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2019 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art
By Suzanne Cohen
The Orlando Museum of Art is presenting the 2019 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art. The exhibition brings recognition to the work of Robert Aiosa, Joe Fig, Lilian Garcia-Roig, Lola Gómez, Amer Kobaslija, Pepe Mar, Anja Marais, Edison Peñafiel, Vickie Pierre, and Sri Prabha, ten artists who are engaged in exploring significant issues of contemporary art and society. “Now in its sixth year, the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art has consistently demonstrated the depth of important work being done by artists throughout the State,” said Hansen Mulford, Senior Curator at the Orlando Museum of Art.
Joe Fig, Howard Kanovitz: New Yorkers, 2016, oil on linen, 17 ¼” x 18.” © Joe Fig.
Issues addressed by these artists are diverse, exploring such topics as the architecture of home, Florida’s threatened environment, the overdose epidemic in Central Florida, the refugee’s journey, the artist’s studio as a portrait of the artist and the technology of transcendental experience.
Edison Peñafiel, Ni Aquí, Ni Allá [Neither Here, Nor There
Each artist presents recent works that provide an in-depth view of his/her professional practice. Ecuadorian Edison Peñafiel was selected to receive a $20,000 award, which has been made possible by the generous support of Gail and Michael Winn. Peñafiel’s videos and multimedia installations focus on social issues that persist through time, ranging from the current state of global migration, to politics, abuse of power, cultural clashes, prejudice, exploitation, and identity. Having experienced firsthand one of the turn-of-the-century’s everlasting dilemma: immigration, and the rampant economic and political instability in South America, Peñafiel felt it was his duty to explore his personal and collective experiences of displacement, which for millions of people all around the world is also a daily reality. Through carefully constructed and layered works which blend boundaries between digital and physical objects, the artist demonstrate a personal sense of responsibility to communicate and instigate “change in today’s unjust society.” The artist lives and works in Fort Lauderdale.
Robert Aiosa, Classical Column, 2014, plywood, red oak, pine, OSB screws, nails, glue, variable dimensions. © Robert Aiosa.
Tampa-based Robert Aiosa is a sculptor whose work focuses on the structure of liminal spaces. He pursues to highlight “the importance of diversity in our environments.” His artistic practice connects with ideas of modernization and renovation in the 21st century, particularly with regards to gentrification and redevelopment. Aiosa is also inspired by the physical elements of construction work, using materials like plywood and oriented strand board.
Anja Marais, The Crossing, 2015, mmixed media on found fabric, soil and found objects, 73” x 115” x 20.” © Anja Marais.
Lilian Garcia-Roig, who lives in Tallahassee, melds the language of abstraction with the world of landscape art. She typically makes her paintings “en plein air”, over the course of the entire day thus capturing an expanded sense of time. From a distance her lush scenes appear “in focus”, but up-close break down into visceral paint marks. Additionally, she constructs a dialogue within her own body of work: her language and materials shift depending on the constraints of time and place- be it her native country of Cuba, the dense forests of Washington state, or the varied habitats of Florida.
Lilian Garcia-Roig, Hyperbolic Nature: La Florida, 2013, oil on canvas, 12’ x 13’ (5 panels). © Lilian Garcia-Roig.
Orlando-based Amer Kobaslija proposes panoramic vistas that often encompass landscapes damaged by natural disasters or threatened by human development and neglect. His subjects range from detailed renderings of the destruction of Kesennuma, Japan, following the tsunami of March 2011, to the Florida coastline blighted by red tide. His very contemporary subject matter is rendered with a powerful bravado style of painting that often references art historical models of landscape painting, bringing past and present together in meaningful ways. His paintings often present a dizzying “God’s-eye” view of a vast landscape or intimate room interior. In his interiors, spaces that are usually reserved for private consumption - such as artist’s studios or a family’s decrepit living room - are revealed for public scrutiny. He focuses on documenting the specific subtleties of these places in such a way that the mark of the people who occupy them is tangibly present, even when the people themselves are not. When people are present in his compositions, they are no less or more important than the rest of their environment; he holds each element of his paintings in equal regard.
Amer Kobaslija, Farm, Sleeping Dog, 2018, oil on aluminum, 48” x 59.” © Amer Kobaslija.
Pepe Mar is an artist based in Miami, whose art spans the boundaries of painting, sculptural collage and immersive installation. His works are carefully thought-out conglomerates, distinctive for their densely layered imagery drawn from pop culture and traditional mythologies. Throughout his career, he has drawn inspiration from objects of consumer culture and social function, which result in his use of collections of images that connect differing aspects of culture into one visually stimulating work. Appropriating images and objects, he creates a singular artwork with a unique and innovative narrative that has been threaded through fragments of collected cultural signposts.
