![]() Rangy and forbidding, they include a tangled mass of car parts, mattress coils and bicycle wheels. In the first gallery are groupings of abstract and loosely figurative sculptures by La Grande Rue artists. One foot in height, it spans some 23 feet and offers an eerie, in-your-face chronicle of storefronts both decimated and apparently somewhat intact, punctuated by piles of concrete rubble and a dislocated iron gate. Greeting visitors to the exhibit is a 2010 digital-inkjet, panoramic series of photographs, “Grand Rue after the Earthquake,” by renowned documentary photographer Maggie Steber, who has worked in Haiti for over three decades. Haiti is an evolving country with a lot of contradictions, a lot of problems, but still culture exists. ![]() “These are artists recognized on an international level. “It’s a city that has important sites of artistic production,” co-curator and Miami-based Haitian-American artist Edouard Duval-Carrié says. This art ranges from powerful and raw to delicate and exquisite, evoking complex, wrenching challenges of daily life in Port-au-Prince. With astonishing work by over 20 artists, “Potoprens” includes sculpture, photography, beaded textiles and a selection of films. ![]() Entwined with the defiant history of a country tracing its birth to a 1791 slave rebellion, Vodou is a syncretic fusion of Roman Catholicism imported by French colonizers with religious traditions brought to the colony from West Africa by slaves. Its rich visual legacy is present today in many forms throughout Haiti. This magic is intensified by the extraordinary Haitian tradition of sacred Vodou arts. It documents neighborhoods where artists persevere despite their country’s recent past of disaster and dysfunction.Īrtists create harsh magic from recycled industrial trash scavenged on the street and limestone boulders found in a river, Riviere Froide, running from mountains to the urban coast. Sheldon, MOCA, and the City can count on the continued strong support of our Department of Cultural Affairs.Pieced together as a mosaic of glitter and gritty refuse, “Potoprens: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince” at Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami charts a unique map of Haiti’s capital. I am excited that she will be dedicating her considerable talent, energy and enthusiasm to leading the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami into its next era of success in serving the City of North Miami and our entire community. “She is respected by artists and arts colleagues locally and nationally. “Chana Sheldon is an accomplished visual arts professional and has a deep knowledge of contemporary art and artists, and a passion for Greater Miami’s cultural life,” said Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. ![]() The committee, appointed by the city commission, is responsible for commissioning new public artworks by contemporary artists in all media. Sheldon started her career at Casey Kaplan, a contemporary art gallery in New York City, where she worked for seven years, ultimately becoming its director.Ī Miami Beach resident, Sheldon has served four years on the city’s Art in Public Places Committee. During her eight-year tenure there, she produced over 70 exhibitions, initiated the organization’s first public art and educational programs, and oversaw major institutional growth. Previously, Sheldon was the executive director of Locust Projects, Miami’s long running nonprofit experimental exhibition space. I am thrilled to be a part of this new chapter in MOCA’s history.” My focus as the museum’s new director will be to facilitate that engagement and foster connections between artists, the local community, and the global dialogue in contemporary art about the issues of our time. “MOCA, through its exhibitions and programming, has for decades been a key hub of cultural engagement for the local community and beyond. “Art and culture can transform lives and communities.” says Sheldon. She has directed both commercial and nonprofit exhibition spaces, and most recently served as the Miami director and national program advisor for ProjectArt, a nonprofit organization that provides free after-school art classes to underserved youth in public libraries through an artist residency program. Sheldon comes to MOCA in North Miami with 17 years’ experience in the contemporary art field. ![]()
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