Prizm Art Fair highlighted during Miami Art Week in South Florida Caribbean News

 

By South Florida Caribbean News November 19, 2018

African Diasporic Perspectives Get Their Due During Miami Art Week

PRIZM Art Fair, now in its sixth year, will present 63 artists and a series of thought-provoking programs, representing 15 countries and four continents in Downtown Miami

MIAMI – PRIZM Art Fair dedicated to exhibiting international artists from the African Diaspora returns to Miami with its sixth edition, taking place at the Alfred I. DuPont Building (169 East Flagler Street) from Dec. 3 to 9, 2018.

The fair will open on Tues., Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a special public opening reception sponsored by the Miami DDA from 4 to 8 p.m.

PRIZM is presented in partnership with the Knight Foundation, the Alfred I. DuPont Building, Miami Downtown Development Authority and the Green Family Foundation.

For the sixth edition, PRIZM will present the work of 63 artists within two curated exhibitions, eight exhibitors, and five special events, representing 15 countries and four continents, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Costa Rica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

Participating galleries include Alaina Simone Inc, Tafeta + Partners, Emerson Dorsch, Morton Fine Art, N’Namdi Contemporary (Miami), N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art (Detroit), September Gray, and TILA Studio.

Mikhaile Solomon

PRIZM Founding Director Mikhaile Solomon and artist William Cordova will present “The Dark Horse” and “Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces,” respectively.

Solomon’s “The Dark Horse” will consider how the disenfranchised negotiate, re-appropriate and reclaim the tactics used against them to build a future that is inclusive of prosperity for everyone. Cordova’s “Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces” focuses on the intersections between futurism, ritual and the folkloric, three themes that are fluid and continuously transmitting, receiving, informing and forming the world around us.

 

PRIZM’s programming initiatives 

“PRIZM Preview,” “PRIZM Panel,” “PRIZM Film,” “PRIZM Perform” and “PRIZM 6” boast an international experience in partnership with The Africa Center, Barbados Tourism & Marketing and Mount Gay Rum, as well as thought provoking conversations with industry leaders such as Dr. David C. Driskell and Curlee Holton, and performance works that defy and expand our conventional understanding of visual arts practice.

Additionally, PRIZM will feature emerging Miami based artists who are actively engaged in perpetuating the city’s growth as a cultural hub. These artists also address sociopolitical and cultural issues pertinent to the people of African descent in Miami and beyond.

 

PRIZM Art Fair Participating Artists

PRIZM Art Fair will feature artwork by Olu Amoda, Stephen Arboite, Osi Audu, Nicole Awai, Lillian Blades, Alicia Brown, Nyame Brown, Kesha Bruce, Christopher Carter, Ify Chiejina, Taha Clayton, Yanira Collado, Victor Ekpuk, Adriana Farmiga, Maya Freelon, Alfred Conteh, Damon Davis, Morel Doucet, Shaunte Gates, Monique Gilpin, LaMont Hamilton, LaToya Hobbs, Wayne Hodge, Deborah Jack, Justin D. Johnson, N. Masani Landfair, Nate Lewis, Kelley-Ann Lindo, Daniel Lind Ramos, Tahir Carl Karmali, Jodie Lyn Kee Chow, T. Elliott Mansa, Mildred Beltré Martinez, Jared McGriff, Helina Metafari, Kishan Munroe, Marilyn Nance, Shervone Neckles, Khaulah Nuruddin, Nnenna Okore, Niyi Olagunju, Charo Oquet, Alexis Peskine, Robles Gordon, Marton Robinson, Phillip Robinson, Michael Roman, Tylonn Sawyer, Dread Scott, Frank Schroder, Onajide Shabaka, Stephon Senegal, Tariku Shiferaw, Nyugen Smith, Stanley Squirewell, Jean Marcel St. Jacques, Felandus Thames, Dareece Walker, Ronald Williams, Deborah Willis, Paula Wilson, Sephora Woldu and Ezra Wube.

PRIZM Art Fair Programming Highlights 

• PRIZM Press Preview (First view for press professionals only)

Mon., Dec. 3 from 12 to 4 p.m.

 

• PRIZM VIP Preview (By invitation only)

Mon., Dec. 3 from 6 to 9 p.m.

 

• PRIZM Preview VIP Dinner 

Mon., Dec. 3 from 5 to 8 p.m.

In partnership with the Africa Center and Barbados Tourism, PRIZM welcomes guests for an experiential dinner event with Keynote Speaker Uzodinma Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center and Author of the award winning novel, Beasts of No Nation.

 

• PRIZM Opening 

Tuesday December 4 from 4 to 8 p.m.

Opening reception sponsored by the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

 

• PRIZM Panel

Wed., Dec. 5 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

The David C. Driskell Center at the University Maryland, College Park presents “The Living Legacy National Speaking Tour” event with Professors David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton.

This event will highlight Professor Driskell’s legacy as an artist, scholar and cultural historian and his contributions as well as the contributions of other African American artists to the American artistic canon.

Professor Curlee R. Holton is an artist, master printer and the Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center.

 

• PRIZM Film

Thurs., Dec. 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Q&A 4 to 5 p.m.

Life is Fare is a Tigrinya/English feature film exploring three wildly different perspectives on the East African nation of Eritrea. The film’s premise follows Sephora, an idealistic young Eritrean American pitching a well meaning but ludicrous film idea to her traditional mother about a man, Haile, who fled their home country and ended up in San Francisco.

• PRIZM Perform

Fri., Dec. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Challenging conventional modes of artmaking, performance art has long been a medium wherein artists can utilize a different format to explore, challenge and dissect a range of ideas and frameworks.

• PRIZM 6 

Sat., Dec. 8 at 9 p.m.

Special performance by a musical guest (to be announced), allowing guests to decompress after Miami Art Week.

 

Admission

⎯ VIP admission: $200 (includes fair catalog, tours, dinner event and access to all events)

⎯ General admission:  Day pass: $15; Multi-day: $50; Students: $5

 

Fair Hours

⎯  Tuesday, December 4, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

⎯ Wednesday, December 5, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Thursday, December 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Friday, December 7, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Saturday, December 8, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Sunday, December 9, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Link to full article

“Abstract Minded” Curator Soiree with OSI AUDU & LAURIE ANN FARRELL at N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art

Next Saturday, November 18th join us at a special reception for Abstract Minded.   ​ Abstract Minded Curator Soiree with Osi Audu, exhibition curator & Laurie Ann Farrell, curator of contemporary art at the DIA  Date:  Saturday, November 18, 2017 Time: 2:00pm – 5:00pm Location: Detroit, MI – The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, 52 E. Forest Ave. Abstract Minded curator and artist Osi Audu and the Detroit Institute of Arts’ curator and department head of contemporary art, Laurie Ann Farrell discuss the artists, exhibition, and influence of the African Diaspora on contemporary art at this intimate afternoon event. Refreshments will be served. Abstract Minded: Works by Six Contemporary African Artists” showcases explorative works by Osi Audu, Nicholas Hlobo, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Odili Donald Odita, Nnenna Okore, and Elias Sime that thematically or conceptually connect to the continent of Africa by pursuing the use of abstraction as a way of engaging the broader conversation about art. The exhibition will be on display through January 6, 2018. Osi Audu Osi Audu is a Nigerian born artist whose work explores the intersections of scientific, cultural and philosophical ideas about the nature of consciousness. His work, which has been shown in numerous international exhibitions including the Kwangju Biennale in Korea, the Africa Africa exhibition in Japan, and the Museum of the Mind exhibition at the British Museum in London; has also been collected by a number of public institutions such as the Newark Museum in New Jersey, The National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, the British Museum, and the Horniman Museum in London. He has presented papers and talks about his work at several international conferences such as the 16th ACASA International Triennial Symposium on African Art at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Human Image conference at the British Museum in London, Conversations with a Continent: FIVE AFRICAN ARTISTS at Columbia University in New York; and Next Wave Nigeria: Artists Dialogue at the Newark Museum. His article –Yoruba Concept of the Mind was published in the 2nd edition of The Oxford Companion to The Mind, edited by Richard Gregory. He was a lecturer in Painting and Drawing at the University of Benin for 9 years, and the Head of Art and Design at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in the UK for 11 years. He received an MFA degree in Painting and Drawing from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.  He lives and works in New York. Laurie Ann Farrell Farrell came to the DIA in 2016 in from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where she was executive director of exhibitions initiatives. She directed exhibition programming for the SCAD Museum of Art and SCAD FASH, its museum of fashion and film, as well as the university’s galleries in Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste, France. Farrell is currently an art consultant for the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium Art Collection in Atlanta and curator of the first Rolls-Royce art program in North America. Farrell has curated exhibitions of work by a diverse group of prominent contemporary artists, among them Marina Abramovic, Doug Aitken, Carrie Mae Weems, Yinka Shonibare, Alfredo Jaar, Michael Joo, Sigalit Landau, Stephen Antonakos, Cao Fei, Kader Attia and Yeondoo Jung. Farrell was curator of contemporary art at the Museum for African Art in New York City from 1998 to 2007, where she curated the exhibitions “Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art” and “Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora.” In 2006, Farrell organized American participation at Angola’s inaugural Trienal de Luanda with support and funding from the U.S. Department of State. Farrell received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize with artist Kader Attia in 2010, the ArtTable New Leadership award in 2011 and the Southeast Museum Conference 2015 Museum Leadership Award. Farrell is widely published in art journals and has lectured throughout the Americas, Africa and Europe. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts in art history and theory from the University of Arizona. Osi Audu’s curatorial abstract:  “Abstraction is as indigenous to African visual culture as it is to other parts of the world. The exploration of purely formal elements is not only readily evidenced in the rich traditions of textile designs and other decorative practices from the continent, but is also present in the stylizations of much figurative work from Africa. The six artists in this exhibition, all born and, or raised in countries in Africa, produce work thematically or conceptually connected to the continent by pursuing the use of abstraction as a way of engaging in a broader conversation about art. In our increasingly global existence of the 21st century the world is becoming less and less exotic, and is being experienced more as a sphere of commonalities of being, dreams, fears and aspirations. Cultural ideas once thought as discrete are now being understood as archetypical, having resonances across the wider world. Aesthetic engagement with form is as important a part of the content of these artists’ works as is their symbolic, historical, socio-political, or conceptual significance. Among the many questions raised by this exhibition, the overarching one must be the dialectical question: what is contemporary African art? Abstract Minded: Works by Six Contemporary African Artists is not simply about looking for the African in African art, it is also about taking a look at what some African artists are doing today in order to get a fuller sense of the current ‘state of things’ in contemporary African art.”  – Don’t miss the Curator Soiree happening next Saturday, beginning at 2:00pm at the N’Namdi Center! The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art presents diverse, multi-disciplinary and engaging art experiences. It serves to promote and perpetuate the cultural legacy of African-American and African diasporic art, along with art from diverse cultures. Since its conception in 2010, the N’Namdi Center has contributed to the Detroit arts scene by presenting art exhibitions by nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as local and emerging talent. The N’Namdi Center’s work is based on two core beliefs: that the arts can play an integral role in the revitalization of Detroit, and that a thriving creative community depends upon the participation of a diverse group of artists, organizations and individuals. The N’Namdi Center builds on these beliefs by acting as a catalyst in the development of Detroit’s creative ecosystem, with a continuing focus on African American art and community engagement through the arts.