MIAMI, FLA.- The Rubell Museum unveiled a robust presentation for its second Miami Art Week in its new home, featuring a slate of exhibitions highlighting three artists-in-residence, newly commissioned work and new acquisitions. Since its debut in December 2019, the Rubell Museum continues to expand its exhibition series and collection highlights with new artwork on view by Natalie Ball, Yayoi Kusama and Kara Walker.
With the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Rubell Museum has hosted an acclaimed artist residency program. Past participants include Amoako Boafo (2019), Jonathan Lyndon Chase (2018), Alison Zuckerman (2017), Cy Gavin (2016) Lucy Dodd (2014), Oscar Murillo (2012) and Sterling Ruby (2011).
Genesis Tramaine was the Museum's 2020 Artist-in-Residence. Her exhibition Sanctuary encompasses a series of layered portraits created during her six-week residency at the Museum. Guided by her spiritual upbringing and study of the Bible her studio practice incorporates prayer, song and dance.
In 2021, the Museum hosted Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Kennedy Yanko as artists-in-residence, both of whom realized their largest works to date. Quaicoe creates empowering, lush portraits of his family and friends, where color and texture express the subject's character. Quaicoe began his residency by creating double portraits that explore the auspicious occurrence of twins, drawing on the Ghanian Ga culture, which views the birth of twins as evidence of the innate link between the corporal and spiritual realm. His residency culminated in a large-scale triptych that considers the forgotten history of Black cowboys.
During Yanko's residency, the painter-sculptor scoured metal scrapyards in South Florida in search of forms ripe for intervention. Creating thick, velvety skins of paint woven through looming heaps of found metal, Yanko meditates on material, which may be bent, poured, cut, welded, or softened. The artworks she created during the residency – I am flower, I am water, and I am that – express elements of her lived experiences.
"We felt it was critical during this period of lockdown and isolation to provide artists with the resources they needed to continue to develop their practices and produce ambitious new work. So we expanded our program and the kinds of support that would enable them to focus on their work during this period of unprecedented challenge," stated Mera Rubell. "The work they produced is incredible and we are now honored to provide them with a platform to share it with the rest of the world."
"At Bank of America, we believe art has a unique ability to bring people together and help communities thrive," said Katy Knox, President of Bank of America Private Bank. "We are proud of our longstanding relationship with the Rubell Family and honored to support the Rubell Museum since its creation. The museum showcases a remarkable contemporary art collection of 7,000+ pieces which offer its visitors world-class art that inspires, educates and illuminates."
In addition to presentations by the artists-in-residence, the Museum includes new exhibitions throughout its galleries, including:
Reginald O'Neal: AS I AM, November 29, 2021 – October 2022
For this exhibition the Museum commissioned new artworks from Reginald O'Neal, a painter from Miami whose artwork reflects on his lived experience. He states, "my desire is to embrace the unappreciated, defaced and misrepresented, as well as illustrate the true beauty within my community. It is for people looking from the outside, but mainly a mirror for residents of the community to see ourselves for who we are." "AS I AM" features seven paintings, including two newly commissioned large-scale works which use historic images juxtaposed with people present in the artist's life.
Cajsa von Zeipel, November 29, 2021 – October 2022
Cajsa von Zeipel works between desire, seduction, and the grotesque to defy traditional representations of gender. Her silicone sculptures of dramatically adorned and contorted figures delve into identity, queerness, normativity, and fantasy.
Natalie Ball, On view through May 29, 2022
Natalie Ball is a Chiloquin, Oregon based artist and activist who works with a wide breadth of materials including animal hides, horsehair, quilts, acrylic, plastic and canvas. Through her sculptural paintings which she refers to as "power objects," Ball considers intersectional narratives of Indigenous experience and history.
Hernan Bas, On view through May 29, 2022
Hernan Bas is one of South Florida's most celebrated artists. Bas' work incorporates romantic and classical imagery, finding inspiration in fashion, Goth culture, and children's mystery books. Painted in the early years of Bas' career, the drawings and paintings presented in this exhibition may be seen as an allegory of the stages of human life from childhood to young adulthood.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Rooms and Narcissus Garden, Ongoing
Yayoi Kusama's celebrated, fully immersive installations create a kaleidoscopic effect that transports visitors to an alternate, limitless universe. Where the Lights in My Heart Go, 2016 and INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017 are the only Infinity Rooms on view in the Southeast. Concurrently, the Museum is presenting Kusama's mesmerizing, monumental Narcissus Garden from 1966. Composed of 700 stainless steel spheres, the work flows 200 feet along the Museum's central gallery, creating an everchanging river of reflection.
Yoshitomo Nara, On view through January 30, 2022
This exhibition highlights the paintings and sculptures of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, whose seemingly innocent subject matter belies a darker tone.
Collection Highlights, Ongoing
Since the new Rubell Museum opened in 2019, the Museum has constantly drawn from its extensive collection to share new works with viewers. Urs Fischer, Thomas Houseago, Reinhard Mucha, Robert Pruitt, Fiona Tan, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker and Zhu Jinshi are some of the newly installed highlights.
