Locust Projects presents LA ESQUINITA (Little Corner), premiering the first major solo show by Miami artist and musician Tara Long. In an all-encompassing installation created in collaboration with a number of fellow artists, Long transforms Locust Projects’ exterior and lobby into a quirky and surreal “Sweets & Souvenirs" shop filled with more than 500 tempting mini sculptures for sale. 

As part of Locust Projects’ commitment to supporting risk-taking and commissioning experimental new art and ideas, it has turned its space over—inside and out—to emerging Miami-based artist and performer, Tara Long, and her all-encompassing creative vision.

Part corner store, part surreal dream, LA ESQUINITA transforms Locust Projects into a sugar-coated parable about power, pleasure, and decay. From the building’s colorful façade to the towering, crumbling cake inside, Miami-born artist Tara Long exposes the hidden costs of sweetness—how sugar built this place, drained its swamps, shapes our bodies, our appetites, and our myths.

Visitors move through three acts produced by the artist in collaboration with a community of artists, musicians, and performers: the seductive storefront of tempting confections; the collapsing “cake hall,” where performance and sound unravel the fantasy; and the secret speakeasy where nature, and truth, begin to return. What starts as a bodega, evolves into a stage, leading to a confession booth, and finally, a swamp reclaiming its ground. 

Long’s world fuses Miami’s candy-colored surfaces with its buried histories, linking the exploitation of land to the conditioning of desire. LA ESQUINITA asks: when indulgence becomes survival, what does it cost to stay sweet?

Long’s Locust Projects exhibition, her first major solo show, was selected from 650 open call applications for the Main Gallery by a review panel including Juan Roselione-Valadez, Director of the Rubell Museum and past exhibiting artists Rafael Domenech (2023) and Rosario Marquardt of R+R (2000).

The exhibition premiered at Locust Projects major annual fundraiser on Friday, November 14 at the Delight & Devour Annual Benefit Dinner honoring Sarah Arison and celebrating Tara Long’s first major solo show premiere. The exhibition opened to the public on Saturday, November 15 and is the featured Miami Art Week exhibition with Delight in the Mire: A Miami Art Week Meet the Artist Party and Performance on Saturday, Dec 6 | 7-10pm.

The artist wishes to thank Lucia Aquino; David Sinopoli; Tom Mickelson; Freddy Jouwayed; Brett Potter; HoxxoH Studio; Serge Toussaint; Locust Projects and their team: Lorie Mertes, Tony Kapel, Sid Wolf, Munisha Underhill, Andrew McLees; Actors Playhouse; Bakehouse Art Complex; Things Lab; Katrina Cristobal; Lauren Shapiro; Young Arts; Le Basque; Gabriela Aschmann; Sofia Alcala; Monica Uszerowicz; Natalia Zuluaga; Skylar Edisis; Caterina Haddad; Thom Wheeler Castillo; Casey Zap; Cameron Nutella; Yamil Rodriguez; nilor studio; and Locust Projects Benefit Dinner Young Arts participants: Hattie Mae Williams (Court Jester); Rodrigo Rodriguez, Stephane Clement, Dani F Amaro (Musicians).

LA ESQUINITA is commissioned by Locust Projects and curated by Executive Director Lorie Mertes. It is made possible with support from Funding Arts Network.