Locust Projects’ R+D / Mobile Studio was launched by Locust Projects in 2018 to amplify Locust Projects as a hub and resource for artists. The R+D / Mobile Studio and new Screening Room positions Locust Projects as a jumping off point for delving into new projects, convening conversations that inform new directions, presenting curated video exhibitions of existing work inspired by current exhibitions. 

Victoria ravello

June 11 - August 07, 2021

Locust Projects presents 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. The exhibition opens to the public with a preview and reception on Thursday, June 10 from 6-8pm, and is on view through August 7 from 11am-5pm. Admission is free. 

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. The use of sugar references the ties of the local community to the Caribbean and the impact the sugar industry has had on the Caribbean as well as its historical significance and influence globally. Although initially only available to those in the ruling class and used as an opulent display of wealth, sugar evolved to become 

so accessible that those outside of this class developed their own traditions associated with it that continue today. The project is intended to serve as a space for exchange, where one can come in and leave with something in return for what they have offered. Whether it's a piece of candy, or a greater sense of community, everyone is meant to take something home with them from the space. Every individual offering comes together as a whole to build new histories; a transmuting of the old to create something new.

Loni Johnson

September 10 - November 06, 2021

For her installation, Remnants, Johnson will transform the Mobile Studio into a physical space to inform, heal, and offer counter-narratives that commemorate Black women and girls and celebrates their role in the community; a place where they can feel seen, apart from the world that continues to silence them and deem them invisible. In the words of poet Nayyirah Waheed, “All the women in me are tired”. An offering to Black women, Remnants responds to this collective experience by providing a place for all of these women in us to rest, normalize vulnerability, and dismantle the myth of the Black Superwoman while also reconnecting with and honoring our mothers, our mothers’ mothers and their mamas too.

The installation pays its respects to Black women through altars that include photos from the artist’s matriarchy alongside traditional elements from the West African Yoruba cosmology that can be found and gathered in neighborhood botanicas and Dollar Stores. Everyday objects and decorations such as sequin, lace, and cowrie shells are offered as tributes together with hair beads, gold bamboo earrings, and mirrors – objects found in local beauty supply stores and used in women’s’ daily life to adorn and enshrine.

Bookleggers Library

November 20, 2021 - June 18, 2022

Looking for the perfect and unique gift? Visit the Locust Projects shop for works by local national and international artists. 

Stop by today and pick up a free book from Bookleggers! Miami’s favorite free nonprofit mobile library has been in residence in Locust Projects’ Mobile Studio for the past year. For each new installation of shows @BookleggersLibrary brings in a curated selection of books related to themes in exhibitions on view - the current titles about play, sports and travel are available at Locust Projects thru Feb 4, 2023. 

Arsimmer McCoy

February 18 - April 09, 2022

Poet in Residence: Arsimmer McCoy Arsimmer McCoy’s large photo mural visible along the windows on North Miami Avenue is presented as part of an initiative to invite local artists and organizations to activate Locust Projects’ Mobile Storefront Studio. The image is a still from a film by McCoy created in collaboration with filmmaker Terence Price II and an excerpt from a poem written by McCoy and artist Reginald O'Neal: My child, built from crabgrass and concrete. You are constructed of things that cannot die. so I won't let you. from You can Always Come Home, 2021.

The project amplifies the importance of Black health and wellness—this year's theme for Black History month. Through this project McCoy seeks to “give honor to people of color in this city that push every day to be better for themselves, their communities, and above all, their children. My health and wellness come from my heritage, my child, and creation. My black child standing tall and strong is a message to all that see it, that we are here and will continue to persevere for generations to come.”