{"id":347786,"date":"2026-07-21T21:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347786\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:36:14","slug":"honey-barrel-boat-anchors-exile-at-piero-atchugarry-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347786\/","title":{"rendered":"Honey-barrel boat anchors exile at Piero Atchugarry Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ingeniously engineered refugee boat washed ashore on Key Biscayne in 2022. Four years later, it is the centerpiece of Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares\u2019 exhibition \u201cExile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now at the Piero Atchugarry Gallery in Miami, this is the last week to catch a glimpse of the vessel and other works in the show. It closes on Sunday, July 26 and is part of the Progressive Art Brunch<\/a>, an event which features a dozen local galleries open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

In a darkened room in the gallery, Wright and Millares have kept the refugee raft intact, bringing emotional meaning through thoughtfully orchestrated sound and light.<\/p>\n

Welded together from steel honey barrels, marked with the words \u201cCuban Honey\u201d and powered by a pre-Castro Chevrolet engine, the homemade balsa washed ashore at Crandon Beach and was headed to a scrapyard. A friend at the Key Biscayne Nature Center contacted the artists to ask if they were interested.<\/p>\n

They jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we saw it, we said, \u2018We have to preserve this thing. This is beautiful,\u2019 \u201d said Millares.<\/p>\n

Engineering as an escape<\/p>\n

Rather than altering the boat, Wright and Millares took care to preserve the object exactly as they found it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever made it made this beautiful object,\u201d Millares said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to mess with that integrity of the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the idea of what to do with the salvage didn\u2019t come to the two artists immediately.<\/p>\n

\"A A homemade balsa washed ashore at Crandon Beach in Key Biscayne in 2022. It is now the centerpiece of the installation \u201cExile\u201d by Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares. (Photo courtesy Ruben Millares) <\/p>\n

After deciding they wanted to do something with it, they arranged to have it towed across Biscayne Bay and up the Miami River to their studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lived with it for four years,\u201d Millares said. Living with the boat became part of the artistic process.<\/p>\n

The artists examined every detail of its construction, discovering an extraordinary level of craftsmanship hidden beneath its rusted exterior.<\/p>\n

The vessel was built from welded steel barrels once used by Cuba\u2019s state honey industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it came to the beach, it had \u2018Cuban honey\u2019 on each barrel in English. We started looking into, what is Cuban honey?\u2019 \u201c Wright said.<\/p>\n

Researching the barrels revealed another layer of the story.<\/p>\n

Wright said they discovered that the Cuban government produces the honey and sells it to Europe as one of the country\u2019s prized exports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a whole organic farming system in Cuba because they can\u2019t afford pesticides; everything is still done with ox and cart, so there\u2019s no big machinery. They claim it is the purest honey in the world. It is very regulated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Constructing a boat as an escape vessel carried significant risk on its own, but stealing the government-owned barrels to build it added another level of danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get caught making any boat in Cuba, you\u2019re not allowed to have a boat,\u201d Millares said. \u201cIt was all hand-welded in secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A A piece of \u201cExile\u201d on a flatbed truck on the way to the exhibition passes by the Freedom Tower. (Photo by Rudy Dubou\u00e9, courtesy of the artists) <\/p>\n

The boat\u2019s ingenuity extended well beyond its materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a 1942 Chevy engine,\u201d Millares said. \u201cThe engineering is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handmade propeller, water-cooling system and carefully hammered steel siding all suggest the painstaking effort required to secretly build a vessel capable of crossing nearly 100 miles of open water. Although handmade from steel barrels and salvaged materials, Wright said its silhouette evokes that of an inflatable Zodiac.<\/p>\n

The artists estimate as many as 12 to 15 people could have made the crossing aboard the vessel.<\/p>\n

Early ideas for the project were dramatically different.<\/p>\n

The artists discussed filming the boat burning at sea or filling it with books before setting it ablaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt so heavy,\u201d Millares said. \u201cIt was such a loaded object already. How do you intervene in a respectful way?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they realized the structure itself already carried the emotional weight.<\/p>\n

Art From artifact<\/p>\n

Instead of physically altering it, they composed a seven-minute soundscape that emerges from speakers concealed inside the boat.<\/p>\n

