SaveArtSpace is pleased to present Miami 2020 a cross-media public art exhibition curated by Nicole Saglar. The exhibiting artists are Haiiileen, Luz “Liight” Angel, April Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Bush, Trenity Thomas, Jona Monet, Evie Zimmer, Danielle Rackowski, Ellen VanderMyde, and CL Martin.

During the week of November 23, SaveArtSpace will launch public art installations for each selected work on bus stop ad spaces in Wynwood, and along Biscayne Blvd in Miami, Fl. The public art will be on view for at least two weeks.

Press

Location: N Miami Ave & NW 27th St

First-generation Cuban-American and Miami, FL native Aileen Quintana, also known as Haiiileen, is an interdisciplinary artist known for her neo-acid experimental works that span through several different mediums and facets. Her dedication to the local artistic community fuels her capacity to create and tear down the boundaries that have yet to be explored within her own mind. Her initial breakthrough as a self-taught makeup artist led her to build a highly successful career utilizing faces as her canvases.

What makes Haiiileen’s practice so intrinsically distinctive is her synesthesia, a rare sensory condition which transforms everything she hears into visual imagery. For her, it is essential to explore emotional language and self-evolution, driven by a never-ending curiosity. This has led her to study physics, she is able to grasp a full understanding of how sound, light, and color all interact with one another. Haiiileen then incorporates her findings into 3-dimensional mediums and installations, where she can bring her synesthetic visions to life and transport her viewers to transcendent, alternate worlds. 

Haiiileen continuously exhibits her ability to create thought-provoking material that provides a deep expression and experimental approach to our environmental perceptions and conventional ideas of reality through her work.

Haiiileen is the lead visual artist for Tidal, a Google ambassador, and has worked on several commissions for III Points, Space Miami, SoHo Beach House, Delano Hotel, The City of Miami Beach, Art Basel, Frost Museum of Science, and more. 

Along with her practice, she is also a consultant, director, producer, designer, filmmaker, performance artist, sculptor, and installation artist.

This image was created from a large scale installation commissioned by the developers of Downtown Doral. Haiiileen creates in multiple facets as an overall process for her content study of light and color theory concepts. For images from this installation and more check out: https://haiiileen.com/2020/09/02/aciiid-bubble/

You can connect with Haiiileen on Instagram at @haiiileen.

Location: NW 2 Ave & NW 29th St

My name is Luz “Liight” Angel, and my art is my space to express and share the best of my Self, and what I learn from sorting through the worst, in hopes of igniting a yearning in you to dig deeper and explore the infinite possibilities within. It is an invitation to You to accept yourself as you are while daring you to dream of how great you can be. 

In a time when life as we knew it to be is being challenged, I feel responsible as an Artist to inspire new possibilities. I want to create movements of self-reflection, self-discovery, and self-actualization to give way to self-empowerment. We have been trained to stay “small” and feel limited for far too long, but we are much more powerful than we are led to believe. Part of finding that potential is exploring who we are at our core, which includes reconnecting with the Earth. There is usually a marriage of Human, Animal, and Nature present in my work to express the need of understanding that we are all linked, and that we can grow stronger as we reinforce that bond.

I paint lifelike images to embody the tangible world and create a harmony between living elements to represent the divine existence that lies beyond what our eyes can see. All living beings have unique characteristics and advantages. Certain plants and species are brought together to physically portray what it is that I see in a person at a spiritual level. I try to magnify that person’s qualities in a way that speaks to their goddess/god-like capacity.

You can connect with “Liight” on Instagram at @LiightOnes.

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 39th St

April Fitzpatrick is a visual artist, art therapist, registered mental health counselor intern, and founder and CEO of Pineapples with Purpose. Pineapples with Purpose reimagines how we address trauma and mental health in marginalized communities. Utilizing a pineapple’s own growth and journey as the guiding metaphor, she delivers high quality art workshops throughout communities that have limited to no art resources for addressing mental and emotional wellness. April holds a B.A. in Psychology from Tougaloo College, a M.S. in Art Therapy from FloridaState University, and is a gallery recognized self-taught visual artist.

Fitzpatrick’s art practice uses a root cause analysis and cultural lens to develop ideas for hope and transformation taking a critical view of one’s Lebenswelt (life-world) impacted by direct and indirect societal ills of trauma, poverty, and racism. She positions her theoretical framework within Black psychology, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Arts Movement, which emphasize community, cultural pride, and consciousness. Fitzpatrick’s most recent project The Pineapple Metaphor: Expanding the Narrative was invited by the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical Black Archives to host a solo exhibit and offer art therapy workshops to the community.

