Art Together Now

The Culture Edit, September 9th - 22nd

Author

Susan Bannon
September 08, 2024

Sketchers surveying their work after an event hosted by Raw Figs figure-drawing pop-up.

Miami’s art scene has just the remedy for the loneliness epidemic that’s getting so much press these days (as in this piece from last Sunday’s NYT Magazine): art memberships!

All the big institutions like PAMM, ICA, and The Bass have memberships that get you access to members-only receptions and events, but there are also more intimate options like Commissioner, which connects a small cohort of new or newish collectors with local artists and each other. Fountainhead Arts has a very vibrant membership that gathers frequently at their resident artists’ studios and even travels abroad together.

Then there are one-off options to engage with art among fellow enthusiasts, like Miami Art Hang, which puts together small groups to visit local galleries and artist studios with an art world insider. Finally, you have DIY options like the Raw Figs pop-up figure-drawing events, where you can try your hand at sketching in fun locations around town. Plenty to keep us connected and supporting our art ecosystem all at the same time!

Of course, no membership is required to enjoy all of the art exhibit openings we have going on around town over the next two weeks. And there are a lot! Thursday’s lineup alone would exhaust even the most committed moocher of free wine.

Final note: you’ll see a lot of events in Little River/Little Haiti in this week’s newsletter, and there’s one restaurant that should clearly be included in any recommendations for that area: Boia De, consistently ranked one of the best restaurants in the city.

So why do I never include it? Because five years after it opened, it’s still impossible to get a table (unless you stalk Resy 30 days in advance, at noon sharp) and I don’t want my readers to be needlessly frustrated. But, obviously, if you can get a table at Boia De after one of these events, you should definitely eat there!

Let’s get planning...

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Thursday, September 12th

Rhys Gaetano: Cleanliness is next to godliness

Nina Johnson celebrates the opening of Cleanliness is next to godliness, a solo exhibition of poured wax encaustic works by New York-based artist Rhys Gaetano. Gaetano has refined his own process over the years that involves laboriously casting metal dies, then melting, pigmenting and pouring the wax. Two other shows are opening the same night - Adraint Bereal: A Different Regard for Life and Residual Energies, curated by Camille Okhio. All three shows are on view until October 19th.

Opening Reception 6-8pm, Nina Johnson Gallery, Free

Neighborhood: Little River

Also on September 12th: a lot more new art exhibit openings, all with receptions from 6-8pm!

Friday, September 13th

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

St. Paul & the Broken Bones bring their signature mix of funk, soul, and R&B to the Miami Beach Bandshell for one night only. Inspired by his impending fatherhood, many of the songs on the band’s latest album, Angels in Science Fiction, are dedicated to lead singer Paul Janeway’s new daughter, Marigold. You can check out some of their music here.

8pm, Miami Beach Bandshell, $46+

Neighborhood: North Beach

Also on September 13th: a first run screening of Jokes & Cigarettes, a poignant biopic about Catalan comedian Eugenio Jofra, with an opening night reception at Coral Gables Art Cinema.

Saturday, September 14th

Zest Collective

One of Miami’s newest dance companies, Zest Collective was founded by artistic director Gentry Isaiah George in 2013 in New York, but migrated down to our sunny climes during the pandemic. Two pieces are on the program for their fall performance: The Fountain, a world premiere commissioned by the Moss Center set to Spiritual music; and Afro Blue, a piece set to jazz and Afro-Caribbean music that came out of Miami Light Project’s Here & Now: 2023 program.

7:30pm, Moss Center, $38

Neighborhood: Cutler Bay

Nearby Eats: Not much! Grab dinner at Platea or Golden Rule Seafood on your way down there and have some rooftop cocktails at Mamey on 3rd or La Terrazza on your way back.

Also on September 14th:

Sunday, September 15th

Pre-Season Concert: MTT, Beethoven, and Beyond

Demarre McGill of the Seattle Symphony and Anthony Prisk of the Philadelphia Orchestra lead the New World fellows in a special pre-season chamber concert for winds and brass. The program includes Beethoven’s Rondino for Winds and Janáček’s Capriccio for Piano Left Hand (aka Defiance), written for a WWI veteran who lost his right hand in the war. This concert is free to the public for a donation of any amount.

2pm, New World Center, “Pay What You Wish”

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Happening NEXT Week:

Because maybe your friends are busy this week. Or you're busy this week. Or this week just seems too soon to pull your act together and make a plan.

Tuesday, September 17th

Bakehouse Open Studios Night

Bakehouse Art Complex hosts an end-of-the-summer open studios night, showcasing the work of resident artists, plus a newly-commissioned installation, Tropical Storm, by Bakehouse artist Alain Castoriano for the atrium. AV Club will be taking over one gallery for a 16mm screening of films from Miami-Dade Public Library’s Special Collections. As if all that wasn’t enough, there will be complimentary beverages from Off Site and Liquid Death.

