COUPLING began in 2009 as an exhibition at the Buena Vista Building in Miami’s Design District, curated by Kristen Thiele. Held February 14–21, 2009, the exhibition brought together artists who were also couples, exploring the ways intimate partnerships intersect with and inform artistic practice.
Seventeen years later, COUPLING returns at Bridge Red Studios/Project Space, bringing together a new group of artist couples alongside several participants from the original exhibition. The new iteration revisits the premise from the perspective of time, considering how relationships and artistic practices evolve, influence one another, and develop side by side.
The exhibition presents artists whose practices are shaped by both shared lives and distinct artistic voices. Some collaborate directly, creating work through a shared process; others maintain independent practices that unfold alongside one another. In either case, partnership becomes a context for exchange, support, proximity, difference, and mutual influence.
COUPLING considers how living and working alongside another artist can shape ideas, methods, and creative decisions—sometimes visibly within the work itself, and sometimes through the less tangible dynamics of conversation, observation, and shared experience. Rather than suggesting a single model of artistic partnership, the exhibition reveals the many ways intimacy and artistic identity can coexist.
By bringing these artists together across time, COUPLING considers partnership not simply as a private relationship, but as a space in which creative lives intersect. It is a space that can foster dialogue, challenge assumptions, and expand the possibilities of individual practice.
Participating Artists:
COUPLING
Carlos Alves / JC Carroll
Eddie Arroyo / Maria Theresa Barbist
John William Bailly / Natalia Garcia-Lee
Roberto Behar / Rosario Marquardt
Carlos Betancourt / Alberto Latorre
Duane Brant / Pip Brant
Robert Chambers / Mette Tommerup
Guerra de la Paz
Adler Guerrier / Kathleen Hudspeth
J Tomas Lopez / Carol Todaro
Mary Malm / Kerry Ware
Beatriz Monteavaro / Gavin Perry
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova / Frances Trombly
Exhibition Dates:
September 27th – November 1st, 2026
Opening Reception:
Sunday September 27th from 4-6 pm
Closing Brunch:
Sunday, November 1st, noon – 3 pm
Location:
Bridge Red Studios / Project Space
12425 NE 13th Ave #3, North Miami, FL 33161
Contact: Kristen Thiele, 305-978-4856, [email protected]
www.bridgeredstudios.com
a miami based studio / exhibition space
Bridge Red Studios is an artists’ complex in North Miami. Bridge Red consists of 10 working artist studios and an exhibition / project space that is run by sculptor and painter Robert Thiele and his daughter, painter Kristen Thiele. Bridge Red Studios/Project Space was the recipient of a Knight Challenge Grant to further the mission to exhibit, document, and expose the art work of strong and developed artists with ties to South Florida, who do not get the exposure their work merits. Works shown include paintings, drawings, photography, collage, installation, clay art, sound, video, sculpture, and performance. The artists who currently hold studios at Bridge Red are William Cordova, Yanira Collado, Kristen Thiele, Robert Thiele, Stephan Tugrul, Carol K. Brown, Luisa Basnuevo, and Lou Anne Colodny. Colodny, who was the first director of MOCA and it’s former incarnation, the Center of Contemporary Art (COCA), has converted her studio into an exhibition space located below Bridge Red’s Project Space, called Under the Bridge. Both exhibition spaces hold openings on the same Sunday evenings and closing brunches on the same Sunday afternoons. Both are open in between these events by appointment. Bridge Red is located just east of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA NOMI) and west of Biscayne Boulevard, off of 125th street.
