Join Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) for an insightful conversation examining the legacy and impact of John Baldessari, an artist who continually challenged the conventions of his era. Presented in conjunction with John Baldessari: The End of the Line—the first major survey devoted to the artist in South Florida—this panel brings together leading cultural voices Craig Robins, CEO and president of Dacra and Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. The conversation will be moderated by José Carlos Diaz, PAMM senior director of curatorial affairs & chief curator and Karen Grimson, curator of the Craig Robins Collection and director of art & culture at Miami Design District.
This program will be streamed live on PAMM’s Youtube channel.
About John Baldessari: The End of the Line
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) presents the first major survey in South Florida devoted to John Baldessari (1931–2020), a leading pioneer of conceptual art. The exhibition features a selection of forty works spanning painting, photography, video, and installation, drawn largely from the collection of Craig Robins––a close friend, champion, and one of the artist’s foremost collectors. This presentation highlights Baldessari’s foundational works from the 1960s and 1970s, the radical incineration of his own paintings, his serial approach to photography, and his lifelong investigation into the relationship between language and image.
About Craig Robins, CEO and President of Dacra
Craig Robins is an entrepreneur, real estate developer, and art collector based in Miami, Florida. As the CEO and president of Dacra, the real estate development company he founded in 1987, Robins focuses on developing creative communities that integrate art, design, and architecture to accelerate asset value creation and enrich urban life.
Dacra has spearheaded some of the most successful and transformative commercial, residential, and mixed-use projects in Miami’s history, including South Beach, the Lincoln Road area, Allison Island, and the Miami Design District. The latter is a more than 30-acre neighborhood dedicated to fashion, design, and art that incorporates the work of emerging and established architects, site-specific public art and design, award-winning restaurants and almost 200 flagship stores by the world’s most significant luxury brands. The Miami Design District is the first LEED-certified Gold Built Version 4 Neighborhood in the world.
About Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
Bonnie Clearwater is an influential leader who played a major role in Miami’s emergence and development as an international arts center. She is widely recognized for her curatorial vision, scholarship, and record in administration, public education, and community outreach. Clearwater spearheaded an exciting phase of transformation at NSU Art Museum that includes an overall rebranding and expansion of the museum’s reach locally, nationally and internationally. Her initiatives include the development of a world-class exhibition program, expansion of the museum’s education initiatives and public programming, and increased engagement with diverse audiences.
Known for her ability to identify and nurture emerging artists, over the past two decades, she presented the first U.S. solo museum exhibitions for some of today’s most significant artists including: Daniel Arsham, Hernan Bas, Tracey Emin, Teresita Fernandez, Mark Handforth, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Matthew Ritchie and Shinique Smith. She also curated historically important solo exhibitions of artists David Smith, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Artschwager, Malcolm Morley, Jack Pierson and Helen Frankenthaler, in addition to groundbreaking thematic exhibitions.
Recognized for her experience in museum education, Clearwater guides NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale’s education program, in which students of all ages are inspired by direct access to the museum’s exhibitions, collection and professional staff.
About José Carlos Diaz, PAMM Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs & Chief Curator
Diaz is a specialist in modern and contemporary art with extensive experience in exhibition making, programming, and public art projects. He previously served as Deputy Director for Art at the Seattle Art Museum. There, he curated Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light; Calder: In Motion; Anida Yoeu Ali: Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence, among others. Diaz has worked at The Andy Warhol Museum, The Bass, Tate Liverpool, and the Liverpool Biennial. He earned a BA in Art History from San Francisco State University and an MA in Cultural History from the University of Liverpool.
About Karen Grimson, Curator of the Craig Robins Collection and Director of Art & Culture at Miami Design District
An art historian specializing in postwar Latin American and North American art of the 1960s, Karen Grimson curated “John Baldessari: The End of the Line” (MALBA, Buenos Aires, 2024; MACA, Punta del Este, 2025; PAMM, Miami, 2026) and edited its accompanying catalogues.
Recently, she organized the exhibitions “Sarah Grilo: The New York Years” (Galerie Lelong, New York, 2024), “Marta Minujín: Dreamscape” (Miami Design District, 2025) and “J’ouvert: Zak Ové” (Miami Design District, 2026). Between 2011 and 2020, she worked at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, developing acquisitions and exhibitions of art from Latin America, such as “Joaquín Torres-García: The Arcadian Modern,” “Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil” and “Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift.” She taught courses on Brazilian modernism and contributed articles to the MoMA publications Among Others: Blackness at MoMA, Being Modern: Building the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, and Joaquín Torres-García. Her writing has been published by Artforum, Vistas and Inti: Revista de literatura hispánica. She holds a BA in Arts from Universidad de Buenos Aires, and an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
