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TWO ODYSSEYS TAKE FLIGHT AT THE PATRICIA & PHILLIP
FROST ART MUSEUM FIU THIS SUMMER
– Artists' Journeys Span Geographic and Personal Expeditions –
Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna (June 13 - Sept. 13)
Creole World: Photographs of New Orleans and the
Latin Caribbean Sphere (June 13 - Aug. 23)
Carlos Luna and Richard Sexton will attend the opening reception for both exhibitions on
Saturday, June 13 (4:00-7:00 p.m.) at Florida International University, 10975 S.W. 17 Street
(map & directions
), free and open to the public.
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Creole World:
Photographs of New Orleans and
the Latin Caribbean Sphere
Forty years ago his journey began.
Photographer/author Richard Sexton
left his Atlanta home in 1974 in a Datsun station wagon to explore Latin America and the Caribbean.
Many years later his adventure would
manifest into a photographic journey capturing the architectural and
urban similarities of Latin Caribbean cities throughout the
interconnected Creole world: Haiti, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador,
Panama and New Orleans.
This
traveling exhibition features 50 photographs and was organized by and
premiered at the Historic New Orleans Collection in 2014. The
accompanying book includes more than 200 photographs, plus essays by
Creole scholar Jay D. Edwards and photography historian John H.
Lawrence.
"Richard
Sexton's photography can be called documentary but his photographic
explorations push far beyond the realm of recording the world," said the
Director of the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum - FIU, Dr.
Jordana Pomeroy. "Creole World became a project of passion, immersion,
and discovery. Sexton dove into his subject matter and emerged with a
body of work that visually ties together Caribbean and South American
cultures that share strands of history - some ugly, some beautiful, but
always compelling."
The gestation period of this project was long and gradual, 38 years of Sexton's pilgrimages to sites of Creoleness.
In
2006, a return trip to Latin America (Sexton's first visit since his
initial sojourn in 1974 when he was 20 years old), the artist's reunion
with Latin America sparked the idea for a book of photographic essays
mapping the visual, cultural and historical connections shared between
New Orleans, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The
images feature exotic urban locations and neighborhoods that are
difficult to travel to and challenging to photograph - due to politics,
warfare and natural disasters. Places such as El Chorillo in Panama
City; Cuba's Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba and La
Habana; and post-2010 earthquake Haiti's Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and Cap-Haïtien.
The book describes these cities as an entire
family of cultural cousins with similar Colonial histories. The essays
refer to them as places that were founded as New World outposts of Old
World empires, forging new identities and cultures from European, West
African and indigenous influences - by turns inspired by and in defiance
of, and adapted from all of them.

Other locales on this visual sojourn include
Cartagena de Indias, Quito, Panama City and of course - New Orleans.
Richard
Sexton lives in New Orleans and is renowned for his books and
exhibitions about architectural photography. His work has been published
in Smithsonian Magazine, Preservation Magazine, Abitare, Archetype, Harper’s and Photographer’s Forum.He received the 2014 Michael Smith Memorial Award for Documentary Photography from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
When asked about how this exhibition could connect to audiences in Miami at the Frost Art Museum - FIU, Richard Sexton says:
“Miami
is a place of great cultural relevancy now,” said Richard Sexton. “So
many Miamians come from the Caribbean and Latin America, and this work
is an homage to their Creole world – its sensual architecture, its bold
tropical colors and foliage, and vibrant street life. Beautiful,
seductive, exotic and irresistible.”
“This
immigrant population in Miami knows their Creole world first-hand,”
adds Sexton. “They are a critical mass, transforming Miami into a new
kind of place – a multi-lingual, multi-cultural polyglot. New Orleans is
the historical example of this cultural phenomenon, and Miami is now
the contemporary example. Places that are appreciated for their
Creole-influenced cuisine, music, culture and architecture. Miami is now
part of the Creole World. It’s all about the power of hybridity.”

# # #
More about Richard Sexton and his biography at richardsextonstudio.com
. Read his Creole World blog at creoleworld.tumblr.com. Watch videos about Creole World that chronicle Richard Sexton’s travels here. Sexton will appear at Books & Books in Coral Gables for a book signing on Friday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Photos courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection. All photos © Richard Sexton.
Photo-credits (top-to-bottom):
1.) Madonna on Caffin Avenue, Lower Ninth Ward; New Orleans; 1994
2.) Scene along Baie du Cap Haitien, Haiti; 2012
3.) Couple crossing the street, Habana Vieja; Havana, Cuba; 2009
4.) Car and facade, Habana Vieja; Havana, Cuba; 2009;
5.) Mixed use townhouse damaged by the 2010 earthquake; Jacmel, Haiti; 2012; © Richard Sexton
6.) Improvised hip-hop lounge, Club Cartagena; Cartagena, Colombia; 2010
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Green Machine:
The Art of Carlos Luna
One of the foremost contemporary Cuban artists, Carlos Luna
is part of a generation of artists who embrace their strong Cuban
heritage and traditions but have reinvented themselves along the way.
This
exhibition is organized by guest curator Dr. Barbaro Martinez Ruiz and
showcases Luna's cross-pollination of influences from living and working
in Cuba until 1991, then in Mexico for 13 years, and now in Miami since
2002.

