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Miami Beach Celebrates a Century of Art Deco Influence

Miami Beach Celebrates a Century of Art Deco Influence
Miami Beach Celebrates a Century of Art Deco Influence

Miami Beach Celebrates a Century of Art Deco Influence

— The new outdoor exhibit is set to open on June 12 in Lummus Park —

The City of Miami Beach invites you to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 1925 Paris expo that introduced art deco to the world and heralded the golden age of tropical art deco in Miami Beach with a new outdoor exhibit, “100 Years of Art Deco: A World Celebration in Miami Beach.”

A grand opening event will be held on Thursday, June 12 at 6 p.m. in Lummus Park at the Galería Ocean Drive, located at 1101 Ocean Drive. The display features over 160 art deco images, including photos from around the world and images highlighting Miami Beach’s unique tropical style.

“As we mark 100 years since Art Deco first captured the world’s imagination, this outdoor exhibit reminds us why Miami Beach’s architectural legacy is worth protecting,” said Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner. “Our city’s historic Art Deco district isn’t just a local treasure — it’s an international landmark that reflects both our past and our identity.”

Curated by the Office of Mayor Steven Meiner and Commission, the exhibit takes visitors on a journey through art deco, exploring its influence on interior design, fashion, graphic design and modern design — all featured on 34 weatherproof panels displayed in Lummus Park. The free exhibition will also feature several Instagrammable installations.

Over the course of seven months, the exhibition will also include community-led art deco related cultural events at Galeria Ocean Drive. The first event, scheduled during the June 19 Culture Crawl, is the Art Deco Soirée hosted by Interim Director George Neary of the Miami Design Preservation League.

“This new exhibit is a testament to Miami Beach’s dedication to preserving and celebrating our unique architectural heritage,” added Neary.“We’re thrilled to partner on this initiative and to join the global art deco centennial celebration — further solidifying Miami Beach as one of the world’s premier deco destinations.”

The Galería serves as a year-round exhibit space with rotating exhibits that celebrate Miami Beach’s rich history and cultural heritage. The art deco exhibit will run through January 2026. For more information, please visit www.miamibeachfl.gov/galeria.

Location:
Lummus Park, between 11 and 12 streets along Ocean Drive, Miami Beach

Cost:
Free

Hours:
From sunrise to sunset

Parking:
Limited public on-street parking and garages.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

In Search of Stanley Brouwn

In Search of Stanley Brouwn
In Search of Stanley Brouwn

In Search of Stanley Brouwn

With the sad news of Stanley Brouwn’s passing, aged 81, we revisit our feature on the elusive artist

BY Oscar van den Boogaard in Features | 12 MAR 14

He never shows up at openings; there are very few catalogues that include images of his work, let alone his portrait. True to the spirit of 1960s conceptualism, his work is about dematerialization, the impersonal as part of the creative process and the disappearance of the author. Where is Stanley Brouwn?

During the writing of this essay, everyone I ask to put me in touch with him – gallerists, collectors, artist friends – also suddenly seems to vanish into thin air, as though they too are accomplices in the great disappearing act that ensures the artist stays invisible, so that the work can remain abstract and unburdened with what is irrelevant: its mortal maker.

The extraordinary thing is that, as I look for Brouwn, I catch myself out: I discover I don’t really want to find out who he is. This realization comes from a deep respect for his artistic choice to remain invisible and from a reverence for the concept of privacy in general that, nowadays, is being so forcefully eroded. Privacy is disappearing from our world not only because governments, corporations and citizens are so unabashedly nosy, but because individuals – in the age of Facebook, Instagram and soul-bearing television talk shows – no longer seem to feel the need for privacy. For many in the 21st century, privacy is regarded as a terrifying prison in which you are forced to wallow in your own solitude. Privacy is seen as a form of non-existence. We display ourselves to others and do not wish for one moment to be lost from view, to be alone for an instant.

Not so Stanley Brouwn: he is the man who wishes to remain invisible. And yet, thanks to the few details that are known about him, he has attained an almost mythical status. He was born in 1935 in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname. The smallest country in South America, Suriname lies on the continent’s north-eastern Atlantic coast, between Guyana, French Guiana and Brazil.

-BROUWNTOYS-4000-AD-1964-artist-book-Archiv-Marzona-Berlin
BROUWNTOYS 4000 AD, c. 1964, artist book, 11 × 11 cm. Courtesy: Archiv Marzona, Berlin; photograph: Nadja Vogel

Coincidentally, I grew up in Suriname during the second half of the 1960s. To me, in retrospect, it is a paradise. Four times larger than the Netherlands, of which it is a former colony, it consists mainly of Amazon rainforest and has barely half a million inhabitants. Until its inde­pend­ence in 1975, the country’s flag displayed five stars connected by an ellipse. The stars represented the various ethnic groups that were supposedly peacefully coexisting there. As I recall it, the yellow star symbolized the Chinese, the brown star the Hindus, the red star the indigenous population and the black one the Creole people. ‘Oscar,’ my black nanny would ask me, ‘what is the white star for?’ And my answer would be forthright: ‘White is for the people.’ Like all other colonies, of course, Suriname was governed by white oppressors.

