v00001

Working mainly in photography, Elisa Bergel Melo’s practice explores the medium’s relationship with time, reality, and memory. She has shown throughout the Americas and in Basel, Switzerland, as well as participated in the 2016 SOMA Summer residency in Mexico City. Elisa was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1989. She currently lives and works in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Charlie Quezada takes a simplified approach to representational painting, informed by the interaction between nature and architecture, often influenced by the tropical landscape of his native Dominican Republic. Born in 1986 in Santo Domingo, he earned his BFA at Parsons School of Design in New York and has shown in New York and Santo Domingo.

Producing art since 2004, Gustavo “Gus” Peña paints in several different styles, producing geometric, abstract images inspired by early computer graphics, as well as figurative paintings. He was born in 1979 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and is currently based there. He has shown in Miami, London, Berlin, Washington D.C., and other cities.

Working in multiple mediums including photography and ceramics, Patricia Encarnación examines Afro-Caribbean identity, using the aesthetics she grew up around to interrogate assumptions about her homeland and its people. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, she currently lives and works in New York, where she is completing a degree in Caribbean and Latin American Studies at NYU.

Julián Chams is a visual artist from Colombia based in Brooklyn. His work has been shown individually and in group exhibitions at Wave Hill and AC Institute in New York; the XVI and XV Salon Regional de Artistas Caribe in Colombia, and La Esquina and 50/50 in Kansas City, MO, among others. He has participated in residencies at BRIC and Wave Hill in New York.

Carlos “Varkito” Garcia’s use of colors, thick distractive lines, and ambiguous symbolism in installation, audiovisual, and digital art blends reality and ancient domestic habits to create new possibilities of visual languages. Born in the Dominican Republic and currently based in New York, he is also the founder of the experimental community El Cuarto Elástico.

Working as an artist since 2018, Mayte Nicole works primarily within the tradition of ink painting. Inspired by the sumi-e ink wash tradition of Japan, China, and other East Asian countries, the 29-year-old Nicole depicts surrealist scenes and the tropical landscapes of her youth in the Dominican Republic using black ink and paper sourced from antiquarian dealers. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, she now lives and works mostly in Barcelona.

Based in Miami, Carlos Llamas is a professional photographer and architect. Focusing mainly on street scenes and images of daily life in major cities, he also works in portraiture, architectural photography, and other genres. Llamas’ images have been shown in New York and included in publications such as Forbes, Metro US, and 35mmc.

tropiblue is the artistic duo made up by Laura Isabel Fernandez and Laura Sofia Pérez.

Working under the alias “tropidarks,” Laura Isabel creates mixed media installations using random objects to represent human impact on the environment. Born in the Dominican Republic, she attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Laura Sofia is an interdisciplinary artist who works in video, film, sound, and installation. Her work draws from feminist and avant-garde cinema, phenomenological philosophy, Caribbean Postcolonial theory, and ancestral knowledge. She received her MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts and has held residencies in Puerto Rico, Canada, and elsewhere.

Working mainly as an art and design consultant, Aleksandra “Sasha” Personick became interested in ceramics as a hobby and refined her craft during the pandemic, producing simple yet elegant pieces. Inspired by Mexican artisan pottery, Personick describes her practice as “an escape and a meditation.” Living in Brooklyn, Personick also writes and publishes the hotel journal Regular Visitor.

Born in 1990 in Omaha, Nebraska, Christopher Daharsh has shown in galleries and institutions throughout the midwestern U.S. Working in several mediums including photography and sculpture, he currently focuses on in-studio material exploration, blurring the boundaries between functional and fine art. His most recent solo show took place at New Gallery in New York, where he currently lives and works.

Ivanna Candelier has worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for over a decade. Living and working in her hometown of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the 33-year-old artist is a digital native, but has also produced artwork using wood, paper, acrylic, and other materials. She will showcase a series of digital illustrations at homework’s debut show.

Ediciones de a Poco is an editorial platform with roots in Santo Domingo. Since its launch in 2011, it has fostered collaborations with writers, designers, artists and fellow publishing initiatives, from the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean region and beyond. Following the rhythm implied in its name – “de a poco” can be translated as “bit by bit” –, it has been slowly building a catalogue of literary works and visual books that present a diversity of contemporary readings of the Dominican reality. In 2019, it started a “parallel” collection dedicated to the translation into Spanish of poetry and experimental texts from all around the world.

Debuting during Miami Art Week 2021, homework opened on Wednesday, December 1, one day before Art Basel Miami Beach’s public opening, at The Knoxon, 7411 Biscayne Blvd., located in the historic MiMo district.

v00001 was a group exhibition by emerging contemporary artists from around the world, split between fine artists and artisans working in multiple mediums. The opening party featured unique sounds provided by Rum & Coke Miami.

Julian joined us during Miami Art Week 2021 to discuss his artistic trajectory, his outstanding work, unique process, and his plans for the future.

Interviewed by Mayra Mejia on December 4th 2021 during our exhibition v00001 at the Knoxon in Miami, Florida.

homework founder Aurelio Aguiló was joined by special guest Andrew McLees, Senior Marketing Manager at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, for an evocative conversation titled "100k Followers Can’t Be Wrong: The Influence of Experience Affecting Arts Ecosystems"

With the proliferation of massive fairs, blockbuster museum shows, and Instagrammable gallery exhibitions, events are what the art world of today revolves around. This conversation analyzed the economic consequences that galleries, artists, collectors, and institutions face in choosing whether or not to participate in these trends. 

homework’s v00001 closing party began right after the talk with complimentary drinks and sounds by Jesus Rodriguez (Rum & Coke Miami).