PUREHONEY 123

1/5-8

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: South Beach Jazz Fest >>> READ MORE IN PH

1/5

BAR NANCY: Birdman Open Jam

1/6

RESPECTABLE STREET: Heavy Metal Patio

THE PEACH: Gallery Opening REVOLUTION LIVE: Saved by the 90’s PROPAGANDA: The Pop Disasters, Toledo, Blabscam: Tribute Night to Weezer, Blink 182 BAR NANCY: DISCO AF

1/7

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: South Beach Jazz Festival Mambo Night ft Big 3 Palladium Orchestra and the music of Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodriguez >>> READ MORE IN PH

REVOLUTION LIVE: Billion Dollar Babie$ (Alice Cooper Trib), Maiden Mania (Iron Maiden Trib)

RESPECTABLE STREET: Disbarred Tribute to Grunge

THE PEACH: January Art Walk

BAR NANCY: Stereo Joule, Gatoe Band, Baron

1/8

PROPAGANDA: Brojob, Slackjaw, Sever the Memories, Omnisium, Culture of Conflict

1/10

PROPAGANDA: Dial Drive, Bastards Sun, Billy Doom is dead, Young Cassidy

1/12-26

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Miami Jewish Film Festival

1/12

BAR NANCY: Stereo Joule

1/13

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Badfish THE PEACH: Bad Luck Bella’s All Arts Open Mic

RESPECTABLE STREET: Punk Rock Patio ft The Dead Language

PROPAGANDA: Dark Wave Disco Party BAR NANCY: Alexa & The Old Fashioneds

CULTURE ROOM: Eric Rachmany, Cydeways, Mike Pinto

1/14

KRAVIS @ DREYFOOS HALL: Fela! The Concert >>> READ MORE IN PH RESPECTABLE STREET: Gimme Gimme Disco REVOLUTION LIVE: American Idiots, Sublimi-

nal Doubt, Time Bombed (Rancid Trib)

PROPAGANDA: Black Denim Rage with Friends: 80s Thrash Metal BAR NANCY: The Kitchen Club

1/15

ESPLANADE PARK: Florida Flow Fest w/ JennAyni >>> READ MORE IN PH KRAVIS CENTER: Judith Hill GRAMPS: Haute Tension, Palomino Blond, Bloom Dream

1/18

BAR NANCY: The Haaj, Pilot Jonez, Terminally Ill, Antifaces, Bastard Suns

1/19

THE PEACH: Billy Doom Is Dead

PROPAGANDA: Radolecnets, 1983, Hajj, Terminally Ill

BAR NANCY: Ricky Valido NORTHWOOD WAREHOUSE: Stumble Steady, Andii Styron, Nate Ginnetty, Dominic Delaney, Andrew Buccarelli, Little Things Duo

1/20

REVOLUTION LIVE: Be Our Guest RESOURCE DEPOT: 5th Annual Waste to Wonder Opening Reception PROPAGANDA: Casket Culture, The Scream Queens, Goat Rope

1/21

REVOLUTION LIVE: Papadosio, Guavatron, Galactic Effect >>> READ MORE IN PH

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Nu Deco Ensemble ft Stevie Wonder Innervisions Suite, Lawrence >>> READ MORE IN PH

RESPECTABLE STREET: intimet

PROPAGANDA: Emo Night with DJ Matt Kelly

EX CFSA: Nights of Gaia ft Rachel Goodrich, Humbert, Raquel Lily GRAMPS: City of Caterpillar, Heavens G BAR NANCY: The Oski Awards 1/25-29 MAD ARTS SPACE, MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY & SCIENCE, ESPLANADE PARK: Ignite Broward >>> READ MORE IN PH 1/25 BAR NANCY: Manic Frequency 1/26

MURPHY HOUSE STUDIO: Light in the Dark Fest: opening party w/ art & music by Andy Friedman, Claudia Aguilera, Art of Murf, Morey Kammerman, Sarah Jo Goddard, Jamie Roberts >>> READ MORE IN PH RESPECTABLE STREET: Brit Brigade PROPAGANDA: A Moment of Violence, Outlaw Tendencies, Low RPM, Birth of Tragedy 1/27 THE GROUND: The Skatalites