Candide, the central character in Voltaire’s eponymous novella, visits Suriname during the enlightenment. ‘We have arrived at the end of our difficulties and the beginning of our happiness!’ Candide’s valet, Cacambo, cries out when he catches his first glimpse of Suriname. Close to Paramaribo, Candide sees a black man lying on the ground; the poor man is missing a left leg and a right hand. ‘Oh God!’ Candide says to him in Dutch. ‘What are you doing there, little friend, in that terrible state?’ ‘I am waiting here for my master,’ the man answers. ‘Is he the one who has done this to you?’ Candide asks. ‘Yes, sir,’ says the man, ‘It is the custom …’ Candide breaks down as he contemplates his pitiful state. He relinquishes his optimism and enters Suriname in tears.

According to his scant biography, Brouwn came to Amsterdam from Suriname in 1957. His fellow artist friend Armando introduced him to the Zero movement, a group of artists who rejected the evident authorial signature. Brouwn’s first works, dating from that time, which he later destroyed, were transparent polythene bags filled with all sorts of rubbish and hung from the ceiling. The work consisted of the visible content of the bag and nothing else. The pieces he actually considers to be his first works were ones he didn’t make himself: instead, he laid paper sheets on the street and an unsuspecting cyclist or pedestrian created the art work as they cycled or walked over them. Without realizing it, the passers-by became anonymous partners in these works capturing movement and time. Through participation, Brouwn placed the act of creation into the hands of others and subsequently erased, in a certain sense, his own artisthood.

Later, in the early 1960s, Brouwn would approach random pedestrians and ask them to draw directions to a particular place on a piece of paper. Using a stamp that said ‘This way Brouwn’ he would then imprint each drawing with its hallmark, like an eager neurotic bureaucrat, creating works that were simultaneously personal and abstract. Blank pages on which passers-by hadn’t drawn anything because they didn’t know the way were also considered art works, since Brouwn felt the whiteness precisely captured the participants’ abstract thought processes. The traces of footsteps and the directions on the ‘This way Brouwn’ works may well have been the starting point for the artist’s fascination with walking.

an-imaginary-column-of-30-feet-on-place-guillaume-in-luxembourg-2001-artist-book-casino-luxembourg
an imaginary column of 30 feet on place guillaume in luxembourg, 2001, artist book, Casino Luxembourg, 16 × 16 cm. Courtesy: Archiv Marzona, Berlin; photograph: Nadja Vogel

Walking is a way of becoming unstuck from yourself, of merging with your environment: the boundary between yourself and the environ­ment is relinquished. A cosmic unity is restored. It is about a dematerialization of the self, disso­lu­tion into space, becoming part of the geography. In the meantime, you shape something new; you become movement, measure, scale, direction, dimension and space. The obsession with precision leads further away from the self. From the 1970s onwards, like a nerdy rambler gone adrift, Brouwn recorded his own footsteps in various cities on index cards that he then stored in grey metal filing cabinets. In these works, personal experience becomes objectified and the subject dissolves. Autobiography is measured, quantified and made impersonal. You could call it a form of subli­mation. From the moment he first made those pieces, the artist’s own absence has been a distinguishing element in his work.

‘To dazzle by absence’ is a Dutch expression. It means that by being absent, you are all the more present. Does this apply to Brouwn? Or to his contemporary On Kawara, perhaps, who never makes public appearances and who communicates with the world via telegrams and postcards? However, whereas Kawara uses his own life as subject matter in his messages, such as ‘I am still alive’, Brouwn never adopts the first person in his work.

I am doing something that I really shouldn’t. On the-artists.org, a website dedicated to artists working since 1900, we can find a simple black and white passport-sized photograph of Brouwn. It is 444 × 595 pixels. For an artist who does not want photographs of himself or his works to be published, this is at the very least a provocation. We do not see much of him: the overexposed face of a balding man. From his features you can deduce that he is a Surinamer, probably belonging to the brown or black star of the flag. On the photograph, he is not so much pale as blank. He is wearing glasses and sports a thick, black moustache. He appears to be looking up, his gaze focused on infinite space beyond the camera. The pixels part and emptiness sets in.

