A Celebration of Contemporary Artist Pepe Mar

Thrift-store finds, fashion and queer culture converge in the collages and assemblages of Miami-based artist Pepe Mar. He joins curator Anastasia Kinigopoulo to discuss Pepe Mar: Dream House on Saturday, November 21 at Freedom Tower’s Knight Skylight Gallery in downtown Miami, as part of Miami Book Fair.

The illustrated monograph accompanies Mar’s exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, where his work appears alongside objects from the museum’s permanent collection. The book places his practice within a history of artists working with found materials and printed ephemera, connecting it with the surrealist experiments of Hannah Höch and Max Ernst and the assemblages of Betye Saar and Joseph Cornell. Kinigopoulo, the Currier’s curator of modern and contemporary art, curated the exhibition and edited the accompanying catalog.

Born in Mexico and based in Miami, Mar transforms collected images, secondhand objects and textiles into layered works exploring identity, memory and consumer culture. His museum projects include Tesoro: Pepe Mar’s Love Letter to the Frost at Miami’s Frost Art Museum and Myth and Magic, a 15-year career survey at the Tampa Museum of Art.

The conversation runs from 3–4 p.m. Admission is free.