Sri Prabha, Orbiting Cathedrals, 2015, installation view at Young at Art Museum, mixed media, 11 video channels (6 projections,5 monitors), dimensions variable, duration: infinite variable loops. © Sri Prabha.
Anja Marais develops a body of work that encompasses a hybrid of disciplines that include: photography, sculpture, painting, mixed media collages, assemblages, and film. Born and raised in South Africa, Marais’s work explores themes of displacement and cultural heritage. “My work grows from a split-individuality, a marginality and ambivalence caused by my own personal equation, that of being a white African, a long-lost European, a Colonizer, and the Colonized,” she says. Central to Marais’ work is the disintegration of material, creating metaphors for the human condition. She oftentimes repurposes found objects into her artwork, particularly those that further the thematic link to memory, the construction of ritual, the structure of exile and geographical belonging, and the impact of these on the construction of identity. By altering the physicality and boundaries of each medium Marais is able to speak to the multi-dimensionality and universality of those themes. Marais maintains a full-time studio practice in Miami.
Lola Gómez, Stuck in Time 01: The boat and house of Jose Rivera, a local fisherman, are still submerged in fetid floodwaters nearly two months after Hurricane Maria struck. All was destroyed when nearby rivers crested, and then a wave of water, the color of chocolate, descended on the coast at Barrio El Maní in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on Sunday, October 29, 2017. © The Daytona Beach News-Journal / Lola Gómez.
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Sri Prabha is a multi-media artist whose work contains elements of video art, photography, sculpture, painting, found objects and sound, often presented in immersive room-sized installations. Prabha’s art is thematically related to concepts of space and nature, as well as the impact that humanity has on these. He uses the breadth and scope of the natural world to connect to feelings of relative minuteness from the viewer. By using both natural, organic shapes and orderly, man-made forms, Prabha draws attention to the relationship between humankind and the space we occupy, and how that relationship can be as harmful as it can be beneficial to one another. Utilizing scientific iconography and recent discoveries about nature and the universe Prabha creates colorful all-media works that address intersections between art, science, and metaphysics. About his work he says, “I synthesize the possibilities across ecology, geology, and science in general. Conscious and subconscious connections are visualized and expressed through art as a conduit to the interconnected cosmos.” Sri Prabha lives and works in Hollywood.
Pepe Mar, Vogueing, 2018, mixed media on wood panel, 60” x 48.” Collection Ernesto & Cecilia Poma, Miami. © Zach Balber.
Joe Fig, who won the People’s Choice Award at this exhibition, lives and works in Sarasota. Fig is known for his detailed, small-scale sculptures as well as paintings and photographs of artists and their studios. Beginning with interviews of the artists and taking extensive documentary photographs, his finished works are comprehensive investigations of the creative process, the working lives of artists, and the spaces where art is made. Each work envisions the studio as a portrait of the artist, whether they are present or not. Among the dozens of studio portraits Fig has created are those of Chuck Close, Ross Bleckner, Kate Gilmore, Petah Coyne and Leonardo Drew.
Vickie Pierre, I Can't Say No to You (Good Enough), 2014, mixed media assemblage, 7 ½’ x 9 ½’ x 5.” © Vickie Pierre.
Miami-based Vickie Pierre develops a body of works that is informed by memory, fantasy, popular culture and the decorative and ornamental arts. Within her paintings, works on paper, murals and assemblages, the artistic focus is on the exploration of identity, gender, race and her Caribbean heritage using inventive imagery, appropriated objects, and text. In her recent series of paintings and collages called “Poupées” Pierre creates playful images of mythic feminine creatures that verge on the abstract yet remain sensual and languid. In other works, Pierre uses found materials to create sets of regal hair-pieces that are displayed on the wall. Joined together by strings of beads, these crown-like sculptures are also accompanied by heraldic texts with proclamations such as “This Must Be The Love They Speak Of”. Her texts record an ongoing personal narrative that expresses a variety of romantic sentiments as well as thoughts of melancholy and longing.
The exhibition is a platform for Florida artists, an exceptional opportunity to present their works to a wider audience of collectors, art critics, gallerist and museum professionals.
The 2019 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art is on view through August 18, 2019. The Orlando Museum of Art is located at 2416 N. Mills Ave. Orlando, FL 32803 | www.omart.org.
Suzanne Cohen is an arts writer based in Orlando, Fla.