In Wim Beeren’s book Action, Reality and Fiction in the Art of the 1960s in The Netherlands (1979), despite my best intentions, I discover a couple more photographs of the artist. We can see Brouwn during the enactment of a work from the ‘This way Brouwn’ series in Amsterdam in 1961. The slim artist looks on, with his hands in the pockets of his long, light raincoat, as a man in a suit scribbles on a piece of paper. In another photograph, we see Brouwn standing in front of a shoe shop window. A few women’s shoes can be made out in the shop window behind his right shoulder. It becomes clear that the first portrait was a crop of this image.

In catalogues for group exhibitions in which the artist participates, he is also consistently absent and his contribution is only ever a blank page. What could that blankness mean? A blank is something that is empty, something not filled in. Blank can mean everything and it can mean nothing at the same time. Blankness can stand for infinity, for every possibility. Blankness leaves everything open and admits everything. Blankness also stands for a refusal to speak. That which could be detrimental to meaning is left unsaid. It is the choice of not choosing: a precise way of saying that which is inexplicable and transcends language.

afghanistan-zambia-1971-artist-book
afghanistan – zambia, 1971, artist book, Gegenverkehr e.V. Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst, Aachen, 14 × 21 cm. Courtesy: Archiv Marzona, Berlin; photograph: Nadja Vogel

In the same book, I find another photograph of Brouwn, dated August 1964. The artist is standing in the window of an antiques shop, where Gallery Amstel was located. An anonymous per­for­mance by Brouwn is taking place there, on a Saturday. He uses objects that are to hand. Wearing a raincoat and a bag over his head, Brouwn steps onto the table. As he covers his head and chest with newspapers, he holds up wads of paper against the shop window. He takes off his shoes and lays them on the table. He picks up an axe and uses it to make chopping movements in the direction of one of the shoes. Clutching newspapers under his arms, he presses the shoe up to his left ear.

Here is another photograph with rounded edges. It has the shape of an old television screen. It’s taken from the Dutch art television programme Signalement from 29 December 1963. We see Brouwn during View of a City in 24 Hours (1963). The accompanying description says he laid sheets of paper on the street before returning later to collect the ‘trodden on’ pages.

In addition to these photographs we have an account. In 1964, at the Patio Gallery in Neu-Isenburg, an art happening took place in which Brouwn wore a bag over his head and sat still on a chair that he had put on a pedestal in the corner of the gallery. Is a man with a bag on his head a man without a face? He is, in any case, an artist on a pedestal. He is presently absent.

I am reminded of the Chinese parable that the German philosopher Rüdiger Safranski describes in Wieviel Wahrheit braucht der Mensch? (How Much Truth Do We Need?, 1990). It is about an artist who disappears into his own painting. Devoting himself for years to a single work, the painter has grown old and lonely. When the work is finally finished, he invites the few friends he still has to see it. They gather around the painting, which depicts a park and a narrow road leading to a house on a hill. Just as the guests have formed their opinions about the work and turn to share them with the painter, they realize he is no longer there. They look at the painting and see him walking up the road towards the house and opening the door; he turns around one more time, takes leave of his friends and goes inside, closing the door behind him. Such an act of introversion signifies separating yourself from the others. For those who stay behind, that disappearance is a kind of death. Yet, as conveyed by Safranski, this story says something about a homecoming of sorts, an arrival. Because the tale is told from the perspective of those who are left behind, there is no language for the joy of homecoming. At most you can say: look, in this painting you can find the language of happiness. It is, of course, a very romantic image. I don’t know if Brouwn is preoccupied with happiness. His work is still about being and not being. He disappears into his work. He disappears into space. But he doesn’t want to dissolve alone. He wants the whole of humanity to dissolve with him.

Brouwn is a space traveller and wants the viewers to become space travellers too. In a rare interview from 1967, the artist said of the ‘This way Brouwn’ series: ‘Brouwn makes people discover the streets they use every day. A farewell from the city, the earth, before we make the great leap into space, before we discover outer space.’

In 1964, he wrote a short manifesto for the Institute of Contemporary Arts Bulletin, in which it transpires that he believes in a future so abstract that people dissolve into time and space and colour. It is a kind of world in which there is no memory, a world in which art would also dissolve. Brouwn wishes to contribute to that dissolution through his work. He wants to make the world abstract. It is as if he wants to make him­self disappear, to conjure himself away through thought – which is a tremendous paradox, of course, because in order to conjure yourself away through thought you need to be present.

‘4000 A.D.

When science and art are entirely

melted together to something new

When the people will have lost their

remembrance and thus will have

no past, only future.