Experience,

(Alice in Chains Trib)

STREET:

1/28

CRAFT BEER CELLAR FTL: Light in the Dark Fest: Tristen, Andy Friedman, Kaylan Arnold, Rachel Goodrich, Liquid Pennies, The Creature Cage, Swivvel, 9000suns, Tina B, Jeremy Joseph (Daddy Lion), yepecc, Omavi Waite, Buddha Bloom, metaredux

>>> READ MORE IN PH

THE PEACH: ‘Feunicades’ zine release, Sagittarius Aquarius, Za Za, COMM REVOLUTION LIVE: Ordinary Boys (Smiths/ Morrissey Trib), Lovesong (Cure Trib)

RESOURCE DEPOT: Waste to Wonder Family Workshop

BAR NANCY: Mainstreet PROPAGANDA: Stand up Comedy Night NORTHWOOD WAREHOUSE: Stumble Steady, The Dreambows, Zippur, Born to Breed, Bitter Blue Jays, Euphoric CULTURE ROOM: Perpetual Groove

1/31

SAVOR CINEMA: Float 8 presents “Floating” View Trailer

2/3-5

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: GroundUP Festival ft Snarky Puppy, Jeff Tweedy, Silvana Estrada, Nai Palm, Isaiah Sharkey Quartet, Bassekou Kouyate, Madison Cunningham, Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi, Becca Stevens Attacca Quartet, Edmar Castaneda Gregoire Maret, Lizz Wright, Keyon Harold, Mark Letter Group, Mirrors, Rachel Eckroth, Gisela Joao, Shaun Martin Three-O, Jamison Ross >>> READ MORE IN PH 2/3

REVOLUTION LIVE: Highly Suspect, Dead Poet Society CULTURE ROOM: Gaelic Storm 2/4

KRAVIS CENTER: Tom Rush w. Matt Nakoa

RESOURCE DEPOT: Waste to Wonder Artist Workshop 2/5

KRAVIS CENTER: Jimmy Webb 2/11

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Dranoff Foundation West African Beats: “2 Pianos Steel Pan Band” ft Leon Foster Thomas

2/12

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Miami Children’s Chorus “Encounters” w Juraj Kojs, Pioneer Winter Collective Dance Co. 2/16

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Palo! North Beach Social ft Cuban funk, celebration Wolfsonian FIU’s exhibit “Turn the Beat Around”

2/18

OAK GROVE PARK: A Great Day at OGP ft Emeline Michel, Inez Barlatier, Papaloko, Sanba Zao, Spam Allstars, Cortadito

SEND YOUR EVENTS! PROMOTE! events@purehoneymagazine.com ads@purehoneymagazine.com

NU DECO ENSEMBLE

by Abel Folgar

The stated mission of Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble to create “transformative genre-bending musical experiences” is an interesting one considering the already atomized state of modern music and, on the other hand, Miami’s reputation for bulldozing anything “traditional.” Thinking about where orchestral music fits in the land of Ultra and DJ Khaled gets complicated. Yet Nu Deco Ensemble are here to make it make sense and win over as many musical camps as possible.

Formed in 2015 by Jacomo Bairos and Sam Hyken, they’ve become one of the city’s most dynamic musical forces, taking classical music as a foundation and finding compatible elements of hip-hop, pop, reggae, soul, rock and electronic music. They are, in their own words, a “flexible and hybrid orchestra that celebrates living composers, reimagines all genres of music, and collaborates with a wide range of diverse musical guests, composers, choreographers, dancers, and mixed media artists.”

They’re also an arts organization that uses music to engage and inspire a community that oftentimes is underserved in both education and accessibility to affordable entertainment, especially through their Imagination Series. In 2020 Nu Deco also created a youth version of the ensemble, adding “wellness, health, leadership, collaborative communication, interpersonal skills, and community stewardship” into their musical curriculum.

