Exhibition
Natural Transcendence
928 Gallery
928 Gallery
Participating Artists:
Adler Guerrier
Megan McLarney
Colleen Plumb
Anastasia Samoylova
Jennifer Steinkamp
Wendy Wischer
Antonia Wright
Curated by Rhonda Mitrani
This exhibition is open by appointment to ensure the safety of our visitors. Please schedule your appointment here. All visitors must follow Oolite’s COVID safety guidelines.
A color stands abroad
on solitary fields
that science cannot overtake
but human nature feels.
-Excerpt from “A Light Exists in Spring” (1891) by Emily Dickinson
This group show presents works that reflect an ethereal sensibility toward nature. During a time when we were forced to stay home, away from public spaces and other people, the relationship between humans and nature shifted, causing a NATURAL TRANSCENDENCE, and a renewed sense of gratitude for the natural elements that surround us.
The exponential rate of infusion of industry and technology into human existence has created a way of life centered on busy routines in an urban culture that has segregated humanity from nature. The pandemic served as a disruptor to the societal distractions that perpetuated this way of life and provided humanity with the opportunity to re-integrate with nature. Humans began experiencing nature’s elevated effects after this period of confinement, creating daily rituals with their own green landscape. These natural environments become places where we feel a sense of spirituality, creating a deeper connection to oneself, creating a Natural Transcendence.
The lens-based artists in this exhibition have been exploring the intersection between humanity and nature even prior to the pandemic, but it is in this time of quarantine and uncertainty that some revisited these natural spaces with a new perspective, not just in vast terrains, but in domesticated landscapes, which include parks, bodies of water, quiet walks down their sidewalk and their own Backyard.
Through video or photography, these artist provides a visual literacy in their artistic practice by embedding themselves in the landscape or becoming a silent observer, but together they reveal the critical importance of nature in the life of humans, specifically the spiritual, emotion, physical and mental health of human beings.
By fusing themselves into the natural world, these artists give us a chance to feel this Natural Transcendence not just as the sublime or a sense of awe but perhaps as a wake-up call.
About the Curator:
Raised by Cuban and Argentinean parents, Rhonda Mitrani left Miami for the University of Michigan and landed a job in post-production for Miramax Films, New York. She worked as film editor for independent film and television, and her work was seen in festivals like LAIFF and aired on Showtime and HBO Latino. She directed her first documentary, CUBA MIA, which premiered with Miami International Film Festival and broadcast on PBS.
Mitrani is also a video artist, whose exhibits include Dot Fifty One Gallery, Wynwood Art Fair, The Girl’s Club Collection, TRIAD, London, and a solo show at the Boca Museum of Art with her collaborative RPM Project.
In 2013 Mitrani opened The Screening Room to curate and cultivate a new-media exhibition and project space in Miami. The multi-disciplinary space is dedicated to motion-picture which includes video art exhibitions, film workshops and lectures, screenings and space for filmmakers and video artists to work. TSR Miami is a two-time recipient of the Knight Foundation Arts Challenge grant.
Mitrani wrote, co-produced and directed SUPERMARKET, a short inspired by her experiences with pregnancy, executive produced by Killer Content. She recently finished a short doc for LPB called STILL STANDING. She is currently writing a feature and developing a new center for film/video and photography in Little River with her sister Dina Mitrani.
Monday—Sunday:
12—5 pm
928 Lincoln Rd.
Miami, FL 33139