Miami New Times' Mastermind Awards honors the city's most inspiring creatives. This year, we received more than 150 submissions, which our staff narrowed to an elite group of 30. We'll be profiling our honorable mentions, and eventually the finalists, in the weeks to come. This year's three Mastermind Award winners will be announced March 8 at Artopia, our annual soiree celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit the website.
Charo Oquet
According to her biography, Charo Oquet "is an interdisciplinary artist who's known for her dynamic installations." But "dynamic installations" doesn't even begin to describe her work. Her installations are far beyond dynamic -- they're out of another world, but ironically enough, Oquet creates them to incorporate idioms that we see everyday.
Oquet bases her work on popular Afro-Caribbean religions, and having been exhibited in the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean, it's no stretch to say she's doing something right. Permanent exhibitions house some of her works in Spain, New Zealand, and Dominican Republic.
She also spearheads and founded Edge Zones, a non-profit arts organization based out of Miami.
Oquet describes her work as avant-garde, "a blend of performance art and object making that relies on exploration and transformation," she said to us in an email. And outrageously interesting concept to her work: she uses the things we typically discard into the precious objects she calls her art, "Cheap, and disposable utensils linked to gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities."
So, we can go dumpster diving with her and create a piece for the New Times office.
Honorable Mentions:
Bannavis Andrew Sribyata
Sarah Kontoff Baker
Jason Snyder
Valeria Yamamoto
Jayme Gershen
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