Installation images of “Parrots in a Kiln” in the Miami Design District. Photos by Pedro Wazzan.
Parrots in the Kiln brings together the work of artists Beatriz Chachamovits, Morel Doucet, Christina Pettersson, and Lauren Shapiro, whose practices in ceramic sculpture and installation grapple with ecological concerns for the natural and historical landscapes of Florida. The exhibition’s title draws from the novel “El loro en el horno” (Parrot in the Oven) by Chicano writer Víctor Martínez, and refers to a popular saying about the figure of the whining bird that complains about the heat without realizing it’s sitting in an oven. Considering the environmental implications of today’s rising temperatures, the objects in the room—most of which were formed in clay and hardened by firing—locate the idea of the kiln as a metaphor for the world.
Beatriz Chachamovits, Installation view of Carcass (2019). Photo by: Pedro Wazzan.
The objects in the room are installed according to a narrative of ascending order. Situated on the ground, Chachamovits’ central installation represents an ocean floor, a seabed colonized by hard corals, albeit terrifyingly bleached. Her work gives shape to an underwater world oftentimes ignored, yet deeply impacted by climate change. Displayed on vertical pedestals throughout the room, Shapiro’s ceramics bring to the fore ideas of modular complexity in nature, preserving the mythological account of the indivisibility between cast objects and animate beings.
From left to right: Lauren Shapiro, Bloom Stack (2019), Jade Stack and Pearl Stack (2018), and Turquoise Fruit Stack (2021). Photos by: Pedro Wazzan.
In a clock-face arrangement on the wall, Doucet’s baroque ceramics imply an anonymous human figure with limbs emerging from seashells, underscoring the pervasive concern over rising sea levels, and bringing awareness to the effects of climate gentrification that disparately affect Black and Brown communities.
Morel Doucet, Installation view of Skin Morph Eulogies as Broken Promise (2019). Photo by: David Gary Lloyd.
Throughout the space, Pettersson’s wallpaper provides a cohesive backdrop for this dialogical presentation. With original drawings depicting scenes of South Florida’s historical landscape, her illustrations boldly gesture towards a combined manual of social and natural sciences.
Parrots in the Kiln is the first iteration in a series of exhibitions showcasing artists from Bakehouse Art Complex in the Miami Design District.
This exhibition is curated by Karen Grimson, Director of Cultural Programming for Dacra and Curator of the Craig Robins Collection with Laura Novoa, Curatorial + Public Programs Manager at Bakehouse Art Complex.
About the artists
Beatriz Chachamovits is an environmental artist and educator from São Paulo, Brazil, living and working in Miami, FL. Chachamovits makes monochromatic ceramic sculptures and drawings to highlight the unique shape, form and texture of fragile marine ecosystems. Her work has been exhibited in The National Museum of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Municipal Theatre of São Paulo, Underwater Museum of Art (Walton County, FL), and Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (upcoming). Her work has recently been featured in Vogue Magazine's “Earth and Us” section and the National Geographic Education platform, as part of an AAAS grant to teach fifth graders about women in marine science.
Morel Doucet is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist and arts educator from Haiti. He utilizes illustration, ceramics, and prints to explore the impact of climate-gentrification, migration, and displacement on Black diasporic communities. Through a contemporary reconfiguration of the Black experience, his work catalogs a powerful record of environmental decay at the intersection of economic inequity, the commodification of industry, personal labor, and race. Doucet’s work is in the collection of several institutions, including Pérez Art Museum Miami, Tweed Museum of Art (Duluth, MN), Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, The Box (Plymouth, UK), and Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art (Asbury, NJ), as well as Microsoft and Facebook.
Christina Pettersson was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her large scale drawings, videos, sculptural installations and group performances focus on the history and environment of Florida. She is the recipient of a Knight Grant, Ellies Creator Award and Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She is in the collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Bass Museum of Art (Miami Beach, FL), Margulies Collection (Miami, FL) and the Four Seasons Hotel. She is the 2021-22 ARTSail artist in residence, a nomadic research-based residency, collaborating with Friends of the Everglades to create an illustrated compendium of urgent water issues in South Florida.
Lauren Shapiro was born in Plantation, FL and lives and works in Miami, FL. Her work experiments with art’s possibility to affect change and cultivate a broad awareness of our environment. Selected solo exhibitions include "Future Pacific" at Bakehouse Art Complex (Miami, FL), "Garden Portals" at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Miami, Florida), and "Fragile Terrains'' at Bianca Boekel Galeria (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Selected group exhibitions include Design Miami with Todd Merrill Studio in (Miami Beach, FL), "Powder Hounds" at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Aspen, CO), and “Projektraum M54” (Basel, Switzerland). Shapiro received a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the University of Miami (2016) and a BFA from Florida Atlantic University (2009).
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For information on artwork pricing and purchases for works exhibited in this presentation, please contact the artists directly.
You can also purchase works by select artists, with proceeds benefiting Bakehouse Art Complex’s mission to provide critical access to affordable studio spaces and art-making infrastructure to local artists here.