A Matter Of
The word “matter” has many different meanings that revolve around all of the practices in this exhibition.
Matter refers to a physical substance in general, that which occupies space and possesses rest mass—a substance or material. It can be an affair or situation under consideration like a present situation or state of affairs or something that evokes a specified feeling. Matter, can be the reason for distress or a problem. It can be the substance or content of a text as distinct from its manner or form. Matter can also be a verb and be of importance and have significance or influence.
In all the work in A Matter Of, the artists are concerned with matter in the material sense, in how those materials consider situations and histories, the feelings or distress they may be linked to, and their significance as they take their place in the world.
Almaz Wilson
Almaz Wilson is an multi-disciplinary artist born in Columbia, Maryland. She holds a BA in Biological Anthropology from the University of Maryland and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Florida where she was a recipient of the Board of Education Fellowship and Graduate Student Fellowship. Almaz lives and works in Miami, Florida by way of Brooklyn, New York and Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Vermont Studio Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Project Art, Mutual Stores (upcoming), Signal Fire (upcoming) and is currently in residence at Bakehouse Arts Complex. In 2020, Almaz received the Zeta Orionis Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center and a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in support of her solo exhibition, backroads.
Aniara Omann
Lives and works in Glasgow. Graduated from Glasgow School of Art, MFA and Funen Art Academy. Recent exhibitions include: Eyes larger, Foreheads longer, Fingers crossed, Catboz Contemporary, New York, USA (2020); Porous Tomorrow, Kling & Bang, Reykjavik, IS (2020); Equanipolis, Humber Street Gallery, UK (2019); Iwillmedievalfutureyou1, Art Sonje Center, KR (2019); Bonding in Whispers – c-o-m-p-o-s-i-t-e, BE (2019); The Chasm – Franz-Josef-Kai 3/17, AT (2019); (s), Carlsberg byens Galleri, DK (2019); Iwillmedievalfutureyou6, Kunsthal Aarhus, DK (2018); Cross-feed, Market Gallery,UK (2018); Transformationer, Kunsthal Ulys, DK (2017); Final Incarnation, VoidoidARCHIVE, UK (2016); In Drógum, Akureyri Art Museum, IS (2016); Aniara Omann / Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys, Celine Gallery, UK (2015). Recent text-work in publications: Mars, published by Media Naranja; Desiring solid things, published by Kling & Bang; Words of Unknown Origin, published by Maria Publications; Uncle Chop Chop, published by Beagles and Ramsey, Gnommero published by Sarah Tripp.
Carley Zarzeka
Carley Zarzeka builds found object sculptures and installations to investigate the standardization of construction materials in the United States and their relationship to the domestic space. Originally from Doylestown, PA, Zarzeka has a BA in Studio Art from Dickinson College. In 2018, she received her MFA in Studio at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Zarzeka has already been included in various exhibitions including “Versus” at The Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill, NC and “One” at The Cleve Carney Gallery, Glen Ellyn, IL, with solo exhibitions at Ejecta Projects, Carlisle, PA and GOCA 121, Colorado Springs, CO.
Carolina Cueva
Carolina Cueva was born in Lima, Peru and lives and works in Miami, Florida. Cueva studied at the School of Visual arts and graduated with a BFA in 2007. Cueva is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, performance, and 2D works of art. Her work examines identity, ancestry and displacement through personal narrative, history and the transcendental. Selected group exhibitions include Photo L.A, Los Angeles, CA (2017),Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami,Miami, FL (2019). Selected performances include NADA Miami, Miami, FL (2018), Doral Contemporary Art Museum, Doral, FL(2019) and Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami, FL(2020).