The
exhibition spans 5,000 square feet in the museum's Grand Galleries. It
features more than 120 artworks, most shown for the first time and some
created in new mediums the artist has been experimenting with during the
past four years, including: Jacquard tapestries and works on metal
sheets with patina and aluminum leaf, created at Magnolia Editions
; Talavera ceramic plates created in Puebla, Mexico; mixed media on paper/on wood; and his large-scale oil on canvas paintings.
"Citing
Rufino Tamayo and Wifredo Lam as major influences, Carlos Luna tells
stories and relates fables that are culturally attuned to shifts in the
social and political environments of the three countries where he has
lived and created art," said the Director of the Patricia & Phillip
Frost Art Museum - FIU, Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, "and the humanity that
makes these places so vibrant." Carlos Luna has worked as an artist
during three equal periods of time in Miami, in Puebla, Mexico and Cuba.

Luna
continues to create his Talavera ceramic pottery at the famed Santa
Catarina Studios in Puebla, Mexico. He also works at the Magnolia
studios in California where his tapestries are designed and produced.
The title Green Machine alludes to the importance of the rain forest known as El Monte,
a sacred space in the Afro-Cuban tradition one must enter to find
meaning. The machine represents the mechanism that perpetuates life's
continuity. Combined, these ideas represent the artist leaving behind
his rural past and his contemplative journey into the present moment.

"The best artist is the one who makes his
art a science," adds Luna. "And the best scientist is the one who makes
an art of his science."
The towering centerpiece of the exhibition, El Gran Mambo, is a massive six-panel painting chronicling the artist's own story.
"El Gran Mambo
tells the story of my journey through three countries," says Luna,
adding that music passionately fuels his creative process while he’s
painting. "The musicality and rhythm of El Gran Mambo are
powerful elements of this centerpiece." Luna also cites as his artistic
influences the musical masters Benny More and Ismael Rivero.
According
to guest curator Barbaro Martinez Ruiz, the exhibition at the Frost Art
Museum -FIU draws upon Cuba's rich, oft-forgotten rural culture and
popular wisdom, plus Afro-Cuban religious traditions.

The work itself teems with edgy political
commentaries, delivering a verbal-visual punch to map his journey with
proverbs, riddles and graffiti-like scrawls.
Adds
Carlos Luna: "The United States is a country with immigrants from
everywhere, and this gives me the opportunity to be in contact with the
world."

This exhibition is made possible with the
support of Bacardi North America, Siempre Viva Art Foundation, and the
Israel, Rose, Henry and Robert Wiener Charitable Foundation in Honor of
Dr. Carol Damian.
# # #
- To read more about Carlos Luna and his biography, please visit carlosluna.com
.
- Watch a recent video about Carlos Luna's artwork here
.
Photos courtesy of Carlos Luna studio. Photo-credits (top-to-bottom):
1.) Bailaora, 2015
Jacquard tapestry - 101 x 85 inches
Publisher, Magnolia Editions
2.) Round Plate, 2015
Talavera Ceramics - 17 inches diameter
Produced by Talavera Santa Catarina
3.) Dreamer, 2015
Jacquard tapestry - 93 x 72 inches
Publisher, Magnolia Editions
4.) El Gran Mambo / The Great Mambo, 2008
Oil on canvas - 144 x 192 inches
(6 pieces 72 x 64 inches)
CCG Art Collection
5.) Grr-Miauu, 2012
Mixed media on paper on wood - 38 x 48 inches
Private collection
6.) Catalina's Mirror, 2015
Jacquard Tapestry - 81 x 71 inches
Publisher, Magnolia Editions
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The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University opened
its current 46,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building in November
2008. Admission to the Museum is always free. The Frost is an American
Alliance of Museums accredited museum and Smithsonian Affiliate, and is
located at 10975 SW 17th Street, across from the Blue Garage and
adjacent to the Wertheim Performing Arts Center on the Modesto A.
Maidique Campus. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.
– 5 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m. Closed on Mondays and most legal
holidays. For more information, please visit thefrost.fiu.edu or call
305-348-2890. (twitter.com/frostartmuseum facebook.com/frostartmuseum)
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum - FIU receives ongoing support from:
The Steven and Dorothea Green Endowment; the
State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and
the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; the Miami-Dade County
Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor
and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners; Agustin Venero and the
Venero Family;
The Miami Herald; and the Members & Friends of The Frost Art Museum.
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