art

Images courtesy David Krut Projects and the artist, Aida Muluneh

It explores timeless human experience by elevating issues like isolation, injustice, reflection, loss, and on the flip side, contemplation, joy, revelry, and (even) elation. Sanlé Sory’s work is about liberation and brings to life a moment in time when he saw freedom born, and captured images of expressive rebirth with flair and whimsy. Kyle Meyer explores wide ranging issues including gender identity, using weaving as both medium and message. Aida Muluneh’s vivid portraits reveal diasporic culture expressed through conscious and subconscious exploration of color and image on the time/space continuum. Magdalena Compos-Pons weaves past into present through very personal investigation of family history and generational memory. Two of the artists connect music and photography: Mario Algaze’s work exploring 1960’s rock iconoclastic performers; Deborah Willis brings collective memory of civil war conflict to the forefront of modern consciousness through an archival image-sound dance to the music of Joan Baez. Arien Chang explores Cuba’s innately beautiful cultural landscape in the context of human struggle. Carlos Andres Cruz shares deep truths discovered in the faces of dogs, sweet faces so many of us look into to find what’s best in ourselves. The Betsy’s show also features a new collection by Miami-based photographer Robert Zuckerman, an homage to the timeless truth that artists make art, even when their trials are deepest. Looping projections of Hank Willis Thomas’ and Eric Gottesman’s For Freedoms initiative (brought to life on The Betsy’s public canvas, called The Orb) that inspires a global conversation on what it means to be free in the 21st century, featuring the work of the 150+ participating artists who previously designed billboard images for public exhibition throughout our Nation.’” Dr. Leslie King Hammond (2018)

‘Wait Still’ was borrowed from a poem by Hyam Plutzik (hyamplutzikpoetry.com), father of Betsy owner Jonathan Plutzik, and a 3-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. The full line of poetry is 'Wait Still for The Wonder.”

The Betsy’s show, timed to Miami's Art Week in Miami Beach, will span eight spaces across the Hotel for viewing. Proceeds from the various installations will benefit The Betsy’s African Relief project, Zara’s Center for AIDS impacted youth (zarascenter.org). 

THE BETSY ORB AND THE BETSY POETRY RAIL – located at 14th Place, in the breezeway, adjacent to The Betsy-South Beach The Betsy Orb – Connects The Betsy’s two historic properties (The Betsy Ross and The Carlton) yet it is not visible from either Ocean Drive or Collins Avenue. Pedestrians must venture mid-way to Espanola Way at 14th Place and peek into the restored alleyway to experience the piece. The (adjacent) Betsy Poetry Rail is a permanent installation of poetry by 12 poets who have shaped Miami literature, and includes diverse, historic, and contemporary voices, including Donald Justice, Hyam Plutzik, Campbell McGrath, Langston Hughes, Mohamed Ali, Julie Marie Wade, Geoffrey Philp, and five others. 

SALONS

The Betsy will present three salons during Miami Art Week 2018, all in the Carlton Room, located in the Hotel’s Art Deco Wing. Salons topics include 1) Cross Currents: The African Diaspora in the Global Continuum – December 6 at noon; 2) Freedom to Create: Equity For Freedom – December 7 at noon, and 3) On Creating in 2 Centuries: the continuing conversation – December 8 at noon. 

ARTIST BIOS

AIDA MULUNEH – exhibited in The Gallery and Carlton Room @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Ethiopia-based artist, Aida Muluneh, born in 1974, (aidamuluneh.com) has a degree from Howard University in Washington, DC with a major in Film, and has since worked as a photojournalist at the Washington Post, among other journals. Her fine artwork can be found in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, the RISD Museum of Art, the Hood Museum and the Museum of Biblical Art in the United States. She is the 2007 recipient of the European Union Prize in the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie, in Bamako, Mali, as well as the 2010 winner of the CRAF International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy. Her work was recently featured in MoMA’s New Photography 2018 Exhibition titled, Being. She is the founder and director of the first international photography festival the Addis Foto Fest in East Africa. Aida continues to curate and develop cultural projects with local and international institutions through her company DESTA (Developing and Educating Society Through Art) For Africa Creative Consulting PLC (DFA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Aida Muluneh is represented by David Krut Galleries (daidkrut.com), New York and South Africa.