When they will have to discover everything

every moment again and again

When they will have lost their need for contact with others …

Then they will live in a world of only colour, light, space, time, sounds and movement

Then colour light space time

sounds and movement will be free

No music

No theatre

No art

No

There will be sound

Colour

Light

Space

Time

Movement’

What kind of world is being evoked here? The year 4000 ad is a time that can hardly be envisaged. Picturing it means imagining you are dead and that, from death, you return to the world of the living. In that time people will no longer have a sense of memory, past or future. In other words, they will be living in a kind of eternal present. That must be something like eternity itself. This is what spirituality strives for, a world outside of time. Because everything is constantly being forgotten, everything has to be continually rediscovered. This is why it is a form of intensified being, of complete receptivity. Every time you look in the mirror you will see yourself for the first time. It is a world in which there is no need to connect with others, a world without the possibility even to do so: how can you make a connection with someone if you forget them the next instant? Man is what he sees and he has ceased to cast judgement. He has become blank on the inside, which means he can become what he sees. Four thousand years after Christ, the dream of the artist is realized and man has finally become abstract. Man is colour, light, space, time and movement.

Brouwn wishes to be a man who walks the earth, a human being like any other. The work concerns ‘a’ human being – with an indefinite article – a human being who moves through life. He wishes to preoccupy himself with space and distance and direction. He wants the viewer to become his work. That is only possible by letting the viewers complete his work in their imagination, over and over again. They are forced to be­come space and distance, forced to experience space as if it were 4000 ad. They will forget them­selves and no longer have need for the notions of art and the artist. Brouwn will no longer be relevant.

If we did know what Brouwn looked like today – whether he was married and to whom, how many children he had, what the interior of his house looked like and where his personal problems lay – would that diminish the impact of his work? Would that mean we, the viewers, were less capable of dissolving into his work? And doesn’t an artist of whom we know everything turn, slowly, into a blank personality? We know everything about Tracey Emin: we know how she is feeling, what’s happening in her her love life, where she grew up. We know her naked and from fashion shoots. We have seen her unmade bed in the gallery; we have seen the inside of her home in interior design magazines. And yet she too remains an abstraction, a great void that wishes to fill itself up with meaning and images – and she needs the viewer for that.

The idea of conceptual art was that the person of the artist was no longer relevant. Yet Brouwn still claims his artisthood. His name is the final thread that connects him as a person to his work. The ultimate step would be to cut that thread. Become anonymous. Disappear. Dissolve. To let time be time and space be space and colours be colours. And to not only dream of forgetting but to forget and to be forgotten.

Translated by Kate Christina Mayne

OSCAR VAN DEN BOOGAARD

Oscar van den Boogaard is a Dutch novelist and playwright who lives in Ghent and Brussels, Belgium and Berlin, Germany. His work has been widely translated. His novel Love’s Death (2001) was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is the artistic director of the Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Postcards From the Artist

Laetitia Adam-Rabel Revised
Laetitia Adam-Rabel Revised

Postcards From the Artist

THE CAMP GALLERY

791–793 NE 125 St., Miami, FL 33161

EXHIBITION DATES

May 23 – June 27, 2025

The Contemporary Art Modern Project (CAMP)
is pleased to present Postcards From the Artist, a group exhibition featuring American artist Milton Bowens, Haitian-American artist Laetitia Adam-Rabel, and Nigerian artist Oluwatomisin Olabode.

Through mixed media, painting, and figurative work, each artist responds to the lived and inherited histories that shape their creative voices.

  • Bowens draws from archival materials to trace the ongoing impact of African American history on the present.
  • Adam-Rabel explores personal identity through the lens of race, womanhood, and ancestry.
  • Olabode challenges surface-level perception through stylized, confrontational portraiture.

Together, their works act as visual dispatches—postcards from experience—marking the complexities of memory, culture, and the human condition.

The CAMP Gallery is open Tuesday–Saturday, from 11 AM to 5 PM.
Private tours can be scheduled by emailing [email protected] or calling 786-953-8807.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

The Artist’s Hand Extended: A Look at Paint Brushes

Artist Paint Brushes
Artist Paint Brushes

The Artist’s Hand Extended: A Look at Paint Brushes

The humble paintbrush, seemingly simple in its construction, is an indispensable extension of the artist’s hand and vision. From delicate details to broad expressive strokes, the choice of brush profoundly impacts the final artwork. Understanding the anatomy and variety of artist paint brushes is key to unlocking their full potential.

At its core, a paintbrush consists of three main parts: the handle, the ferrule, and the bristles (or hairs). The handle, typically made of wood or acrylic, provides grip and balance. The ferrule, usually metal, securely fastens the bristles to the handle. It’s the bristles, however, that truly define the brush’s character and suitability for different painting techniques and media.

