Antonia Wright + Ruben Millares

Yes/No, 2021 - various corners in Downtown Coral Gables

Lighting sponsors: Day One Lighting

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Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares “Yes/No” 2021. Various corners in Downtown Coral Gables
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Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares “Yes/No” 2021. Various corners in Downtown Coral Gables
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Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares “Yes:No”- 1
Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares “Yes/No” 2021. Various corners in Downtown Coral Gables
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Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares “Yes/No” 2021. Various corners in Downtown Coral Gables
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Project Description

At this historic moment where our country has erupted protesting racial injustice, the image of the barricade has become ubiquitous on our streets. Previously an innocuous symbol demarcating “no access,” barricades were mainly associated with providing safety and crowd control at celebratory events like parades, or creating a queue for sporting and music events. In the current political environment in the U.S. where the right to a peaceful protest is being threatened, we believe a metal barrier conjures anxiety and is used as architecture to separate and control bodies in public space. 


Using barricades as a symbol of our global climate of resistance, we offer our new work, a site-specific sculptural light installation entitled Yes/No. By lighting the barricades being used by the Illuminate exhibition throughout Coral Gables, we aim to highlight the ubiquitous nature of these objects and their ambiguous intent to protect and control. By transforming a utilitarian object into a light work, the glowing objects will create a line throughout the streets of the city, evoking the divide and connection between our bodies.

Ruben Millares (L), Antonia Wright (R).  

Antonia Wright

With a poetic sensibility and profound attention to aesthetic detail, I respond to the violent realities seen through the mediated image by putting my own body through extreme, sometimes aggressive and logistically dangerous gestures as a visceral sublimation. My interest in using the body as a principal tool enables me to undermine the boundaries of politics, to challenge social conventions, and to test the endurance of viewers. By questioning social norms through physical actions I set up dichotomies; violence and humor, fear and formal beauty — that ultimately achieve a fusion of ecstasy and anxiety.

 

My background in video, photography and poetry informs my approach to these performative actions. The pieces, each different in process and method, are a result of long-term research. The works range from performing tai chi while covered with 15,000 bees, throwing my body through panes of glass, rolling naked down alleys, crying in public streets, and falling through ice on a frozen lake. 

 

Recently my projects have taken the form of sculpture, using objects as a surrogate for my body to develop a physical connection with the viewer. The piece, Yes/No  is a sculpture in which the body is substituted with the ubiquitous police barricade. 

 

In addition to my own practice, I actively participate in collaborations with other artists. Ruben Millares and I debuted It is not down on any map; true places never are, a large kinetic outdoor sculpture with UNTITELD, ART Fair during Miami Art Week 2019. The international artist collective Plastico Fantastico, which I am a founding member, won a Florida state grant in 2019 and will be doing a residency with ArtSail in 2020. 

 

My art practice is inextricably linked to my social practice.  I have been working with the Lotus House homeless shelter for woman and children for almost 10 years. In 2012, I became and founded the first artist in residence program.  I lived at the shelter for one month, made art with the guests, which is permanently on view in the new Lotus village. I also serve on the board of Planned Parenthood North, South, and East Florida and Locust Projects.

 

Imbuing my work with a performative quality of the bodily, I aim to restore a sense of urgency and elicit emotion and concern for the other.

Antonia Wright is a Cuban-American artist born in 1979 in Miami, Florida. Wright received her MFA in Poetry from The New School in New York City as well as at the International Center of Photography for photo and video. She has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and has participated in artist’s residencies both nationally and internationally. Exhibitions include shows at The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The Perez Art Museum Miami, Pioneer Works in New York, The Faena Arts Center in Buenos Aires, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Spinello Projects in Miami, FL, Luis de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, The National Gallery of Art in Nassau, and Ping Pong in Basel, Switzerland. In April 2012, she became and founded the first artist-in-residence at the Lotus House Shelter in Overtown, Miami. She recently won a 2019-2020 South Florida Cultural Consortium Award and was a CINTAS Foundation Fellowship finalist awarded to artists with Cuban heritage. She is represented by Spinello Projects in Miami, FL and affiliated with Luis De Jesus Gallery Los Angeles. Wright’s work has been presented in publications including The New York Times, Artforum’s Critics’ Picks, Art In America, Hyperallergic, i-D, New York Magazine, Daily News, Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, and The Art Newspaper.

