paradise lost? alchemy of the everyday

Paradise Lost? Alchemy of the Everyday
^{Curated by William Cordova
Cindy Rucker Gallery, NY}

The works selected for this exhibition represent four generations of South Florida artists whose practice is informed and rooted in the geography, community, and multicultural diversity of the region. These are artists who have endured and evolved as South Florida has changed, and yet still transcend the boundaries of expectation.

The exhibition offers a glimpse into the prism of South Florida art through sculpture, painting, drawing, audio, and film. The works are derived from many different parts of the region and utilize a variety of concepts and scale. Exhibiting artists include the late Purvis Young, the first real home-grown talent whose prolific and complex work gained international critical acclaim well before the 2000s; Karen Rifas, whose expansive site-specific ephemeral installations have been a trademark and influence on the ever- evolving local scene since the 1970s; Robert Thiele, the first Florida artist to be included in the prestigious Whitney Biennial (1975); Juana Valdes, whose work has been included in various biennials, including the Havana and SITE Santa Fe Biennials. Onajide Shabaka, a visual artist, anthropologist, botanist and writer. A cultural practitioner whose artistic contributions, depth and influence in South Florida are unending. These are only a few of the many practitioners whose works will be highlighted in this glimpse of a Southern Florida collective.

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