Nereida Garcia Ferraz is a Cuban-born artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography, video, sculpture, and social art projects exploring identity and feminist themes, nature, beauty, and the physical world. Her work has been exhibited by or is in collections of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Yale University, The San Francisco Art Institute, The Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, and MDC Museum of Art and Design, among many others.
She co-produced and directed the award-winning video documentary "Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra." The film is in the collection of MOMA, Guggenheim Museum, Yale University, San Francisco Art Institute and many other Museums and Universities around the world.
Garcia Ferraz has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been awarded grants from organizations including National Endowment for the Arts, The Mac Arthur Foundation Media Grant, and The Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute. Here in Miami, she co-founded 801 Projects at the Jose Marti Building and has been dedicated to working with education programs such as Women on the Rise at MOCA of North Miami and Brick by Brick, the award-winning outreach education art program at Pérez Art Museum Miami. In 2022 she was awarded with the South Florida Visual Arts Consortium Fellowship.
Publications
Nereida Garcia-Ferraz Exploring Identity Through Art, Interview with Erick and Elliot Jimenez
“Her works, are a conduit of her affection and representative of the fusion of Cuban spiritual heritage and identity.”…”– they’re explorations of her queer identity, her boundless curiosity, her mystical connections with the universe, and her belief in the interconnectedness of all life.“
Nereida Garcia-Ferraz in Conversation with Stephanie Seidel, Curator at ICA, Miami
“Through an interplay of bold colors, and intricate layering of images, words, and charged symbols, Garcia-Ferraz explores questions of identity and interiority drawing from her personal experiences as an artist, an educator, a woman, an expatriate.”
Recipient of the Knight Foundation 2023 Miami Art + Tech Expansion Fund
Finalist for the Cintas Foundation in Visual Arts 2024
Coming up
Mirror of the Mind - Figuration in the Jorge M Perez Collection. Curated by Patricia Hanna and Anelys Alvarez November 7, 2024 - August 2025
Exhibitions 2024
Unfinished Verses, Curated by Alexandre Arrechea - Art Yard - New Jersey - October-January 2025
EXPO CHICAGO with Spinello Projects Profile Booth - Navy Pier's Festival Hall April 11- 14 2024
Selected as Top 5 Profile Booth by Zara Yost of New City Art and La Crema Winery Purchase Price Winner.
Exhibitions 2023
De Noche Los Sueños - Spinello Projects
A 40-year survey marked by three major periods of Garcia-Ferraz’s life: Chicago years, San Francisco and early Miami years, and her most recent work over the last three years.
Sept 30 - Nov 3 2023
2930 NW 7th Ave UNIT 103, Miami, FL 33127
Nereida Garcia-Ferraz Open Studio - Studio residence and recent works. March 1st through October 15th. 2023
30 NE 40 St, Miami, FL, 33137
Miami, Florida 33137
South Florida Cultural Consortium (SFCC) MOCA May 10 – October 1, 2023. The exhibition brings together a group of 12 South Florida Cultural Consortium 2023 award receiving artists, working across various media, including sculpture, film, and site-specific installations. This exhibition is organized by Adeze Wilford, MOCA Curator.
770 NE 125th St, North Miami, FL 33161
Con la cabeza llena de cosas / With a Head Full of Things - May 5th - June 15 2023. This joint exhibition features a dialogue between the photo-based works of Nereida Garcia-Ferraz and Marina Font. Curated by Rina Gitlin and Dina Mitrani.
30 NE 40 St, Miami, FL, 33137
Miami, Florida 33137
Estudio Space Activations
“Con Ana” - Was held in the context of Nereida Garcia-Ferraz’s Open Studio, this public program served as an homage to the late Ana Mendieta, and featured video projections of Mendieta’s works Creek (1974) and Ochún (1981) from the de La Cruz Collection. Nereida Garcia-Ferraz’s 1987 documentary “Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra” was projected in following an introduction by Nereida. It ended with a tumbadoras solo by percusionist Otto Santana as a tribute to Ana Mendieta.