Fitzpatrick has landed work in FSU’s Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House Galleries, Tallahassee City Hall Gallery, FSU Museum of Fine Art, Florida Capitol 22nd Floor Gallery,and FAMU’s Foster Tanner Art Gallery, and Gadsden Arts Center and Museum. Harnessing her knowledge and skills in creative execution, relationship building, and innovation, April reimagines symbolism as a metaphorical tool and preventative measure to help youth and their communities digest adverse experiences through art. Most recently, April was hired as the first Black female art therapist to develop an art therapy program for the Apalachee Center in Tallahassee, FL.

All pieces are a part of a larger collection titled the Pineapple Metaphor: Expanding the Narrative. My creative expression collides with my cultural experiences of Mississippi, which have imposed a powerful influence on my art process. I draw influence from Black psychology, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and Souls Grown Deep. My work is a conversation between self and place, using the pineapple and the art process as a paradoxical intervention to address the core of our emotional and mental wellness. Each piece is created using acrylic, found objects, patterns, texture, and the visible or hidden symbolism of the pineapple, alternating between mediums of painting, mixed media, and collaging. The pineapple helps to tell a story of peeling back the layers of racial trauma, getting to the core, reclaiming the narrative of "excellent fruit." These pieces invite audiences into conversations regarding mental health specifically in the Black community, exploring ways that people and communities have responded to trauma through surviving while striving toward an imaginary breath.

You can connect with April on Instagram at @pineappleswithpurpose.

Location: NE 2nd Ave & NE 33rd St

Elizabeth Bush currently teaches photography and English at Belmont High School in Los Angeles although her remote classroom now takes place at a dining room table. She spent her formative years in Delray Beach, a place steeped in the nostalgia of her teens and twenties, brimming with memories of the people she loved and lost far too suddenly.

Water imagery abounds in most of the photographs Elizabeth captures each summer when she visits her family in Florida. Drawn to pools and the ocean as a child, this steadfast fascination continues to pull her close. Elizabeth’s underwater photography primarily features her daughter Theodora, a sage soul masquerading as a six-year-old who feels equally enamored by water’s enveloping charms.

The image selected for this public exhibition, “Teddy’s Inkwell,” serves as a reminder of each threadlike connection between one’s existence below the surface and the delicate tethering to life above water. Water first holds each person who lies in wait for an unpredictable trajectory, yet much like dissolved ink or shifting bands of pink paint, this connection feels all too ephemeral. Elizabeth hopes these images remind a passerby that water has much to teach those who seek its transformative powers.

Elizabeth’s work has appeared in the lobby of the ArcLight movie theater in Hollywood and three of her pieces are currently on exhibit at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre. Two of her photos were published in the summer issue of After Hours: A Journal of Chicago Writing and Art. She recently completed her first novel, a story spun from the magical ways of her dearly departed father and Chicago native, Theodore Bush.

You can connect with Elizabeth on Instagram at @beth_theodora_m.

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 31st St

Trenity Thomas is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of genres including fashion, lifestyle, editorial, conceptual, sports, portraiture, and nightlife photography. As a photographer, Trenity uses his camera to capture the life and composition of still life around him. His photographs have a warmth to them that pulls the viewer into the scene as if they were present - a feature that has become characteristic of his photographic style. Trenity has been in various juried exhibitions, which includes JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY's 24th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art and the Louisiana Contemporary juried exhibition presented by The Helis Foundation at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. His photographs have also received international attention when they were chosen for exhibition in PhotoVogue, a prestigious collection of photographs curated by the Photo Editors of Vogue Italia.

Models: Raina Menne & Miguel Stephens

You can connect with Trenity on Instagram at @504degrees.

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 35th St

"One must open their eyes before they can open their hearts."- Jona Monet.

Artist. Illustrator. Photographer. A Geechie Gullah Native, born in Germany creates for the stories untold, the voices unheard. Currently residing in our Nations Capitol, Washington, DC she explores vices to capture the sacred.

This series was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea that nature is "turning against us" taking away lives most sacred, is a scary thing to digest. It made me ponder on life, my existence, my gratitude. I related back to elements of nature. The earth is rebirthing. I focused in on that and I chose "the woman" for the subject, as mother earth, the mud, and her offspring, the leaves. I leave it to the viewer to reveal what is actually going on.

You can find her on Instagram at @Jona.Monet you can view her work at Origins Of and view her website www.originsof.xyz

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 15th St

Evie Zimmer is an American artist creating and teaching in Cleveland, Ohio. Her earlier kaleidoscopic abstract paintings earned her local and national recognition. Zimmer’s innovative artwork challenges the viewer with optic effects that imitate computer generated imagery but with personal expression only the artist can create. Zimmer’s oil paintings have been described as a “strange loop of process and product that radiate an inherent energy field.” Her more recent work has become more floral and symmetrical combining her original style with realistic imagery. This transformation in style has earned Evie a number of awards and publications both nationally and internationally including International Artist Magazine, American Art Collector, 10Ten Magazine (UK), and Les Femme Follies and online features by Vice Creators and Niji Magazine. Zimmer’s work has also been digitally displayed on billboards in Baltimore and on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Ca. Zimmer is consistently creating new work from her studio in Euclid, Ohio where she welcomes visitors and students.

I am a very analytical thinker, which as an artist, may be considered unusual. I plan most of my paintings and execute them with thoughtful intention. My earlier paintings were based on geometric designs and patterns using highly saturated colors. As my artwork has matured, my paintings have become more floral and organic. My process is very concentrated and meticulous and, for me, meditative and therapeutic.

I am often asked what my artwork is about. This is very difficult to answer as I believe my art expresses what words cannot. What I can tell you is that I feel an insatiable urge to create, I intend for my artwork to be beautiful and stir the viewer’s thoughts and emotions, and that with each bit of beauty I create, I am relieved of an equal amount of anguish from my past. I believe there is healing in the process of creating, and the healing energy radiates from the finished artwork. I want the viewer to sense that energy.

When looking at my art on a small computer screen or an even smaller phone screen, many assume my work is digital. And, although I often use my computer to lay out a basic composition, my work is entirely hand painted. I am intrigued by the numerous effects that can be generated and enjoy experimenting. However, once I go to the canvas, my process changes dramatically and the painting evolves on a more intuitive and expressive level.

You can connect with Evie on Instagram at @eviezimmer.

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 19th St

Danielle Rackowski is a Fine Art Digital Photographer and Self Portrait Photo Artist based in New Jersey. Surrealism, spiritualism, and personal discovery influence her approach of imaginative in-camera effects and post-editing techniques, which question broader and nuanced concepts of self-identity. The conceptual and physical use of obscurity in her self portraits push the viewer to attain a sense of inner clarity. Enigmatic layers of concealment and revelation create personal meaning, which propel the viewer to decipher one’s self and what is situated beneath the subconscious level of thinking through her own critical gaze.

The self portrait, Synthesis, is a personal and visual connection between the artist’s own voice and journey of self discovery. The use of bold colors and graphic floral elements evoke surrealist complexities that transform the self. Imaginative visual elements coalesce, merge, and blend together, which create a depth of personal and introspective meaning for the artist’s own interconnectedness of self expression, exploration, and enlightenment.

You can connect with Danielle on Instagram at @danielle4photo.

Location: Biscayne Blvd & NE 25th St

Ellen VanderMyde is a multi-disciplinary artist and illustrator based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art with a minor in Art History from the Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University. While working in many art mediums, she always returns to painting and illustration—her first loves. VanderMyde's work has been shown at Stay Home Gallery, The Ikouii Creative, Visionary Art Collective, and in other galleries across the United States. In 2020 she participated in an artist residency with Stay Home Gallery where she explored creating in solitude. You can find VanderMyde creating in her studio or out hiking in southwest Michigan.

VanderMyde's art practice investigates “looking” as a dialogue and attempts to locate and ground her experiences in the physical world. This practice arose organically from her learning disabilities as a way to explore non-verbal thought and language. Her colorful work, full of light and shadow, is an ongoing dialogue with observation, contemplation, and solitude as self-care. She shares these moments of delight and transcendence to give others reason or permission to pause and slow down. Inspired by gender inequality, VanderMyde often depicts women actively engaging their surroundings and creating their own world. Her practice is resilience in action: recharging by meditating on color or transitioning light, and then sharing that feeling with the viewer, is what keeps her hopeful and able to show up honest and open. 

You can connect with Ellen on Instagram at @voyagewithellen.

Location: N Miami Ave & NE 20th St

CL Martin works with mixed media to create emotionally complex, mysterious figures using performers as models and inspiration. They represent preconceived roles yet are themselves at the same time. This tension is as immediate as the subject’s charisma, presence and body, making the work more evocative than descriptive. She wants to invite viewers into examining their own preconceived ideas about identity, the body and emotion in the service of capturing a particular kind of silent exchange between the art and the viewer like that between audience and performer.

CL Martin is a figurative artist. She has studied art all her life and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is continually inspired by the performing arts. In 2007, she received an Artist Initiative Grant from the MN State Arts Board and the National Endowment for The Arts. She has exhibited internationally from London to Italy and her work resides in private collections around the world. In 2011, she had her first solo show in Manhattan.

You can connect with CL on Instagram at @cl.martin.art.