Community is the central idea behind “Close to Home,” a group show on display at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale through Sunday, Oct. 4.
Its three curators — museum director Bonnie Clearwater as well as Ariella Wollens and guest curator Sinaí Rivera — chose artists that engage with ideas of family, friendship and togetherness.
Many of the selected works depict the artists’ loved ones or close confidants, with the overall concept of the show arguing that such tight interpersonal bonds are an essential facet of the local art scene.
Roscoè B. Thické III, for example, pays tribute to his late grandmother in two works, referencing the diamond-shaped anti-theft shutters that cover the windows of her house in urban Miami. In one photo, an empty chair has been placed between the two shuttered windows.
Another work, “Redeemer,” splits a portrait of Thické’s son in the Everglades, standing in a crucifix pose modeled after the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The diamond grid of the shutters serves as the frame, splitting the photo into parts, while tiny cymbals have been placed underneath the wood, turning the work into a massive tambourine.
Both works in tandem poetically evoke the passing of an older generation’s spirit into their descendants.
“There were so many ways that we could have gone about [the theme of] friends and family, but I think overall it’s just spending time together and just quality time and mundane moments,” Rivera says. “I think this is what these artists are trying to highlight.”
Josh Aronson’s work, “The Cabin Mirror,” serves as a visual archive of his “Florida Boys” photo series, featuring preparatory documents and photos hung against a four-pane mirror. Aronson developed the “Florida Boys” project, which places young South Floridians in pastoral settings, based on the idea that many local urban residents, often first-generation immigrants, are unable to engage in certain rites of passage.
With “Missing Matriarch,” 2020, artist Roscoè B. Thické III pays tribute to his late grandmother referencing the diamond-shaped anti-theft shutters that cover the windows of her house in urban Miami. (The Guzman Duran Art Trust/Courtesy)
“They don’t have access to that kind of quintessential boyhood experience of climbing trees, swimming in springs, so on and so forth, and so we use photography as a way to kind of write ourselves into that narrative,” Aronson says.
Meanwhile, Richard Moreno’s work spotlights a very different facet of the wider South Florida community: its punk and metal scene.
The artist’s sculptures feature gothic and esoteric aesthetics, with some even incorporating decaying animal parts a la Damien Hirst. One piece uses an iguana carcass the artist scavenged while working as an art handler at Miami’s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, placing the body in a coffinlike reliquary.
In recent years, the NSU Art Museum has become something of a champion of the local scene. Most notably, in 2023, Clearwater and Wollens curated “Future Past Perfect,” a uniquely-formatted show that gave seven local artists their own solo presentation.
Several artists from that exhibition reappear in “Close to Home,” allowing visitors to check their progression.
Zoe Schweiger has moved on to painting sweltering nightlife scenes in her fluid style of monochromatic warm-color canvases, while Susan Kim Alvarez has illustrated a Bosch-esque triptych of South Florida chaos in her painting “Mouth of Miami.”
Susan Kim Alvarez’s Bosch-esque triptych of South Florida chaos, “Mouth of Miami,” 2025. (NSU Art Museum/Courtesy)
“We want to be an institution that doesn’t just debut artists or sort of pick up on people, but has a consistency in supporting them,” Wollens says. “[We want to] continue to have some sort of infrastructure with artists and follow them through these points in their careers, especially the artists who are in our community.”
Bringing on Rivera as co-curator is a part of that vision. A Miami native and a business student at Nova Southeastern University, Rivera had worked in the curatorial department at the museum and was approached by Clearwater to help program the show based on her extensive participation in the local scene.
“Bonnie personally reached out to me. She was inspired by how I’m active in the community, and she saw potential in me that I had yet seen for myself,” Rivera says. “When I started going to school, [the idea of] being a curator still wasn’t at the top of my mind. I came to work at the museum for fun because I like museums, and I wanted to gain some kind of insight. But this truly is my passion, and it’s just kind of evolved from that.”
The continued investment in artists reflects a sustained interest in building an arts ecosystem that spans, and even surpasses, the entire South Florida region.
“Close to Home” is on display through Sunday, Oct. 4, at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd. Admission is $16 for adults; $10 for seniors; $8 for military; $5 for college students; and free for students age 13-17, U.S. military veterans, NSU and Broward College students, faculty and staff, as well as children age 12 and younger. Visit nsuartmuseum.org or call 954-525-5500.
ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more.