Miami art lovers are in luck. Renowned sculptor Petah Coyne’s majestic, mixed-media works are free for the public to enjoy until March 14.
In her exhibition titled “How Much A Heart Can Hold,” Coyne includes works revolving around the themes of female identity and forgotten female creatives.
“I think women in particular are given this intuitive instinct. We have this power and we must learn to trust it,” Coyne said.
Many of the works have never been shown in other museums before, making their debut at the university’s Lowe Art Museum.
Coyne’s eccentric nature as an artist stems from her interest in large-scale, hanging sculptures, which often use untraditional materials–ranging from human hair to taxidermy.
“I think the only way for an artist to know or understand anything is to make work almost from a blind spot, and what you produce speaks to you. Before I begin a sculpture I never know where I am going to go,” Coyne said about her creative process.
Coyne speaking at the grand opening of her exhibit.
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Her inspiration for the museum show flourishes from her love for historical female figures, including Zelda Fitzgerald, Joan Didion, Zora Neale Hurston, Jane Austen, and more.
One of Fitzgerald’s quotes inspired the exhibition’s title: “Nobody has ever measured, even the poets, how much a heart can hold.
Fitzgerald was married to the acclaimed American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby. It is said many of her quotes from their letter exchanges were included in his work.
Coyne took this deep, forgotten female history and created art from it, ever-present in the flagship piece of the exhibition Zelda, which features an intricate, seven-foot-tall monochromatic sculpture behind a glass box. The work serves as a metaphor for Zelda’s vast inner creative world, which was forced to live in the constraints of her gender during her time.
The riveting work of art, along with her other towering but deeply moving sculptures, are open for viewing at the Lowe Art Museum. Located on the University of Miami campus (1301 Stanford Drive), the Lowe is open Wed., Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. General admission is free.
“This remarkable exhibition invites us into a wonderland of physical forms whose manifold sources of inspiration are as broad as they are compelling. The viewer leaves the show feeling not only newly inspired, but also newly alive through her work,” Dr. Jill Deupi, the Lowe Art Museum’s Beaux Arts Executive Director and Chief Curator, said.
“Petah Coyne reminds us what it is to be human — heart, body, mind, and soul.”
For more information about Petah Coyne, click here.