Looking for Black art during Miami Art Week? Here’s what you need to know

The 2020 edition of Miami Art Week comes at a poignant time in this nation’s history.

The killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor; accusations of voter fraud cast at primarily African-American cities and COVID-19’s disproportionate effect on the Black community have focused attention on long-standing, deep-seated issues with roots far in the past.

Even before this momentous year, the art market began taking note of Black art. In 2019, a painting by Kerry James Marshall sold for $18.5 million at a 2019 auction. A work by Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford brought almost $12 million in 2018. Artworks by dozens of other living Black artists — including Obama portraitist Kehinde Wiley, “Sound Suit” sculptor Nick Cave and Kara Walker, best known for her silhouettes — routinely sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

Few of us have that kind of money. But whether you’re a collector or simply an art lover, the moment is ripe for celebrating Black beauty.

This year, in particular, Miami offers several extraordinary opportunities for exploring Black art. That’s due in part to geography, which ties us so closely to the Caribbean. But it also is thanks to the passion of local art collectors, who have filled private collections with works they share in public spaces.

Chief among them is museum namesake Jorge M. Pérez. In 2013, Pérez and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation donated $1 million to launch the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s African American Art Fund. It was only the beginning. A 2019 trip to South Africa ignited a collecting spree of African and African-diaspora art that has become the current sole focus for Perez and his curators, Patricia Hanna and Anelys Alvarez.

“We’re really focusing on building the collection,” he said.

The results are on display both at PAMM and El Espacio 23, the private museum space Perez opened last year.

The two shows are designed to complement rather than repeat.

“Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” showcases 35 paintings, drawings, sculptures and multi-media works that will be gifted to the museum’s permanent holdings. Front and center is American Kara Walker’s powerful graphite drawing of workers toiling aboard a pair of rickety boats sailing on a sea of slaves, with the title “Securing a Homeland Should Have Been Sufficient.”

Other works are less pointed: an abstract by Miami’s Tomas Esson, an ethereal painting by Firelei Báez of a family in a flower field, an intricate quilt-like collage of twisted wires called “Tightrope” by Elias Sime, Isaac Julien’s stunning image of a woman twirling before a winding staircase, and two dynamic black-and-white self-portraits by photographer Zanele Muholi.

The PAMM show is framed by the museum’s commitment to Caribbean, Afro-Latinx and the Americas, said museum director Franklin Sirmans, while the El Espacio 23 show focuses on contemporary artists from the African continent, many from South Africa.

In Allapattah, the El Espacio 23 exhibition “Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” was designed — from afar in this COVID year — by Zimbabwean curator Tandazani Dhlakama to include artists unfamiliar to American audiences. It opens Nov. 30 with limited entry by time appointment.

Though the show’s origin predates the murder of George Floyd, it centers on a question that is as relevant today as it was in the Apartheid era of South Africa or the time of Hitler, said Hanna. “What is it to be a witness? What do you do with that?”

Notes of drama, trauma, responsibility and spirituality emerge throughout the show. But the 118 photographs, paintings, collages, sculptures and tapestries also offer hope, beauty and an awareness of African perspectives. “We want to be thought-provoking. And we want to bridge cultural gaps,” Hanna said.

Said Pérez, “We hope “Witness” will serve as a catalyst for much-needed dialogue around issues of racial equity, political oppression and other troubling issues brought to light amidst these unprecedented times. “

The show’s entrance is marked by a pair of works by El Espacio’s current artist-in-residence, Masimba Hwati of Zimbabwe, who fortuitously was at another residency in the U.S. when the quarantine was imposed. His two works combined three-dimensional objects with canvas to link music and visual art in a timely portrayal of “how people manage to translate beauty into struggle,” he said.

Athi-Patra Ruga’s “The Sacred Versatile Queen and Autocrat of all Azania” combines history, royalty and androgyny in an intricately craft tapestry. Cheri Samba’s painting “Le Blanc Africaniste” vibrates with colonialism. Historic photographic portraits by Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe pay tribute to African life of the mid-1900s often overlooked by outsiders.

Some of the other photographs portray raw realities, like Mikhael Subostsky’s image from a South African prison and Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou’s “Borderland,” an all-too-common image of men and outdated machinery waiting by the roadside.

Notably, the women portrayed throughout the show are strong, direct, athletic — sometimes defiant. And sometimes caught between worlds, as in a giant panel of photographs filled with Chinese, Yoruba and Spanish elements from Cuban artist Maria Magdelena Campos-Pons.

There’s much here to contemplate. Take your time.

PAMM: “Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art,” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., through summer 2021. pamm.org; 305-375-3000.

Normally open Thursday to Sunday, PAMM will be open for Art Week Dec. 1-6.

Art Week events include:

▪ Dec. 1, 1 p.m.: Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye OBE and PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans converse in a virtual presentation as part of the Scholl Lecture series.

Registration at pamm.org. You can also tune in remotely via Facebook Live and YouTube Live.

