Memorial Day Weekend Events

PIETA

O Cinema

Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival,

Pieta is the acclaimed film from the celebrated and controversial Korean director Kim Ki-Duk. In this intense and haunting story, a loan shark living an isolated and lonely existence uses brutality to threaten and collect paybacks from desperate borrowers for his moneylender boss. He proficiently and mercilessly collects the debts without regard to the pain he causes his countless victims. One day, a mysterious woman appears in front of him claiming to be his long-lost mother. After coldly rejecting her at first, he gradually accepts her in his life and decides to quit his cruel job and seek a decent, redemptive life. However, he soon discovers a dark secret stemming from his past and realizes it may be too late to escape the horrific consequences already set in motion from his previous life.

Showtimes:

Friday, May 24, at 9 pm

Saturday, May 25, at 5 pm & 9 pm

Sunday, May 26, at 5pm & 9pm

Price: $10.50

O Cinema

90 NW 29th Street

Miami, FL  33127

DESIGN ART AT FAIRCHILD: SITTING NATURALLY

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Fairchild Garden's current exhibitions “Design at Fairchild: Sitting Naturall” showcases a diverse collection of new works by seven internationally renowned artists commissioned by the Cristina Grajales Gallery in New York City. Inspired by Fairchild's tropical landscape, Gael Appler, Sam Baron, Pedro Barrail, Christophe Côme, Michele Oka Doner, Sebastian Errazuriz and John Paul Philippe created each two sculptures to be exhibited amongst the park’s natural beauties. The pieces are made of silver, green, and copper-colored industrial aluminum.

When: Monday – Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Price: $25 for adults, $18 for seniors, $12 for children 6-17 and free to children 5 and under and to Fairchild members.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables

305-667-1651

www.FairchildGarden.org

GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK

South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center

Singer and actress Connie James will perform this weekend songs from George Gershwin and Cole Porter to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Chaka Khan.

When: Friday, May 24 at 8:30pm; Saturday, May 25 at 8:30pm and 10:30pm; and Sunday, May 26 at 3:30pm.

Price: $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the show.

South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center

10950 S.W. 211th Street, Cutler Bay

786-573-5300

www.SMDCAC.org

GUIDED TOUR OF ROSARIO BOND'S SHOW TOO GOOD TO FAIL

Curator's Voice Art Projects

Dr. Milagros Bello will lead a Guided tour of Rosario Bond's show analyzing the concepts and styles of her works. Bond explores elements of both figuration and abstraction in multidisciplinary aesthetic approach to painting. Her canvases are compounds of blended and torn lines along with imaginary shapes that mingle between bright and contrasting colors.

When: Saturday May 11, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST

Curator's Voice Art Projects

Wynwood Art District

299 NW25th Street/

On the corner of NW 25th St & NW 3rd Ave

Miami, FL 33127

THE PETER LONDON GLOBAL DANCE COMPANY

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

Miami's newest multicultural dance troupe, The Peter London Global Dance Company, will perform a two-night stint at the Arsht Center's Carnival Studio Theater. The program will feature a choreographic sampler of six new works, “Spring Nights at the Arsht”. Peter London's choreography has received critical acclaim at Alvin Ailey's Summer Sizzler at the City Corp Theater in New York, at New World School of the Arts performances and at the International Dance Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When: Friday & Saturday, May 24 & 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Price: $35 for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Downtown Miami

305-949-6722 (Box Office)

www.ArshtCenter.org

Sharon Bridgforth brings River See to Miami

Lambda-award winning author and visual artist Sharon Bridgforth will come to Miami this week to continue the research on her upcoming presentation of the work ‘River See’, which will be host in the city for the first time in 2014.

In partnership with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI), Sharon will explore local artists (musicians, singers, actors, and dancers) as well as the community, to be integrated to the show.

River See investigates blues stories as living arrangements of jazz, through an improvisational process that happens during performance, with singers, dancers, musicians and audience members. Black traditions are the base for bringing together people from different ethnicities, religions, generations, gender and sexual identities, places of origin, class backgrounds, abilities, and aesthetics.