Global South Movements - Curated and produced by Tiffany Madera. Green Space Miami. 7200 Biscayne Boulevard Miami
Still There Are Seeds To Be Gathered - Curated by Karen Grimson. March 8 through 31, 2023 at 35 NE 40th ST, Design District, Miami. More info
Belt of Venus - Curated and hosted by the Collective 62 Feb 19 through March 30th, 2023.
You Know Who You Are. November 2022 at the El Espacio 23.
El Espacio 23 is a contemporary art space founded by collector and philanthropist Jorge M. Perez.
Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection
After a significant donation of contemporary Cuban art to the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2016, this exhibition highlights works acquired since 2017 as part of an ongoing investigation and interest in Cuban and Cuban diaspora art. Rather than a historical survey of the history of Cuban art, the thematic exhibition brings together over 100 artists of different generations who share collective experiences yet take a very personal approach to their practice.
Who Know Who You Are is a statement of confidence and resistance. In the context of Cuban art and culture, knowing yourself, having a voice and defending your beliefs is an act of defiance. The fragmented history of Cuban art has been subjected to political readings, to the dichotomy of inside and outside—the island and its diaspora. It has been marked by the intentional omission, by historical oblivion of talented artists whose forced or voluntary exile extracted them from the historical continuum of the nation; by generations of Cubans who were not even born on the island. Amid a journey traversed by so many collective dramas, this exhibition focuses on each artist’s personal journey in finding their place.
Artists throughout the exhibition revisit Cuba’s past and present by questioning history, deconstructing hierarchies, reflecting on notions of representation, race, gender, diversity, and human rights, while others reclaim a connection with the island by referencing its physicality or its place in collective memory.
You Know Who You Are was co-curated by Anelys Alvarez and Patricia Hanna.
Desde Lejos. 2000 oil on canvas. Collection Jorge Perez
Ella de todas formas. 2021 oil on canvas. Collection Jorge Perez
Radical Conventions: Cuban American Art from the 1980's (on view through June 12, 2022 at the Lowe Art Museum).
A landmark exhibition, Radical Conventions is the first major museum presentation to focus solely on Cuban American art created during the 1980s. By exploring the heterogeneous nature of Cuban diasporic work from this pivotal decade, the show offers a critical counterpoint to an often binary, identity-focused narrative by framing the artists’ works more expansively within the aesthetic frameworks prevalent in the American avant-garde of the late 70s–80s and the era’s broader socio-economic, cultural, and political landscape.
The exhibition features nearly 100 works by over 25 Cuban American artists representative of various generations including Luis Cruz Azaceta, Fernando García, Nereida García-Ferraz, Félix González-Torres, Tony Labat, María Martínez-Cañas, Luis Medina, Ana Mendieta, and Carmelita Tropicana.
Conversation between Dr. Elizabeth Cerejido, Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair, Cuban Heritage Collection and Ana Clara Silva, Director of Exhibitions at Faena Art.
Carmelita Tropicana, Cement Beach 1988
Recent exhibitions and presentations
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Organized by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood, Guest Curator; and Amy Rosenblum-Martín, Guest Assistant Curator; with Jocelyn Miller, former Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1; and Josephine Graf, Curatorial Assistant, MoMA PS1.
In the New York Times’ review of “The Most Important Moments in Art” in 2020 Holland Cotter writes that “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” at MoMA PS1” was one of the three best institutional shows of the year:
https://www.moma.org/artists/132506
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5208
This conversation featured curator Amy Rosenblum-Martín, scholar/curator Dr. Jillian Hernandez, and Miami artists Crystal Pearl Molinary, Nereida García-Ferraz, Susan Lee Chun, and Jessica Gispert, with an introduction by Naomi Fisher.
“Art, fundamentally, is information. It’s as much about issues as about objects, about how we live and think, ethically, politically, emotionally. This has been clear in exhibitions that have expanded our knowledge of what’s in the world, near and far. Among those I revisit in my mind are “Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” at MoMA PS1”; and “Sky Hopinka: Centers of Somewhere” at the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College.”