Deep ocean recordings blend with orchestral timpani, distant explosions, vibrations and the recorded buzzing of bees. An inaudible heartbeat reverberates through the space at a frequency below human hearing, producing vibrations that can be felt by those standing nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boat itself is like a being,\u201d Millares said. \u201cAs the sound is playing, the boat is physically vibrating, and you\u2019re getting a physical sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buzzing bees reference the honey barrels from which the vessel was constructed.<\/p>\n

\"The The artists: Ruben Millares, left, and Antonia Wright. (Photo of Wright by Butch Quick, photos courtesy of the artists) <\/p>\n

The exhibition\u2019s lighting slowly reveals another haunting detail.<\/p>\n

As visitors spend time in the gallery, beams of light emerge through seven bullet holes scattered across the hull.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to highlight that,\u201d Wright said. \u201cTo talk about the violence that\u2019s embedded on our borders, but also to use the bullet holes to honor these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both artists have Cuban family roots, making the work personal. Although the boat came from Cuba, Wright and Millares said they intentionally broadened the exhibition beyond a single migration narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts from the Cuban experience for us,\u201d Millares said. \u201cBut we were really talking about worldwide migration and all the migration crises around the world. This is a symbol, a metaphor for migration in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the boat<\/p>\n

The gallery\u2019s second room expands on those ideas.<\/p>\n

Wright presents a series of cyanotypes made by placing shattered glass over light-sensitive paper before exposing each image.<\/p>\n

She explained the process. \u201cI smash glass over light-sensitive paper and make an exposure using the glass. So, the glass becomes like a negative print to each one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Antonia Antonia Wright, \u201cOK,\u201d 2026, cyanotype, broken glass, artist steel frame. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Piero Atchugarry Gallery) <\/p>\n

The finished works echo the violence suggested by the bullet-riddled boat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photos reflect those moments of violence,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

Millares\u2019 silkscreen paintings are built from thousands of numbers cut from financial statements, tax returns and investment documents.<\/p>\n

He describes them as \u201cvisual cacophonies,\u201d dense fields of information that overwhelm on purpose.<\/p>\n

\"Ruben Ruben Millares, \u201cPaint by Number,\u201d 2017, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 in. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Piero Atchugarry Gallery ) <\/p>\n

\u201cI just layer number upon number. So much data that you can\u2019t decipher and you can\u2019t come to some conclusion from,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many migrants are there in the world? How many applications for asylum? How many people died crossing?\u201d<\/p>\n

One collaborative sculpture in the middle of this room embeds the boat\u2019s handmade paddle into a block of South Florida oolitic limestone sourced from material associated with Vizcaya.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first saw the boat, the paddle was with it and when we got back it was gone,\u201d said Millares. They tracked it down to \u201creunite them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Displayed apart from the vessel, \u201cDesembarco\u201d becomes both a marker of arrival and a reminder of everything left behind. \u201cIt was this idea of the crossing and the migration, and the paddle being the arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Antonia Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, \u201cDesembarco,\u201d 2026, wood, metal, paddle, oolite, 78 x 24 x 29. (Photo courtesy of the artists and Piero Atchugarry Gallery ) <\/p>\n

The boat offers no names and no history beyond the evidence welded into its steel. The artists said they never discovered whether the Cuban balseros aboard reached Florida, were intercepted or died at sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to simulate what it was to be on the boat. That wasn\u2019t the idea. We\u2019ve never done it. We didn\u2019t want to try to make something didactic like, oh this is what it is to cross through the Florida Straits,\u201d Millares said.<\/p>\n

For Wright, it is a representation of the emotional state of migration that\u2019s been going on for centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese boats, for instance, have always been a barometer for a level of desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you go:<\/p>\n

WHAT: \u201cExile\u201d: Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares<\/p>\n

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; special showing on last day of exhibition, Sunday, July 26, as part of Progressive Art Brunch, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. See the galleries participating in the PAB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WHERE: Piero Atchugarry Gallery, 5520 NE Fourth Ave., Miami<\/p>\n

COST: Free<\/p>\n

INFORMATION: 305-639-8247; Pieroatchugarry.com<\/a><\/p>\n

ArtburstMiami.com<\/a> is a nonprofit source of theater, dance, visual arts, music and performing arts news. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a> and never miss a story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ingeniously engineered refugee boat washed ashore on Key Biscayne in 2022. Four years later, it is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-347786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}