Ernesto Sanchez Garcia
Ernesto Garcias Sanches was born December 27th 1989 in Havana, Cuba. He lived in a small neighborhood called Luyanó, until the age of five. Then, in 1995, his family moved to Santos Suarez neighborhood. Both neighborhoods are in the same district. I attended Roberto Casals Elementary school from 1996 to 2002. After that, I went to Simón Bolívar Junior High School where I graduated in 2004. After graduation, I spent a whole year preparing myself, studying some art disciplines like: drawing, painting, sculpture and others…and the next year I entered the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. I started to participate in some group exhibitions since my first year there. Four years later I obtained my degree and became a professional artist. I did one year of social service work at the Academy of Fine Arts as an Assistant Professor. Also, I had my first experiences working as a professional, organizing some exhibitions for the students, while in San Alejandro. I’m currently finalizing the fifth year of the Painting Specialty at The Visual Arts Faculty of ISA (University of the Arts). From 2009, until this date, I have made five Solo Shows. When I think about painting, the idea of the essential immediately comes to me, the relationship between the elements of the pictorial medium with synthesis, with pigmentation in its simplest form.
Frances Trombly
Frances Trombly has exhibited nationally and internationally, with important institutional solo exhibitions at Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Girls’ Club Collection in Ft. Lauderdale, FL; and the Goldie Paley Gallery at the Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, PA. She is represented in diverse and international public and private collections, with a strong base in FL, a reflection of making Miami, FL her home. Trombly is also co-founder and co-director of an alternative art space in Miami called Dimensions Variable. Her extensive bibliography reflects both her art practice and her role at DV. She is represented by Emerson Dorsch, Miami. She received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and completed residencies at Oolite Arts in Miami Beach, FL, the Capri Palace in Anacapri, Italy, and the Vermont Studio Center. Trombly has exhibited throughout the US, as well as venues abroad, including important group exhibitions, such as Happy at NSU Art Museum (2019), Stitch, Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design (2017), Textures of Place, Prosjektrom Normanns, Stavanger, Norway (2014), Americana: Formalizing Craft, Perez Art Museum Miami (2013), and united states, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2012). In addition to these shows, institutions who have exhibited her work in solo and group shows include: Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, FL; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA; Girls’ Club Collection, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Perez Art Museum Miami, FL.
Juan Pablo Garza
Juan Pablo Garza (b. Maracaibo, Venezuela.1980) He currently lives and works in Miami. Garza´s work has been exhibited in countries like Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, United States, Spain, Holland and Germany. His solo show Reforma del Ahora (Al Borde. Maracaibo, 2012) was published in Artforum as one of the best exhibitions of the year according to curator Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy. He was co-founder and co-director of the Contemporary Art Space Al Borde (2010-2014) in Maracaibo, which in 2012 won a grant from the Fundación Cisneros/CPPC within its program to support cultural organizations. Garza was selected to participate in the residency program Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, with a grant from the Fundación Cisneros/CPPC. Most recently has participated in Ox-Bow fall residency program and Bemis Center residency program. In 2018 Garza finish a two-year studio residency at Art Center South 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.
Loriel Beltran
Loriel Beltran was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1985. At age fifteen moved to Miami where he later obtained a BFA from New World School of the Arts. Loriel has been part of group exhibitions at the Perez Art Museum Miami, the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, Diverse Works in Houston, Balice Hertling in Paris, France, and has had solo exhibitions at the Wolfsonian Museum Bridge Tender’s house, Central Fine, and the non-profit Locust Projects in Miami. Beltran was also a co-founder and co-director of the artist run gallery and collective Noguchi Breton (formerly GUCCIVUITTON).
Magnus Sigurdarson
Magnús Sigurðarson has exhibited at Reykjavik Art Museum, the Icelandic Consulate in Berlin, Dimensions Variable, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. Sigurðarson studied art at Studio Cecil and Graves, Florence, Italy (1988), The Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts (1992) and Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA (1997). He is a Fulbright Scholarship Recipient with multiple grants and awards. His works are included in the collections of Debra and Dennis Scholl, Miami Beach; Alberto Chebebar, Miami Beach; Collezione La Gaia, Busca, Italy, MDD – Museum Dhondt – Dhaenes, Gent, Belgium; The Icelandic National Gallery, Reykjavik; The Reykjavik Municipal Museum, Reykjavik; The Related Group, Miami and The Private Collection of Emmanuel Javogue, Miami. Magnus Sigurdarson is represented by Emerson Dorsch, Miami. He currently lives and works in Miami, FL and Reykjavik, Iceland.