Natural vs. Synthetic Bristles:

Historically, brushes were primarily made with natural hairs sourced from various animals. Common types include:

  • Hog Bristle: Stiff and resilient, ideal for moving thick paints like oils and acrylics with texture. They leave visible brushstrokes.
  • Sable: Known for their softness, springiness, and ability to hold a good amount of paint, sable brushes are prized for detail work and smooth blending, particularly in watercolor and oil.
  • Ox Hair: Softer than hog bristle but with more snap than sable, good for both detail and broader strokes in oil and acrylic.
  • Squirrel Hair: Exceptionally soft and absorbent, often used for watercolor washes.

The 20th century saw the rise of synthetic bristles, typically made from nylon or polyester. These offer several advantages:

  • Durability: Generally more resistant to wear and tear than natural hairs, especially when used with acrylics.
  • Affordability: Often less expensive than natural hair brushes.
  • Variety of Stiffness: Synthetics can be engineered to mimic the properties of various natural hairs, from soft and supple to stiff and springy.
  • Suitability for Acrylics: Synthetic fibers don’t swell and lose their shape as easily as some natural hairs when used with water-based paints like acrylics.

Brush Shapes and Their Uses:

Beyond the material of the bristles, the shape of the brush head dictates the kind of mark it will make:

  • Round: Features a pointed tip, excellent for detail work, outlining, and fine lines.
  • Flat: Square or rectangular head with sharp edges, useful for broad strokes, washes, and creating sharp lines when used on its edge.
  • Filbert: An oval or “cat’s tongue” shape, a versatile brush that can create both broad strokes and softer edges.
  • Angular: Bristles are cut at an angle, useful for creating precise lines and angled strokes.
  • Fan: Bristles are spread out like a fan, ideal for blending, creating textured effects like foliage or hair, and applying washes.

Choosing the right brush is a crucial part of the artistic process. Experimenting with different types and shapes will allow you to discover which tools best facilitate your individual style and the demands of your chosen medium.

What types of paint do you primarily work with, and what are some of your go-to brushes? Perhaps you’ve encountered challenges with certain brushes or have favorites you rely on? Let’s talk about your personal experience with these essential tools.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

The Silent Music of Form: Harnessing Rhythm in Compelling Painting

The Silent Music of Form: Harnessing Rhythm in Compelling Painting
The Silent Music of Form: Harnessing Rhythm in Compelling Painting

The Silent Music of Form: Harnessing Rhythm in Compelling Painting

Beyond subject matter and color, a powerful yet often subliminal force shapes a captivating painting: rhythm. Just as rhythm propels music, visual rhythm guides the viewer’s eye, creates a sense of movement, and imbues a work with energy and harmony. Understanding and employing rhythmic elements can elevate a painting from merely representational to deeply engaging.

Visual rhythm in painting arises from the repetition and variation of visual elements – lines, shapes, colors, values, and textures. These elements, when orchestrated thoughtfully, create patterns that the eye naturally follows, leading the viewer through the composition.

Types of Visual Rhythm:

  • Regular Rhythm: Achieved through the consistent repetition of an element. Think of the evenly spaced columns in a classical architectural painting or the repeated shapes in a patterned textile. This can create a sense of order, stability, or even predictability.
  • Alternating Rhythm: Occurs when two or more elements are repeated in a sequence, like the alternating light and dark squares of a checkerboard or the ebb and flow of waves. This introduces more visual interest than a purely regular rhythm.
  • Flowing Rhythm: Characterized by the repetition of curved lines, organic shapes, or a sense of continuous movement. Consider the swirling brushstrokes in a Van Gogh landscape or the undulating folds of drapery in a Baroque portrait. This type of rhythm often evokes a feeling of dynamism and fluidity.
  • Progressive Rhythm: Involves a gradual change in an element each time it repeats. This could be a shape that gets larger or smaller, a color that becomes lighter or darker, or a texture that becomes more or less dense. Progressive rhythms create a sense of movement and can lead the eye towards a focal point.
  • Unexpected or Irregular Rhythm: Breaks from predictable patterns, introducing variations or interruptions. This can create visual tension, surprise, and a sense of the unexpected. Think of the scattered leaves in a forest floor painting or the seemingly random placement of figures in a bustling street scene.

Creating Compelling Paintings Through Rhythm:

How can you consciously harness the power of rhythm in your own work?

