The Studios at MASS MoCA is thrilled to announce our second Home + Away Residency in partnership with Oolite Arts, based in Miami. This residency is a five-week Oolite Arts takeover of the Studios at MASS MoCA starting May 1st, 2024. Through an open call for submissions, ten south Florida artists have been chosen by Oolite to receive a residency at MASS MoCA, which includes studio space, housing, access to curators, and other programming to enrich their experience.
The five-week residency will take place May 1 – June 3, 2024 with an Open Studio on Saturday May 25th from 1:00pm - 3:00pm as part of MASS MoCA’s 25th Anniversary Community Celebration.
Alette Simmons-Jiménez was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. She received a BFA from Tulane University (1975) and has sustained a rigorous multimedia practice for fifty years.
She has exhibited internationally, including over 30 solo shows, most recently: "A Stick A Stone A Tree" Oolite Arts (2024), “Murmuration” for No Vacancy, the City of Miami Beach (2023), "Wherever We Land..." Miami International Airport Moving Image Gallery (2022-2023), "A Crack In The Moon" Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach, Florida(2022).
She has participated in over 100 group exhibitions including: “El tiempo de todavía. 1984-2002” El Centro León, Santiago, Dominican Republic (2023-24); “Artist Activations” Chroma Art/Film Festival, for Rainbow Oasiiis at Superblue, Miami, Florida (2023); "Florida Biennial" Art & Culture Center, Hollywood, Florida (2022); US Dept. of State Art in Embassies Program in Saudi Arabia (2015) and in Honduras (1999); and "ArtistaInvitaArtista", Casa de la Cultura, Valencia, Spain (2010); "XVIII Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales" Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, D.R (1992, 1990).
Simmons-Jiménez’s many awards include a Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs MIA Grant (2023), a Knight Foundation Arts Grant (2008), a Florida Fellowship (1998), 1st Prize: Video at the XVIII Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales, Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1992), and invitations to artist's residencies by Maroc Premium Foundation, to Ifitry Residence D'Artiste, Essouira, Morocco (2019), Oolite Arts & Museum Es Baluard, to Mallorca, Spain (2018), and The Studios of Key West, Key West, Florida (2008).
Institutions collecting her works include the 21c Museum-Foundation for Contemporary Art, Louisville, Kentucky; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama; and Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Banco Popular, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Mastercard International Corporation, Miami, Florida; and others.
Ana Mosquera
Ana Mosquera is an artist from Caracas, Venezuela, currently based in Miami. Her work researches the impact of technology in shaping human and non-human connections in a commodified world. Through digital storytelling and interactive installations, she examines societal structures, political dynamics, and individual agency. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture (2020) and a Bachelor in Architecture from Universidad Central de Venezuela (2015).
GeoVanna Gonzalez is a Miami based artist, born and raised in Los Angeles, California where she received her BFA at Otis College of Art and Design. Her work desires to connect private and public space through interventionist, participatory art with an emphasis on collaboration and collectivity. Through her work she addresses the shifting notions of gender and identity, intimacy and proximity. Her most recent work performs these possibilities by collaborating with movement and sound based artists. These improvisations are political acts, analyzing and critiquing what it means to share public space as womxn, queer folks and people of color.
Her work has been shown at various institutions including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Station Contemporary Arts Museum, NSU Art Museum, The Bass Museum, Fringe Projects, and The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Gonzalez received awards and residencies from South Arts’ Southern Prize and State Fellowship, WaveMaker Grant, The Ellies Visual Arts Award, The South Florida Cultural Consortium, Santa Fe Art Institute Residency Santa Fe, Franconia Sculpture Park, Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts, and CAMPO. Her work is in permanent collections at Miami-Dade County Art in Public Place and University of Maryland Art Gallery.