▪ Dec. 2, 2 p.m.: “Black Diasporic Feminism, Intersectionality, and Solidarity in the Age of Protest.” The virtual discussion will center on Black women artists’ critical role in the current political and social climate. Panelists include exhibition artists Genevieve Gaignard, Naudline Pierre, and Deborah Roberts, exhibition curator María Elena Ortiz. Marie Vickles will moderate.

Registration at pamm.org.

EL ESPACIO 23: “Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection.” 2270 NW 23rd St., Miami. Nov. 30 through summer with timed entry and small groups. Appointment required. Open by appointment 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. through Dec. 6; Thursday through Saturday beginning Dec. 10. elespacio23.com; 786-460-4790.

ART OF BLACK MIAMI

As part of its annual cultural and heritage months each December and January, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes events, exhibitions and work by Black Miami artists through its Art of Black Miami program. Many of the events noted below are associated with the program. For more details, visit miamiandbeaches.com/events/art-of-black

COCONUT GROVE

Miami-based assemblage artist T. Eliot Mansa explores the fight to “honor, memorialize, protect and defend Black Lives from state and extra-judicial violence Black life” through a series of sculptures, the description reads. Titled “For Those Gathered in the Wind,” the exhibition will be held at LnS Gallery beginning Dec. 2.

A virtual conversation featuring Mansa and exhibition curator Donnamarie Baptiste will kick off festivities at 3 p.m. on Nov. 29. Sugarcane Magazine publisher Melissa Hunter Davis will moderate. Register at www.miamimocaad.net.

LnS Gallery: “For Those Gathered in the Wind.” 2610 SW 28th Ln, Miami. Dec. 2. until Feb. 9, 2021. with timed entry and small groups. lnsgallery.com; 305-987-5642.

Design District

Based on an exhibition at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” documents the nation’s history through examining how generations have tried to become a “more perfect union.” The exhibit will be held at the Haitian Heritage Museum beginning Dec. 17.

Haitian Heritage Museum: “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America.” 4141 NE Second Ave., Miami. Dec. 17 through Feb. 6, 2021. haitianheritagemuseum.org; 305-371-5988

Historic Overtown

Point Comfort Art Fair 2020 features“Dennis Manuel: The Eye of Afropunk,” showcasing Manuel’s photographs of the Afropunk Festival.

Dec. 3-6, noon to 8 p.m at the Historic Ward Rooming House, 249 NW Ninth St., Miami. hamptonartlovers.com; 786-355-8690

Little Haiti

For the 12th anniversary of the Global Caribbean/Borderless Caribbean series, the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance produced two exhibitions in partnership with the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, both of which will showcase Miami-based artists. The first, titled “Contemporary Visual Expression,” is described as a “large-scale outdoor exhibition” that will be curated by Edouard Duval-Carrié.

The second, titled “Local-Global,” focuses on Miami’s role as an entry point of sorts for the Global South. Vickles, who is also moderating the aforementioned panel at PAMM, will curate.

From Dec. 2 to Feb. 28 at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, 212-260 NE 59th Terrace, Miami; littlehaiticulturalcenter.com; 305-960-2969.

In addition, My Urban Contemporary Experience will host its annual MUCE Arts & Cultural Festival with the new “Dispersed” exhibit opening at 11 a.m. on Dec. 3, followed by a celebration at 6 p.m.

MUCE, 246 NW 54th St., Miami; muce305.org; 786-287-7008. Registration for the opening celebration is $10 through Facebook.

Little Havana

A collection of hand-painted patio umbrellas will line Eighth street in Little Havana as part of the 8th annual Umbrellas of Little Havana Art Festival. This year’s festivities will also feature several presentations on topics ranging from Cuban music to the history of guayaberas.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 4-6, at 1637 SW Eighth St, Miami; miamiandbeaches.com; 305-972-5774.

LITTLE RIVER

At first glance, Rashaun Rucker’s intricate graphite drawings looks something like a minotaur with an avian twist. Look deeper, and you’ll see the works in “Contemplation of Flight” at N’Namdi Contemporary present the rock pigeon as a metaphor for the anxiety of deep discomfort of the contemporary African American male experience.

N’Namdi Contemporary, 6505 NW Second Ave., nnamdicontemporary.com; 786-332-4736. Through Dec. 19 by appointment.

North Miami

Beginning Nov. 18, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will exhibit a collection titled “Life and Spirituality in Haitian Art.” These works were created in Haiti between 1940 and 1970. The exhibition runs until March 14, 2021.

Nov. 18 to March 14, at 770 NE 125th St.. North Miami; 305-893-6211; mocanomi.org

Virtual

▪ A virtual conversation with renowned poet Nikki Giovanni at 6 p.m. Nov. 30 opens the Art of Black Miami , celebrating the Magic City’s diverse creative scene through the work of Black Floridians. Register through the Art of Black Miami link at miamiandbeaches.com.

▪ Now in its sixth year, PRIZM Art Fair is dedicated to African and Diaspora perspectives in contemporary art. The 2020 fair will be conducted entirely online from Dec. 1 to 21 . This year’s theme is “Noir, Noir: Meditations On African Cinema And Its Influence On Visual Art.” prizmartfair.com.

This article was updated to correct information about the Point Comfort Art Show.