Four Decades Of Oolite Artists Featured In 'It Was Always About You' Exhibit
A piece of pottery by the late Ellie Schneiderman stands in the center of the Oolith Art Gallery on Lincoln Road for her "It's Always Been About You" summer exhibition. . .
The clay pot stands on a pedestal, evoking a double meaning.
Schneiderman's legacy rightfully occupies a pedestal in the annals of Miami fine art. The visionary artist founded the Art Center of South Florida on Lincoln Road in 1983 after convincing the Miami Beach Commission to accept an offer to purchase three lots on the street for grants. His idea was to provide art studios and exhibition space at a low cost.
In an audio tribute released in honor of Schneiderman, who passed away on April 18, 2020 at the age of 80, the art pioneer paid tribute to the center's foundation, which is creating lasting change on Lincoln Road by stimulating careers and camaraderie among artists. . , in addition to the revival of the area itself.
“I applied for a scholarship,” the artist explains. He got it after he approached the Miami Beach City Commission with the idea of creating an urban artists' colony. The city approved $62,000 ... and that allowed me to charge four dollars a square foot ... An artist once tried by a jury could tell me how many feet he could afford.
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It's Always Been About You...which opens Wednesday, July 12th and ends Sunday, September 17th, featuring over 40 artists involved in four decades of Oolite Arts in Miami Beach.
“It makes sense for Eli to be at the center of the show,” says Laura Guerrero, Oolite Arts program coordinator, who, along with Dennis Scholl, the association’s president and CEO since 2017, curated the group show. When we asked to be part of the Can Be program, I was so impressed with the long standing community Ellie has built. It was clear that this was important not only for her, but for everyone around her.
Scholl has a bittersweet nostalgia for "Always Was About You." . ". This will be the last exhibition he is organizing at Oolite Arts - he will retire at the end of the summer to focus on his own artistic practice.
“His motto has always been to help artists help themselves, and when Laura and I started talking about this show, we almost immediately agreed that it all started with Eli, and it’s important for him to give him credit,” Scholl explains.
The Arts Center of South Florida, now ArtCenter/South Florida, sold its landmark building at 800 Lincoln Road for $88 million in 2014. The proceeds from the sale helped the organization grow. Then, in 2019, when it was announced that the center would eventually move to Miami's Little River neighborhood, where a new $30 million 26,850-square-foot campus was under construction, ArtCenter/South Florida became Oolite Arts. It continues to host artists and create art programs at 924 Lincoln Road.
“This exhibition,” says Guerrero, “is about art, community and intimacy. It's about exploring the relationships of the artists that were part of the development, the relationships that formed between the arts, and the impact that Oolite had on them and their careers.
Louis Gisper, one of the artists featured in It's Always Been About You, had a studio at the Arts Center in South Florida for several years in the 1990s.
“At that time, the Miami art scene was not as big as it is today. There were few places for young artists to go out and do something. We were a group of twenty year olds. “Some artists, like William Cordova and John Espinosa, were always looking for more,” says Gispert, who Scholl says was one of the artists he first considered for a group show.
“There are people like Luis who have quite a long creative career. I wanted this exhibition to showcase the work of people who care about Oolite and appreciate Oolite,” says Scholl.
When he called Gispert and asked if he would be in the group show, Scholl said he had a special request. "I asked him to lend us one of my favorite pieces." Hispert answered in the affirmative.
In 2001, Gispert began documenting the iconic Miami "Chong" girls in her Cheerleaders photography series, which received critical acclaim and elevated Chong's image to art. His 2002 digital video "Blockwatching", part of the "Miami Culture" series, will be featured in Oolite: Miami girl Chonga sits in a green room and dances to a car alarm like a techno beat.
When Gispert thinks about the current Miami art scene compared to when she was at the Art Center studio, she says, “It's day and night. There was no place for the show. There were no galleries, no collectors who could buy something. You couldn't make a living.
Frances Trombley, another It's Always Been About You artist. . ". In 2019, I spent a year as an oolite artist in residence. Then, in 2022, Trombley received one of the Oolite Arts Home + Away Scholarships to spend five weeks at Artpace in San Antonio, which changed my life not only because of his work, but also his family.
“I was able to take my daughter (Penelope) and husband (artist Leiden Rodriguez-Casanova) with me. “I am rarely at home with my family and my daughter is by my side,” says Trombley. “As a mother, it would be difficult for me to give up the role of guardian for a month. Oolite understood my needs. We need just such a mindset: organizations that meet artists where they are.
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Trombley also received the Ellie Creator Award from Oolite Arts (named after founder Schneiderman) for creating large-scale works that explore fabrics and their relationship to color. The work he presents at the summer exhibition is one of the smallest in the series created for the award.
“They supported me for a long time,” says Trombley.
She co-founded Dimensions Variable, an alternative art space in Miami, with Rodriguez-Casanova in 2009, and says her time at Oolite has also influenced the way she approaches her work.
“We see in them a far-sighted social organization. We have a lot of influences and this is definitely an inspiring place,” he says.
The title of the show refers to Trombley talking about Oolite. Scholl explains that he wanted to find a name for the program that would distinguish the group program from anything the organization had done before. And that led to the idea that Oolite would put artists at the center of its mission from day one.
“It's always important to be there for them,” says Scholl. "It's always and always been about artists."
Artists exhibiting with Trombley and Hispert include Michael Loveland, John Sanchez, Alette Simmons-Jiménez, Regina Yestrow, William Osorio, Jamie Gershen, Baron Scherer, Amanda Bradley, Carlos Betancourt, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Pablo Cantricani, Laura Marsh, Vicki Pierre. , TES, Tom Virgin, Chir Regans, Ahol Sniffs Glue, Roska Tiki, James Herring, Christina Petterson, Emma Rhee, T. Elliot Manso, Lou Ann Kolodny, Mariel Plaisir, Cara Despain, Diana Eusebio, Jen Clay, Kelly Breeze, Hermane Barnes, Rose Marie Cromwell, Juan Luis Matas, Beatriz Monteavaro, Gavin Perry, Thomas Beals, Rafael Domenech, Mark Cowan, Matthew Forehand, Ernesto Arosa, Carolina Sardi, Agustin Woodgate, Kristen Thiele, Michael Vasquez, Robert Thiele and Reginald O'Neill .
What: it was always about you
OR: Gallery 924, Oolite Arts, 924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach
When: Opening Wednesday, July 12th. From 18:00 to 20:00 until Sunday, September 17.
Opening hours daily from 12:00 to 17:00.
Price: free
Information: 305-674-8278 or oolitearts.org