Their concerts have featured either collaborations with or reimaginings of artists including Outkast, Macy Gray, Angélique Kidjo, JP Saxe, Daft Punk and Ben Folds, among others. They are kicking off 2023 with a “high-octane” interpretation of Jacques Ibert’s “Divertissement” — an already-energetic 1930 composition known for the spiritedness of its six movements — and a world-premiere of an original piece. The bill also features a reimagined Stevie Wonder album, “Innervisions,” and a special collaboration with New York’s soul-pop duo Lawrence. Active since 2013, siblings Gracie and Clyde Lawrence are garnering high praise for their most recent effort, 2021’s “Hotel TV” and their hit single “Don’t Lose Sight.” More than just their soul and pop sensibilities, Lawrence’s affinity for funk and r&b, and their musical know-how, make them a perfect Ensemble partner.

The Nu Deco Ensemble featuring Lawrence perform 8pm Saturday, Jan. 21, at Miami Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach. nu-deco.org

FELA! THE CONCERT

by Tim Moffatt

A one-night-only presentation of “Fela! The Concert” at the Kravis Center in January won’t be the whole story of this revolutionary musician and bandleader, but as a live concert that excerpts the Tony-winning “Fela!” musical and features original Broadway cast members, it promises to be a powerful experience of the man and his work.

Fela Kuti was a spokesperson for Africa. He was a Nigerian musician, political activist, frontman and Pan-Africanist in both his politics and his art. He pioneered Afrobeat, a syncopated sound mixing traditional African music with jazz and American funk. The term today is sometimes applied — loosely — to whole decades and categories of musical output from Africa. But Afrobeat at its core is rhythmic, folkloric African and Black diaspora music with Western-style ensemble band set-ups, and Fela was the instigator.

He was born into a political family and used his music as a megaphone to criticize Nigeria’s military juntas and their colonialist allies. Fronting big bands with names that felt like mobilizations — Africa 70, Egypt 80 — he made populist Black Power albums full of galvanizing arrangements and incendiary ideas — “Expensive Shit,” “Coffin for Head of State,” “Original Suffer-Head” and “Beasts of No Nation,” to name just a few. He electrified audiences in Europe, Africa and the United States with rumbling, ecstatic live performances.

He died in 1997 at age 59 of heart complications compounded by AIDS. Surviving family members made two big posthumous developments possible: the global CD reissue of his catalogue in 2000 and the creation of “Fela!” The full-costume, full-cast jukebox musical that made it to Broadway in 2009 was a biography in song and dance. The story centered on Kuti when he was a target of government soldiers out to end his rabble-rousing gigs at his own Shrine nightclub theater in Lagos.

The touring concert version of “Fela!” coming to the Kravis features a 10-piece live instrumental band, nine singers and dancers performing tracks from all across Fela’s discography, and projected visuals to help evoke the surroundings and the spirit of Fela’s performances.

Fela! The Concert is 8pm Saturday, January 14 at Dreyfoos Concert Hall. kravis.org

SOUTH BEACH JAZZ FESTIVAL

by Olivia Feldman

A community event that celebrates South Florida at the most beautiful time of the year is only part of the draw at the seventh annual South Beach Jazz Festival. On January 5-8 at multiple Miami Beach venues, the festival also puts music to work toward an urgent humanitarian goal: helping people with disabilities live their best lives.

Twenty years ago, festival founder R. David New contracted a rare disease that left him blind, deaf and paralyzed from the waist down, and placed him among the estimated 1 in 5 Americans who live with disabilities. A visual artist when he was stricken, New gradually regained his hearing and relearned how to walk. His eyesight never returned.

His experience led him to found a nonprofit, Power Access, to promote disability awareness and to help the disabled thrive. The South Beach Jazz Festival is Power Access’ signature event, and a way for the arts to embody greater inclusion and accessibility for the disabled. “The festival was born around David’s kitchen table,” Lori Bakkum, executive director of both the festival and the nonprofit, told PureHoney.