Live Virtual Local Views at PAMM: Nereida García Ferraz
October, 2020
Local Views at PAMM gives visitors a first-hand interaction with local artists by creating conversations centered around art and the creative process. This casual 30-minute conversation takes place every Thursday, each week of the month.
https://www.themiamiartscene.com/event/live-virtual-local-views-at-pamm-nereida-garcia-ferraz/
Suma de contrarios. July 2020 oil on wood panel 24 X24 in. by Nereida García Ferraz
Live Virtual Local Views at PAMM: Nereida Garcia Ferraz
Combined Strength: Four Decades of Miami-based Women curated by Kathryn Mikesell
December 1, 2020 – On Tuesday evening, guests gathered safely and responsibly for the inauguration of Combined Strength: Four Decades of Miami-based Women curated by Kathryn Mikesell of The Fountainhead Residency at Minotti Miami – Miami in Miami Design District. Attendees included artists Najja Moon, Nina Surel, Juana Valdés, Christina Pettersson, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Nereida Garcia Ferraz, and GeoVanna González. The exhibition will be open through February.
Latinx Photography in the United States
A Visual History
Through individual profiles of more than eighty photographers from the early history of the photographic medium to the present, Elizabeth Ferrer introduces readers to Latinx portraitists, photojournalists, and documentarians and their...
By Elizabeth Ferrer · 2021
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Latinx_Photography_in_the_United_States/6a4WEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Selected exhibits
You Know Who You Are. November 2022 - El Espacio 23. Co-curated by Anelys Alvarez and Patricia Hanna.
Radical Conventions: Cuban American Art from the 1980's. June 2022 - Lowe Art Museum. Curated by Elizabeth Cerejido.
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration - 2020 Organized by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood, Guest Curator; and Amy Rosenblum-Martín, Guest Assistant Curator; with Jocelyn Miller, former Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1; and Josephine Graf, Curatorial Assistant, MoMA PS1.
Combined Strength: Four Decades of Miami-based Women. 2020 Curated by Kathryn Mikesell
Leadership Circle Lecture Series; In conversation Nereida Garcia Ferraz and Maribel Alvarez. Tucson Art Museum
Miami 2018 Creative Time Summit. Perez Art Museum
Be Strong and do not Betray Your Soul. Lightwork Kathleen Ellis Gallery. New York 2018
Marcando el Tiempo. Nereida Garcia Ferraz. Galeria Latinoamericana. Casa de las Americas. La Habana, Cuba 2017
Nereida Garcia Ferraz: As Close As You Want. Arts and Culture Center Hollywood. Florida 2016
Nexo/Nexus De Paul University Art Museum.2016
SculptureX Symposium 2016
Reverse: Re-Writing Culture. Dotfiftyone Gallery. Miami.
Cintas Finalist Exhibition, Museum of Art And Design, MDC, Miami 2012
Drawings. Schoolh ouse Gallery, Provincetown Mass. 2012
Far and Near, Cuban Art in Bay Area Collections, MACLA, San Jose California. 2011
Matinee, 801 Projects Miami 2011
Imagining of Place. Solo Exhibit. Santa Fe College, GainesvilleFlorida ,2009
Artof Uncertainty. Edge Zones. Miami- Santo Domingo, 2009
8 X 8 Inter American Campus Miami Dade College, 2009
Incomplete Archives 801 Projects, Miami 2009
Dialoguesin Cuban Art. The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2009
Drawing Center Viewing Program New York City
Why Are We Here? 801 ProjectsMiami, 2008
Fortuna , La Bodega Space.Miami, 2008
MOD 11 Bass Fisher Invitational Gallery Miami, 2007
Here and There: Deterritorializing Miami and Havana..Solo exhibit Cushing Martin Gallery Stonehill College, Boston, 2007
IMAGINING PLACE, Solo exhibit Santa Fe Gallery .Gainesville Florida, 2007
Beyond Boundaries, Gallery One, WashenawCollege, Ann Arbor Michigan
Beyond Havana, Solo Exhibit, Bettsher Gallery. Miami
Cuban Art in New York AT DACTYL FOUNDATIOlN GALLERY, NY, NY.
ROUGE NATIONS “China & Cuba”, MACLA GALLERY, SAN JOSE California