptures are
11 JEROME SOIMAUD
Born in Paris, France in 1964, Jerome Soimaud’s work sets a stage of themes dedicated to the poetry and beauty of the unheard voices. Throughout his journeys in Africa, Asia and the Americas his work records moments that become eternal. His large canvases of oils or charcoal subtly attract us and immerse us in a world of poetry. While his prolific photog-
raphy captures and bears witness to imagery often unseen by most. Known for his exacting depictions and abilities in drawing, which were honed at La Grande Chaumiere, Soimaud is able to accurately seize his subject before reducing them to lines or ether. He continues along various movements of modern art borrowing a deep sense of
academicism from Impressionist, the light of Nabis, the improvisation of Abstract Expressionist and the independence of Dada. When asked about his work Soimaud says bluntly “ I’m too invading. People want to invade the canvas, I put it in front of your face, I invade you.”
MARK DIAMOND
Mark Diamond has been telling stories with pictures since the age of five, and professionally as a photojournalist for Time Magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, and others since his teens. In 1975, Diamond opened the first 3-D laser Hologram Gallery, Studio and Laser laboratory in the Southeast United States. As a founding member and
exhibitor at the Museum of Holography in New York, Diamond is considered a pioneer in bridging the technoaesthetic gap in exploring creative applications of Laser Holography. As a film maker and videographer, Mark has been applying multi-various image making disciplines in innovative ways. As an educator Diamond constantly
shares a vast array of leading edge techniques with artists and young people in order to expand the vocabulary of visual communications for all.
12 LONI JOHNSON
Loni Johnson is a Visual Artist born and raised in Miami. The Miami Native graduated from the New World School of the Arts in 1998. She continued her Visual Arts studies at SUNY Purchase College in New York where she received her B.F.A. in 2003. Her artistic journey came full circle when Loni became an adjunct professor in the Visual Arts Department at New World.
She has been on the faculty at New World since 2006. She is also currently giving back by doing not for profit work with the Miami based youth organization Voices United, empowering young people to use The Arts as a tool to bring change and improve their communities. As a young person, Loni was a member of the organization and is now the Associate
Artistic Director. Ms. Johnson is an artist, a mother, and an activist that understands that as artists, there is a cyclical obligation to give back and nurture our communities with her creative gift and it must be utilized to better our world.
NFN KALYAN
It is my personal belief that the central action needed to be a good human being is to be honest with and about yourself. Building upon that, I believe that the first step to being a good artist is to try to express one’s self honestly. In this way, my work stands as a request to the viewer. I have presented an honest assessment, I ask that the viewer now look in themselves
honestly. My series of glass portraits serves a purpose. I chose people that are famous for a variety of reasons. Again, we judge them as good, bad or mediocre and in doing so, we speak more about ourselves than about the celebrity in question. We do not know them. Our image of them is just a mirage we construct in our own minds. My portraits depict them that
way, as an illusion floating in space. The broader range of my work all deals with the same issue from various perspectives including religion, fame, death and my own fears and self-observations.
13 NAJEE DORSEY
Najee Dorsey is a self-taught figurative artist with a broad following. A native of Arkansas with roots in Louisiana, Dorsey draws intimately on his recollections of life in the deltas for his brightly colored mixed media paintings and sculptures. His rich compositions are compelling vignettes of Southern life. Dorsey has
been the recipient of awards that include a 2006 Patrons Purchase Award from the Polk Museum of Art in GA. Public collections of his work include the Charles H. Wright Museum, African American Museum in Dallas, TX; the Marietta Museum of Art, FL; and Liberty Bank and Trust Company in New Orleans,
LA. Najee has a solo show at the Columbus Museum of Art, GA scheduled for 2014. His work can also be found in hundrends of private collections around the country.
and what emerges is aura, or pure spiritual essence, free of embodiment and all its limitations and conventions. They provide for fluidity, harmony, and liberation, while tracing the artist’s process. Grounded coffee, metallic powders, and organic pigments swirl, pool, settle, and converge to form the strokes that further delineate the subject matter. Streaks, speckles and
splotches detail the molecular frenzy of such transformations while alluding to subconscious escape. They tell a story that is constantly unfolding. For the artist, the experience is cathartic; anamorphic beingse manate, vague in conception, and yet concrete in projection.
STEPHEN ARBOITE
Arboite’s work contends with spiritual transformation and the evolution of human consciousness. Bodies are eviscerated; anatomical structures splinter while fluids spatter. But there is method in what may seem to be madness. Form is purged and abstracted for the unadulterated and instinctual visualization of his subjects’ true nature. What is left, what we find,
14 ROBERT MCKNIGHT
There is this poet who dwells within me and cries to be heard...I tried to keep him silent with images. He found his voice and poured out of them disregarding my cries that he remained silent for the sake of normality. I took his voice; welded it into my vision and together we speak of tales near and dear; of thoughts new and gold in valleys at the bottom of mountains that soar
well beyond the moons. My art is spontaneous; it is about the rhythms and patterns that are all around us. It is a silent poem.
