(MIAMI, FL — January 18, 2021) — Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami’s flagship museum committed to spotlighting underrepresented artists, is pleased to present an exciting schedule of programs for the month of February in celebration of Black History Month, featuring the museum’s annual Art + Soul Celebration, which includes the announcement of PAMM’s newest acquisition for the Fund for Black Art, as well as the opening of Simone Leigh: Trophallaxis, an analysis of Black female subjectivity, the Scholl Lecture Series featuring fiber artist Bisa Butler, and more.
As Miami’s flagship art museum, PAMM continually highlights the wide range of diversity of Miami while prioritizing the collection and exhibition of art by historically underrepresented communities. The museum’s unique location at the crossroads of the Americas also uniquely positions PAMM to be the best at presenting art from the U.S. Latino experience, the African diaspora, Latin America, and the Caribbean. PAMM’s commitment to the Black experience is further exemplified by the Fund for Black Art, which allows the purchase of contemporary art by Black artists for the museum’s permanent collection,which has allowed the museum to acquire works by Al Loving, Faith Ringgold, Xaviera Simmons and more.
Visit pamm.org/calendar for the full list of upcoming programs and events.
EVENTS
Ninth Anniversary of Art + Soul
February 5, 2022
Art + Soul is Miami’s annual premier social and fundraising event in support and celebration of the PAMM Fund for Black Art. This year’s celebration honors actor David Alan Grier, who has been a major collector of Black art for over two decades, with works by artists including Kevin Beasley, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker.
Art + Soul welcomes arts supporters and PAMM Ambassadors for Black Art for a night of cocktails, dancing, and the reveal of the Ambassadors’ most recent art acquisition. The PAMM Fund for Black Art allows the museum to purchase and showcase contemporary art by Black artists for its permanent collection.
Since the inception of the Fund in 2013, PAMM has acquired over 20 artworks for the museum’s permanent collection, including works by Terry Adkins, Romare Bearden, Kevin Beasley, Ed Clark, Nari Ward, Lorraine O’Grady, Ebony G. Patterson, Faith Ringgold, Tschabalala Self, Vaughn Spann, Juana Valdes, and more. PAMM is committed to raising public awareness and appreciation for the artistic legacy of Black artists, ensuring that these artworks will be enjoyed and valued by Miami’s diverse community for generations to come.
Schedule:
6:15pm | Cocktails + Dinner by celebrity chef Alexander Smalls
9pm | Reveal – PAMM Ambassadors Acquisition Fund
10pm | Celebration – Dancing, Cocktails, and Entertainment Under the Stars
Opening of Simone Leigh: Trophallaxis
January 28, 2022 – February 12, 2023
Trophallaxis encapsulates Simone Leigh’s emphasis on the female body—particularly the Black female body—as a culturally loaded signifier. The presentation marks the first time this work will be shown since it was acquired for the museum in 2018 with funds provided by PAMM’s Collectors Council.
Drawing on various sources and disciplines including ethnography, folklore, alternative healing traditions, and buried histories of political resistance, Leigh delivers emblematic works that highlight the complex concerns of women of color related to physical and mental health, societal beauty standards, community, and equality, bringing them to the forefront of current cultural debates.
More details here.
Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection
Exhibition ends February 6, 2022
February will be the last chance to see Allied with Power, an exhibition of over 30 works by international African and African Diaspora artists on view from the collection of Jorge M. Pérez, opening on April 24, 2020. This exhibition presents a provocative group of artists, representing some of the best art practices hailing from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Europe, and covering a wide range of practices and thematics, including abstraction, representation, politics, spirituality, and race.
The exhibition pays homage to Jorge M. Pérez’s upbringing in a number of Latin American countries, and is a result of years of his dedicated effort to collect works by Cuban, Afro-Latino, and African Diasporic artists.
More details here.
Scholl Lecture Series: Bisa Butler
February 17, 2022
The first Scholl Lecture of the year features renowned American fiber artist Bisa Butler. Butler uses her work to both celebrate Black life and to tell unknown stories of the lives of African Americans. Butler invites a reimagining of and a contemporary dialogue around age-old issues that are still problematic in our culture through the comforting and embracing medium of the quilt. Her work expresses and emphasizes what she believes—the equal value of all humans.
More details here. Join us in person or online.
Please visit PAMM’s website here for more information and updates.
ABOUT PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), led by Director Franklin Sirmans, promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The nearly 40-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013 in Downtown Miami’s Maurice A. Ferré Park. The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.