SANLÉ SORY – exhibited in LT Steak and Seafood @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Ibrahima Sanlé Sory (Yossimilo.com) is a Burkinabe photographer born in 1943, owner of the Volta Photo studio who lives and works in Bobo-Dioulasso. He started his photographic career in Bobo-Dioulasso the very year his country became independent from France in 1960 under the name of République de Haute-Volta. Like many African photographers of his generation, he chose the 6x6 format and was privileged enough to document the fast evolution of his own city, Bobo-Dioulasso, then Haute-Volta's cultural and economic capital. He captured the frontal collision between modern life and centuriesold traditions from this culturally rich and rural region, working as a reporter, and record sleeve illustrator. He skillfully portrayed Bobo-Dioulasso's people with wit, energy and sheer passion, conveying youthful exuberance in the wake of independence, exploring the connections between tradition and modernity. Sanlé Sory is represented by Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City, where he had his first US-based solo show in April 2018, which was quickly followed by a successful show at the Art Institute of Chicago.

MARIO ALGAZE – exhibited in The Lobby Salon @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Mario Algaze (marioalgaze.com), is a contemporary Cuban-American photographer (born in 1947)whose work articulates the counter-culture of Latin America, the Caribbean and Cuba. Algaze was exiled from Cuba at the age of 13, relocating with his family to Miami, Florida. The Betsy will be exhibiting mages of rock-and-roll greats, taken when Algaze was on assignment, mostly for Zoo World, a newspaper that eventually closed. The photographs show rock legends at unguarded moments, all youthful exuberance. Though best known for his Latin American photography, Algaze started photographing the counter-cultural movement in the early 1970s. He explains that some photographers of the era took their cameras to the Vietnam War, others to the civil rights marches. “But there was a third group,” he adds, “that dropped acid and went to the music festivals with the hippie movement and free love. That would be me.” Mario Algaze is represented by Dina Mitrani Gallery, (dinamitrani.com) Miami.

KYLE MEYER – exhibited in the Lobby Salon @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Kyle Meyer (Kylemeyer.com), born in Ohio in 1980, received an MFA from Parsons The New School of Design and a BA from The City College of New York. Over the past several years, his artistic foundation in photography has been plagued with a single question: how can a digital image serve any human connection when it is entirely produced – and ubiquitously reproduced – by mechanical means (camera, computer, printer). This has led to extensive research and apprenticeship with handicraft artisans, exploring the tactile potential of photography. Throughout each successive body of work that he creates, traces of the handmade are present, be it weaving, hand-dying, or layering – all which add a form of texture, dimension, and ultimately additional meaning to my work. While this first pursuit is predominantly experimental and process driven, there is also a perpetual analytical inquiry about my own identity as a gay man and the LGBTQ communities with whom I identify. It is deeply rooted in my experience growing up in a conservative farming community in rural Ohio and subsequently through spending a significant period as an adult in Swaziland where it is illegal to be homosexual. By weaving together photographic and sculptural elements, my artwork metaphorically speaks to the human condition of seclusion, oppression, memory, and loss. It also laboriously questions the potency of digital photography by embracing the haptic qualities of craft. Kyle Meyer is represented by Yossi Milo Galleries, (yossimil.com) NYC.

MARIA MAGDALENA COMPOS-PONS – exhibited in the The Gallery Passageway @The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Born in Matanzas province in Cuba in 1959, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (Bernicesteinbaumgallery.com) bears a familial history that is intermingled with the sugar industry’s presence in her hometown of La Vega. Her roots can be traced from America, to a Cuban homeland, to the enslaved who were traded by Spanish colonists and finally back to what is today Nigeria. Her works have been exhibited in the United States, Canada, Japan, Norway, France, Italy, and Cuba. She was represented in the Johannesburg Biennial and has had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Campos-Pons’ powerful attachment to her cultural African heritage is one that she has never experienced directly but its presence in the rites and myths of her childhood make her a Cuban transplanted in the United States, an exile twice over. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’s work is autobiographical and is an investigation of history and memory, and their roles in the formation of identity. Magdalena Compos-Pons is represented by Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, (Bernicesteinbaumgallery.com) Miami.

