Main Library – 2nd Floor Exhibition Space
November 19 - January 31, 2010
Public performance: Monday, November 16, 12:30 p.m.
Reception: Thursday, November 19, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Chance, an ongoing project consisting of performance, video art, photography, and a site-specific installation, has been performed and exhibited in cities worldwide. For Chance: Miami, a roll of the dice will determine Robert Ladislas Derr’s walk through downtown Miami wearing a mirrored suit and four video cameras recording his surroundings and nearby pedestrians. The resulting video and photographs are part of an installation.
Robert Ladislas Derr, Chance: Albany, 2008, performance. Photo credit A. L. Foglesong.
The Reading Room
A Temporary Space for Artists’ Books, Publications and Multiples
Main Library – Children’s Room Fridays
November 13, Noon - 2 p.m. December 11, Noon - 2 p.m.
On the above mentioned dates in November and December, the storytelling room in the Children’s Room at the Main Library will become The Reading Room. In this cozy, intimate space visitors can get up close and personal with selections from the Library’s collection of artists’ books, publications and multiples. Experience these objects the way their creators intended: touch them, page through them, look at them closely. There will also be a screening of video and new media art from Aspect: The Chronicle of New Media.
Angels and Insects
By B.A. Bosaiya
North Dade Regional
September 10 - December 22
B. A. Bosaiya’s black and white photographs portray tiny insects in larger-than-life, atmospheric portraits that blend fantasy and reality. Bosaiya makes familiar organisms unfamiliar by portraying them in a cinematic language that is bright, fanciful, sinister, and mysterious.
B. A. Bosaiya, Ascending to Heaven on the Wings of a Demon, 2006, archival inkjet print.
Cortando, Cociendo y Recordando
By Erman
West Dade Regional
September 26 - December 17
Reception with performance and artist talk: Wednesday, September 30, 6 - 8:30 p.m.
Cortando, Cociendo y Recordando is a site-specific installation that is also a survey of Erman’s work from 2000 to the present. Erman creates evocative environments and artists’ books using a lyrical vocabulary of images and metaphors: sewing objects, handwritten text and handmade garments, shoes, and houses empty of their wearers or inhabitants. Curated by Rosie Gordon-Wallace.
Recent Acquisitions
From the Permanent Collection of the Miami‑Dade Public Library System
Main Library – 1st & 2nd Floor Exhibition Space
September 30 - December 21
The Library’s Permanent Art Collection focuses on works on paper, photographs, and artists’ books, multiples, and publications. Much of the work references language, literature, or Miami life and history. This exhibition highlights new additions to the collection from 2006 to the present, including work by Christian Marclay, Gary Moore, Mickey Smith, Tauba Auerbach, Julieta Aranda, Michelle Weinberg, and many others.
Christian Marclay, Untitled (The Coasters, Janet Jackson, Soul Asylum, You Can Go and Three Mix Tapes), 2008, unique cyanotype. Image courtesy of Graphicstudio/USF - photo by Will Lytch.
There Goes the Neighborhood
Miami Beach Regional Library, Storytelling Room
October 14 – February 28, 2010
Miami artists Mary Malm, Brian Reddy, Claudia Scalise, and Tom Virgin collaborate on an exhibition that explores the idea of “the neighborhood” from divergent perspectives: from displacement and gentrification, to the intimacy of home and family, to physical and human neighborhoods. The show includes works on paper, artists’ books, a painting installation, and small sculpture.
Mary Malm, Birthday Cake, 2007, oil on panel.
Love and Respect for Self and Community: Struggles for Justice in Miami-Dade Neighborhoods
Main Library, Auditorium,
October 18 – December 27, 2009
Residents of Little Havana, Overtown, and Homestead/Florida City took vivid color photographs depicting their everyday lives. The exhibition is a collaborative project between researchers at the Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University and community members from Power U Center for Social Change, Vecinos Unidos, and WeCount!
Reginald C. Munnings, The First Low Income Housing in Overtown, 2007, photograph.
Call for Proposals: Exhibitions at the Miami-Dade Public Library System
We accept proposals for exhibitions, performance art, and site-specific installations in all media. The deadline for receipt of proposals is March 10, 2010 for exhibitions and performances to take place in 2011. For information on how to submit a proposal as well as the exhibition process, download this PDF: How to Propose a Show at the Library: A Guide
The Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Art Services and Exhibitions Department curates a year-round program of exhibitions, performances, lectures, panel discussions, and community art projects. All of these are free and open to the public.
We also maintain a special collection of over 2,200 works of art. The collection includes works on paper, photographs, artists’ books, and small sculptures, with a focus on African American, Latino, and Miami artists. Additionally, the Vasari Project is an archive that documents the development of the visual arts in Miami-Dade County since 1945. It contains correspondence, press clippings, photographs, oral histories and other materials. The public may access both of these collections for research and reference.
For more information, contact Art Services at 305-375-5048 or art@mdpls.org, and contact the Vasari Project at 305-375-1550 or vasari@mdpls.org
