Bhakti Baxter
Born in 1979 in Miami, Argentinean American Bhakti Baxter began his art education at the Design and Architecture Senior High School and went on to receive a Bachelors in Fine Art at the New World School of the Arts. Working professionally since 1998, Baxter has displayed his work in several group and solo exhibitions in Miami and abroad.
Early in his life, he explored an interest in both the principles of geometry and the intricate sequential art of Islamic architecture. These explorations, among others, have led him on a spirited pursuit of artistic identity. The artist describes this: “Investigating the territory between science and spirituality, my practice engages the disjointed relationships of the ordinary and the mystery of the abstract as one and the same.” Through geometric constructs, Baxter’s work brings to mind the intricate symmetry found in the world of nature. Eerie yet captivating paintings composed of black India ink skillfully applied on mylar, morphing polyhedral sculptures, and oil on canvas portraits are just some manifestations of Baxter’s diverse range. “Whether using ink, paint, or physical space, my efforts in producing art center on the idea that a greater understanding of life can be derived through the creative process. Recurring subject matters include infinity, light, and, the concept of zero or the void.” Some popular motifs also include spheres and skeletons.
He currently works and resides in Miami. Some of his solo shows have included the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art in 2002, the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris in 2005, and the Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami in 2007. Also, in 2007, one of his designs was selected as the official image for the Latin Grammy Awards. Most recently (2009) he has exhibited at the BravinLee Programs in Manhattan.
Xavier Cortada
Born in 1968 in Albany, New York, and raised in Miami, Cuban-American artist Xavier Cortada has worked collaboratively with diverse groups throughout the world, including, particularly, environmentalists, scientists, and archaeologists engaged in progressive projects. His aim to find “interconnectedness among things to gain greater understanding” through his artwork has led him in recent years to focus on environmental concerns and the intersection of art with science, particularly in areas of climate change and genetic anthropology. Some of his most recognized works, such as The Markers, Native Flags, and Endangered World, were created in the North Pole and Antarctica with the aim of raising awareness about issues of global warming and the need for sustainable human interaction with nature.
After receiving degrees from the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Business, and School of Law, Cortada has become an activist working in international collaborative public art projects around the world. Some of these projects include peace murals in Northern Ireland and Cyprus, International AIDS Conference murals in South Africa and Switzerland, and child welfare murals in Bolivia and Panama. His work has been commissioned by the White House, the World Bank, Miami City Hall, and the Miami-Dade County Commission Chambers. For the Frost Art Museum he created four 40-foot-tall digital tapestries depicting the elements-Aer, Aqua, Ignis, and Terra-amid the periodic table of elements. These monumentally scaled compositions, which mark the changing seasons by the color compositions of leaves, are displayed in seasonal rotation at the museum’s entrance. Visitors are invited by the tapestries to “look closely at their surroundings, where there are new worlds to discover.”
Describing Genetic Markers: Ancestral Journeys, Cortada states, “The installation invites the descendants of those who carved a path through the wilderness 60,000 years ago to re-enter the forest and retrace their ancestors’ path as they populated the planet in response to nature.”
Guerra de la Paz
This Cuban-born, Miami-based artistic duo form an amalgam of influences that create artwork balanced in its architectural and traditional perspectives as well as the unconventional and the implicit. The name Guerra de la Paz, a composite of their names, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, encapsulates the spirit of both their artwork and the vivacity and life of Miami, the cosmopolitan and globalized gateway to the Americas. Their art embodies what the 21st century is and will be: one an interconnected and universalized whole, where lines of nationality and identity are blurred and people from all over are fused by the perpetual transfer of information. Guerra de la Paz combine “traditional disciplines and experimentation with dimension and the use of unconventional materials,” connecting the viewer with far away archeological sites such as Stonehenge and the temples of Tibet, but also alluding to contemporary society.
Guerra de la Paz challenges the viewer with issues such as “environmentalism, mass consumption, and disposability.” To amplify their message, the materials they use are representative of their concern for such topics: Using discarded cultural artifacts from local communities such as Miami’s Little Haiti, their artwork combines both complexity and a grounded sense of a locality that can be appreciated by the average observer. Guerra de la Paz have exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Saatchi Gallery in London and the Miami Art Museum. Having been featured in publications ranging from New York Arts, to Today’s Zaman in Istanbul, Turkey, Guerra de la Paz represent the face of cultural unification.
Richard Haden
Richard Haden was born in 1958 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He began his art education at the University of Kentucky where, during a special guest lecture and studio course, he was introduced to woodcarving.