Nathalie Alfonso
Nathalie Alfonso (b. 1987, Bogota, Colombia) currently, lives is South Florida. Alfonso holds a Master Degree in Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX, and a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Florida International University, Miami FL. Alfonso has exhibited and performed her work in galleries, universities, and public spaces, such as NSU Art Museum, Dimensions Variable, Spinello Projects, Art and Culture Center Hollywood, Miami Beach Urban Studios, The Projects – Fat Village, Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, Site131, Marymount University. Alfonso received the South Florida Cultural Consortium (SFCC) 19/20, she was awarded the Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedez-Benz Financial Services prize in 2019, and she has received the Jones Fund and Zelle Fund Grant. Unseen work and the exercise of emotional control is central to Alfonso’s practice. The qualities of invisibility and visibility become the foundations from which she develops drawings, installations, performances, and videos.
Ricardo Alcaide
Ricardo Alcaide lives and works in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Recent exhibitions include: Sunset, von Bartha, S-chanf, Presque Rien, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp (2019); Nunca fuimos contemporáneos, XIII Bienal Femsa, Zacatecas; The cave wall was always there, Galeria Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca; Plano Futuro, Lurixs Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro; Geometria em Síntese, Simoes de Assis Galeria, Sao Paulo (2018) Solo exhibition, von Bartha Basel, Basel (2017); Down The Line, Johannes Vogt gallery, New York; Good News, Josee Bienvenu Gallery, New York; Informal Order, SITU project, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo (2016); Not Much Further, Arroniz Arte Contemporáneo. México DF; One Phenomenon Among Others, Baró Galeria, Sao Paulo; Líneas de la mano, Sicardi Gallery, Houston; Forma critica, Cristinger De Mayo Gallery, Zurich (2015); Displacement, Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery, Miami; Settlements, Baró galeria, São Paulo; Donde Hay Protesta Hay Negocio, Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan de Puerto Rico (2014); Incidental Geometry, Project Room – Josee Bienvenu Gallery, New York; Visão Do Paraiso: Pensamento Selvagem, Rio de Janeiro; From Disruption To Abstraction, New Art Projects Gallery, London (2013).
Susan Lee Chun
Susan Lee-Chun is a Miami-based artist whose work focuses on the investigation of origin, meaning, and representation through the importance placed on mundane objects, ideas, and structures. She is fascinated with production of cultural artifacts and constructs that represent and characterize the notion of the other. Susan Lee-Chun was born in Seoul, Korea, and lives and works in Miami. Since studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004, MA), Susan Lee-Chun has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad – Herning Kunstmuseum, Denmark; Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design, MOCA Detroit, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and MoMA PS1. She has held residencies at the Bemis Center in Omaha, NE, Three Walls in Chicago, IL, and McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work is in public and private collections, including the Perez Art Museum, Miami and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Vickie Pierre
Vickie Pierre was born in Brooklyn, New York where she graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1997. The artist currently lives and works in Miami. Pierre has participated in solo exhibitions in South Florida at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, Diana Lowenstein Fine Art, Miami and The Art and Culture Center/ Hollywood, among others. The artist’s work has been included in group shows at Miami Art Museum (now PAMM); ArtCenter South Florida; White Box, New York; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. and Inman Gallery, Texas as well as exhibitions at the Musée International des Arts Modestes, France; Museo Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico and Fondation Clement in Martinique. Pierre’s artworks can be found in the Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland; Millennium Partners Collection of Contemporary Art at The Four Seasons, Miami; The Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland and Miami-Dade Public Library, among others.