“This is a living composition made of jazz technologies: polyrhythms, dissonance, simultaneity, playing time, breaking form. Bodies move in circles and lines. Performers sing and speak bits of text throughout the entire room versus only on the stage. During the rehearsal process I create physical language to signal directions to the performers. What they enter the (rehearsal) room with-their lived experiences, artistic expertise and impulses are the architecture for the signals. The audience is invited to choose how they will be active witnesses or participants. Some will listen or hold space. Some will translate bits of text, some will offer gestures. Some will share in telling the story. Some will chant. We all work to serve SEE as she tells her story. Through a collective process, we become responsible to one another in the art of creating a piece about love”, says Bridgforth.

River See is a NPN Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Links Hall in partnership with Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Living Arts of Tulsa, Pillsbury House Theatre, The Theatre Offensive, and NPN. 

Video of Rosie Gordon Wallace talking about the project

Art Walk Guide

Our favorite Saturday of the month is finally here. And, as always, Wynwood and the Design District have art for all tastes. Check out some of the highlights for tomorrow night’s Art Walk:

Precipice/PostModem at Locust Projects

Locust Projects presents Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer. Mayer is known for eclectic video installations that compress virtual, cinematic, and physical space. This will be Mayer’s largest exhibition to date, passing fluidly from cinema to installation in both the physical and digital realm while incorporating interactive and technological elements to create a nonlinear meta-narrative.

3852 North Miami Avenue

Chimen Libete at Haitian Heritage Museum

The Month of May is Haitian Heritage Month, a nationally celebrated time where the Haitian culture is celebrated throughout the United States and in Haiti. During this very special moth the Haitian Heritage Museum will present Chimen Libete (The Road to Freedom) - A collaboration between the Haitian Heritage Museum and the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH) in Haiti, to feature an exhibition of the historical account of freedom from slavery in Haiti.

4141 NE 2nd Avenue, Suite 105C

Terra Non Descoperta at de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space

Three light boxes with color transparencies sit on the floor. They show a beautiful sea in three parts. A text by Christopher Columbus is overlaid on the images, describing his obsession with finding gold. The spectator is seduced by these images to approach the work. The light boxes placed some 20 inches from the wall where fifteen gold-framed mirrors hang horizontally facing them; suddenly, a reflection appears on the mirrors. They show us images that are inset on the other side of the light boxes, the side facing the wall. They are gold miners from Serra Pelada, in the Brazilian Amazon. But the mirrors also reflect us. We find ourselves together with the miners in the space of the mirror.

23 NE 41 Street

Presque Vu by Maitejosune Urrechaga at Swampspace Gallery

Yes, No or I Don't Know Why, are common responses to questions. When the answer is "On the Tip of the Tongue", some call it "Presque Vu" or almost seen. To experience the work of  artist-musician Maitejosune Urrechaga is similar in character to these psycholinguistic phenomenon. For her solo show, Maitejosune explores through portraiture the universal experience of unconscious thoughts and impulses as yet unexplained by science or spirituality.

150 NE 42 Street

Subjects of Splendor at Art Fusion Galleries

Featuring over 50 emerging to mid-career contemporary artists, this exhibition presents a revealing look at the forefront of contemporary artwork that spans across more than 23 countries. The selection of artists can be traced from Australia, throughout Europe, South America, North America and South Africa. Featuring an extensive portfolio of contemporary original artwork, this collection crosses the boundaries of subject matter thus amplifying the role of today's artists who are on the cusp of the modern epoch. Rich in tradition yet vibrant and seductive in subjects of splendor, our spring exhibition elevates a generation of artists who seek to give expression to the pulse of modern life. Art Fusion Galleries is proud to host this exhibition in our grand gallery space which boasts over 8,000 square feet of Pristine Contemporary Gallery Space. Exhibiting from:     

Monday, April 1st, 2013 through Monday, June 17th, 2013

3550 North Miami Avenue

Anthony Lister: Never Odd Or Even at Robert Fontaine Gallery

Australian, New York-based artist Anthony Lister combines a street art sensibility with more classical painterly flourishes in his works. The works on display draw largely from a recent series of paintings of ballerinas, art forms with a touch of graffiti.

