CARTA takes art to the beach

By: Andres Ruiz-Castaneda/Staff Writer

The College of Architecture + The Arts held an open house on Sept. 20 to showcase its newest location: The Miami Beach Urban Studios located at 420 Lincoln Road. The Urban Studios is a 16,000-square-foot facility containing design studios, performance and rehearsal spaces, a public gallery, offices, classrooms and a conference room.

The new location will place students directly in Miami Beach’s artistically oriented atmosphere, surrounded by galleries, musical and theatrical venues, design firms and advertising agencies. The facility’s opening commenced with a night of drinks, music from a string quartet, a design exhibition which displayed impressive conceptual models created by students in the architecture program, and an alumni photography exhibit entitled Hang Ten. The exhibit displayed the work of 10 alumni, and it was curated by Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gomez. Each artists’ style and message was completely unique from the next.

Alumnus Richard Labarbera’s photographs came from his collection entitled Family Archives. Labarbera emotionally captures modern day photographs of his relatives and combines each photograph with an old photograph of the same family member.

The result is a comparison and contrast between the old and the new, young and old age. One set of photographs contains a black-and-white picture of three beautiful women in showgirl costumes and heels, showing off their shapely legs, paired with a modern-day color photograph of a pair of thin, wrinkly legs in orthopedic shoes standing in the middle of a road. A vintage black-and-white picture of a beautiful, smiling woman reclining in a lounge chair at the beach; compared to a modern-day color picture of the same woman, aged and wrinkled, fully reclined in a lawn chair at a pool in a residential community.

Labarbera’s work pushes the audience to contemplate how the aging process affects a person and their lifestyle; what is taken from that person as they age and what they gain out of it. His style of photography is elegant, and the way he photographs his subjects is well thought out.

Alumna Lindsay Dye’s photographs come from her collection Grainy, Shitty, Acidy. Dye captures her closest female friends in Miami club environments when they are at their most vulnerable. “I’m trying to capture their quiet desperation within these very loud, provocative places.”

Dye uses cheap disposable cameras when photographing. The harsh flash and the grain of the low quality film contrast against the vibrant colors, adding to the rawness of her work.

The scenes in her photographs are familiar to any college student who frequents clubs. However, Dye’s subjects are photographed harshly and at unflattering angles, making a statement of what nightlife really looks like.

Her subjects all appear well dressed and made-up for their nights out, but Dye goes beyond capturing their looks; she dives below the surface and photographs their insecurities and vulnerabilities. Dye, who recently graduated with a BFA in photography and a minor in art history, said: “My work is a description of the environment and of the women.”

Also on display along with Labarbera’s and Dye’s work were fascinating pieces by Tony Chirinos, Rolando Dal Pezzo, Alex Heria, Venessa Monokian, Peggy Levison Nolan, Gloria O’Connell, Samantha Salzinger and Joseph Tamargo.

Hang Ten can be viewed by appointment until Oct. 14 at The Miami Beach Urban Studios. A list of upcoming events to be held at The Miami Beach Urban Studios can be found on The College of Architecture + The Arts  website: www.carta.fiu.edu.