Jennifer A. Basile was born in Manhasset, New York and lives and works in Miami, Florida. Basile received a B.F.A in 1996 from University of Miami and an M.F.A from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 1999. Jennifer has been a Floridian for over 30 years and has been making large scale relief prints solely focused on the landscape. Selected Solo exhibitions include “Impressions of the American Landscape” (2018) Iridian Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, “The Power of Print: Iconic Images of the American Landscape” (2019) LnS Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida, “Lasting Impressions: A Cessation of Existence” (2022) LnS Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida. Selected group exhibitions include “Bear/Bear with Me” (2019) Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida, “Fossil Eyes” (2022) Art Expo Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois, “Women At Large” (2022) curated by Dainy Tapia at LnS Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida. Basile has received the Miami Dade County Artist Access grant (2015, 2016), the Miami Dade County Artist Stipend (2022,2023), the Oolite Ellie Creator Grant (2023), and Miami Dade County Art in Public Places project Civil and Probate Court House (2023). Residencies at Vermont Studio Center (2015), the Jentel Foundation in Sheridan Wyoming (2016), a 4 month full fellowship to the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley California (2018), Mother’s Milk at Hazel Tree Farm Kansas (2023), a Fellowship to Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2023), a fellowship to Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences (2024) and Artist in Residence at The Studios of Key West (2024). Her work is in the collection of the Lowe Art Museum, Museum of Art and Design, the Bernice Steinbaum Collection, and the Tucson Museum of Art.
Kevin Contento
The Colombian-American filmmaker was born in Plantation, Florida in 1990. His debut feature film The Conference of the Birds premiered in Paris and won the Narrative Features Jury Award at the 2021 New Orleans Film Festival. From fish to moon, his latest short film, had its International premiere in the Berlinale Shorts Competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Delmont emerges as a dynamic multidisciplinary artist in the vibrant heart of Miami Gardens (accurately known as Carol City), where cultural diversity thrives. He prioritizes making art about the catacombs that are this city and its dwellers, the people cameras do not follow, the people with vast lives who need their stories told and are unaware of it.
Delmont took consolation in the worlds of music and cinema from a young age, with luminaries such as Outkast, Curtis Mayfield, and Kendrick Lamar serving as a sonic background for his path of self-discovery. Films like "Equilibrium," "Boyz n the Hood," and "Memento" provided entry points into the study of identity, blackness, and masculinity. These artistic forms were his sanctuaries, allowing him to be free of societal standards and celebrating his distinct individuality.
As Delmont's artistic journey progressed, he became affected not only by his heroes' songs and storytelling, but also by the mechanical world. His father, a talented contractor and fabricator, exposed him to a world of hydraulics, tools, and machines, fostering in him a fascination with mechanics, building structures and always finding a way to make it work.
At the age of 25, Delmont boldly embraced self-taught artistry, creating dramatic portraiture and expansive black iconography wrapped in permeable surroundings using paints, construction materials, and fabrics on wooden frames, recalling his blue-collar upbringing.
Delmont's art celebrates the strength of the black experience, which is currently experiencing a revival that reflects a modern-day renaissance. Delmont feels like house parties resemble masquerades, DJ speakers become orchestral symphonies of kings, and rolling dice represent the rolling heads within the Colosseum. The audience cheers as we argue domino tables. We are as captivated by entertainment as we were then and are now, drowning in vices. Delmont's paintings serve as a reminder that we exist, have always existed, and that our experiences deserve to be shared — in full color.
Photo by Soomi (2024).
Nathalie Alfonso (b. 1987, Bogota, Colombia) holds a Master’s in Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Florida International University in Miami, FL. Alfonso’s exhibitions include venues such as the NSU Art Museum of Fort Lauderdale, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Art and Culture Center Hollywood, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, Cody Gallery at Marymount University, and Oolite Arts. In 2020, Alfonso received the South Florida Cultural Consortium award in recognition of her contributions to the arts. She has also been nominated for the Cultural Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2021 and The United States Artist Fellowship for 2023-2024. Recently, she received the Artist Innovation Grant from the Broward Cultural Division, which supported her solo exhibition at The Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery. She has been chosen for Art in Public Places by Miami-Dade County, where she will present her inaugural public art project. She has also been selected for residency programs, including The Anderson Ranch, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Kinosaito, and Sweet Pass Sculpture School. Central to Alfonso’s practice is the exploration of unseen work and the exercise of emotional control. She leverages the qualities of invisibility and visibility as the foundations for her multidisciplinary approach, which encompasses drawings, installations, performances, and videos. Nathalie Alfonso resides and works in South Florida.
