34. Cristina Molina

In honor of our MasterMind genius awards, Cultist proudly presents “100 Creatives,” where we feature Miami’s cultural superheroes in random order. Have suggestions for future profiles? Email cultist@miaminewtimes.com with the whos and whys.

34. Cristina Molina
We all know who Sigmund Freud is, right? Well, take about one-part Freud, add it to one-part Basel darling, then add a dash of Warholesque pop-culture-sensibility, and you may be close to understanding video/sculpture/installation artist Cristina Molina.

At Florida International University, Molina indulged her two main areas

of interest: art and psychology. And after earning two bachelor’s

degrees, she wields those skills to dissect human nature and expose it

through her work. “Much of my work stems from analyzing human motivation

and its relationship to desire. I learned to think scientifically about

this through methods used in psychology, but art allows me to explore

other arenas of motivation.”

Although she is temporarily a Gainesville resident while finishing

her master’s in digital media art at the University of Florida,

Cristina is definitely 3-0-5 fo’ life. “I still try to have as much as a presence in Miami as I can, both exhibiting and attending shows, and

of course engaging in all of the Art Basel festivities.”

 
Molina’s work has been exhibited in local and

international venues; including the Frost Art Museum where she earned

“Best in Show;” the Gallery at the University of Genoa in Genoa, Italy;

and the MoCA film festival competition, Optic Nerve XI, where her videos

were voted “Audience Favorite.”

1. List five things that inspire you.
-Galician ladies-Elaborate meals-Francis bacon paintings-Over-embellished trinkets-Verbs
2. What was your last big project?
I just had my first solo exhibition “Helium Hum” at Nina Torres Fine Art Gallery in Wynwood. The show is comprised of a series of video works that focus on the mouth as a portal through which exchanges of desire and excess are mediated. The exhibition will continue until January 29.
3. What’s your next big project?
Since I am currently interested in consumption in the literal sense of edibles or non-edibles passing through the mouth, I am brainstorming on how to include more food in my next project. I have previously experimented with this idea in a piece called “The iScream Machine.” For that work, participants were invited to scream into a jeweled victrola-like horn that was attached to an interactive ice cream cart. An LED scream-o-meter detected the amplitude of the screams and the louder the participant’s scream, the better the ice cream they would receive. The ice cream pops were modeled after different mobile devices.

4. Why do you do what you do?
Art making feels like the most intuitive way of observing and responding to my surroundings. 

5. What’s something you want Miami to know about you?
That even though I try to escape it, I am its citizen for life.
What’s something you don’t want Miami to know about you?
I’ll keep that one a secret, so that Miami never finds out!

The Creatives so far:

35. David Josef Tamargo
36. Jillian Mayer
37. Alfonso Vega
38. Natasha Lopez de Victoria
39. Aholsniffsglue

40. Heather Maloney
41. Jorge Rubiera
42. Elaine Lancaster
43. Nick Duckart
44. Danielle Estefan
45. John Dufresne
46. Monica Lopez de Victoria
47. Bill Bilowit
48. Alette Simmons-Jimenez
49. Tawnie Silva
50. Ginger Bardot
51. Jonathan David Kane
52. Naomi Fisher
53. Rocky Grimes
54. Teresa Barcelo
55. Paul Tei
56. Lee Materazzi