Art of Black with Robert McKnight

Artist Robert McKnight is one of Miami’s creative giants. He was born in North Carolina and moved to South Miami with his family in 1953. Excelling at art from a young age, McKnight attended Killian High School. One of his teachers encouraged him to apply for a scholarship to study painting at Syracuse University. Through Syracuse, he had the chance to study sculpture at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London.

In 1971, while McKnight was in England, his brother and other students at the University of Miami launched the Black Arts Workshop to create new opportunities for Miami’s Black community. He has since become a prominent public artist. Across the city, his landmark projects illuminate half a century of Miami’s Black history.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Producer: Fresh Art International | Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio
Related Links: Robert McKnight, Art & Life with Robert McKnight

Art of Black Miami Podcast with Najja Moon

Your Mommas Voice in the Back of Your Head
by Najja Moon

Artist Najja Moon was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. The daughter of musicians, she played basketball through high school and college. Moon studied art at Pfeiffer University, just outside Charlotte, before moving to Miami in 2009. In 2015, she co-founded the BLCK family, a creative collective that brought locals together around culinary, visual, performing and social arts. She has lived and worked in different neighborhoods around Miami, as her practice has evolved from drawing, to sculpture, to public art. Engaging Miami’s diverse communities, Moon brings together art, life, and social practice in her inspiring hands-on approach to creativity.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Producer: Fresh Art International | Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio
Related Links: Najja Moon, Bass Museum of Art New Monuments, Knight Foundation New Works 2020

Art of Black Miami Podcast with Devora Perez

Erasure in the Making
by Devora Perez

A first-generation American, Devora Perez is daughter to Nicaraguan immigrants. She was born in Miami, and now lives in Hialeah, Florida. Perez earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from New World School of the Arts in 2016, and her Master of Fine Arts from Florida International University in 2020. She shows her art at venues across Miami and the U.S. Domestic environments, urban architecture and the South Florida landscape inspire her work. Perez makes poetic statements about the human condition with everyday materials. Grounded in real life, her abstract art is accessible to all of us.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace

Producer: Fresh Art International | Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio

Related Links: Devora Perez, Inter | Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator

Art of Black Miami Podcast with Marvin Weeks

Miami Magic Music Mural/Betty Wright and the Miami Sound
by Marvin Weeks

Artist Marvin Weeks came to Miami as a young man, carrying in his mind the traditions and environment of his coastal Georgia birthplace. Our diaspora city widened his experience of Caribbean culture. In 1980, Weeks was inspired to become an arts advocate. Through his writing, painted murals, and community activism, the artist has been involved in strengthening the diversity of art and culture in Miami for more than two decades. Weeks considers his leadership role in the Miami Arts & Entertainment Council an opportunity to heighten the visibility of our heritage neighborhoods on the global stage.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Producer: Fresh Art International
Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio

Related Links: Marvin Weeks, Miami Arts & Entertainment Council, Liberty City Broadway Arts District, African Heritage Cultural Arts Center

Art of Black Miami Podcast with Asser Saint-Val

The Philosopher’s Stone
by Asser Saint Val

Born in Haiti, artist Asser Saint-Val has lived in Miami most of his life. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and graphic design from the New World School of the Arts and University of Florida. As he matured in the local art scene, Saint-Val traveled to the Caribbean to explore his roots. He lives and creates in Miami’s Allapattah district.

The sensorial and spiritual come together in his art. Saint-Val’s performance installation The Philosopher’s Stone brings to life his surreal paintings. In this work, performing bodies, sound, taste, and smell invite us to contemplate universal truths about our inner selves.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace
Producer: Fresh Art International | Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio
Philosopher’s Stone performance sound courtesy Asser Saint-Val

Related Links: Asser St. Val, InterSectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator

Art of Black Miami Podcast featuring Jared McGriff

Overseer, Overseer, Officer, 2020
by Jared McGriff
courtesy of Spinello Projects

In 2017, artist Jared McGriff made his way to Miami from the California Bay area, and stayed. He earned his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design and his Masters in Business Administration from New York University. McGriff has shown his paintings locally and nationally. In Miami, you can find his work at Spinello Projects. His view of the world comes from his means of transportation—he navigates the city by bicycle. Miami’s nature and culture inspire the subjects, the palette and the rhythm of his paintings. McGriff shows us contemporary life through social observations, and fragments of remembered people and places.

Host: Rosie Gordon-Wallace

Producer: Fresh Art International | Sound Design/Editing: Anamnesis Audio

Related Links: Jared McGriff, Spinello Projects | InterSectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator