Amid the pandemic, Otero has been looking inward, pursuing a series of highly personal works about Puerto Rico. Hyperallergic sat down with him to discuss this new body of work, now on view in Life During Wartime.
Florida
Portraits that Honor the Men Who Participated in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike
Carl Juste’s double portrait of father and son presents an extraordinarily intimate experience on the usually busy public plaza surrounding the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami.
Amid Climate Change and Rapid Gentrification, a Caribbean Film Festival Centers Notions of Home
Embracing the full spectrum of Caribbean experiences and cultures, Third Horizon has created a dynamic community devoted to highlighting cinema from and about the region its founders call home.
A Maren Hassinger Installation Blossoms From a “Tree of Knowledge” Rooted in a Majority Black Florida Town
Hassinger worked collaboratively with the Pearl City community to create a version of their “Tree of Knowledge” at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, its “roots” composed of twisted, flowing rolls of newspaper.
The Infamous “Zola” Twitter Thread Is Now a Feature Film
In Sundance favorite Zola, Janicza Bravo and co-writer Jeremy O. Harris bring to life the true story of a wild trip to Tampa.
How the Legal System Left Artist Purvis Young’s Beneficiaries Empty-Handed
Young left nearly 2,000 works of art to his close friend and her family. An article in the Washington Post Magazine explains how, after Young’s death, a group of lawyers kept the works instead.
Joiri Minaya’s Tropical-Inflected Critiques of Colonialism
In unifying contemporary tropical realities with histories of colonization, Minaya demonstrates how imperialist attitudes survive in the discourse and commodification culture surrounding tropical tourism.
Miami Janitors Protest Low Wages With a Parody of the Maurizio Cattelan Banana
At the demonstration, dubbed the “platanito protest,” custodians shared stories of working two jobs and still not being able to afford gifts for relatives during the holiday season.
During Art Basel Miami Beach, Young Climate Strikers Urge the Art World to Pay Attention
“Art should be used to make a political statement,” says Andrew Weaver, press director of Miami Climate Strike.
Gauging the Potential of Abstraction at Art Basel Miami Beach
Questions of privilege aside, the range of abstract works reminded me how artists are providing nuanced ways of thinking about identity that move beyond exclusion/inclusion binaries.
Damien Davis Explores the Legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre Through Collage
For his solo presentation at Untitled Art Fair in Miami, Davis developed a lexicon of negritude, crafting sculptural plexiglass collages to explore the events that decimated a community popularly known as “Black Wall Street.”
Creating Soundscapes From the Whispering, Bubbling, and Roaring Earth
Now on view at Art Basel Miami Beach, sound artist Jana Winderen’s The Art of Listening: Under Water draws listeners’ attention to the rich sonic landscapes of nature — and highlights how human activity might affect them.