  • Identify Rhythmic Possibilities in Your Subject: Observe how lines, shapes, and forms repeat and vary in the world around you. The branches of a tree, the rooftops of a city, the folds of fabric – all possess inherent rhythms.
  • Emphasize or Exaggerate Existing Rhythms: You can choose to highlight the natural rhythms of your subject or even amplify them for expressive effect.
  • Introduce Rhythms Intentionally: Even in abstract work, you can create compelling rhythms through the deliberate repetition and variation of your chosen visual elements.
  • Use Rhythm to Guide the Viewer’s Eye: Strategic placement of rhythmic elements can direct the viewer’s gaze through the composition, leading them to areas of interest or creating a sense of overall flow.
  • Vary the Tempo: Just like in music, the “tempo” of your visual rhythm can affect the mood of your painting. A fast, irregular rhythm might convey energy and excitement, while a slow, regular rhythm could evoke calm or solemnity.
Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Coincidence of Sound, by Kerry Phillips

Coincidence of Sound, by Kerry Phillips
Coincidence of Sound, by Kerry Phillips

Coincidence of Sound, by Kerry Phillips

Join us Friday, June 6, from 6-9pm for the opening reception of ℂ𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕, a premiere solo exhibition by Kerry Phillips at LnS, hosted in the company of the artist.

2610 SW 28th Lane
Miami FL 33133

Phillips (@tontalovesme) approaches her practice in two distinct ways: either with a clear initial concept that guides the development of the work, or through a process of pure intuition—allowing materials and instinct to dictate direction without a predetermined outcome. This exhibition is rooted in exploring the intuitive power of play and surprise, where the result is as unexpected and delightful to the artist as it is to the viewer.

Grounding the presentation is a magnanimous site-specific installation encapsulating the power of shared narratives, the inherent storytelling capacity of objects, transformation, and the challenge of assumption. For Phillips, making is often a compulsive act—even in the absence of a clear direction. In its entirety, the show is centered on this meditative, labor-intensive processes; it may be an attempt to process grief, make sense of a chaotic world, or restore value to objects deemed broken or obsolete. ℂ𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 searches within these themes, reaching for a forgotten world resting just at the edge of memory.

📸 Installation shot of site-specific installation, featured as part of ℂ𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 by Kerry Phillips.

Kerry Phillips

Kerry Phillips (b. 1974 Denton, TX) is an installation artist whose artwork borders on performance and social practice. Phillips’ work with found objects is intuitive, often site-specific, and steeped in remembrance and storytelling. She uses common objects in unexpected ways, working collaboratively with viewer-participants to reveal an exchange of value, the importance and limitations of memory, and the vitality of play.

Phillips earned a BFA from Florida International University (2000), an MFA from University of Arizona (2003), and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Orlando Museum of Art, Locust Projects, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Deering Estate’s Spring Contemporary, and Bridge Red Projects. In August 2023, Phillip’s will inaugurate her first solo exhibition with The Bass Museum in Miami Beach titled Between the miraculous & the mundane. She forms part of the permanent collections of the Orlando Museum of Art, and The Girls’ Club.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Artist Paint Brushes

Artist Paint Brushes
Artist Paint Brushes

Artist Paint Brushes

Describes the different types of brushes for acrylics and what each paintbrush can do.

Da Vinci Filbert Brush

The paintbrush will be your magic wand for weaving colors across the canvas. Artist paint brushes become beloved tools the more you use them! As you paint, you will become increasingly familiar with the way the brushes handle the paint and what they can accomplish for you. Pretty soon the paintbrush will become a part of you that you intuitively know how to maneuver.

If you’re just starting out in acrylics, it can be a bit overwhelming standing in the paintbrush aisle at the art store, with a vast sea of artist paint brushes spread out before you. The wide selection even makes me dizzy sometimes!

No fear – the Art is Fun Paintbrush Guide is here! This page will tell you everything you need to know in order to select the right paintbrushes to suit your needs.

Paintbrushes for acrylics come in many different shapes and sizes. The shapes and sizes of the brushes you choose to work with will depend mainly on how large you want to work, and how detailed you want to get. Take a look:

Paint Brush Shapes

There are 8 main types of artist paint brushes that are used with acrylics, shown above. Each one is specially intended for different uses. Before we get into the particular uses of each paintbrush, let’s get a quick low-down of the different parts of the brush:

Get to know your paintbrush

A paintbrush is made of 4 main parts:

Parts of a Paintbrush
  • bristles – also known as hairs. can be natural, synthetic, or combination of both
  • ferrule – the silvery bit that connects the bristles with the handle
  • crimp – the part of the ferrule that secures it to the handle
  • handle – usually made of wood or acrylic

Easy enough! So now that you know the lingo, let’s find out what each brush is meant for!

Acrylic Paint Brushes

Round Brush

Round or pointed tip.

Good for: sketching, outlining, detailed work, controlled washes, filling in small areas. creates thin to thick lines – thin at the tip, becoming wider the more its pressed down.. use with thinned paint rather than thick paint. 

Pointed Round Brush

 Narrower than the round paintbrush. has sharply pointed tip.

Good for: fine details and lines, delicate areas, spotting and retouching. 

Flat Artist Paint Brush

Square end, with medium to long hairs.

Good for: bold strokes, washes, filling wide spaces, impasto. can use edge for fine lines, straight edges and stripes. long haired flat brushes are ideal for varnishing.

Bright Artist Paint Brush

Flat with edges curved inward at tip, with shortish hairs.

Good for: short controlled strokes. thick, heavy color. better for working up close rather than holding the brush at a distance from the canvas.

Filbert Artist Paint Brush

Flat and oval-shaped end with medium to long hairs.

Good for: blending, soft rounded edges like flower petals. this brush is sort of a combination of the rounds (because they can be used for detail) and flat (because they can cover more space than round).

Fan Artist Paint Brush

Flat, spread hairs.

good for: natural hairs are good for smoothing, blending, and feathering. synthetic hairs are better for textural effects, clouds, and leaves on trees. for acrylics, use strong and sturdy one, otherwise the hairs will clump when paint is added.                      

Angular Flat Artist Paint Brush

Flat with angled hairs at end.

Good for: curved strokes and filling corners. can reach small areas with tip. also can be used to cover lots of space, similar to flat brushes.

Detail Round Artist Paint Brush

Round, hairs shorter in length. shorter handle.

Good for: details and short strokes. holds more color than you might think!

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

“Growing Up Traveling” by Photographer Jamie Johnson

Leica Store Miami to Host "Growing Up Traveling" Gallery Opening & Artist Talk with Acclaimed Photographer Jamie Johnson.
Leica Store Miami to Host "Growing Up Traveling" Gallery Opening & Artist Talk with Acclaimed Photographer Jamie Johnson.

Leica Store Miami to Host “Growing Up Traveling” Gallery Opening & Artist Talk with Acclaimed Photographer Jamie Johnson.

Event Details: What: “Growing Up Traveling” Gallery Opening & Artist Talk with Jamie Johnson

When: Thursday, June 12, 2025, at 7:00 PM

Where: Leica Store Miami, 372 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, Florida, 33134, United States

Artist: Jamie Johnson Admission: Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Leica Store Miami is honored to announce the opening of “Growing Up Traveling,” a captivating solo exhibition by internationally renowned photographer Jamie Johnson. The gallery opening and artist talk will take place on Thursday, June 12, 2025, at 7:00 PM at Leica Store Miami, located at 372 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, Florida, 33134. This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served. All ages are welcome.

Jamie Johnson, a Brooklyn-born, NYC and SF-raised photographer now living in France, has dedicated her career to documenting children and childhood across the globe. Her profound passion for “faces of the next generation” has led her on extensive journeys from Laos to Cuba, the Amazon to Mongolia, revealing a universal thread in the experiences of children worldwide. Johnson’s unique ability to connect with her young subjects often blossoms into lifelong friendships with their families, allowing her to intimately examine diverse lifestyles, cultures, and traditions.

The exhibition will feature powerful images from Johnson’s acclaimed monograph, “Growing Up Traveling,” which was released in September 2020 by Kehrer Verlag and garnered multiple awards for best photo book. This compelling series specifically focuses on the Irish Traveller community, a nomadic indigenous ethnic minority who have lived in Ireland for centuries, often facing significant racism and stereotypes.

“I have spent many years traveling back and forth to Ireland to document these incredible children,” says Johnson. “The experience I had photographing the grit and beauty that is the everyday life of a Traveller child is one that inspires me every day. Their deep respect for family and cultural values is refreshing, one that can be quite difficult to find in an age with the convenience of social media.”

Johnson’s work aims to shed light on the resilience and dreams of these children, emphasizing that “a child is an innocent, happy, precious part of the world that should be loved and accepted and encouraged no matter where or how they live.”

Her photographs have been exhibited internationally in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris, and are held in the permanent collections of several American museums. Johnson’s second monograph, “The Female Spirit,” was recently published by Peanut Press.

Attendees will have a unique opportunity to hear directly from Jamie Johnson about her photographic process, her experiences documenting children globally, and the powerful narratives behind the “Growing Up Traveling” series.

For more information about Jamie Johnson and her work, please visit https://www.jamiejohnsonphotography.com or follow her on Instagram: @jamiejohnsonphotography.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo Museum of Art

The Toledo Museum of Art is a beloved cultural institution in Toledo, Ohio and a global leader in the museum field. We believe that art transforms people’s lives and invites them to see differently.

At TMA, we live our values so that we can authentically execute our vision and achieve our mission.

Mission 

Through our collection and programs, we strive to integrate art into the lives of people.

Vision 

The Toledo Museum of Art will become the model art museum in the United States for its commitment to quality and its culture of belonging.

Values 

Community: We exist to serve our community with and through the highest quality art.

Diversity: Diverse ideas emerge from a diverse team and engage diverse audiences.

