Sacred Grove: Interpreting our Nature, a two-person exhibition
featuring works by Miami artists Lea Nickless and Xavier Cortada, will
open on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 with a reception from 6 – 10 pm. The
reception is free and open to the public. The exhibition will take place
at Xavier Cortada Studio, 104 SW 9th Street, Street Level/East Side. For a
map go to
http://www.cortada.com/map.htm.
The exhibition will remain in place
through January 8 and is available by appointment or on December 2 and 3
from 2 – 6 pm and December 4 and 5 from noon - 4 pm.
Sacred Grove will feature large-scale paintings and other works that are
inspired by Florida’s mangrove forests. Florida’s abundant natural beauty
is all around us -- large clear skies, exquisite beaches and subtropical
lushness. Less understood and accessible are the mangrove forests that
line our coastal regions. Yet the mangrove is critical in the evolution
of the peninsula we call home. A land builder, the mangrove’s aerial
roots collect quantities of drifting debris and organic matter, gradually
extending the shoreline.
Urban life at the beginning of the twenty-first century encourages an
increasing disconnection from nature. We live in climate-controlled
concrete structures, seldom feeling the earth in our hands or remembering
that the land where we stand was once a mangrove forest or a woodland
hammock. In Sacred Grove, Cortada and Nickless capture and celebrate an
essence of their physical world and by so doing, connect viewers back to
nature’s nurturing energy.
The mangrove also serves as a metaphor for Miami and those who live here.
Stated Cortada, “the mangrove roots symbolize the residents who have set
roots and built community. They also speak to our interconnectedness -- by
reaching out to others, we build a stronger community, much like the
walking feet of mangrove roots do to build formidable structures and
nurture new life.”
Additionally, the natural world “holds a key to our connection to the
divine,” stated Lea Nickless. “My work for this exhibition is based on the
idea that the divine is present in nature and her cycles. And that we are
part of those cycles – a sacred connection.”
Xavier Cortada, a Miami-based Cuban-American artist, attorney and
activist, has exhibited his works in museums, galleries, and cultural
venues around the world and has pioneered the use of the Internet in
collaborative art-making. He has been commissioned to create art for The
White House, The World Bank, Nike, HBO, Global Health Council and Miami
Art Museum. His web site (http://www.cortada.com)
displays some of his artwork and contains information on the various
projects in which he is involved.
Lea Nickless is a painter, bookmaker and photographer who lives and works
in Miami. She has also worked for more than twenty years in the field of
arts administration for various institutions including work for Miami-Dade
Art in Public Places, The Wolfsonian-FIU, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, and
Miami-Dade College. This is her first exhibition in Miami. For more
information, go to
www.leanickless.com.
Images attached in jpeg format. For additional images or for more
information, contact Lea Nickless at 305-903-8988.
###