Photo by Peter Vahan.
Priscilla Aleman is a visual artist based in Miami. With her background in archaeology, she uses sculpture to retrace ideas around the afterlife, Pre-Columbian cosmology, and the interplay of cultures from the Global South. Her work has been exhibited across the country and internationally at: The Smithsonian Museum of Art (Washington D.C.), The Bronx Museum (New York), New York Botanical Garden (New York), Readytex Art (Suriname), Art and Culture Center Hollywood (Florida), The Kampong (Miami), The Explorer’s Club (New York), and Virginia CommonWealth University (Richmond). Her most recent solo exhibition, In a Field of Ancient Stars, was presented at the Baxter Street Camera Club (New York) in 2023. In 2022 she presented their first public art work in New York City commissioned by New York Botanical Garden in the group exhibition Around the Table.
Aleman’s work has been reviewed in numerous publications including The New York Times: T Magazine, Hyperallergic, Artforum, Columbia Magazine, and Musee Magazine. Aleman is the recipient of the Mellon Research Fellowship at NYBG, The Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Grant, NYFA City Artist Corp Grant, and was recognized as 2009 Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She has been awarded residencies at FountainHead, LMCC, StoneLeaf, and Baxter Street Camera Club. Aleman earned a BA with honors from Cooper Union and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University.
Born in Cuba, William Osorio migrated to the United States seeking creative and intellectual freedom, embracing becoming a self-taught artist. William’s large-scale paintings often feature vivid color compositions evoking the classical tradition of painting as well as abstract language movements gestures, and textiles to a more intuitive and gestural approach to the canvas with a focus on the application of oil paint in successive layers to create a deeply textured effect.
”My practice meditates on art history, and literature, while addressing issues of migration and identity. Furthermore, it explores the channels of communication between art history imagery with peremptory today’s issues.
La Casa Nómada (Nomadic House) is a body of works in which I reflect on my own experience of exile. Most people are primarily aware of a culture, a sociopolitical setting, or a home. We, the exiles, are aware of at least two, and this plurality of gazes opens the doors to a certain simultaneity of our experience of the world. This series of rug paintings continues my exploration of the topic of immigration, displacement memory, and identity. The composition references photographs of important Cuban writers who were victims of political repression, and censorship and faced ostracism or suffered the burden of exile during the early years of the Cuban Revolution.”
Vickie Pierre was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She currently lives and works in Vero Beach, Florida. As a multidisciplinary artist, her artworks have been displayed in exhibitions internationally including Perez Art Museum Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico. In 2023, the artist was selected by the Art in Embassies Program to have her artworks displayed at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Pierre’s artworks can be found in private and public collections.
”My work is informed and inspired by memory, fantasy, surrealism, popular culture, and decorative and ornamental arts. My continued focus is on the utilization of various coded materials and techniques to explore identity and ethnicity, with references to my Haitian heritage and the Caribbean as well as broader global cultural mythologies and universalities. Concurrently, my work considers multilayered feminine and historical tropes relative to contemporary social and cultural realities.
Objects used in my assemblages and installations are mass-produced home decorations and gender-loaded objects like perfume bottles, representing the 18th through early 20th centuries. The perfume vessels are paired with vintage sconces and decorative resin wall art that are manipulated and cut intentionally to reflect a whimsical yet elusive energy in their design. These objects connect me to a broader shared cultural history of the Caribbean and its complicated relationship with Europe and the rest of the world. The combination of deconstructed and re-contextualized objects along with titles and texts, constructs an introspective, non-linear narrative on the formation of identity and cultural socialization.
The Poupées in the Bush series represent fierce deities, mythological characters, and spirit creatures that are bejeweled and armored. The colorful motifs of the collaged decorative paper mimic body modification and tattoos, recalling rich tribal adornments from around the world. Alternately, the compositions allude to biological and botanical structures, while maintaining base sentiments of whimsy, femininity, sensuality, beauty, and decadence.”