Locust Projects’ Community Celebration in New Home!
featuring inaugural exhibition by Rafael Domenech assembling beneath a desire for sabotage
For the inaugural exhibition in Locust Projects’ new home, Cuban-American artist Rafael Domenech envisioned assembling beneath a desire for sabotage, a massive architectural environment that creates a pavilion-like setting activated by a sequence of events. For the take over of Locust Projects’ new space in Little River prior to the build-out of gallery walls, the project builds on the artist’s recent pavilion for the 58th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.
Domenech’s architectural intervention at Locust Projects is intended to redefine the exhibition experience as an active machine for production and dialogue rather than a repository space for passive viewing. For “assembling”, Domenech repurposes imagery from his Miami archive alongside a composite of texts to create a space that allows for affordance – a recognition of an architectural space in a state of transformation. Attendees can walk through the free flowing rooms, and layer their own experiences and ideas by participating in various activations.
Conceived as a series of “chapters” informed by Domenech’s history of working with artist’s books and experimental publishing formats, the activations punctuate the run of the show, evolving in and through the community’s active participation.
Chapter 1 || Conversation
Presented Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023
A conversation in the installation under construction on process and exhibition design between Rafael Domenechand Talia Heiman, who served on the curatorial team for the 58th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, which built on the artist’s recent pavilion there and the work currently in progress at Locust Projects.
Chapter 2 || Social Factory
Presented Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023
A collaborative lamp-building workshop held during the project’s construction. Participants created a collective poem-mural that was deconstructed into individual fragments and turned into light sculptures becoming a major part of the installation.
Chapter 3 || 25th Anniversary Benefit Dinner
Presented Saturday, February 25, 2023
We hosted our biggest fundraiser of the year — the 25th Anniversary Benefit Dinner honoring Locust Projects Board Member and dedicated patron of the arts in our community, Dede Moss.
Check out the photos by World Red Eye HERE!
Chapter 4 || Community Celebration
Presented Friday, March 3, 2023
This public event marked a significant milestone as we officially opened our new home! Our doors are now officially open to you all Wed-Sat, 11am-5pm. Come visit us and see the exhibition continue to evolve!
Check out the photos by World Red Eye HERE!
Activations this spring will include an artist workshop, a fundraiser Bingo Boogie Night, and a one day only gallery takeover by Dance NOW! Miami. Stay tuned on our Instagram as we publish info for our new chapters.
Thank you to old friends and new for gathering in our space and celebrating the public grand opening. The new space in Little River is Locust's 4th home since it was founded by three pioneering artists in Wynwood in 1998. As a space founded by artists, for artists, Locust Projects remains true to COOPER, Westen Charles and Elizabeth Withstandley's original vision to provide artists with the time, space and resources to create ambitious new work and build community and critical dialogue on contemporary art.
Visit us Wed-Sat 11am-5pm at 297 NE 67th Street inLittle River
Photos by World Red Eye - thanks to Epoca Brewery and SHORTY'S BBQ, hydration by Liquid Death
Rafael Domenech (b. 1989, Havana; lives between New York, NY and Miami, FL) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator exploring notions of architecture and urban design, public gathering spaces, and publishing methodologies.He refers to his works as “publications,”and they take the form of pavilions, installations, and public programs, as well as experimental publications. Domenech’s spatial interventions intersect publishing methodologies such as cutting, redacting, revising, and circulation as research tactics to amplify his interest in the exhibition model as an active machine for production rather than a repository space.
Locust Projects 2022-2023 exhibitions and programming are made possible with support from: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Diane and Robert Moss; The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children's Trust; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Ruth Foundation for the Arts; Florida, Department of State; The Miami Foundation; Diane and Werner Grob; Susan and Richard Arregui; The Albert and Jane Nahmad Family Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant; VIA Art Fund | Wagner Foundation Incubator Grant; Funding Arts Network; Hillsdale Fund;Kirk Foundation; and the Incubator Fund Supporting Sponsors and Friends.