The South Florida Wellness Network in collaboration with NAEMI present "Against the Current Outsider Art" Exhibition

 

Gloria de la Caridad, CUBA. The work of Gloria de la Caridad (Havana,1958) is closely linked to the domicile, to the materials – cardboard, magazine clippings, nail painting, textiles, homemade rubber – that she finds around her. With them she builds anthropomorphic collages on a human scale that she obsessively fills with figures. Some of them are feminine (smiling faces taken from couché paper), but there are also masks of primitive resonances, devils and an endless number of decorative motifs that she draws with meticulousness.

The South Florida Wellness Network in collaboration with National Art Exhibition of the Mentally Ill (NAEMI) invites you to the opening of their new location and the NAEMI Gallery space, located in the Wynwood Art District at 3408 NW 7th Avenue in Miami, Florida 33127. NAEMI will present the exhibition, Against the Current Outsider Art, an exploration of works created by outsider artists recovering from behavioral health issues. The Opening Reception will take place at the NAEMI Gallery on Thursday, August 8th 2024, from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will be on view from August 8th through September 30th, 2024.

Yaniel Agrafojo Sanchez, CUBA. Yaniel Agrafojo Sánchez is a self-taught artist born on December 17, 1984 in Guanabacoa, Havana. From a young age he had an acute photographic memory, reproducing images of locomotives and trains in every detail of their parts, down to the smallest. His social behavior was limited, very introverted, and he demonstrated scant communication skills while growing up.

Featured Artists in the exhibition Against the Current Outsider Art will include: Candice Avery USA, Issac Crespo CUBA, Lisa Chuan Lee Cheng USA, Echo USA, Ramon Losa SPAIN, Misleidys Castillo CUBA, Jorge Alberto Hernández Cadi (El Buzo) CUBA, Sebastián Ferreira PARAGUAY, Yaniel Agrafojo Sanchez CUBA, Gloria de la Caridad CUBA, and Damas USA.

Misleidys Castillo, CUBA. Misleidys was born with brain, hearing and autistic impediments. She has always lived in her own secluded world, inserted in a familiar environment.Painting with watercolors and pencils has been her great passion since early childhood. Over time, the sketching of muscular male figures with hard facial features has become central to her work. Gradually these figures she colors, cuts and pastes on the wall have acquired a large format – even bigger than the actual human size – and can be looked at as sculptures.

South Florida Wellness Network (SFWN) is a recovery focused support network run and driven by young adults, adults, and family peers. We are a community of individuals who have been strengthened by our lived experiences with behavioral, emotional, mental health, trauma and/or substance use challenges. Our shared experience unites and empowers us to help others discover their unique path to recovery.

Echo, USA. Echo McCallister’s style is innocent, childish, primitive. Although not fully aware of it, he has created figures and shapes of intense simplicity. He explores the possibilities of color to recreate fantastic landscapes inhabited by dragonflies, giant flowers, naked trees… all these works bear his unique hallmark, similar to other 20th Century artists like Joan Miró or Jasper Johns.

National Art Exhibition of the Mentally Ill (NAEMI) is a non-profit organization established in South Florida dedicated to discovering, studying, promoting, exhibiting, and preserving the art of those struggling with mental illnesses throughout the world. NAEMI has done pioneering work during the past 35 years in recognizing the artistic talent of individuals recovering from mental illnesses and providing a forum for bringing these talents to public awareness.

Jorge A. Hernandez Cadi “El Buzo”, CUBA. The practice of Jorge Alberto Hernández Cadi of scavenging in the garbage has resulted in him being popularly known as “the diver”. He utilizes recycled materials such as brass and wood boxes on whose exterior and interior sides he adds black and white photographs. To do this he trims and draws with a blue pen content of a sexual and diabolical nature.

The South Florida Wellness Network in collaboration with National Art Exhibition of the Mentally Ill (NAEMI) invites you to the opening of their new location and the NAEMI Gallery space, located in the Wynwood Art District at 3408 NW 7th Avenue in Miami, Florida 33127. NAEMI will present the exhibition, Against the Current Outsider Art, an exploration of works created by outsider artists recovering from behavioral health issues. The Opening Reception will take place at the NAEMI Gallery on Thursday, August 8th 2024, from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will be on view from August 8th through September 30th, 2024.

Founded in 1988, NAEMI emerges while Juan Martin, the Executive Director, worked providing counselling to mentally disabled persons at a community mental health center in Miami. After encouraging a client to paint as a way to escape his intense suffering, Martin remembers how he liked that artwork and realized at that moment that there were probably many other talented persons in psychiatric hospitals waiting to be discovered.

Art collectors and aficionados are cordially invited to attend the Opening Reception of Against the Current Outsider Art, an exploration of works created by outsider artists recovering from behavioral health issues, taking place at the new NAEMI Gallery in Wynwood on Thursday, August 8th, 2024 from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will be on view from August 8th through September 30th, 2024. The NAEMI Gallery is located at 3408 NW 7th Avenue in Miami, Florida 33127.