Diaspora Vibe in collaboration with MDC Art Gallery Systems & MDC Live! Performing Arts Seriesat the Miami-Dade Freedom Tower presents
Milagros: Portal Culture
Opening Reception: Thurs, 6.28.12, 6 – 9pm
Live performance opening night only!!
Artist Talk Friday, 6.29.12, 1:00 pm
Felici Asteinza, whose one week NPN/VAN community residency is June 24 – 30, 2012 will create Milagros: Portal Culture, presenting a series of community partnership projects and programs, including a collaborative community-making | collecting project where artists and musicians guide participants through creation and collection of art and sound. Working with her artist group Alvin Fillastre, Evan Galbicka and Elestial Sound, visitors to MDC Art Gallery System at the Freedom Tower will experience firsthand the process and creation of building the installation performance space, culminating in an on-site one-night only artist musician performance.
Felici’s artwork explores the ritualistic nature of creating. These multi-layered collages are embedded with re-discovered residue from the artist’s studio as well as images reflecting anxieties and greed. Elaborate, precise lines become the glue between elements, creating a rhythmic, activated field.
Elestial Sound Records is a sustainable record label run by solar panels in the northern California mountains, also supporting an abundance of cutting-edge musicians from Florida. Their music plays while the installation is created, making a truly collaborative venture between visual and music arts. The Freedom Tower’s architecture has guided this site-specific installation.
The performance will only take place during the opening reception, from 6 – 9 pm at the MDC Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Blvd, 3rd floor. “I use the architecture as an obliteration point by creating visual disruptions, distorting the known conventions of buildings. I’m interested in the viewer’s disorientation and the moments occurring in the image and space translation. Creating a fantastical environment allows the them to experience elevated freedom and experimentation levels”.
About Felici Asteinza
Felici’s paintings reflect the bizarre Florida landscape through the lens of a psychedelic, tropical, Catholic guilt trip. In 2009 she was selected as Leon County’s Hispanic Heritage artist, exhibiting in the Mary Brogan Museum of Art in Tallahassee, FL. She has always been heavily engaged with her communities; from 2009 – 2010 she ran the collective space MILAGROS where monthly events and workshops were open to the public with attendance ranging in the thousands. She also co-founded The Church of Holy Colors in Gainesville, FL with Joey Fillastre and Evan Galbicka. The Church continues to the present with the love and help of an always-expanding network of Floridian artists and musicians. Asteinza is currently attending the University of South Florida where she is a candidate for MFA status in 2013. Felici is Honduran born to Cuban and Mexican parents. She presently lives in Tampa and Gainesville, Florida.
About Diaspora Cultural Arts Incubator
Located in Miami, Diaspora Vibe is an NPN/VAN partner. Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator promotes, nurtures and cultivates the vision and diverse talents of emerging artists from the Latin and Caribbean Diasporas through an artist-in-residence program, international exchanges, community arts events and a dynamic exhibition program. Founded by its current Executive Director/Curator, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Diaspora Vibe is celebrating sixteen years.
The Caribbean Crossroads Series (CCS) is an ongoing series of community exhibitions and events since 1999. The CCS was created specifically to address the need for new and emerging black and Hispanic artists of Caribbean and Latin American backgrounds to bring their works, talents, and visions to the attention of South Florida’s various cross-cultural communities.
The MDC Art Gallery System is a network of venues and initiatives at the College’s campuses located throughout South Florida, including AGS’s flagship exhibition venue, the historic Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College in downtown Miami. MDC’s Art Gallery System has more than 15,000 running feet of exhibition space in its network of galleries and public art spaces, making it one of the largest and most diverse institutions in the country devoted to the visual arts. Jeremy M. Mikolajczak, Ex. Dir, Wanda Texon, Assoc. Dir. for Curatorial Affairs http://www.mdc.edu/ags/
MDC Live! Performing Arts Series is an initiative of Miami Dade College’s Cultural Affairs Department with a more than 20-year legacy of bringing unique, diverse performances from around the world to South Florida. Behind the scenes, the Series provides master classes by visiting artists, an essential component of the College’s mission to not only present the best in the arts, but also foster future artists and audiences through meaningful educational experiences. Kathryn Garcia, Ex. Dir http://www.mdc.edu/main/mdclive
Sponsored by the National Performance Network (NPN) Visual Artists Network (VAN) funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, partnered with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Inc. http://www.npnweb.org
The Visual Artists Network (VAN) Exhibition Residency Program is designed to offer individual visual artists and artist collectives the opportunity to travel in the U.S. and exhibit their work in a one-week residency. Distinct as a touring program, VAN Exhibition Residencies emphasize travel and community engagement to support artists in overcoming economic barriers and geographic isolation, to connect with peers and audiences outside of their studios and home communities. http://www.npnweb.org
Diaspora Vibe Virtual Gallery | www.diasporavibevirtualgallery.com | 786.536.7801 | diasporavibe@yahoo.com | www.mdc.edu/ags • 305.237.7700 | http://www.mdc.edu/main/mdclive 305.237.3010 | http://www.npnweb.org | http://www.warholfoundation.org
