Miami-Dade Public Library System

Through August 14, 2012
South Dade Regional Library
10750 SW 211 St. • 305-233-8140

September 6 - December 15, 2012
West Dade Regional Library
9445 Coral Way • 305-553-1134
Reception: Thursday, September 6, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Through photographic images captured between 1987 and 2010, Anthony Reid documents the lives of family and neighbors who form the fabric of his childhood community, Goulds, and its surrounding neighborhoods. This collection of 50 black and white portraits revere a cross section of the African Americans who make up these areas frozen by spiritual blight and cultural banality so typical of American suburbia. These images serve as a testament to the pride and humanity of men, women, and children who live, work, and play throughout neighborhoods that have long existed outside of the more familiar idyllic identity of South Florida.

About the artist: Anthony Reid is a fine art photographer and native-born South Floridian. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and a Master's of Arts in Social Studies Education after attending Florida international University and the University of Massachusetts.  Although he is primarily self-taught, most of his formal study of photography took place while attending Miami-Dade College. Reid now works as a Social Studies teacher at Paul W. Bell Middle School and was named Miami-Dade County Public School’s Social Studies Teacher of the Year. He is currently working on a series of portraits taken during his experiences as an international volunteer in Europe and Central America.  His project, Faces of the Modern Workcamp, is aimed at illustrating the beauty of volunteers who dedicate their lives towards intercultural service and exchange.

May 19 - September 2012
North Dade Regional Library
2455 NW 183 St. • 305-625-6424

In celebration of this year’s Summer Olympics (Games of the XXX Olympiad) this exhibition presents poster art created to announce the XXIII Olympiad Games – the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California. During the 1912 to 1948 Olympics, art competitions were held in which medals were awarded for artworks that were inspired by sports. Though art competitions were dropped from the Olympic program, art continues to be an important addition to the Games through its Olympic poster art by which a selection of established and emerging artists are selected to design. The Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games' posters on display are part of the Library’s Permanent Art Collection. These, as well as all other Olympic posters created to herald the Games, provide a visual history and act as records to both artistic styles, including the cultural, social and political context of the time.  Artists who designed these posters include: Carlos Almaraz, John Baldessari, Jennifer Bartlett, Lynda Benglis, Billy Al Bengston, Jonathan Borofsky, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, April Greiman and Jayme Odgers, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg, Raymond Sanders, and Gary Winogrand.

June 14 - October 1, 2012
Miami Beach Regional Library
227 22nd St. • 305-535-4219

Beloved children's book author and illustrator Syd Hoff made Miami Beach his home and there created his best-loved characters like Danny and the Dinosaur (1958) and Sammy the Seal (1959). The Syd Hoff: Finding Home exhibition is organized for the humorist's 2012 centennial and curated by Miami-based journalist Dina Weinstein. The exhibition traces the life, achievement and influences of the prolific cartoonist and author through the curator’s visual aids and research. It consists of a series of creative “storyboards” composed of research notes, fact-finding footnotes, and humorous commentaries collected and written by Weinstein. Along with photographic reproductions, text panels, books, and video, the materials will trace Hoff’s early career and development. Sections will include Hoff's work with the Lyrical Left in the 1930s, his New Yorker cartoons focusing on outer-borough tenement dwellers, his syndicated comics and cartoons, and the made-in-Miami/Cold War/Baby Boom children's literature for which he is best known. Exhibition-goers will see the connection between Hoff's storybook characters' search for belonging to his earlier political and gag cartoons.

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About Dina Weinstein: Exhibition curator Dina Weinstein is a Miami, Florida-based journalist. Her Syd Hoff research has taken her to The New Yorker archives in the New York Public Library's special collections, New York University's Tamiment Library, Brandeis University, The Library of Congress, The Federal Bureau of Investigations, the National Archives, New York City's Municipal Archives, The Bronx Historical Society, The Library of Congress, Boston Public Library and the Miami-Dade Public Library System. Grants from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation have funded Weinstein's research trips to see Hoff's archived work at the University of Minnesota Kerlan Children's Literature Collection and the University of Southern Mississippi de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. Weinstein earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University and a Master’s from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

August 22 - December 2012
Hispanic Branch Library
1398 SW 1 St. • 305-643-8574

The title of this exhibition, Crónicas de respetables, was taken from the Uruguayan printmaker and painter Pablo Obelar’s work by the same name. Consisting of works on paper created by contemporary and modern artists from Latin America, the exhibition is a visual chronicle of the artistic contributions from both respectable and lesser-known artists working during the 1960s and 1970s. Cronicas de respetables recognizes the individual artistic production of Victor Chab, Delia Cugat, Marcel Floris, Margarita Galetar, Francisco Narváez, Jesús Rafael Soto, Pablo Obelar, Arthur Luiz Piza, and many other Latin American artists from the Permanent Art Collection.

Through June 2, 2012
Main Library, 2nd floor exhibition space
101 W. Flagler Street • 305-375-2665

Miami-Dade Public Library System presents Taiwan Sublime in partnership with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Miami for the 12th Annual International Art of Storytelling Festival. The exhibition comprises four series of photographs taken by four celebrated Taiwanese photographers. In Interfaces: Rhythms of Nature and Humanity Chen Chih-hsiung highlights the “variegated natural stage on which the human drama proceeds.” In Passion: Heavenly Feast of the Performing Arts, Liu Chen-hsiang portrays the diversity and vitality of Taiwan’s modern dance and traditional drama. In Folkways: Melding the Mundane and the Celestial, Huang Ting-sheng presents scenes from everyday life that is, directly or indirectly, rooted in the spiritual dimension. And in Soaring: An Elevated Vision of Natural Taiwan, Chi Po-lin portrays the grandeur of Taiwan’s mountains, coastlines and waterways through an exhilarating birds-eye perspective.

Through August 25, 2012
Main Library, 1st floor exhibition space
101 W. Flagler St. • 305-375-2665

Her interests in anthropology, archaeology, architecture and astrology inspire Jean Chiang’s artwork. Since her arrival in Miami in 2001, Chiang began to investigate the cultural history and philosophy of China, as well as her personal history as a child of immigrants. An inspiration develops into a story with research, then manifests in different materials as diverse as clay, wood, metal, paint, fiber, textile and beads – each with their inherent expressive quality. For this exhibition, Chiang will display a series of large-scale wooden panel paintings inspired by her historical research of The Great Wall of China, as well as some of her intricate, smaller scale works.

About the artist: Jean Chiang executes her work in small-scale intricate embroidery and beadwork to works on paper to large-scale interactive installations. Chiang received a B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and her M.F.A. in Sculpture from Hunter College. She has pursued studies and works in a wide range of media, including clay, wood, metal, paint, fiber, textile and beads. Chiang has exhibited her work at Diaspora Vibe Gallery, the Asian American Arts Centre (New York), P.S. 1, and the Hong Kong Art Center, among others. Her work is collected in both private and public collections nationally and internationally. Chiang lives and works in New York and Miami.