The future and the past are one: Onajide Shabaka

This project addresses a speculative space through the environment of the Indian River Lagoon. What did La Florida look like before the colonial era? What did the mangrove estuary mean to my family that moved to Florida in the 1920s?

Artist Bio:
Onajide Shabaka, is an interdisciplinary cultural practitioner and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. Shabaka was awarded an MFA from Vermont College of the Fine Arts and represented by Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Florida.
Through a well developed research based walking practice working both outdoors and in the studio where I explore the environment and its biology allowing site specific histories to reveal untold or hidden narratives.
Recent solo exhibitions: “On the edge of tomorrows…,” Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Florida, 2022; “Alosúgbe: a journey across time,” Emerson Dorsch, Miami, Florida, 2019. Group exhibitions: “On Samara’s Wing,” Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery, Pembroke Pines, Florida, 2021; “Still Life,” The Franklin Outdoors, Chicago, Illinois, 2022. Onajide Shabaka has been artist in residence at Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; Resident artist in Everglades National Park, Florida; IS Projects Bookmaking Residency, Miami, Florida. Shabaka’s work is in the collections including Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, Opa Locka Executive Airport, Florida; Florida and Oolite Arts Ellies Grant, Miami, Florida.