6-9pm, Bakehouse Art Complex, Free

Neighborhood: North Wynwood

Nearby Eats: Maty’s, Pastis, KYU | Drinks: The Sylvester, Lagniappe

Thursday, September 19th

Mel Davis and Judd Schiffman at Emerson Dorsch

Oil on canvas by Mel Davis, showing at Emerson Dorsch Sept. 19th - Nov. 2nd.

Emerson Dorsch celebrates the opening of two new solo exhibits with a reception in their Little Haiti space. California-based painter Mel Davis is known for her stark, solid fields of color that interplay with fluid, natural settings. Rhode Island-based ceramicist Judd Schiffman makes ceramic objects derived from family heirlooms, personal mementos, and historic artifacts to explore the how these freighted items compose an individual’s life experience.

6-9pm Opening Reception, Emerson Dorsch, Free

Neighborhood: Little Haiti

Nearby Eats: Ogawa Omakase (6pm or 9pm seatings), Blue Collar, Phuc Yea | Drinks: Bar Kaiju, ZeyZey

Also on September 19th: the first of three nights of Here & Now: 2024 at Miami Light Project.

Friday, September 20th

Here & Now: 2024

Way back in 1999, Miami Light Project launched its Here & Now program to commission new work from local performing and multi-media artists. Since then, they’ve sponsored work from more than 100 artists, helping to make Miami the global arts hub it is today. Here & Now: 2024 features a dance/puppet performance by Haitian-American artist Arielle Francois, a capoeira/samba mash-up by Junior Domingos, a dance duet about relationships from Lisa Kusanagi and Osmani Tellez, and a music video by Our Human Years. Performances are Thursday-Sunday.

8pm, The Light Box at Miami Theater Center, $20-$30

Neighborhood: Miami Shores

Saturday, September 21st

Women At Large: Group Show

Nathalie Alfonso with her work, part of the upcoming “Women At Large” group show at Piero Atchugarry Gallery.

Piero Atchugarry Gallery presents a group show of nine Miami-based female artists, curated by local art champion Dainy Tapia. (If you want to keep up with South Florida’s art scene, follow Dainy on Instagram @art.seen.365.) Opening the same night in the gallery’s Survey space will be a show of large-scale wood panel pieces by artist Amanda Linares, entitled Yo vengo de todas partes, y hacia todas partes voy (“I come from everywhere and everywhere I shall go”).

7-9pm Opening Reception, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Free

Neighborhood: Little Haiti

Nearby Eats: Mandolin, Branja, Yoso Sushi | Drinks: ZeyZey, Phuc Yea

Also on September 21st: 

  • The Opera Atelier performs a new version of Don Pasquale, with virtual scenery, at Sanctuary of the Arts.

  • New World Percussion Fellows give a pre-season concert at New World Center.

  • La Cometa gallery celebrates the opening of Adam Goldstein: Spēlaion with a reception from 5-8pm.

  • Here & Now: 2024 has its final performance at Miami Theater Center.

Sunday, September 22nd

Sing for FREADOM with Joanie Leeds

Books & Books kicks off National Banned Books Week with a free concert by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Joanie Leeds. Her album FREADOM is made up of songs inspired by children’s books banned in the state of Florida. (That’s currently over 1,000 books. Honestly, where do they find the time?) After the music, you can enjoy live readings from said literary contraband and buy some banned books!

3pm, Coral Gables Congregational Church, Free

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Planning Ahead:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those new restaurants you want to try book up. For the ultimate plan-ahead guide, you have my complete Highlights of the Fall Season, but if that’s too much trouble, you can just plan for these two…

October 5th-6th

New World Symphony Season Opener

In honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, New World Symphony presents “Resonance of Remembrance,” a season-long series. Artistic Director Stéphane Denève opens the series with Michael Tilson Thomas’s haunting From the Diary of Anne Frank and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a coded work created under the watchful eye of Stalin.

7:30pm Saturday, 2pm Sunday, New World Center, $40-$175

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

October 17th-20th

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Miami City Ballet opens its 2024-25 season with this blockbuster production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A retelling of the classic Shakespeare rom-com, the action has been relocated from an enchanted forest to our South Florida waterways, featuring dazzling “underwater” sets and costumes by Miami-born artist Michele Oka Doner (you’ve walked over her graceful bronze inlays of sea life at MIA countless times) and dramatic direction by Miami-born playwright and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight, Choir Boy). Six vocalists will join the top-notch MCB orchestra to perform Mendelssohn’s glorious music.

7:30pm Fri. & Sat., 2pm Sat. & Sun., Ziff Ballet Opera House, $35

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

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