After moving to the West Coast in the early 80’s, Haden had his first solo shows at the Anhalt Gallery, Los Angeles. He went on to show at the Ossuna Gallery in Washington, DC, as well as F.I.A.C. Paris and the Boise Art Museum, before he joined the Allan Stone Gallery in New York. Despite early appreciation of his work, Haden took a lengthy sabbatical to pursue various political causes. While living in New York during the mid-80’s, he participated in the anti-gentrification struggle in the lower east side of Manhattan that sparked the Tompkins Square riots. In 1986, he joined the Nicaragua Construction Brigades and helped build houses for the Sandinistas. In the 90’s, he spent several years as an activist in the underground medical marijuana movement, which was a vital part of AIDS relief.
Haden insists that artists should also be activists, adding, “In addition to the social necessity of being active… it is through…causes that artists gain valuable… experience which enriches [their] practice of making meaning.” With this philosophy in mind, Haden resumed his carving after moving to South Florida.
Haden’s main focus is sculpting the presence of everyday objects. With all of his works, Haden seeks to engage the viewer in a subjective conversation. For instance, this March in New York, Haden will arrange a solo show at VOLTANY as though the exhibition space was the institution’s utility room. Upon closer inspection, the viewers will realize that the objects are not what they seem. Haden’s work is about how to transcend the antiquated idea of “Art.” What Haden’s art tries to do is to spark a conversation among viewers, making art a conversation that involves everyone and the everyday.
Richard Haden’s sculptures are a reflection of the social and individual need for a more meaningful sense of “being in” the world rather than just “being on” it.
Bert Rodriguez
Norberto “Bert” Rodriguez, a native of Miami, is an internationally renowned Cuban-American artist known for producing conceptual works that challenge the traditional boundaries of collectable art. Working with a variety of media including sculpture, film, photography, installation, and sound, Rodriguez creates pieces that present a duality between the unabashedly obvious and the impossibly subtle.
Rodriguez graduated from the New World School of the Arts with a BFA in 1998 and was quickly recognized by the Frederic Snitzer Gallery as a talented up-and-coming artist. From this point forward, he says, “The art world built itself around [him].” He was invited to participate in a group show entitled “The Fashion Issue.” The result was a working relationship that continues to this day and that instantly provided exposure and legitimacy to the young Rodriguez’s art. In 2000, Rodriguez held his first solo show at the Centre Gallery in Miami, FL. It was entitled “Apples from a Tree: A Pre-Career Retrospective,” and featured works from his life prior to his recognition as an established artist. This show was followed in 2001 by his first solo exhibition with the Frederic Snitzer Gallery in 2001 perplexingly titled, “( )”.
His first international show, “Intervenciones”, was held in 2006 at the Museum of Art in San Salvador, El Salvador. Other international displays of Rodriguez’s work include various locations in Europe as part of the 60 Second Video Art Festival in 2007 and Espace Experimental in Paris in 2008. In 2010, he will be presenting his work at exhibitions in Germany and Italy. He currently resides in Miami.
Gerry Stecca
With work that is both intelligent and original, artist Gerry Stecca’s work simultaneously embodies the architectural and fluid. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1964 and comes from a family with a passion for both science and the arts. He obtained formal training as an artist, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts and a minor in Science from the University of California.
At the age of 23, Stecca directed his focus to painting. In 1989, he settled in Miami, where he continues to live and work. Stecca describes his artistic development as a constant challenge, recalling the struggles of being a young artist and how he learned that age always brings a certain credibility and respect to work.
Stecca’s breadth of talent as an artist is evidenced by his ease with different media. He began as a painter who specialized in murals and transitioned into sculpture. He says that “my search for understanding and depicting the 3D world on canvas/wall led me to my current work in sculptural installations.” In Stecca’s creations, it is the material that guides the art. The central focus of Stecca’s works is “repetition and space.” His most recent work, the Wooden Clothespins was created to promote recycling and an awareness of the environment, but still welcomes the viewer to extract a more personal meaning upon experiencing it.
Stecca’s works have been exhibited in Spain, Canada, and throughout the US. In 2009, the University of Maine Museum of Art organized a solo exhibition of Stecca’s work. His studio is located in the Bakehouse Arts Complex (BAC) in Miami.
TM Sisters
The TM Sisters are best known for a style that embodies the Miami contemporary art scene. With an extensive collection of works that defines twenty-first century modes of self-expression, (including video, digital video performance, VJing, graphic design and installations), the TM Sisters are emblematic of contemporary art. Their success, however, is not solely attributed to their technological competency and artistic talent: charming personality, social inventiveness and major metaphysical experimentation are also apparent in their work. With their brother Samuel as a third collaborator, the TM Sisters also work on interactive videos that search to create novel experiences between art and humans.
Monica Lopez de Victoria, born in 1981, and Tasha Lopez de Victoria, born in 1983, blossomed from a home-schooled environment. From an early age, they were encouraged to explore the intricacies of human behavior, the existential, and the spiritual. Tasha attended the New World School of the Arts in Miami while Monica was a member of the Honors College at Florida International University. From these experiences developed a persistent infatuation with the outside world and its representation through art. The TM Sisters claim to detect a unifying presence in their art: “There is an electric presence and energy that exists between and around us all. The tropical darkness of the night holds audio-vibration booms, ocean swirls of overpowering emotion, golden glimmers of hope, and smashing psychological differences evaporate. Colorful life resolutions made in the sunset are projected forward with love into the sunrise.”