Through a mix of free and ticketed events, festival goers will get to see world-renowned jazz players, local greats and rising student performers. A major attraction is the Florida debut of the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra, the 17-piece revival ensemble celebrating three big-band Latin jazz titans who made New York’s Palladium (19271997) a legendary concert hall, with their sons carrying the music forward: Mario Grillo aka Machito Jr., Tito Rodriguez Jr. and Tito Puente Jr. This headlining event, dubbed Mambo Night, is 8pm Saturday, January 7 at the Miami Beach Bandshell

A number of artists on the bill have disabilities themselves. They include members of the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind Student Ensemble, whose sighted and blind students join talents to play jazz, hip-hop, pop and rock at a free, all-day festival showcase, the Jazz For Tomorrow Student Stage, happening 10am-5pm Saturday at the Lincoln Road Oval. “We make sure to provide a platform where people of all abilities can perform at a world-class event,” Bakkum said. “We want people of every ability to be able to shine and have the platform to show their talent. A student who is excelling in the arts has so many challenges anyway,” she noted. “It’s a life they choose because it’s a passion. We’re really excited to be taking our mission to the next level.”

The festival provides American Sign Language interpreters for the hearing-impaired. This year select performances will offer audio support: blind patrons and people with partial hearing can listen on headsets as facilitators deliver real-time spoken accounts of what’s happening on stage. “Our crowds come because we offer something for everybody, and our audience comes from all ages, all sectors, all walks of life,” Bakkum said. “We have people dancing, and then older couples sit at tables and reminisce, and then there are young people that are learning about jazz as a really exciting music form.”

Here are a few more highlights: — Jamaica-born, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Monty Alexander kicks off the festivities 8pm Thursday, January 5 at the Faena Theater. Bassist Luke Sellick and drummer Jason Brown help Alexander lay down his Caribbeaninflected jazz — a gorgeous blend showcased on his latest full-length release, “Love Notes.”

— Friday is Society Jazz Night at the Bass Museum, where guests can enjoy art and cocktails and the music of the South Florida Jazz Orchestra featuring Grammy-nominated jazz singer Nicole Henry. Power Access scholarship winner and multi-instrumentalist Eva Carizza also performs.

— At the aforementioned Jazz for Tomorrow stage on Saturday, six top South Florida student jazz organizations in all will show off their chops, among them the Broward College Jazz Combo and Young Musicians Unite Jazz Collective

— Sunday belongs to the six acts playing the Power Access Main Stage along Lincoln Road 11am-8pm. The lineup includes jazz drummer Sammy Figueroa leading a tribute to the late pianist Cal Tjader — affectionately known as the “most successful non-Latin Latin jazz musician.” Miami jazz and blues serenader Wendy Pedersen also performs, and the festival wraps with the funky samba sounds of big band Gafieira Rio Miami

The 2023 South Beach Jazz Festival runs Thursday-Sunday, Jan. 5-8 in Miami Beach. sobejazzfestival.com

EVA CARIZZA

JAZZ FOR TOMORROW

BIG 3 PALLADIUM ORCHESTRA

NICOLE HENRY

PAPADOSIO

by Amanda E. Moore

Before marquee gigs at Red Rocks and Electric Forest, the guys in Papadosio were bandmates in Athens, Ohio working out a hybrid strain of psychedelic rock and electronic music. Somewhere between their college town beginnings and an expanding circle of midwestern venues, they learned how to distill influences ranging from Radiohead to Bob Marley and place it all into a longform, livetronica, jam-band kind of context.

Now based in Asheville, N.C., Papadosio have fans wherever they go — a following built over 16 years on a foundation of prolific studio output, epic live shows (documented with albums), and electrifying concert visuals that glow like a microdosing epiphany.

A gig in 2020 near their adopted hometown in the Carolinas — at a former county fairgrounds complex — was illustrative: Papadosio flooded the stage with prismatic, colored light that cascaded up a set of multi-tiered visual screens behind the band while radiating spotlight beams swarmed across the audience.

Sometimes referred to as “Pop a Dose Yo” by their fervid fans, Papadosio are nothing if not trippy in their performances, music, videos and associated art. Swiping through band-tagged social media reveals stunning images, like acid spilled on a canvas, captured at their performances.

Band members have actually waded into YouTube comments beneath their clips to try to quash fan rumors that the nickname is the band’s own intended meaning and pronunciation of “Papadosio.” It might be a tough case to make with a discography whose album titles include “Microdosio” and “T.E.T.I.O.S.,” which stands for “To End the Illusion of Separation.”