T. ELIOTT MANSA
T. Eliott Mansa was born and works in Miami, Fl. He is an alumnus of the New World School of the Arts High School. He received a Thalheimer Scholarship to attend the Maryland Institute College of the Arts, receiving his BFA from the University of Florida in 2000. His semi-auto-biographical work exploring familial and sociopolitical themes through the
lens of West African myth and lore has been exhibited at the ArtAfrica Fair during Art Basel week, the David Castillo Gallery in Miami, the African American Museum of the Arts in Deland, Florida, and the Miami International Airport.
15 VERNANDO REUBEN
Vernando Reuben’s mixedmedium sketches concern themselves with dismantling time, molding cyberspace, and challenging the subconscious. His subjects aremetaphors for post-millennium digital integration. Shattered Satellites is a series of work
that speaks to a place where the notions of disparate societal elements, fluctuating norms, and seemingly incongruent materials, modes, and micro-miniaturized devices come together to reaffirm what makes us.
GALLERY GUICHARD
Since its opening in 2005, Gallery Guichard has been Bronzeville’s preeminent gallery of art. Housed in a beautifully restored Italianate three floor, row house from the turn of the 20th century, Gallery Guichard is nestled on the historic Martin Luther King Drive. Of great pride to the Bronzeville community, Gallery Guichard represents artists from around the world
but specializes in art of the African Diaspora. Featuring a new artist every six to eight weeks, the Gallery has hosted several international, local, and national exhibits. All of their works are original and in several media including paintings, sculptures, ceramic, and even furniture.
16 DANNY CAMPBELL
Campbell is an artist who uses recycled materials arranged in an expressive composition to create beautiful works of art mimicking the appropriation of nature and the material characteristic of the ready-made art movement. Campbell finds it exciting and very rewarding to travel the nation’s highways and byways just to find the right piece to complete a sculp-
ture. “The work has to just feel right and blend together like a jigsaw puzzle,” says Campbell. “A puzzle is not finished until the last piece is put in place”.
BRUCE JEFFERSON
Jefferson was born in Mansfield, Ohio, on May 23, 1954. He is a 1972 graduate of Mansfield Senior High School and studied fine art at The Ohio State University, under noteworthy artist Al Newbill. Jefferson sometimes mixes precious metals into his works. His art can best be described as contemporary and spirit filled with great emotion using textures and placement
of color at optimal levels. He is broadly known as being a colorist - recognized for being selective of color and the proper usage of it. His works have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Ebony Magazine, Time Out Chicago Magazine, Chicago Collection Magazine, African Art: The Diaspora and Beyond - The Daniel Texidor Parker Collection (book) among
newsprint and additional publications. His image has been featured in the social columns of Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine and Michigan Avenue Magazine. Mr. Jefferson and his artwork have been brought to the attention of key staff at Christie’s and Sotheby’s – international fine art auctions.
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OUR SPONSORS
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WE ARE DEEPLY THANKFUL FOR THE SUPPORT OF ALL OUR SPONSORS. WITHOUT THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS, PRIZM ART FAIR’s LAUNCH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE. WE LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING OUR PARTNERSHIPS WITH OUR SPONSORS FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.
FOR YOUR PRINTING NEEDS, CONTACT ALPHA PRINTING & PROMOTIONS E: PATRICIA@ALPHA-PRINTING.NET P: (305) 606-7817
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THANK YOU
PRIZM ART FAIR WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK OUR FRIENDS FOR OFFERING WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND INSPIRATION DURING THE PLANNING AND COORDINATION PHASE OF THIS PROJECT. A.M. WEAVER ADDONIS PARKER AMBER ROBLES-GORDON AMY ROSENBERG ANDRE GUICHARD ANTHONY LIGGINS ANTONIA WILLIAMS-GARY ASANYAH DAVIDSON ASSER SAINT-VAL ATHENE VICKLES-STEWART BABACAR MBOW BAHIA RAMOS BAYUNGA KIALEUKA BRIAN BRACKEEN CHARLENE JOHNSON D.NEIL HALL D’NISE HARRISON DEBORAH TYNES DION CLARK ELIZABETH BEIRNES FELECIA HATCHER FRANK FRAZIER GARY L. MOORE GEORGE NNAMDI JAMES A. RUSH JUMAANE NNAMDI
KEITH CLARKE LORRAINE SOLOMON MALIK S. BENJAMIN MARCIA ANDERSON MARIE VICKLES MARLON HILL MEGAN RILEY MELANIE SEITZ MELISSA HUNTER-DAVIS MICHELLE MCCOY MINNA DUNN NAIHMAH ROGERS OLIVER SOLOMON OLIVIA LAMBERT OLIVIER MONTFORT RICHARD STEWART SANDY DORSAINVIL SHERRY ESPIDO STEPHAN ARBOITE SUSAN TAYLOR T.ELIOTT MANSA THAMIAH TUTT TONI RANDOLPH TRACY ROBERTSON-CARTER VERNANDO REUBEN YVETTE N. HARRIS
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR EXHIBITING ARTISTS AND THE UNIVERSE
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954.372.6241 i nfo@prizmartfair.com www.prizmartfair.com