Color All Around: Illustrations by Adjoa J. Burrowes

Main Library – Auditorium
January 15 - March 31

Color All Around features 42 original cut-paper collages from picture books illustrated by artist Adjoa J. Burrowes. Burrowes combines her expertise as graphic designer with skillful use of collage and mixed media. Her colorful illustrations pop with exuberant cut-paper figures, organic shapes, and angular forms.

Multiple illustrations from the books Grandma's Purple Flowers, My Steps, and Destiny's Gift are included in the show. Displays of preliminary drawings, model photos, and editorial comments introduce visitors to the progression of an illustrated story from initial concept to the finished book.

(Adjoa Burrowes, Caterpillar: My Metamorphosis, 1999,
mixed media cut paper collage, Courtesy of the artist.)

A Reading Room for Shedding Light: Pamela Vander Zwan

Main Library – 2nd Floor Exhibition Space
January 29 - March 29

Reception and Artist Talk:
Thursday, January 29, 6 - 8:30 p.m.

In her work, Pamela Vander Zwan looks at how our collective histories have shaped our society with a focus on the social and political landscape of our time. A Reading Room is a site-specific work adapted for the Main Library. In it, Vander Zwan creates a reading room environment that pairs Braille and visual text with photographs of blindfolded people in situations that demand the use of sight or adaptation to a lack of sight.

The reading room also includes Braille versions of pivotal documents and books in U.S. history. By putting the viewer into a situation in which sight does not automatically equal awareness, she asks vital questions about participation in a democratic society.

(Pamela Vander Zwan, detail, The Reader, 2005, digital chromogenic print, Courtesy of the artist.)

Asser Saint-Val: The Melanin Project

North Dade Regional
January 10 - March 23

Reception and Artist Talk:
Thursday, January 22, 6 - 8:30 p.m.

Melanin is the biological pigment that gives human skin and hair its color. Asser Saint-Val, interested in the way science and biology have been used to justify false perceptions about people of color, made a study of "the phenomenon of melanin" and the roles it plays in people of all races. His findings became a series of paintings of imaginary embodiments of this phenomenon – part figurative, part something you'd see under a microscope – made with a suggestive mixture of media that includes acrylic paint, coffee, shoe polish, flour, and food coloring.

(Asser Saint Val, Dr. Suza, N.D., D.M. Drugs Masquerading as Foods, 2008, masonite, coffee, sugar, shoe polish, and flour.)

From Roots to Routes
From the Permanent Collection of the Miami-Dade Public Library System

West Dade Regional
Through March 2009

This exhibition explores the historical importance of, and contributions to, art from Latin America by such artists as kinetic-op artist Jesus Rafael Soto and abstract artist Fernando de Szyszlo. From Roots to Routes will recognize the individual artistic productions of Delia Cugat (Argentina), Carlos Davila (Peru), Marisol Escobar (Venezuela), Margarita Galetar (Argentina), Pablo Obelar (Uruguay), Arthur Luiz Piza (Brazil) and other works from the Library’s Permanent Collection, created from the 1960s onward by contemporary and modern artists from South America.

Gatto Domingo
Desde la Distancia (detail), 1976 Serigraph.

Drawing in Space: The Peninsula Project, Sculpture by John Henry/
Peninsula Project Illustrated – Educational
November 29, 2008 – January 29, 2009

Drawing in Space: The Peninsula Project, Sculpture by John Henryfeatures the sculpture of world-renowned artist, John Henry, and will take place in seven major cities around the Florida peninsula from October 2008 through May 2009. Peninsula Project Illustrated – Educational at the Miami Beach Regional Library will be an educational exhibit with photographs, drawings, and models demonstrating the making of the monumental sculptures sited around the state and illustrating the project’s overall cultural impact on Florida and especially on the city of Miami. For further details on the project visit:
www.peninsulaproject.com.

John Henry
Tatlin's Sentinel (model), 2001 aluminum.
Background Photo: Tatlin's Sentinel Monumental, 2001
Photo Credit: Katelyn Littlejohn, John Henry Sculptor, Inc.

With major support from Arison Arts Foundation, Performance Video Productions, See Rock City, Inc., Tubatomic, The Parnassus Foundation, Diane and David McDonald, Terry and Robert Edwards, Maureen and Doug Cohn and with additional support from Comcast.

This program is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.