At The College of Architecture + The Arts | Miami Beach Urban Studios, two exhibitions – one by a student and the other by a alumnus – have opened in the Fellows’ Gallery.
Jumping the Boundary: Spiral Wombs and Curatorial Responses features work by Meg Kaplan-Noach, who is a candidate in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Arts: Curatorial Practice Track program. This exhibition shows her practice graduation thesis work and explores the notions of drawing, specifically curatorial drawing. It tests the boundary between exhibitor and curator. The curatorial statement is presented in drawing form on a hand-prepared blackboard paper, rather than the conventional, purely textual form to which mostly all curators are accustomed. Furthermore, Kaplan-Noach decides to replace the standard guestbook with two communal blackboard papers, upon which viewers can draw their responses and comments. The “Spiral Wombs” of the exhibition are fiber objects made of silk and tulle with cotton threads that enwrap plant-matter. They each portray a spiral – the ancient symbol for the Great Goddess. Each incorporates leaves, seeds, and moss within them and are celebratory of nature. They are meant to carry forward notions of honoring the sacred and the mundane aspects of nature.
Carlos Spartacus: Earthbound Musings is the second exhibition showing in the Urban Studios Fellows’ Gallery. The exhibit, curated by Meg Kaplan-Noach, is the first solo show for alumnus Carlos Spartacus (FIU BFA ’15). Earthbound Musings showcases paper works and site-specific drawings created directly on the gallery walls. Spartacus’s drawings are composed of marks and indentations made with an array of writing tools, paint, and points to form a private vocabulary. His scribbles and doodles transform into commentaries loaded with layers upon layers of meanings. Reacting emotionally to sensory experiences and spiritual journeys, Spartacus documents a myriad of touches, sights and sounds – as well as unique states of mind. Imagine musings of flickering tree leaves in the wind, cat-purrs, city bus fumes, grass beneath feet, discreet and muffled conversations, or even the tensions between being asleep and waking up. This mash-up of stimulation and documentation sources the depictions while simultaneously shaping the drawings themselves.
Jumping the Boundary: Spiral Wombs and Curatorial Responses will run until February 26th, 2016, and Carlos Spartacus: Earthbound Musings will run until February 12th, 2016 at The College of Architecture + The Arts | Miami Beach Urban Studios: 420 Lincoln Roat, Suite 440, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Free and open to the public.
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