Touring is another form of identity for a band like Papadosio, who recently promised on their Instagram that they would have “a LOT more shows to announce” over and above the 17 dates that filled out their first fall-winter gig poster. Papadosio also introduced a new track, “Zoom Out,” with a caption exhorting fans to “ ‘Zoom Out’ with us and appreciate the tiny world that we all know” — as in, enjoy the view from space.

Papadosio with Guavatron and Galactic Effect perform 7pm Saturday, January 21 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. papadosio.com

SKATALITES

by Tim Moffatt

The Skatalites are one of the reasons for the global appeal of rocksteady, ska and reggae music. Everyone trading in any of these genres today — the forward-leaning one-drop beats that power vocal hooks and instrumental grooves — owes them a debt of gratitude and possibly their careers.

They backed a young Lee “Scratch” Perry on his way to becoming a visionary musician and producer. Before they first emerged as the “Skatalites” with songs and an identity of their own, they played on the debut single by The Wailers, “Simmer Down,” released in 1963.

Before, during and after their first brief run in 1964-1965 — fourteen months! — band members were present at and part of the creation of ska as a genre and as a precursor to rocksteady and reggae. The Skatalites helped to re-imagine what popular music could be, and helped to put collaborators including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Toots Hibberts on trajectories for success.

A CD compilation, “Foundation Ska,” assembles 32 sides featuring the Skatalites, all produced by Studio One’s resident genius, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, in that short momentous heyday. It is an amazing document of a turning point in music, not to mention a swinging record with a future hall-of-fame cast.

Internal struggles interrupted the band’s own build-up to stardom, and revivals in the ’70s were brief and less eventful. But the Skatalites are so central to the through line of island music, they couldn’t stay broken up forever. With goodwill for them built up by successors such as The Specials and Madness, and renewed interest from the music industry, the Skatalites re-formed in 1983 and haven’t missed a beat since.

At this point, they are a collective — as much an ethos as a band. The only founding member of the original ten still aboard is singer Doreen Shaffer, aka the First Lady of Ska. Yet that doesn’t seem to matter. There are no expectations today but rhythm, soul and a great time. And whatever the personnel, the world is a better place with the Skatalites in it.

The Skatalites play 7pm Friday at the Ground at Club Space in Miami. skatalites.com

IGNITEBROWARD

by Amanda E. Moore

While Art Basel and Art Miami in December mark South Florida’s traditional art season peak, they now have competition as choice destinations for art and design aficionados. In its third year, IGNITE Broward in January is emerging as a rival to the old epicenters to the south, offering its own style of illuminating escapism and imaginative play to locals and art tourists alike.

The 2023 edition, running January 25-29 in downtown Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach, will be an exploration of art at its most experimental and boundlessly creative, with 11 transporting installations as well as a showcase by the 3D art collective Limelight, the paradigm-shifting impresarios of large-scale projection mapping. The festival and the lineup personify the Rousseau observation that “The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” Attendees will find themselves inside sensory and perceptual environments that undergo continuous transformation, with lines between reality and imagination blurred.

“IGNITE Broward features immersive large-scale projection mapping, interactive light sculptures, and interactive installations,” Phil Dunlap, director of Broward County Cultural Division, told PureHoney. “From interactive physical pieces to immersive installations that transport you to another dimension, there will be something of interest for all ages.”

The festival is expanding for 2023 to encompass more and bigger activities, and more art, poetry readings and music performances alongside visual and experiential displays and installations from top national and international artists and designers. Dreamlike 3D environments, NFT creations and representations of “invisible existences” depicted in nature are just some of the attractions on the menu at this Instagram-friendly five-day gathering. Artist meet-and-greets are also happening. (Check the schedule!)

IGNITE Broward also coincides with Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week in what has become an impressive set of overlapping public-private collaborations. IGNITE Broward’s partners include MAD Arts, Museum of Discovery, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale and city and county cultural and tourism agencies, all committed to growing a sustainable South Florida arts scene alongside the one flourishing in Miami-Dade.

