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Locust Projects presents Nicholas Hlobo, Frances Trombly, and Angel Otero

Locust Projects presents Nicholas Hlobo, Frances Trombly, and Angel Otero on November 9–December 21, 2013.

 Nicholas Hlobo, Izithunzi, 2009. Rubber inner tube, ribbon, organza, lace, found objects, steel, couch, dimensions variable. Installation view, South African National Gallery, Cape Town. Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Nicholas Hlobo, Izithunzi, 2009. Rubber inner tube, ribbon, organza, lace, found objects, steel, couch, dimensions variable. Installation view, South African National Gallery, Cape Town. Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Now celebrating 15 years of exhibiting experimental contemporary art, Locust Projects is pleased to present Intethe (Sketch for an Opera), South African sculptor Nicholas Hlobo’s first major project in Miami. Hlobo is known for creating theatrical environments and sprawling organic sculptures made of materials such as leather and rubber, intricately stitched with ribbon and lace. This installation will incorporate the large-scale sculptures into a multifaceted performance space and video installation. For the first time, he will collaborate with Miami-based Haitian band Papaloko and Loray Mistik on a sketch for an opera titled Intethe (“Locust” in the Xhosa language), exploring notions of shared identity throughout the global African diaspora.

Through his work, Hlobo expresses an interest in the commingling of cultural dichotomies: traditional vs. colonial, rural vs. urban, child vs. adult, straight vs. queer, which are stitched together to form unexpected new tapestries. The performance will explore cultural and spiritual hybridity to which the Haitian musicians’ identities add a new layer. The experimental opera will be set amongst the installation, and part of the gallery will function as a dressing room for the performers, whose costumes will remain in the space when they are not present. The live performance will be presented twice during the exhibition and the original score, written collaboratively by the artist and musicians, will be incorporated into the installation.

In the Project Room, Miami-based artist Frances Trombly will present Over and Under, a floor-to-ceiling scaffold. This structure is the framework for a handmade canvas, which is rhythmically woven in and out, up and down in a manner that visually echoes industrial fabric production. Trombly’s largest work to date, Over and Under poses a direct challenge to the artists’ studio practice, opening up a new relationship with the physicality of the loom by defying its confines. Expanding on Trombly’s interest in the contrast found in handmade objects that normally are mass-produced, Over and Under focuses on the cloth itself. The work contains a timeline of its own construction, a transcription of the gestures of working and constructing in space.

Angel Otero has been commissioned to create a work for Art on the Move, part of Locust Projects’ ongoing public commissions initiative. The New York-based Puerto Rican artist embeds personal history in his densely stratified abstract paintings. Otero’s investigational process begins with thickly layered compositions painted on large planes of glass. These “oil skins” are then scraped off in sheets and draped onto canvas, revealing layers of under painting and distorting the original image. Otero’s artwork will appear on the backs of Miami Beach buses and at Miami Metro Rail stops in December.

Reception for the artists: Saturday, November 9, 7–10pm and Thursday, December 5, 7–10pm in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach.

Locust Projects
3852 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33127
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5pm,
December 2–7 (during Art Basel Miami Beach) 9am–5pm
T 305 576 8570
www.locustprojects.org