Innovation: We seek to innovate for our community and for our field.

Trust: We steward our collection in the public trust and must guard the confidence placed in us.

People & Culture

At TMA, we believe It is important for organizations to proactively create and maintain a strong culture and cultivate a positive environment that values open communication, transparency, fairness, and employee well-being. We do not only seek to be the model museum, we seek to inspire industries everywhere to embark on this journey of creating strong cultures that promote belonging.

Reinstallation

We are undergoing our first full gallery reinstallation in over 40 years, preserving historic spaces while reimagining the visitor experience. The redesigned galleries will present a more inclusive, connected history of art, featuring innovative displays, technological enhancements, and essential facility upgrades. Learn more about this transformative project and what’s to come.

History

The Toledo Museum of Art was established in 1901 to share the transformative power of art with the community. More than 30,000 artworks are housed in architecturally significant buildings on our 37-acre campus. Innovative and extensive education programs offer a variety of multi-sensory experiences for every visitor. Thanks to the generous spirit of the museum’s founders and the continued support of members, we remain a privately endowed, non-profit institution. Our collection is open to the public, free of charge. 

Artists have long used instructions and rule-based systems to produce their work, from thirteenth century Islamic geometric tiles to twentieth century avant-garde movements. Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms reveals how some contemporary artists use mathematical principles, chance, and automation to design and work with generative systems. In generative art, the artist creates a system to produce the artwork—perhaps written instructions for others to follow or a computer program. In the process they give up some control over the end result. The artist creates the rules, and the system generates the outcomes. This approach, whether analog or digital, enables the artist to experiment with multiple variations within a set of defined constraints, often yielding unexpected results.

At a time when our world is increasingly shaped by algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated media, this exhibition takes us back to computer art’s beginnings in the 1960s and takes a closer look at the recent wave of generative art that has emerged over the last decade. Whether generated with simple algorithms rooted in fundamental mathematical functions or complex custom computer software, the digital artworks assembled here expose the foundational processes that underlie computer-generated imagery. Along the way, we explore what distinguishes computer-generated art from other media.

We hope this exhibition gives you an accessible entry point into understanding and appreciating the many ways artists use generative systems and how this process challenges long-held beliefs about creativity, authorship, craft, and the perceived superiority of the physical art object.

Infinite Images artists include Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Max Bill, Dmitri Cherniak, Sofia Crespo, Deafbeef, Entangled Others, Tyler Hobbs, Larva Labs, Sol LeWitt, Zach Lieberman, LoVid, William Mapan, Sarah Meyohas, Vera Molnar, Operator, Quayola, Sam Spratt, Snowfro, Casey Reas, Anna Ridler, Monica Rizzoli, Jared Tarbell, and Emily Xie.

Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms is organized by the Toledo Museum of Art and curated by Julia Kaganskiy, an independent curator specializing in digital art and new media.

The exhibition design and visual identity for Infinite Images are led by Richard The and Studio TheGreenEyl.

Exhibition Artists:

Anni Albers

Josef Albers

Max Bill

Dmitri Cherniak

Sofia Crespo & Anna Ridler

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Entangled Others

Matt Hall, Larva Labs

Tyler Hobbs

Sol LeWitt

Zachary Lieberman

LoVid

William Mapan

Sarah Meyohas

Vera Molnár

Operator

Quayola

Casey REAS

Monica Rizzoli

Snowfro

Sam Spratt

Jared Tarbell

John Watkinson, Larva Labs

Emily Xie

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami

TUNNEL Presents: “Memoria Perdida” – A Solo Exhibition by Lisu Vega

TUNNEL Presents: “Memoria Perdida” – A Solo Exhibition by Lisu Vega
TUNNEL Presents: “Memoria Perdida” – A Solo Exhibition by Lisu Vega

TUNNEL Presents: “Memoria Perdida” – A Solo Exhibition by Lisu Vega

Opening Reception – Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 6 – 9 PM
TUNNEL | 300 SW 12th Ave, Miami, FL

Miami, FLTUNNEL is proud to present “Memoria Perdida,” a powerful solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Lisu Vega, opening on Thursday, June 5, 2025, with a public reception from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Born in Miami and raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Vega draws from her bi-cultural heritage to explore themes of migration, memory, identity, and sustainability. Her latest body of work spans a rich variety of media, including engraving, photography, fiber art, sculpture, installation, and fashion art, blending personal narrative with social commentary.

“Memoria Perdida” offers an intimate look at Vega’s evolving artistic language and material experimentation, deeply rooted in both place and memory. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the artist and experience her work in the distinctive atmosphere of TUNNEL, a space dedicated to bold, contemporary voices.

The event is free and open to the public.

Perez Art Museum PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami
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