Miami Arts: The Frost Art Museum Opens 2019 With Soul Stirring Truths of Life In America

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Category: Art, Museums, Galleries

Published on Friday, 28 December 2018 07:56

Written by Janet Walker

Two stirring photographic essayists open 2019 at the Frost Art Museum (FIU) capturing two disenfranchised groups; a family’s daily life with the catastrophic Flint Michigan Water Crisis and America’s hidden aging culture of transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Photographer and MacArthur Fellow LaToya Ruby Frazier uses the lens to document the man made catastrophic Flint Michigan Water Crisis. Photographer Jess T. Dugan and Social Worker researcher Vanessa Fabbre bring to light the aging and largely ignored disenfranchised LGBTQ community.

Thomas R. Schiff: Poetics of Distortion Two-Part Exhibition

The third show beginning February highlights the Silk Road Travels with a fresh narrative on trade, commerce and exchange with exhibits, artifacts. The exhibit is curated by Brian Dursum, Ph.D., Director Emeritus, of the Lowe Art Museum.

LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint is Family (Jan 30-Apr 14)

Explores the water crisis in Flint, Michigan and the effects on its residents.

The photographer and MacArthur Fellow spent five months with three generations of women – the poet Shea Cobb, Shea’s mother, Renée Cobb, and her daughter, Zion – living in Flint, witnessing their day to day lives as they endured one of the most devastating man-made ecological crises in U.S. history. Citing Gordon Parks’ and Ralph Ellison’s 1948 collaboration "Harlem is Nowhere" as an influence, she utilized mass media as an outlet to reach a broad audience, publishing her images of Flint in conjunction with a special feature on the water crisis in Elle magazine in 2016. Like Parks, Frazier uses the camera as a weapon and agent of social change.

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Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre: To Survive on This Shore (Jan 23-Apr 28)

Photos and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults.

Representations in our culture of transgender and gender nonconforming people who are older are nearly absent. A collaboration between photographer Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre (social worker/assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis) whose research focuses on intersections of LGBTQ issues and aging. Dugan and Fabbre traveled throughout the U.S., from coast to coast, big cities and small towns, documenting the life stories of this largely underrepresented group of older adults. Their wide variety of life narratives offer an important record of transgender experience and activism.

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Asian Crossroads: Influence and Interaction Along the Maritime Silk Road (Feb 09-May 19) 

Organized around the theme of the maritime silk road, this show provides a fresh perspective through a sweeping narrative about trade, commerce, and exchange of creative ideas throughout Asia from the 10th to 17th centuries. 

The Silk Road was an ancient land and sea route over which ideas and goods flowed. The three main sections of the exhibition focus on archaeology, trade, and belief systems, and include objects from India, China, Southeast Asia and, more broadly the archipelagos of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan. The guest curator is Brian Dursum, Ph.D., (Director Emeritus, Lowe Art Museum). During 2018, Dursum conducted extensive research about the arts of Asia collection at the Frost Art Museum FIU.

About the Frost Art Museum

One of the largest free-standing art museums in Florida, the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University was founded in 1977 and is the Smithsonian Affiliate in Miami. The museum's new lakeside building debuted in 2008, designed by Yann Weymouth (the chief of design on the I.M. Pei Grand Louvre Project). With 46,000 square feet of energy efficient exhibition, storage, and programming space, the museum was honored with LEED silver certification.  

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The museum's mission is three-fold: to be a campus resource for the entire FIU community; to offer interdisciplinary training in the arts for the next generation of artists and art historians; and to serve as a premier cultural destination for the residents of Miami, and the 15 million visitors to one of the world's most vibrant cultural destinations - home to global cultural events including Art Basel.  

The museum offers programming that complements its exhibitions with a wide range of educational initiatives. Admission to the museum is always free. The Frost is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is located at 10975 SW 17 Street. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., and Sunday noon-5:00 p.m. Closed on Mondays and most legal holidays. The Sculpture Park is open every day. More information at frost.fiu.edu.

Images Courtesy of Frost Art Museum and used with poermission.

Image1-Shea brushing Zion's teeth with bottled water in her bathroom" (2016/2017) Gelatin silver print by LaToya Ruby Frazier.

Image2-SueZie, 51, and Cheryl, 55, Valrico, FL" (2015)Pigment print © Jess T. Dugan Image courtesy of projects+gallery and Jess T. Dugan.