2349 N.W. Second Avenue

20 Shades of Grey and Reclaimed Miami at Zadok Gallery

Zadok Gallery hosts two simultaneous openings this Saturday: 20 Shades of Grey – no connection to the books – , show  dedicated to artists over 70 who have lived and worked in Miami since long before the Art Basel; and the Reclaimed Miami, about creative re-use of materials, with artists “upcycling” found objects through techniques like silk screening, embroidery, crocheting, and more.

2534 North Miami Avenue

Jonathan Rockford: 

Preserving the Void at Hardcore Art Contemporary Space

Originally from Minnesota, Jonathan Rockford gets  inspiration from his Sailboat Bend work in his new home, Fort Lauderdale. His sculptures explores volume and space, memory and time, using materials such as VHS tapes.

Art Contemporary Space, 72 N.W. 25th Street

International Cultural Arts Exchange 2013: Paramaribo, Suriname

Miami Bridge was this year’s theme for the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s (DVCAI) annual International Cultural Arts Exchange. The initiative, that took place in Paramaribo, Suriname, in March, used painting, video installations, photograph, installations and performance, confirming Diaspora Vibe’s signature style and focus – the practice of cultural crossings.

In collaboration with artists and community organizations in Suriname, the works presented served as vehicles for interpretation of the Caribbean Diaspora social, political and cultural issues.

Sixteen South-Florida and Miami-Dade artists, of various disciplines, explored the recurring images and obsessive symbols or conceptualized representations of the Caribbean Diaspora, looking at the ideological apparatuses and using them as a way for re-interpretation of themselves, replicating and reacting to the social and political issues that motivate their personal concerns and artistic activisms throughout their careers.

Miami Dade County/South Florida participating artists included: Patricia Rolden, Jacquenette Arnette, Hugo Moro, Annette Lawrence, Sarah Krupp, Danny Ramirez, Rodney Jackson, Binary Kama, Erin Nutsugah, Aisha Tandive Bell, Carlos Alejandro, Melanie Choisy, Selina Roman, Nicole Wynter, Vanessa Greene, and Kerry Kennedy.

DVCAI collaborated with Readytex Gallery managing director Monique Nouhchaia Sookdewsing and artist Kurt Nahar, seeking to build a cultural bridge between Miami and the host community. 

Visit our Facebook pages to view more pictures: facebook.com/diasporavibevirtualgallery and facebook.com/diasporavibeculturalartsincubator

ReadyTex Art Gallery presents Kurt Nahar this week

This week, the featured artist at Surinamese Gallery ReadyTex Art is Kurt Nahar.

Nahar’s work focuses on current social and political affairs in his native country, Suriname. Inspired mostly by the Dadaism movement, he gives simple objects of daily life new purposes, by the use of different techniques and materials, such as acrylic paint and collages.

His latest work consists of a series of daring and provocative three dimensional art installations and mixed media paintings on hardboard and paper. Incorporated into all of these works of art, the artist also displays his poetic talent.

With a strong social and political narrative, Nahar hopes to stimulate discussion and awareness through his art. The revolution of December 1980, The Moiwana massacre, the increasing influx of western modern influences are some of the subjects present in his pieces.

“As an artist it is not my intention to simply create a pretty picture, because I have a greater purpose in mind. Through my art and poems I hope to contribute to raising the consciousness of the general public and to encourage discussions regarding those rather forgotten but so important subjects”, he says.

About ReadyTex Art Gallery

Readytex Art is the leading privately owned retailer of Surinamese fine visual art and crafts. Their store is located in the heart of Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname.

Their Craft Department started around 1984 and has since grown to match the productivity and the growth of the local market for craft.

The Art Gallery has been part of the Readytex concept since 1993 and has spearheaded an explosion of creative development in Suriname's visual art world, enabling artists to add to their income by having their art professionally marketed. They are committed to contribute with the growth and development of Surinamese art and artists through a market oriented approach and promotion locally and internationally.

Some of Kurt Nahar’s pieces can be purchased at Readytex Art website:  www.readytexartgallery.com