Education

International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, NY, 2008. 

The New School, New York, NY, 2005. 

Masters in Fine Arts, Creative Writing, Poetry. Thesis: Poetry and Performance Art 

University of Montana, Missoula, MT, 2002. 

Bachelor of Arts, English. Emphasis Creative Writing and Literature 

 

Solo Exhibitions

2021 YES/NO, Illuminate Coral Gables, FL (upcoming) 
2020 South Florida Cultural Consortium winners’ exhibition, NSU Art Museum Ft. Lauderdale, FL (current) 2020 MAP, DACRA special project curated by Claire Breukel, Design District, Miami, FL 
2020 It is Not Down On Any Map, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL 
2019 It is Not Down On Any Map; True Places Never Are, UNTITLED, ART Fair, Miami Beach 2018 America Stands Behind Us, public artwork commission by Fringe Projects, Government Center, Miami 2018 Double Dutch #7: Hot Water, National Gallery of Art (NAGB), Nassau, Bahamas 
2018 If I had to Perish Twice, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY 
2017 CONTROL, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL 
2017 Under the Water Was Sand, Then Rocks, Miles of Rocks, Then Fire, Luis de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2016 Under the Water Was Sand, Then Rocks, Miles of Rocks, Then Fire, Locust Projects, Miami, FL 2015 Video: Poems, The Screening Room, Miami, FL 
2015 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, Orlando Museum of Art, FL 
2014 Suddenly We Jumped, Luis de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
2014 You Make Me Sick: I Love You, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL  
2014 Be, Luis de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 
2014 Copyright Infringement, Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, NC 
2012 Trading Places II, MOCA, N. Miami, FL 
2012 Love on an Escalator, Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL 
2011 Where All of Your Dreams Come True, Mosquera Collection, Miami, FL 
2011 Are You OK?, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL  
2010 A Great Disorder is An Order, 777 Gallery, Miami, FL 
2009 At The Ventanita, Salon Adelphi VI, Brooklyn, NY 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020 Infinite Seed, curated by GOOD TO KNOW.FYI + Jess Hodin Levy, Bhumi Farms, NY 2020 Grounded, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL 
2019 Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – now, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ 2019 Faena Festival: The Last Supper, LED Billboard Boat, 34th and Miami Beach 
2019 GOOD TO KNOW presents WE BUY GOLD, Mana Contemporary, Miami, FL 
2019 The Havana Biennial 2019, Detrás del Muro, curated by Juan Delgado and Luis Enrique Padrón Pérez 2019 Cantos Comunes, Blockhouse, Havana, Cuba curated by Diaz Lewis 
2019 IKT Miami, ARTiculating Sustainability, Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), Miami 
2019 Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, Portland Museum of Art  2019 I Scream, Therefore I Exist screened at 10 Times Square Billboard (10TS) NY, NY 
2018 Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL 2018 On Archipelagos and Other Imaginaries–Collective Strategies to Inhabit the World, Creative Time Summit, Miami 2018 La NO Comunidad, CentroCentro, Curated by Blanca de la Torre and Ricardo Ramón Jarne, Madrid, Spain 2018 10,000 Fahrenheit, San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries (SFAC Galleries), SF, CA 2018 Women Who Stand on the Sun, Lotus Village, permanent installation at the new homeless shelter facility, Miami, FL  2017 Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, Pacific Standard Time,   Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA 
2017 Count/Recount: Feminist Film and Video, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. 2017 On The Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Art Collection, Pérez Art Museum Miami  PAMM), Miami, FL, organized by Tobias Ostrander 
2017 Body Language: Figuration in Modern and Contemporary Art, Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ
2017 The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT 2016 Energy Charge: Connecting to Ana Mendieta, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ 2016 La suspensión del deseo, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba 
2016 Youniverse, Apexart, New York, NY 
2016 Working Worlds, LIA, Leipzig, Germany, Curated by Anna-Louise Rolland 
2015 Auto Body, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina 
2015 Projector Unicorn, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY 
2014 Auto Body, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL 
2014 The Remarkable Lightness of Being, Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium 
2014 Ping Pong, Projektraum M54, Basel, Switzerland 
2014 Between You and Me, Vanity Projects, New York, NY, curated by Grela Orihuela 
2014 Plastic(o) Fantastic(o), Central Bank of the Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas 
2013 Suddenly We Jumped, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, FL. 
2013 Deep Water Horizon, Site95, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, D.C. 
2012 Inside the Moment, Crane Art Space, Philadelphia, PA 
2012 Perfect Lovers, White Box Gallery, New York, NY 
2012 New Exhibition, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL 
2011 MOCA Optic Nerve XIII Finalists, The De la Cruz Collection and MOCA, N. Miami, FL 
2011 The Martin Hadley Fisher Collection: Syntax, Tampa Museum of Art, FL  
2011 Obstacle, The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, NY, curated by William and Steven Ladd 
2010 Base Paint, travelling tents painted by international artists for children in Haiti, Cite Soleil, Haiti, L’Athletique d’Haiti 2010 Heart Happening, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL 
2009 I’m Starting to Realize Sleep is a Metaphor for Everything, Sleepless Nights Art Festival, Miami Beach, FL 2009 Hope Blossoms, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL 
2009 The Nature of Things, The Cisneros Foundation, Miami, FL 
2008 The Art Under the Bridge Festival, D.U.M.B.O. Art Center, Brooklyn, NY 
2008 You Make Me Sick, Envoy Gallery, New York, NY 
2008 Slideluck Potshow XII, McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn, NY 
2008 Reflect, International Center of Photography Gallery, New York, NY 

