The Miami Creative Movement

Extended by Popular Demand Through April 8th

On View Six More Weeks in Wynwood, at the Center for Visual Communication

Powerful New Works by 15 of Miami’s Leading Artists, Curated by Barry Fellman

Gallery installation photo at the Center for Visual Communication, (left-to-right) works by Carlos Betancourt, John Bailly, Mira Lehr, and Pablo Contrisciani. Photo by Barry Fellman, curator of the exhibition “The Miami Creative Movement.”

Due to popular demand, the Center for Visual Communication (CVC) in Wynwood is announcing the stellar exhibition featuring 15 of Miami’s leading artists – The Miami Creative Movement – will be extended through April 8th, and will remain on view for six more weeks.

The group show features powerful new works by Mira Lehr, Carlos Betancourt, Edouard Duval-Carrie, Karen Rifas, Robert Thiele, John Bailly, Asser Saint-Val, Kathleen Staples, Paola Gracey, Jacqueline Gopie, Robert McKnight, Regina Jestrow, Gustavo Oviedo, Pablo Contrisciani, and David Marsh.

There has never been a show quite like this before that succeeds in grouping together influential Miami artists of this caliber, brilliantly juxtaposed among younger generations who are now taking the baton. Some of these artists led the charge as far back as 1961, they spearheaded the role of art in Miami.

It is also rare to see a show in South Florida of bold paintings spread out over such a large gallery space. The effect on the viewer is electrifying.

Spectra II, by Paola Gracey

“The works dance with Miami’s light, colors, air, breezes, sounds, music, and life. They sing with the spirit of place that is unlike anywhere else.”

Landscape Re-Imagined, by Carlos Betancourt

“The word movement was chosen for the title of this exhibition to celebrate the deep well of talent that is cycling again now, as the foundation of our push forward during this critical time in Miami’s history,” says Barry Fellman, the Curator of this group show and the CVC’s Executive Director.

“These works were created by the artists during the last two years, during the time COVID has challenged us to reinvent and rethink, to come out of this dark era with new approaches to daily life. They signal a creative response to the isolating circumstances and inward-looking realm we are slowly emerging from,” adds Fellman.

Early Spring, by Mira Lehr

“The paintings are infused with the qualities of the Miami environment and move with the rhythms of the city.”

The CVC’s exhibitions thrive from the spatial luxury of large, open gallery space. Works are presented around a wide, unobstructed area. This alternative use of gallery space presents art in a more expansive manner than other venues in Miami.

“The paintings are infused with the qualities of the Miami environment and move with the rhythms of the city,” says Fellman. “Each work is energetic yet contemplative, arising from the mature creative vision that each artist has taken,” says Fellman. “The works dance with Miami’s light, colors, air, breezes, sounds, music, and life. They sing with the spirit of place that is unlike anywhere else.”

0807, by Karen Rifas

The photography book that launched alongside this exhibition features 200 images of Miami’s arts scene taken by Fellman, the nationally acclaimed photographer, and curator.

His new art book is entitled Miami Creative: A Decade of Transformation and chronicles a pivotal decade in Miami’s arts and culture, featuring essays by Alberto Ibargüen (the President/CEO of the Knight Foundation) and Jordan Levin (arts writer), with contributions by Dr. Carol Damian.

To see their work, and to read more about each of the artists presented in the exhibition The Miami Creative Movement, visit the following pages:

Extended by Popular Demand Through April 8th

The Miami Creative Movement

On View Six More Weeks in Wynwood, at the Center for Visual Communication

The Arrival I and II, by Mira Lehr

About the New Photography Book by Barry Fellman

The back cover of the new photography book Miami Creative: A Decade of Transformation, by Barry Fellman

The more than 200 photographs by Barry Fellman in his new book Miami Creative: A Decade of Transformation capture a decade of artistic growth in Miami, the financial likes of which most cities never experience in their entire history – a time of transformational public funding and major private donations for the arts.