IGNITE Broward runs January 25-29 at Esplanade Park, Museum of Discovery & Science in Fort Lauderdale and MAD Arts in Dania Beach. Free admission. ignitebroward.com

CIRCLE OF LIFE: LIMELIGHT PROJECTION MAPPING

LIGHT IN THE DARK FEST

by Sean Piccoli

There were no upsides to the pandemic but there were consolations: an outpouring of new music from people stuck at home; and ideas for connecting that started online and made it to the physical world. Which brings us to the Light in the Dark Fest, the creation of recent Fort Lauderdale arrivals Becca and Jeremy Joseph, aka the aptly named electropop duo Glowing Screens

“Light in the Dark Fest began during peak Covid 2020,” Becca Joseph told PureHoney. For two fundraisers staged online in 2020, the Josephs — then based in Virginia — recruited far and wide: Artist and poet Demetrius “6ixx” Similien emceed, and bands and musicians including Emma Swift and Robyn Hitchcock joined in to beam music and solace across the Internet.

The streams live on, via YouTube, as reflections of the surreality of their moment: hypnotic threads of live performance, music video and poetic talk interspersed with abstract art, fundraising appeals for Food Chain Workers Alliance and Save Our Stages, and links to self-care resources. The online festival returned in 2021 with more music, art and a short-film contest winner. In January, Light in the Dark Fest transits from glowing screens to a pair of physical spaces in Fort Lauderdale.

First up, The Murphy House Studio hosts an opening party on January 26 featuring live music by Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter Andy Friedman, an artist as well whose work will hang alongside pieces by others including Claudia Aguilera and Murphy House proprietor Murf. The main event is January 28 at Craft Beer Cellar, with Nashvillebased indie rocker Tristen headlining a full musical slate.

The spirit of mutual support remains. “I have always been inspired by the socially conscious musicians of the 1960s such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley’s world-changing notion of “One Love”, and artists like Operation Ivy who make ‘Unity’ feel cool and punk rock,” Joseph explained. “I hope people leave the event feeling like we can bring back some of these values but with a modern vibe and something wholly original for the current times.”

Light in the Dark Fest is Thursday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 28, in Fort Lauderdale. lightinthedarkfest.com

DANIELLE HOLBERT

TRISTEN

FLORIDA FLOW FEST

by Amanda E. Moore

Fire and juggling and lights, oh my! Imagine “The Wizard of Oz” inspired by Cirque du Soleil and the result could be Florida Flow Fest 2023: Illuminated, a daylong demonstration and celebration of movement arts happening Sunday, January 15 at Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale.

Presented by Monkey Dust Productions, a Florida based design and production company that produces these events across the US. Flow Fests are a nonprofit project, fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a New York based national nonprofit. The event invites participants to watch and to try their own hand at circus, yoga, dance, drumming and more. Artist-instructors from around the world perform and lead workshops for disciplines in which peak performance and a higher state converge in the phenomenon called “flow.”

Flow Fests create an educational and playful space for exploration and growth; novices and wizards alike can sign up for workshops on Memphis Jookin, Jamaican dancehall, sun wheel chakkars, drum circles, and juggling, to name a few. Flow Fest’s attendees learn from greats in their fields, including Florida festival special guest Dalton Sessumes, a fire, smoke and light artist who debuted a mind-blowing LED Leviwand and drone performance at Art With Me Miami

In six states on different dates, Flow Fests are fluid in nature, typically changing forms, but at their core lies a strong emphasis on health, wellness and community. “We are serving communities and audiences nationwide through the growth and spread of Flow Fest’s, free public interactive arts experiences and workshop festivals,” Casandra Tanenbaum, Flow Fests director and “alchemistress,” told PureHoney. “These festivals bring together nationally and internationally touring instructors of multicultural arts to provide wellness activities for all ages and skill levels. Play is important at every age,” Tanenbaum added. “This is not just for kids.”

Entry is free at the Fort Lauderdale event, which offers a bigger-than-ever menu of free courses alongside more than 30 paid workshops designed for intermediate and advanced learners. The festival wraps with a two-hour instructor showcase performance. Flow fanatics can also sign up for a pre-festival master class happening on Saturday, January 14 at Fun in Motion Toys headquarters in Dania Beach.

Flow Fest runs 10am-8pm January 15 at Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale. flowfests.com

DALTON SESSUMES

COURTESY SOUL FOCUS MEDIA

BRYCE WYMER

by Veronica Inberg

The artist Bryce Wymer is a South Florida native based in Brooklyn whose jarring yet pleasing work draws from every brow —- high, middle and low — to address what he calls “human social progression and the driving relation between the powerful and the powerless.”

Social Realism, Matisse, punk/hardcore music, postmodernist art and graphic design all influence Wymer’s array of canvasses, block prints and sketchbooks. Born in Hollywood, Fla., in 1979, Wymer is the featured artist in this month’s PureHoney.

A copypasta version of his creative bio — no longer on his site but still blurbed across multiple art-zine and gallery pages — mentions Wymer’s interest in the “many layers of the human condition.” Some of his mixed-media creations — where collage, watercolor and India ink share the page — are a tactile expression of that layering.

His approach to progress, power and humanity is not gentle — “anxiety-tinged” is how he put it in an interview with It’s Nice That, describing the disembodied, dissected figures that populate his work. But all told Wymer captures a vastness of design aesthetic to create imagery that is approachable and enjoyable. Tappan Collective, a gallery representing Wymer, calls his work “a unique combination of bold graphic compositions and humanist abstraction.”

There’s a reason why Matisse’s wavy lithographs, paper cut-outs and other works have become so popular and ubiquitous: the pleasure in viewing work that is flattened with organic figures and finely drawn lines. Big, bold shapes remove visual and mental obstacles and — by dividing the canvas into positive and negative space — invite the viewer into gentle contemplation. Much like Matisse’s “Blue Nudes,” Wymer sketchbook pieces “Inflation SK BK” and “Motherboy” — also made from cut paper — are simple yet harmonious compositions.

But unlike a Matisse, the clean illustrative design Wymer utilizes is expertly married to wistful and clearly painted brush strokes, incorporating texture and layers that are often not present in prints and reproductions. Wymer works such as “Bow/Roll,” “Stick Up Kids” and “Hurricane David” provide lovely, painterly elements through the use of acrylic and India ink, mixing media on to a single canvas — the “high” and the “low,” the layers of humanity, the interactions of power and powerlessness, all made manifest.

For centuries the powerful have been the main subjects and consumers of art, while the powerless are often removed from the narrative altogether. Power was bestowed through divine rights, family lineage, money, and information — intellectual and tangible resources that were revered and apotheosized. The ancient Romans and Greeks immortalized people, both powerful and familial, through the creation of lifelike busts — a significant indicator of a person and their perceived social “value.”

RECONCILIATION

Wymer inverts this equation, cutting off many of his subjects at the neck, giving his viewer just enough information as he makes other incisive decisions on how to edit his visual narrative. Heads (with necks) peer through bushes, maintain contemplative stares, water plants, and get sliced up like pieces of deli meat. Dismemberment is ever present —- heads and bodies cut into thirds and quarters, presenting cross sections of their inner workings, akin to the animal corpses of Damien Hirst. Anxiety is a sensible response to a Wymer painting such as “Prima Facie,“ whose shouting, broken-mouthed male head — also sectioned — depicts the “multiple layers of self that we create to get us through our daily lives,” Wymer told It’s Nice That.

Where Hirst bifurcates his 3D objects with enough space to walk through, Wymer cuts his 2D objects into segments — or hierarchies, if you will, if viewed through his thinking about power relations. The majority of Wymer’s work is hand-painted, utilizing acrylics, India ink, and gouache, but one could easily take some of them for flawless digital creations. Wymer using paint to create an illusion of pixelated smoothness could be interpreted as further discourse about power — including the power of technology to impose itself on aesthetics.

Wymer, as it happens, has found success in collaboratively replicating his imagery across different media, including (actual) digital prints, sculpture and textiles. He has created designs for The New Yorker and The Washington Post, along with silk scarves, woven throws, and other objects that have made him one to watch.

Wymer’s work can be viewed at aflatearth.com and on his Instagram at @brycewymer | POSTER: “Somato”

Bryce

PRIMA FACIE

GROUNDUP MUSIC FEST

by David Rolland

When Michael League and Don Lehr first brought GroundUP Music Festival to the Miami Beach Bandshell back in 2017, they had an inkling of how to make their three-day event stand out. “There’s enough festivals in the world showcasing bands already well-known and successful,” League told this writer a few years ago. “We wanted to create a space where people who really love music can come hear new sounds and take those sounds home with them to expand their listening horizons.”