Awards/ Commissions/ Residencies

2020 Winner, The Ellies award, Oolite Arts 
2020 Winner, 2020 South Florida Cultural Consortium Grant 
2019 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship finalist 
2019 Oolite Arts Direct Support For Artists Grant 
2018 Wavemaker Grant Recipient Award 
2018-2013 Plastic(o) Fantastic(o), New Providence, Bahamas, International artist collective and residency in which Wright  is a founding member. 
2017 Best Artist of 2017, The Miami New Times 
2017 Winner, Village Voice Media, MasterMind Genius Grant 
2016 Leipzig International Art Program, Leipzig, Germany 
2016 Locust Projects Open Call for Artist’s Exhibition Proposals 
2016 Ernst & Young Artist Award, Grant, Leipzig, Germany 
2015 Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY 
2015 Dialogues in Cuban Art, Grant, Havana, Cuba, Miami, FL 
2015 Finalist, Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, Orlando Museum of Art, FL 
2014 Vizcaya Estate Contemporary Art Commission 
2012 MOCA Optic Nerve XIII Finalist, MOCA, N. Miami, FL 
2010 ArtCenter South Florida, Residency, Miami Beach, FL 

Selected Bibliography

Yerebakan, Osman, “Art Spills Outside Booths and Taps Into Politics”, UNTITLED, ART, December 8, 2019. “When Flying the Flag causes Consternation,” The Art Newspaper, December 4, 2019. 
Sanfillippo, Amanda, ‘Creative Times Summit will explore art’s ability to transform our world.’ Miami Herald, November 1, 2018.
Morrissey, Siobhan. “This Artwork Will Make You Feel out of Control. That’s the Idea.” Miami Herald, December 4, 2017 Morgenstern, Hans. “Antonia Wright’s Control is so Intense, Waivers have to be signed.” Miami New Times, Dec 4, 2017 
Cohen, Alina. Your Must-See Art Guide to Art Basel Miami Beach “Beware flying barricades at Little Haiti’s Spinello Projects, where local artist Antonia Wright meditates on protest and provocation”.  The Observer, November 29, 2017 
Best of Miami, “Best Artist: Antonia Wright,” Miami New Times, 2017. 
“US-Born Cuban- 6 Artists to Watch: Antonia Wright,” Cuban Art News, August 8, 2017. 
Mizota, Sharon. “Antonia Wright pulls a disappearing act at Luis De Jesus,” 
Los Angeles Times, February, 1, 2017.  
Mcdermon, Daniel. “Re-enacting a Childhood Trauma on Video. For Art.”  
The New York Times, September 17, 2016.  
Carney, Sean J. Patrick. “First Look.” Art in America, September 2016. 
Martin, Lydia. “Multimedia Master Antonia Wright and the Art of Risk,” The Miami Herald, September 17, 2016.  Tosone, Austen. “Artist Antonia Wright on Reclaiming Memory Through Art,” NYLON. September 8, 2016.  Tschida, Anne. “The Screening Room: moving the ground in video and poetry,” KnightBlog, May 11, 2015.  Goyanes, Rob. “Poem: Videos at the Screening Room,” Temporary Art Review, July 24, 2015. Ryzik, Melena. “Art is a Splash, Grand and Tiny, in Miami.” The New York Times, 05 December, 5, 2014. Patel, Alpesh Kantilal, “Critics’ Picks for Antonia Wright’s You Make Me Sick: I Love You,” ARTFORUM June 2014 Granger, Bryan.  “Antonia Wright’s You Make Me Sick: I Love You,” DailyServing, April 9, 2015.  Peters, Kate. “The State of the Book: Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares,” The Miami Rail. Fall 2013. Gottlieb, Shirlie. “Editorial Features: Antonia Wright,” Visual Art Source, June 2012.  
