The Wynwood Gallery is ready for visitors. Beginning September 4—after being closed for more than a year—the gallery is excited to open its doors to showcase a new in-person exhibit featuring the incoming Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate students. Milly Cardoso, director and curator, said she is excited for people to learn more about these new and talented artists at the University.
“We have an exciting group of women, and their work is so different,” said Cardoso. “For example, we have a ceramics student from Iran. Her name is Sepideh Kalani. Her pieces are unique, and I can’t wait to see what she puts forth in future exhibitions.”
Kalani, who specializes in ceramics, meshes her interests in neuroscientific knowledge (including that of personality disorders) and her love of art in her creations.
“Human beings who have endured suffering have a distinct appearance to me,” she explained. “In my latest project, I created a collection of sculptures of human figures whose bodies have been destroyed by their pain, in each of which I recorded an experience of suffering and other emotions. Each of these sculptures represents a true narrative of my artistic identity and my experiences in my troubled country.”
Alyssa Wood, who specializes in photography, is excited to have her works displayed in a gallery for the first time. She explained that she was inspired to begin a series of self-portraits after exiting several abusive relationships.
“I wanted to visually capture the emotional turmoil of societal prejudices toward women. Individuals want to feel confident in their bodies and sexualities, but the idea that sexual purity and idealized beauty standards are what defines their self-worth are so ingrained in our culture that it becomes a constant struggle to try to unlearn these thought processes,” she pointed out.
Mariana Espindola will also feature her photography. She said her photographs hope to raise awareness in sustainable living.
“I created a series of images showcasing a struggle to breathe by wrapping and enveloping my models with elements that suffocate and pollute our planet and having them shut their eyes, just as we do every day by turning a blind eye to the situation we are in—choosing ignorance even though we can feel how we are affecting our environment,” noted Espindola.
Espindola’s inspiration to become a photographer stems from her great grandfather.
“He was one of the first photographers in Minas Gerais, a state in Brazil. So, I think it is something that was always in my blood. I remember always being interested in photography from a very early age, and I would play around with my dad’s point-and-shoot camera,” she recounted.
Catherine Kramer is the fourth artist whose work will be featured in the exhibit. She thinks this is a great way for the university to officially welcome the MFA students into the community. She looks forward to showcasing her love for printmaking.
“Printmaking is a very tedious and process-oriented way of making art so there are always new techniques to learn. But I was first introduced to it in high school through Lino blocks and was interested enough to continue into college,” Kramer said. “From then on, I was constantly exposed to printmaking's other mediums and became enamored with them. I particularly enjoy stone lithography and etchings, which are the processes I used to create the work featured in the exhibit.”
Kramer looks forward to continuing to create art in a community of such talented artists.
“This kind of environment is really inspirational, and I am delighted to be a part of it. UM has already started to support me in my endeavors by providing resources that will help me gain the experiences needed. I’m confident once I am finished with the program, I will be able to achieve my goals,” said Kramer.
The exhibition is on view from September 4 to 23
The gallery will host a reception on September 4 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Visit https://art.as.miami.edu/ for more information.
More events include:
Frost School of Music
Sept. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Signature Series and Chopin Foundation of the U.S.
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Avery Gagliano, guest pianist
With the generous support of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S., pianist Avery Gagliano will perform an all-Chopin piano recital. Gagliano won the 2020 National Chopin Competition Grand Prize and will be competing in the 18th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. At just 20 years old, she captures audiences with her sensitivity, emotional depth, and musical expression. She will also be joined by Frost faculty members for a special chamber arrangement of Chopin’s “Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante.”
Purchase tickets here.
Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Signature Series
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Frost Concert Jazz Band and Frost Studio Jazz Band with Christian McBride
John Daversa and Etienne Charles, directors
Christian McBride, guest bassist
Seven-time GRAMMY®-winning bassist Christian McBride is a force of nature. “In his hands, an acoustic bass can shamelessly expose the human heart,” JazzTimes said in an article. He brings virtuosic fire, a relentless energy, depth, and the grounding of a seasoned journeyman to his performances. He will join the multiple DownBeat award-winning Frost Concert Jazz Band and Frost Studio Jazz Band, which are renowned for their outstanding musicianship, inspired performances, soloists, and well-crafted arrangements.
Purchase tickets here. Set reminder for virtual livestream here.
Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.
Signature Series
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
At the Ballet—Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella
Aaron Tindall, tuba
Oleksii Ivanchenko, piano
Renowned Frost School tuba professor and Sarasota Orchestra’s principal tubist, Aaron Tindall, lights up the stage with two of the most famous ballet masterpieces of all time. Tindall shares his virtuoso talent performing Suite No.1 from “Romeo and Juliet” and selections from “Cinderella” by Russian Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev, one of the giants of 20th century music.