ARIEN CHANG CASTAN - exhibited in The Semi Private Dining Room/LT Steak and Seafood @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Arien Chang Castán (arienchang.com) was born in Havana in 1979. His work has been shown in wide ranging exhibitions: Realidad Oculta (Hidden Reality), at Luz y Oficios Gallery (Havana, 2009), Long e Vidad (Longevity), at Fototeca de Cuba (Cuban Photographic Library) (Havana, 2010), and A través de mis ojos (Through my Eyes), at X88 Gallery (Sidney, 2013). He has participated in group projects such as Alfredo Sarabia in memorian (Pinar del Río, 2009), Sacrificio (Sacrifice), at Fototeca de Cuba (2009) (Cuban Photographic Library, 2009), Photo Visura Festival (New York, 2010), Borderless (11th Biennial Exhibition of Havana, 2012 Cuba Collaboration, Emerald Art Center (Oregon, 2013), Gulliver, Freies Museum Berlin (2012), El agua, lo femenino y lo masculino (The Water, The Feminine, The Masculine), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts)(La Habana, 2013), and Bi-personal Exhibition with Leysis Quesada, Calpoly University (California, 2013). He has given lectures at Cuban Ludwig Foundation (2007), at the Photography Workshop of the Cuban Writers and Artists Union (Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba) (2009/2010), to Plastic Art students at the Higher Institute of Art (Havana, 2011), at La fotografía documental en La Habana Workshop (Taller La fotografía documental en La Habana) , Santa Fe Workshop (2011/2012), to groups from National Geographic (2011/2012), at in Noviembre fotográfico (Photographic November), Fototeca de Cuba (Cuban Photographic Library) (2012). He has obtained the creation scholarships Raúl Corrales (La Habana, 2009), Red Gate Residency (Beijing, 2013), and Habana Cultura 3ra. Edición (Havana Culture 3rd Edition) (2013).

CARLOS ANDRES CRUZ – exhibited in the Underground Gallery @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Carlos Andres Cruz (lafotoperreria.com) is a dog photographer who specializes in creating images that reflect the dynamism, joy, and character of dogs in relaxed, enjoyable environments. His purpose is to learn, understand and promote his unique ‘super-chill’ approach to and style of photography – in Bogota, and around the world. His approach is open-source, and enjoys partnership from the people who mean the most to him: family members, special friends, and (of course) dogs of all shapes and sizes, wherever he can find them. Believing the dogs are the closest thing to the great creator, pure in their intension, honest, and living to serve, Carlos dedicates this show and all of his work to the global universe of dogs – from the ones we love in our own homes, to those looking for a forever home, to those that have ventured over the rainbow bride to places unknown, but who we will never forget. In every language that the word Dog is spoken … (Hond, Hund, Keley, kuttA, Kutya, Cane, inu, gae, hundr, pies, spbaka, junkel, mah, pes, Gou, Cachorro,) and in the Chinese Year of the Dog, The Betsy is exhibiting a collection of photographs that are deeply personal. Please enjoy these images of two elegant and playful Golden Retreivers - Betsy Ross and Katie Hepburn, The Betsy Hotel’s onsite Canine Executive Officers - and their sestra ‘Daisy’ who was welcomed from dog-rescue into her ‘forever home’ on July 4, 2013.

ROBERT ZUCKERMAN – exhibited in The Board Room, in halls and on walls @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER As a photographer in the motion picture industry, Robert Zuckerman’s (Robertzuckerman.com) images have become the advertising and publicity campaigns for major movie franchises. Whether on or off the set, his connection is to emotional content, to the feeling present in the subject and in the moment. Zuckerman shoots anything where there is spirit and love in the room, from the inner city to the mansions of Malibu. His book Kindsight (Kindsight Press, LLC) is a collection of photographs and accompanying texts by Zuckerman illuminating the richness of everyday life encounters and experiences. Robert Zuckerman stopped working in the film business in 2013 when he was diagnosed with Adult Polyglucosan Body Disease (see www.apbdrf.org). Currently living in Miami, he shot this collection from his hospital bed at nursing homes and hospitals through all of 2018. Robert is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the American Film Institute, and has more than 300 works at The Betsy, on permanent display.

DEBORAH WILLIS – exhibited via digital projection in The Carlton Room @ The Betsy Hotel PHOTOGRAPHER Deborah Willis (debwillisphoto.com) is a MacArthur Award-winning scholar in the investigation and recovery of the legacy of African-American photography. A historian of photography and a photographer, she brings an artist’s sensibility to her scholarly and curatorial work. She has written monographs on J. P. Ball, the nineteenth-century daguerreotypist, and James Van Der Zee, a twentieth-century chronicler of Harlem. Her other research focuses on contemporary African-American photographers. Willis has curated numerous major exhibits, including the Smithsonian exhibition Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present (2000), which unites vintage images by masters from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries with the work of contemporary figures. Her many books include Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography (1994), Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (1994, co-authored), Visual Journal: Harlem and DC in the ’30s and ’40s (1996, co-authored), A Small Nation of People: W. E. B. DuBois Portraits of Progress (2003, co-authored), and Family History Memory: Recording African American Life (2005). Willis is Chair of the Department of photography and imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

DAVID CALVER - exhibited in The Light Box Gallery @ The Betsy Hotel ILLUSTRATOR 
Dave Calver (davecalver.com), born in Rochester, NY, in 1954, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. New Yorkers are familiar with his iconic snow-people used for years to promote The Lincoln Center BID’s Annual Winter’s Eve Concert. Over the years, strap hangers’ commutes have been enlivened by Dave’s three MTA Art Posters. One of these, NYC Bling went on to receive a major Silver Medal Award from the Society of Illustrators. Calver’s artwork can be seen in Taschen’s noted book “100 Illustrators’ where he is featured among the world’s top talent. The collection exhibited at The Betsy includes work spanning the entirety of his career, including selections from his recently published graphic novel, Limbo Lounge.