The sisters’ work has been included in the internationally renowned exhibition, Uncertain States of America: American Art in the 3rd Millennium. Their interactive skills have also been on display in the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, and PERFORMA 2007, while their most ambitious installation to date came with WHIRL CRASH GO!, exhibited in 2008 at Locust Projects.
Diverse publications have displayed their work with prophetic confidence. “Our work deals with emotional resolutions, conflicts and battles where neither side is correct,” Tasha says. Monica observes, “Differences are [eventually] always worked out. That’s what we do as sisters and as Miamians.”
Frances Trombly
I like to think of the works as they are. The Rope is simply a rope and the Mop is simply a mop.”-Frances Trombly
Frances Trombly was born in 1976 in Miami, Florida. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Maryland Institute of Art. Her creations at first glance can often be mistaken for consumer goods, yet a closer look reveals amazingly detailed and time consuming embroidered and crocheted works of art that emulate practical objects. Her pieces include everyday items such as garbage bags, extension cords, balloons, receipts, and socks each of which are individually woven on a loom, embroidered, and detailed. Her most recent work comprises threads simulating a blank canvas that Trombly hand weaves on a loom. Trombly questions the beliefs of many by asserting through her works that what makes the painting so important may not always be the paint on the canvas but rather the canvas itself.
Most striking in her work is the ability to create the extraordinary out of the excessively ordinary. Her meticulous and minutely detailed work both intrigues and comforts the viewer. Her timely work is the result of laborious cross-stitching, crocheting, and prodigious weaving. Perhaps most compelling, Trombly asks us to define these seemingly mundane objects for ourselves, challenging us to find the disconnect between the “real” object and the one she has created to bridge the gap.
Trombly’s works have been exhibited in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, London, Vienna, and throughout Latin America. Her art has been featured in publications such as Sculpture Magazine and Art & Auctions. Trombly’s creations can be seen year round in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art and private collections throughout the United States.
Wendy Wischer
Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, Wendy Wischer now balances her life between Miami and Sarasota. Wischer began her college career at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and completed her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 1993. Two years later, she received her Master of Fine Arts at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
From site-specific installations to videos and public works, Wischer’s pieces span a variety of media and styles. One constant, though, is Wischer’s desire to create a balance between the natural and urban worlds. Wischer strives to understand shapes and space through conceptual and visual perspectives and explore how these shapes can clash, connect, and overlap. Many of her pieces utilize light and its fluid motion to mimic water and other natural forms.
Wischer sums up her fundamental goals thus: “I seek to redirect attention to the smaller things in life exposing the sacred within the mundane and the monumental within the minute. Thoughts and memories, experiences and environments, continuously appear and reappear in overlapping fragments.”
As a thriving artist, Wischer has had the opportunity to display her artwork throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her work can be found in several public collections, such as the Miami Art Museum and David Castillo Gallery. Wischer has received numerous awards and continues to work as a visiting artist at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. As recently as 2008, she became the proud recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium’s Visual and Media Artists Fellowship.
Ricardo E. Zulueta
Ricardo E. Zulueta was born in Havana, Cuba. He grew up in Miami and has lived in New York City, Madrid, and Paris. He earned a bachelor’s degree from FIU and was selected to be a Helbein Scholar at New York University, where he completed graduate studies in photography and arts policy.
Zulueta utilizes different media in his work-photography, performance, video, sculpture and/or installation-depending on the concepts in his current project. Zulueta appropriates sociological, anthropological and/or psychological methods of investigation in his “photo-performance” projects, where he incorporates an interdisciplinary approach by crossing boundaries that are both reinforced and relieved by the disclaimer of artistic license. In adopting hybrid forms of investigation, interpretation, and representation of concepts, he is creating a new approach and vision. His work is sometimes participatory and requires the viewer to complete it. At other times, it consists of images that serve as documentation or a record of a performance/project that occurred. Zulueta’s work also deals with post-identity concerns of categorization addressing social practice such as consumerism, behavior, body image, fashion and advertising, or with the individual’s “non-identity” within a larger societal structure. Whether Zulueta’s imagery is devoid of or distinct in human external signifiers, all of his oeuvre deals with our shared human common denominators.
Zulueta has received numerous grants and awards including the New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, the Cintas Foundation Fellowship, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts CAVA Fellowship, the Artists Space Grant, and the Art Matters Grant. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the International Center of Photography, the Centro Reina Sofia (Madrid), the Borusan Foundation (Turkey), and the Museo Alejandro Otero (Venezuela). Zulueta’s work has appeared in numerous publications and the writings of Lucy R. Lippard, Mildred Constantine, Vicki Goldberg and Helen Kohen.