Purchase tickets here. Set reminder for virtual livestream here.
Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Signature Series
Pre-concert talk, 6:30 p.m.
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
The Musical Legacy of Melton Mustafa—Frost Studio Jazz Band
Etienne Charles, director
Jesse Jones Jr. and Melton Mustafa Jr., guest saxophonists
The DownBeat Awarding-winning Frost Studio Jazz Band celebrates GRAMMY®-nominated Melton Mustafa Jr., a pillar of South Florida's musical community. His uncle, South Florida Jazz Hall of Famer Jesse Jones Jr., joins them. Melton Mustafa Sr. played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Woody Herman orchestras, wrote an expansive oeuvre of music reflecting his experiences, and later established the jazz program at Florida Memorial University.
Purchase tickets here. Set reminder for virtual live stream here.
Lowe Art Museum
Sept. 10, 11 a.m.
Coffee, Tea, What Do You See?
Grab your favorite morning beverage and join the Lowe for a virtual interactive discussion about art from the museum's collection. Led by the members of the Lowe staff, participants will be asked open-ended questions about the work of art to stimulate a group discussion.
Register here.
Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m.
Duane Speaks!
Join the Lowe for a virtual talk with Duane Michals. This conversation celebrates the exhibition “Duane Michals: The Portraitist,” consisting of more than 125 portraits by the photographer. In his commissioned portraits of actors, writers, musicians, and other celebrated individuals, Michals relished the challenge of distinguishing each personality with a unique approach. Best known as a pioneer who broke away from established traditions of documentary photography in the 1960s, Michals is widely recognized both for the balance he strikes between imposing his style on a subject and allowing his sitters to express themselves, as well as for the sequences he assembles to convey personal visual narratives—often adding handwritten messages and poems on the photographic print surface.
Register here,
Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Sept. 7, 14, 21, 28
Mindfulness with the Lowe
The Lowe’s Art of Mindfulness remote sessions take place on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Each session will last approximately 40 minutes (a 30-minute guided practice with a 10-minute reflection and Q & A).
Registration is required to participate in these free virtual sessions. Visit lowe.miami.edu for more information.
University Libraries
In/Tangible Pedagogies: Building an Interdisciplinary and Holistic Curriculum on Archival Studies
Join us for a series of presentations that has been specifically created to provide firsthand accounts to students exploring the field of archives and information science. The series will serve as part of a new and innovative course designed to give students hands-on interdisciplinary experience in critical archival studies using materials and resources from the University of Miami Libraries' distinctive collections—introducing them to the fundamentals of archival theory and practice used in libraries, archives, and museums.
Sept. 14, 1:30 p.m. — Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work
presented by Michelle Caswell, associate professor of archival studies, Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Sept. 28, 1:30 p.m. — Colonial Archives and Their Affects/Effects
presented by Jeannette Allis Bastain, Professor Emerita, School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University
Register here.
Mindfulness at Richter
Every Wednesday, 4–5 p.m.
The University of Miami Libraries offers introductory mindfulness sessions for cultivating calm and focus. These 45-minute sessions introduce the fundamentals of mindfulness with periods of guided practice and opportunities for reflection and questions.
Register here.
Sept. 23, 1 p.m.
Center for the Humanities
Sept. 14, 7 p.m.
"Latine Off-Off-Broadway: An Intervention in U.S. Theater History"
Join professor Lillian Manzor for the first Humanities Hour talk of the year. The role of Latines has been mostly absent from Off-Off-Broadway’s historiography. In this talk, Manzor will reconstruct various performances by not only reading manuscripts but also by showing photographs, stage and costume designs, musical scores, documentary videos, theater reviews, and other archival ephemera. Thus, she will bring back key Latine theater artists and put them into dialogue with their Off-Off-Broadway contemporaries to demonstrate how they shaped what Manzor names Latine-Off-Off-Broadway.
Register here.
Sept. 17, 9 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Fellows Symposium 2021
Nine humanities fellows will present some of the fruits of their research.
Register here.
Sept. 29, 8 p.m.
Online book talk—with Hugh Thomas, professor of history—“Power and Pleasure: Court Life Under King John, 1119-1216.”
Although King John is remembered for his political and military failures, he also presided over a magnificent court. “Power and Pleasure” reconstructs life at the court of King John and explores how his court produced both pleasure and soft power.
Much work exists on courts of the late medieval and early modern periods, but the jump in record keeping under King John allows a detailed reconstruction of court life for an earlier period. The presentation examines the many facets of the king's court, exploring hunting, feasting, castles, landscapes, material luxury, chivalry, sexual coercion, and religious activities. It explains how the monarch mishandled his use of soft power, just as he failed to exploit his financial and military advantages, and why he received so little political benefit from his magnificent court. His court is viewed in comparison to other courts of the time and in previous and subsequent centuries.
Register here.