“Through his camera lens and the pages of his book, Barry Fellman takes us on a photo safari across Miami’s cultural terrain, during one of the most pivotal decades in Miami’s storied history – when a civic belief that culture is vital to our city meant transformational financial investment in the arts,” says Alberto Ibargüen, President/CEO of Knight Foundation.

“Launching this book alongside a group exhibition of artists who have so greatly impacted Miami’s cultural trajectory is like the stars aligning right before our very eyes,” adds Alberto Ibargüen.

Nebula Dreams, by Gustavo Oviedo

About Barry Fellman

A Miami native, Barry Fellman has served as the Director of the Center for Visual Communication since 1991.

Francisco and Diego, by John Bailly

Prior to this, he served as Curator of Photography for the Metropolitan Museum and Art Center in Miami (the predecessor to PAMM). He is the artist/photographer of the new book Miami Creative: A Decade of Transformation, and is the curator of the new exhibition The Miami Creative Movement the Center for Visual Communication.

Fellman’s history in the art world goes back more than 30 years, in both Miami and New York. Fellman is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in New York; a Miami-Dade Art in Public Places Grant; and a City of New York Artists Space Grant. He attended Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Unadulterated Magic, by Pablo Contrisciani

Barry Fellman has curated major exhibitions by: Berenice Abbott; Carlos Amorales; Richard Avedon; Lluis Barba; Wynn Bullock; Clyde Butcher; Richard Diebenkorn; Lewis Hine; William Gottlieb; David Hockney; Diane Keaton; Andre Kertesz; Clarence Laughlin; Robert Motherwell; Renate Ponsold; Robert Rauschenberg; Aaron Siskind, and more.

Fellman spearheaded a Miami Masters Series of exhibitions, featuring the work of Darby Bannard, Eugene Massin, Andrew Morgan, and Bunny Yeager. For several years in New York, Fellman programmed the art gallery on the ground floor of the Deutsche Bank building in New York, across from the Museum of Modern Art.

ISPAKOTV NGY EWHR, I have allowed you to perform your task!, by Asser Saint-Val

Fellman’s work as a photographer is represented in nationally recognized public and private collections, including American Express, NY; JP Morgan Chase, NY; Center for Creative Photography, AZ; Credit Suisse, MA; Miami-Dade Art in Public Places; Morgan Stanley, NY; and RISD Museum.

His public commissions and installations include the Henry Street Settlement, NY; the U.S. National Park Service; the eMerge Americas Conference; Locust Projects; the Miami-Dade Parks Department, and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, among others.

Fellman’s solo exhibitions of his photography include the Miami Center for Architecture and Design; Art Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Coral Gables Museum; Locust Projects; Tropical Audubon Society; Frost Art Museum FIU; Museum of Art and Design at Miami-Dade College; Miami Science Museum; the Wirtz Gallery; Vizcaya Museum and Gardens; the Puchong Gallery in New York; the Bates Art Resource Center in Boston; the Joseph Dee Museum in San Francisco, and the Woods-Gerry Gallery in Rhode Island.

Freedom to Be, by Jacqueline Gopie

About the Center for Visual Communication

Since 1987, the Center for Visual Communication has organized and presented museum-quality exhibition programs of visual art and new media. Exhibitions are presented at its permanent location, and at other public locations in collaboration with governmental, educational, and non-profit organizations.

To accommodate its expanding programs, the CVC relocated to a newly renovated 10,000-square-foot space in the Wynwood Arts District in 2007. Exhibitions at its new location have included comprehensive retrospectives of works by Clyde Butcher, master of the Florida Landscape; Clarence Laughlin, father of American surrealism; Robert Rauschenberg, one of the most important artists and innovators of the 20th century, and the Fiftieth Anniversary exhibition of legendary NY printmaking studio ULAE.

The Rauschenberg show is currently on tour at museums in South America. The CVC has established a multimedia, electronic imaging program as a resource for visual and performing artists. The program supports the use of electronic and computer technology for the creation of visual art, performance and new media.

Evening Harmony, by Kathleen Staples

Americana Quilt 72, by Regina Jestrow