Local art enthusiast Rosie Gordon-Wallace is one who sticks around this sticky town and is glad most folks have no choice but to do the same. "We're still here. We deserve a chance to be entertained," says Gordon-Wallace about the year-round Miamian's summer dilemma. This past year Gordon-Wallace, a former Miami Light Project board member and current Bakehouse Art Complex board member, conceived something for everyone's edification and enjoyment. She sublet a studio at the Bakehouse and created the six-month-long entity known as Diaspora Vibe Art Gallery. Her idea: Give a half-dozen up-and-coming Caribbean artists a miniresidency in a rent-free studio, where they can each spend 30 days making art.
This year Gordon-Wallace, who chooses the artists and funds the project with her own money and donations culled from friends, rented a larger space to continue the tradition. Each month culminates in a relaxed one-night show dubbed Final Fridays. Jerald Dorset's jazz/R&B band D'EBI provides the tunes. Amateur poets show off their skills. Gordon-Wallace and cohorts cook up a tasty Caribbean buffet. And the featured artist displays his or her works, which are for sale, of course.
This Friday evening self-taught painter Rhoma, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, will showcase her creations in an exhibition titled "Energy Art -- Borne Out of Necessity" during the inaugural reception marking the end of the first residency. It is Rhoma's second show, following a December 1998 presentation at CocoWalk. The 39-year-old artist only began painting full-time five years ago, switching gears from a career as a mental-health administrator.
Future exhibitions will highlight artists who hail from Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Dominica, Haiti, and Martinique. Immigration is a theme familiar to all the artists, and they will explore it informally during the next six months. "When people are displaced, they are displaced all over the world, but the vibe, the rhythm comes from the culture," says Gordon-Wallace.
And in the end, Diaspora Vibe's celebration of art is all about soaking up the vibe. "We don't measure the success of the event solely from sales," Gordon-Wallace notes. "The high comes from seeing the growth of the artist through the process. The person starting at the beginning of the month is not the same person at the end of the month." After one long summer in Miami, everyone is transformed.
-- Nina Korman
Final Fridays at Diaspora Vibe Gallery takes place at 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 28, in studio 48 at the Bakehouse Art Complex, 561 NW 32nd St. Admission is $15, plus an optional donation of two cans of food. Call 305-759-1110.
