“South Florida Invitational” Opens at Museum Of Art Fort Lauderdale

Tropical Mix A Rich Diversity Of Art And Artists Fills The “South Florida Invitational,” Opening This Week At The Museum Of Art, Fort Lauderdale.

June 20, 1993 | By ROGER HURLBURT, Art Writer

The South Florida art scene has come a considerable distance since the days when a paucity of practitioners worked in a nearly barren aesthetic landscape.

Today, the vista is replete with artists who wield a plethora of media and now enjoy far more opportunity to display their efforts. Still, the artistic environs are hardly homogeneous.

“Although there is no identifiable South Florida style or `school,` the special qualities of the region have affected the conceptual process, subject matter and materials of artists working here,” Bonnie Clearwater says.

Clearwater ought to know. The former director of Lake Worth’s Lannan Museum (which moved to California a few years ago) has been scanning the state’s visual-arts horizon for a long time.

As an independent curator, Clearwater recently sought out Southern roots for “South Florida Invitational,” which opens Friday and runs through Aug. 15 at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale. Included are a baker`s dozen of painters, sculptors, photographers and artisans who have been stimulated by South Florida`s tropical beauty, history, politics and rich mixture of cultures.

“This exhibition focuses on artists who translate these influences into experimental or nontraditional artforms and who aim to erode the distinctions between ‘high’ art, popular culture and craft,” she says.

CHECK LIST

Indeed, Clearwater’s cast of characters brims with unorthodox visions.

Hopefully not prophetic of environmental things to come are the stylish but grotesque organic bas-reliefs of Miami Beach’s Carol Brown. All that is wild and untamed is reflected in her sprouting and tailed motifs.

For “South Florida Invitational,” Brown submitted an installation of 500 small round and square reliefs. Using a claylike plastic compound combined with graphite to produce a metallic patina, Brown fashions bizarre animal/ plant/phallic images. Also in the show are a cluster of spiky pieces akin to defoliated palm trees.

Influenced by the African and Cuban art communities, the sculptures of Gary L. Moore of Miami Beach denote narratives about slavery, present-day Haitian “boat people” and Florida`s sugar-cane workers. “Although his subjects are serious,” Clearwater adds, “Moore interjects an element of humor for its cathartic power.”

The late performance artist Sheila Natasha Friedman`s work incorporates the bold sequined patterns of Haitian ceremonial textiles with high fashion and modern painting. The Miami artist also used the “look” of modernist masters — Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Frida Kahlo, etc. — to enliven designs of fabric creations. One fine piece is a collision between the raw geometry of Holland`s Piet Mondrian and Haitian decoration.

In 1989, Carol Jacque of Miami Beach stopped painting on canvas and began using health care and medical accessories as objects in her work. An interest was spurred by daily contact with South Florida’s elderly population and a contemplation of infirmities. Check out Footbridge (1993), a suspension structure comprised of wooden crutches.

Another performance artist, Marilyn Gottlieb-Roberts, grew up in the rural South where African Yoruba-tribe customs dominated her predominantly white community. Personal reflections inspired Planetarium Moon (1993), a retelling of the Perseus (slayer of Medusa) myth, which she finds aptly symbolic. The artwork involves an inflated orb, a slide projector and silhouette shadow puppets.

Florida`s coastlines intrigue Roberto Juarez, who lives in Miami Beach and New York. The ebb and flow of aquatic-life shapes imbue his Miami Beach Series paintings with both naturalistic and abstract energy. Acrylic paints, Japanese paper, charcoal, linen, pastels and even peat moss are among his arsenal of materials.

Childhood memories and “sensations” provoke Charles Recher, who was born in Fort Lauderdale and now lives in Miami Beach. His short film Mariner’s Dream (Study) plays off Samuel Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to retrieve the environmental feelings he possessed as a child.

Documentary photographer and installation artist Onajide Shabaka of Fort Pierce traces the cultural ties between the traditions of people of African descent in the United States, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Pieces for the Museum of Art show were disassembled from a book in progress.

Fleshing out the exhibition are pieces by photo-mural artist Kee-Liong Siew and cabinet-construction artist Cesar Trasobares, both of Miami Beach; aesthetic map makers Sherri Tan and Joe Nicastri of Miami; and ceramicist Carlos Alves of Miami Beach.

Apropos for “South Florida Invitational” is Alves’ ceramic-and-fused-glass piece Florida (1992), a colorful composition in the shape of the state that somehow sidesteps a cliche.

The Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale is at One E. Las Olas Blvd. Via: Sun Sentinel