Brillson, Leila. “10 Rising Miami Artists to Start Collecting Now,” Refinary29, April 2012.  
“Antonia Wright: Performance Artist Questions Her Surroundings,” The Sun Sentinel, September 2012, video. Yu, Betty. “Using Art To Heal at Lotus House,” 6 NBC Miami, April 2012, television. 
Moskovitz, Diana. “Standing on the sun: Artist profiles homeless women of Miami’s Lotus House,” Miami Herald, Visual  Arts, April 2012.  
Tracy, Liz. “Antonia Wright’s party/show at Dr. Mosquera’s gallery/office was the best quinceañera ever”. The Heat  Lightening, November 2011. Web. 
Rosenblum, Emma. “The New Talent Show: Pot-luck Culture,” New York Magazine, January, 2009.
Richardson, Clem. “Give Her the Keys to the City,” The Daily News, January 20, 2006.
 

Ruben Millares

Ruben Millares was born in Miami, Florida in 1980. As a visual artist he is medium agnostic as he attempts to define balance as a concept. Through the use of sculpture, drawing, performance, installation, print‐making, painting, music and video he is able to capture the essence of an idea without limitation. For Millares time, more than an inspiration, is a powerful raw material. As an artist with a formal educational training as a Certified Public Accountant and Financial Planner, as well as in art and music, Millares is in a constant search for the fusion between practicality and imagination. Informed by two opposite worlds, his work gives an impression of great poetry with a serious yet playful airiness. 

Recent and upcoming exhibitions include solo shows at Untitled Art Fair/Art Basel, Pan American Art Projects, Volta NY, National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, The Central Bank of the Bahamas and Spinello Projects. Group shows include Pan American Art Projects, Ping Pong Art Basel Switzerland, The Tampa Museum of Art, Spinello Projects, Philadelphia City Hall, White Box Gallery, Hillside House Gallery Nassau, Fountain Art Fair New York, The Invisible Dog Art Space Brooklyn and Crane Art Space Philadelphia. Millares’ video/performance piece with collaborator Antonia Wright, Job Creation in a Bad Economy, was featured in the 2011‐2012 exhibition at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse. His work is included in the permanent collections of Martin Z. Margulies at the Warehouse, Dennis and Debra Scholl Collection, Hadley Martin Fisher Collection, The Bass Museum of Art and the Robert Borlenghi Collection. 


Millares has been presented in articles in the Miami Herald, Miami New Times, St. Petersburg Times and El Nuevo Herald among others and featured in the ArtNewspaper’s Basel edition on Miami artists. He has also participated in prestigious artist residencies including Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY and Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC.