Dimensions Variable (DV) invites you to a Conversation & Tea with co-founder Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova and current exhibitor, Onajide Shabaka, on Saturday, September 21, 2025, at 2 pm. The DV Conversation, coinciding with the current exhibition, Murmur, will primarily engage in a discussion on the exhibition and explore various topics. The exhibition is anchored by a wooden totem crafted from reclaimed wood, serving as both a standard and ritual object. It embodies the role of a sentinel and a symbol of healing and memory. Additionally, for those interested, a tea tasting will be offered, providing a unique perspective on Shabaka’s practice. Shabaka, an avid tea enthusiast for many years, will share a rich, fragrant, and smooth tea with the audience.
Onajide Shabaka
Onajide Shabaka was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. Shabaka was awarded an MFA from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. Through a well-developed research-based walking practice working both outdoors and in the studio, Shabaka explores the environment and its biology allowing site-specific histories and the human-influenced environment to reveal hidden or untold narratives.
Solo exhibitions: “La Florida: Improbable Stories,” Tempus Projects, Tampa, Florida; “Her touch smooths rough waters,” MOCA Plaza, N. Miami, Florida, “Alosúgbe: a journey across time,” Emerson Dorsch, Miami, Florida. Group exhibitions: “Florida Prize,” Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida;“Post Hip Hop,” Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, New York, New York; “Fossilized and Realized: Tar Pits Video Festival,” La Brea Tar Pits & Museum, Los Angeles, California. Artist Residences: Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida; Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; Everglades National Park, Florida. Art Collections: FIU Frost Museum of Art, Miami, Florida; Miami- Dade Art in Public Places; Arturo Mosquera Family Collection. Grant awards: M.I.A. Grant, Miami Dade Cultural Affairs, Miami, Florida; DVCAI Residency Grant, Miami, FL; Florida; Wavemaker Grant Locust Projects, Miami, Florida; Oolite Arts Ellies Grant, Miami, Florida.
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova (b. 1973 Havana, Cuba) is an Artist, Curator, Co-founder and Co-director of Dimensions Variable (DV) and Fulano Inc. His work has been exhibited widely at Sculpture Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, Abrons Arts Center and White Box in New York; Museo de Bellas Artes and Factoria Habana in Havana, Cuba; ZONA MACO Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, Mexico; Capri Palace and Villa Lena in Italy; Prosjektrom Normanns in Stavanger, Norway; PAMM, Frost Museum, The Bass, MOCA, DV and Locust Projects in Miami. His work is in many public and private collections around the world and institutions like PAMM, Frost Museum, Cintas Foundation, and The Bass. He has been written about in the New York Times, The Miami Herald, Art Nexus, Arte al Dia, Artforum, Artsy, Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Miami Rail, and Miami Magazine. Since founding DV in 2009, he has organized and curated many projects by local and international emerging artists.
