Art venue “El Espacio 23” looks beyond borders
By Karen-Janine Cohen
Miami’s global connections are not only financial but cultural as well, and supercharging this social scene is one of the city’s youngest art venues – El Espacio 23 in Allapattah, the western neighborhood where numerous galleries and museums (most notably the Rubel) have landed after fleeing more expensive venues in Wynwood and elsewhere.
`El Espacio 23 is an endeavor of art-lover Jorge M. Pérez, chairman and CEO of the Related Group and a founding spirit and philanthropist of downtown’s eponymously named Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). El Espacio 23 is casting a wide international net, with a pointed focus on contemporary African works. As it prepares for its fall show – the fourth since opening in 2019 – curators will call into conversation art from the African diaspora, particularly in Latin America and the U.S., with art and artists from the motherland.
While the treasure trove of art Pérez donated to the PAMM was rich in Latin American mid-century artists and connects to Pérez’s Cuban roots, the El Espacio 23 collection is different. Here, the emphasis is toward a more contemporary and international scope. While the works of older artists are not ignored, living artists are the focus.
El Espacio 23’s inaugural show, “Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” displayed works by more than 80 artists from around the world. The space’s second exhibit, “WITNESS: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” featured upwards of 100 works from African and African diaspora artists. The upcoming show, scheduled for November, will also feature contemporary African artists, and those with a connection to the continent.
Such links stood out when researching and collecting Cuban, Brazilian, and African American art, says Anelys Alvarez, assistant curator at El Espacio 23, the Jorge M Pérez Collection, and the Related Group. “For many artists, Africa ties together the different areas of concentration,” she says, creating a web of connections encompassing African American artists, Afro-Cuban artists, Afro-Brazilian artists, and others with cultural or ancestral ties to the continent.
One need not wait until after hurricane season to visit El Espacio 23, however. It has a terrific show going on through the end of July. “You Know Who You Are, Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” is a sharp, wry, often painful look at the work of mostly contemporary Cuban artists.
El Espacio itself is two connected warehouses – high ceilinged and expansive, with a lively, energetic feel, and a conceptual approach both accessible and pointed. Upon entering the 28,000-square-foot venue, an inviting pair of couches bracket what at first appears like a typical coffee table covered with books. Yet a closer look reveals the books are wood. It’s the work of Lester Alvarez, who is speaking about censorship with “books” that were never published and are impossible to read anyway.
Other standouts among the treasure trove of “commentary” art, laced with aesthetic and intimate experience, are the wooden sculptures of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The table-top size figures are from the series “Los héroes no pesan” (Heroes do not carry weight) and demand attention. The rough-hewn human shapes, which seem to snarl with vulnerability, are created from reclaimed wood and reference, in part, Cuban veterans of the Angola War.
Alcántara himself, who was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2021, was sentenced for his activism to a Cuban jail, where he remains.
