2022 FLORIDA BIENNIAL:
Installations, Portraiture, Materiality, and Magic Realism
On View Thru Sun., Feb. 5, 2023
Juried by Ylva Rouse
Organized Meaghan Kent, Curator of Exhibitions
and Joanna Ruiz, Arts Aspire Curatorial Assistant
Participating Artists:
Javier Barrera (Miami Beach), Bella Cardim (Key Biscayne), Christopher Clark (Jacksonville), Elaine Defibaugh (Miami), Dana Donaty (Boynton Beach), Christian Feneck (Fort Lauderdale), Brendhan Garland (Gainesville), Bonney Goldstein (Fort Lauderdale), Sheila Goloborotko (Jacksonville),Anna Goraczko (North Miami Beach), Jeanne Jaffe (Boynton Beach), Sophia Lacroix (Hollywood), Cynthia Mason (St. Petersburg), Cheryl Maeder (Lake Worth), Raymond Olivero (Mount Dora), Kerry Phillips (Miami), Vickie Pierre (Miami), Evelyn Politzer (Miami), Galal Ramadan (Fort Lauderdale), Alette Simmons-Jiménez (Miami), Aida Tejada (Miami), Cornelius Tulloch (Miami), Jackeuline Walters (Aventura), Zaplaflora (Jesús F Torres) (Hialeah)
As the title implies, a multi-media approach is revealed in the practices of artmaking by the participating artists. From traditional portraiture to recycled materials, the exhibition seeks to reveal a rawness that evokes our current times and experiences. As Rouse states, “Overall, the sense I get is an exploration of our place, in/with nature and in society right now, with a dominant strain of what I want to call magic realism, as well as an overall developed sense of materiality.”
This 11th edition of the Center’s Florida Biennial features 24 artists representing eight Florida counties. The exhibition was juried by Ylva Rouse, Senior Curator at MOCA Jacksonville, who reviewed over 1,000 submitted works from 349 artists from cities throughout Florida.
During the exhibition’s opening reception, which took place on Sat., Oct. 15th, the Center announced Sophia Lacroix was selected among the 24 artists to receive a solo exhibition in 2023 along with a $1,000 honorarium.
About Ylva Rouse
Ylva Rouse currently serves as Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida, overseeing the exhibitions and collection of the institution. She came to MOCA Jax from New Orleans, where she served as the Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, and later Interim Director for Prospect New Orleans, the citywide international arts biennial founded by Dan Cameron in the wake of hurricane Katrina.
Ylva maintains her ties with New Orleans serving as Chair of the Board for the Tulane artist residency A Studio in the Woods. In Jacksonville, she is also a member of the city’s Cultural Council’s Art in Public Places Committee, which helps develop public art commissions for Greater Jacksonville. Prior to her tenure with Prospect, Rouse worked as curator in Madrid, Spain, and served as Exhibitions Curator at the National Museum Reina Sofia for many years. With the firm belief in art as a force for change, Ylva Rouse’s passion throughout her career has been to work with artists, spread the understanding and enjoyment of the modern and contemporary arts among the general public, and bring awareness to the importance of nurturing the creative spirit, as individuals and as community.
The 2022 Florida Biennial is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts