MIAMI, FLA.- Oolite Arts announced that prominent artists Germane Barnes and Edouard Duval-Carrié have joined the board of the nonprofit, one of Florida’s largest artist support organizations.

Oolite Arts has championed visual artists since its founding in 1984, helping them advance their careers by providing studio space, financial support, professional development workshops and more. Barnes and Duval-Carrié join the board at a critical time, as Oolite prepares to build a new campus in the City of Miami to meet the needs of the region’s growing arts community.

“Edouard and Germane are prominent arts leaders who will bring an important perspective to Oolite Arts and our work building Miami’s next creative chapter,” said Dennis Scholl, the organization’s president and CEO. 

Barnes, who had a solo exhibition at Oolite Arts this winter, is the founder of Studio Barnes. He is also Assistant Professor and Director of the Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Barnes’ practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. His work has recently been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art’s groundbreaking 2020 exhibition, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, and the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was awarded a 2021-22 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be a new board member at Oolite Arts, a critical support system for both emerging and established South Florida artists,” Barnes said. “It is my goal to contribute positively to the mission of an organization that has been so supportive of my own career.” 

Duval-Carrié is an artist and curator who has been a part of Oolite Arts for decades, first as a resident artist and later as the first winner of Oolite’s Michael Richards Award for eminent, Miami-based artists. His surreal mixed-media paintings incorporate Voodoo elements, mythology, and historical figures from Haiti’s past along with Haitian iconography. His work is in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Musée de Panthéon National Haïtien. He received the Conseil de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal from the Consul General of France in 2014.

“Since its opening in 1984, Oolite Arts has played a significant role in the lives of South Florida’s artists. I’m excited to help shape it’s future in Miami, so that our city continues to be a place where artists can grow and build a career,” Duval-Carrié said.