FOR FREEDOMS (Co-Founded by HANK WILLIS THOMAS AND ERIC GOTTESMAN) – exhibited on The Betsy Orb PROJECT For Freedoms (forfreedoms.org) is a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms’ exhibitions, installations, and public programs use art to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values, and to advocate for equality, dialogue, and civic participation. For Freedoms aims to inject anti-partisan, critical thinking that fine art requires, into the political landscape through programming, and public artworks. In 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative: the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history. For Freedoms contains the artwork of more than 150 individuals. Adam Pendleton; AFRICA'SOUT!; Ahron Weiner; Aida Muluneh; Alfredo Jaar; Anna Avyeroff; Awol Erizku; Bayeté Ross Smith; Carlos Motta; Carrie Mae Weems; Cassils; Charlotte Woolf; Cheryl Pope; Christine Sun Kim; Christopher Myers, Community Design, SUNY Purchase; Cristina Velásquez; David Birkin; David Byrne; Deborah Willis; Deborah Kass; Demian DinéYazhi’; Derek Eley; Derrick Adams; Donald Moffett; Dread Scott; Dustin Yellin; Ebony G. Patterson; Edgar Arceneaux; EJI; Emily Hanako Momohara; Emily Jacir; Eric Gottesman; Esteban Valdés; Favianna Rodriguez, Fred Tomaselli; Gordon Parks; Gran Fury; Guerrilla Girls; Hank Willis Thomas; Harrell Fletcher; Jamila El Sahili; Jeffrey Gibson; Jeremy Dean; Jesse Williams; Jessica Ingram; Jim Goldberg; Jim Ricks; Jon Rubin; Jon Santos; José Parlá; Joy Sela; JR; Justin Brice Guariglia; Kambui Olujimi; Karen Ishizuka; Kate Gilmore; Ken Gonzales Day; Kisha Bari; La Puerta; Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel; Lorraine O'Grady; Luis Jacob; Mariam Ghani; Marilyn Minter; Mequitta Ahuja; Michael Rakowitz; Michelangelo Lovelace; Michele Pred; Michelle Angela Ortiz; Miguel Luciano; Mitch Epstein; Muna Malik; Natalie Frank; Natalie White; Paola Mendoza; Paula Crown; Peter van Agtmael; Prune Nourry; Rashid Johnson; Richard Misrach; Richard Mosse; Richard Renaldi; Ronald Rael; Sadie Barnette; Sam Durant; Sanford Biggers; Shaun Leonardo; Shinique Smith; Sol Guy; Stacey L. Kirby; Steve Lambert; Steve Locke; Stuart Sheldon; Susan Meiselas; Suzanne Lacy; Teens with a Purpose; Theaster Gates; Titus Kaphar; Tomashi Jackson; Travis Somerville; Trevor Paglen; Tuan Andrew Nguyen; Virginia San Fratello, Wendy Ewald; Wesaam Al-Badry; William Scott; Wyatt Gallery; Xaviera Simmons; Yiyo Tirado; Zoe Buckman

DR. LESLIE KING HAMMOND SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE BETSY’S VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMS Leslie King Hammond, PhD, Senior Fellow, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Dean Emerita of Graduate Studies at Maryland Institute, College of Art. She has had an extensive career consulting with artists and community arts groups – local, regional and national. Dr. Hammond has worked as Senior Advisor to The Betsy’s Visual Arts Programs since 2009 and will host all of The Betsy’s Salons for Art Basel in Miami Beach 2018.

THE GALLERY TEAM AT THE BETSY CURATORIAL/LOGISTICS/INSTALLATION Curatorial – Lesley Goldwasser, Betsy co-owner; Dr. Deborah Plutzik Briggs, VP, Arts and Community; Dr. Leslie King Hammond, Senior Visual Arts Advisor. Inventory Management and Installation services provided by Font Squared (Jean Font and Ignacio Font.

Participating Galleries/Partners: Yossi Milo Gallery (NYC), David Krut Galleries (NYC/South Africa), Dina Mitrani Gallery (Miami), and Bernice Steinbaum Gallery (Miami), and the For Freedoms Project.