Multidisciplinary artists Tal Amitai-Lavi and Tal Frank’s site-specific installation at Locust Projects, Homeline, is inspired by the architectural structure of the Main Gallery. The project is composed of three domestic elements created out of unexpectedly weightless materials, including light and delicately-installed nylon strings: a window that separates the space, a projected carpet, and a slowly flowing curtain. 

Miami-based artist and musician Juan Ledesma's Rhythm of Speech, is a new site-specific experimental audiovisual installation that draws connections between diverse musical traditions and our collective lived experiences by exploring the musical potential of spoken accents. 

Hidden in Plain View, the seventh edition of the LAB MFA summer exhibition program featuring Victoria Ravelo, MFA candidate at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. Ravelo will be in residence June 1-30, during which time she will transform the storefront Mobile Studio into a working laboratory in which she will create sugar sculptures daily. Locals from the community will be invited to collaborate by donating materials that have personal significance (for example: items of clothing, handwritten notes, etc.), which will be embedded into the sculptures in an act of preservation that exalts these everyday objects and transforms them to create new associations. ⁠

Celebrating its 11th anniversary in 2021, the Locust Art Builders (The LAB) program offers opportunities to the next generation of artists and creatives from schools across the county to connect and collaborate with their peers to learn to build the world they imagine starting with collaboratively building an exhibition from scratch in a nationally-recognized alternative art space.
 

Learn more and apply here.

Join us at Locust Projects or on Instagram LIVE on Wednesday, August 4 at 7pm for an intimate roundtable with artist Victoria Ravelo and the esteemed Dr. Dunn. For her current exhibition in the Locust Projects storefront Mobile Studio, Victoria welcomed visitors, friends, and members of the local community to connect, share stories, and “cook” sculptures together. Guests were encouraged to bring an object of personal significance to embed in the sculptures, which were made of sugar, a substance that is ubiquitous in our lives with extra relevance to the neighboring Caribbean and its diaspora here in Miami.

One of the things art can do is make the invisible visible. Using the artist’s chosen material as a point of departure, our conversation will explore the history, cultural legacy, local impact, mythology, stories, and aesthetics of sugar. Guests will have the opportunity to see the sculptures on display, which are now melting over time and exposure to the elements.

Victoria Ravelo is an MFA graduate of the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and the 2021 LAB MFA Artist in Residence at Locust Projects. Dr. Marvin Dunn is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Florida International University and the author of Black Miami in the 20th Century, among other essential books on local history. Darwin Rodriguez is a museum educator, writer, and content creator working at the intersection of academia, arts, education, and institutions.

Please RSVP for this free event.

Presenting the premiere of Rhythm of Speech (Reprise) an online performance by Miami-based artist and musician Juan Ledesma. Immersed in his current installation, Ledesma will create a soundscape of tonal and rhythmic improvisations which further explore the musical potential of spoken accents. This performance aims to reframe language as a collective repository of sounds that can be used towards creative musical compositions. Watch on Instagram @locustprojects and on our YouTube channel.

Locust Projects supports the business of being an artist through LegalARTLink, a program offering pro bono legal services, referrals, and professional development workshops for artists based in Miami. 

If you have questions about the program or need help with a new legal issue, schedule an appointment here to chat with Allyn Ginns Ayers, LegalARTLink Director, practicing attorney, and dancer.