Except for a Covid cancellation in 2021, GroundUP has taken that mission statement to heart every year. The 2023 edition, on Feb. 3-5 at the Bandshell, is no exception, with a deepstacked lineup that is guaranteed to introduce something new to even the most committed audiophile. League’s own band, Snarky Puppy, will continue to serve as the festival anchor, playing a headlining set on each night of GroundUP to cap off an eclectic daily lineup.

The GroundUP menu of event packages includes daily or three-day tickets, general or premium admission, and extras such as access to backstage jam sessions, pre-show live music brunches at the Bandshell, and late-night, postshow live sets at the intimate Faena Theater in Miami Beach. Here’s a peek at some of the boldface names on the 2023 poster.

Snarky Puppy — This massive jazz fusion instrumental collective was founded by League, who also plays bass guitar for the band. Every night at GroundUP these multiple Grammy winners play an entirely different set. League told me in 2019 that the band is so tight it doesn’t matter how many songs land in the set: “We’ve been together so long I don’t worry about anything. We’ve gone through so much onstage, so even if a song doesn’t go well, I’m not scared the night will go horribly. The train never goes off the tracks.”

Jeff Tweedy — Most famous for fronting and founding the great Chicago indie rock band Wilco, Tweedy isn’t afraid to stand alone on stage with just his guitar and insightful songwriting. He put out four solo albums, one a year, from 2017-2020, but if his recent set lists are a prognosticator of what he’ll play, he’ll pepper this solo date with plenty of Wilco tunes, along with an occasional song or two from his earlier Americana band, Uncle Tupelo.

Isaiah Sharkey — The Chicago-born guitarist is GroundUP’s designated artist-at-large for 2023: He’ll perform a solo set and lead his quartet through a set of soul, jazz and r&b. Sharkey shared a best r&b album Grammy for his work with D’Angelo on “Black Messiah,” and has played guitar for Paul Simon, John Mayer, Patti LaBelle and more. His smooth solo work, exemplified by the new single “Stay,” sounds like an act of seduction.

Nai Palm — In the band Hiatus Kaiyote, Palm’s sultry voice coalesces with trip-hop for a lush soundscape. On her own, the Australian jazz singer has issued one solo album, 2017’s “Needle Paw,” a baker’s dozen of piano lounge tracks that owes a debt to a couple of Joneses in Norah and Ricky Lee. But on that same album, Palm also manages to make songs by both Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie her own.

Silvana Estrada — Jazz started out as an American phenomenon, but didn’t stay in one place for long. Musicians from other countries applied their own touches to big band, torch and swing, and helped jazz become a global language. Estrada, a 25-year-old singer from Mexico, reasserts jazz’s Latin influence and adds a millennial’s cultural savvy. Her latest album, 2022’s “Marchita,” is sung with enough soul it will have non-bilinguals reaching for their translation apps to find out what lyrics could inspire such panache.

Bassekou Kouyate — Plenty of festivals introduce new artists, sometimes even hipping you to new genres. How many hit you with instruments you might have otherwise never heard? Kouyate is considered one of the world’s masters of the ngoni, a traditional and ancient West African version of the lute. The ngoni sounds a little bit like a banjo, but also in Kouyate’s skilled hands like no other instrument you have ever encountered.

Also performing 2023: Madison Cunningham, Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi, Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet, Edmar Castaneda & Gregoire Maret, Lizz Wright, Keyon Harold, Mark Letter Group, Mirrors, Rachel Eckroth, Gisela Joao, Shaun Martin Three-O, Jamison Ross GroundUP is Feb. 3-5 at the Miami Beach Bandshell. groundupmusicfestival.com

ISAIAH SHARKEY

SILVANA ESTRADA

NAI PALM

JEFF TWEEDY

SNARKY PUPPY

COURTESY OF ARTIST

COURTESY GROUND UP

COURTESY GROUND UP

COURTESY GROUND UP

COURTESY GROUND UP

BASSEKOU KOUYATE