“Amidst Twin Suns” Opening Reception & Resident Night at Oolite Arts

Miami, FL – February 7, 2024 – Artist Alberto Checa moved from Cuba to Miami with his mother in 2008, where they lived for years in efficiency apartments as his mother performed back-breaking factory work to make ends meet. On Feb. 7, Checa will open his first solo exhibition at Oolite Arts rooted in his experience as a Cuban immigrant living in Miami. Inspired by a desire to empathize with his mother’s repetitive and seemingly endless work, “Amidst Twin Suns” is both a labor of love and an exploration of labor, where Checa critiques the American economic system and working class Latinos’ relationship to it through art and performance.

Curated by Jean Chung, an independent writer, curator and a long-time colleague of Checa, “Amidst Twin Suns” presents an archive of the artist’s drawings, installations and ongoing performances. Inspired by his childhood in Cuba and guided by the movement of Arte Povera, Checa draws from a tradition of improvising with everyday objects. Checa’s sculptures use utilitarian materials – PVC pipes, water vacuums and plaster – to mimic the labor conditions at various job sites he has worked around Miami. The pieces and performances use an abstract aesthetic in order to avoid exploiting and re-traumatizing workers whose experiences he draws from.

At the opening reception, Checa will collaborate with Miami-based artist Nick León to activate the main gallery in a three-hour performance. This process-driven performance, mobilized by sound, will entail Checa repetitively mixing, pouring, and molding plaster, using a network of PVC structures and hoses to complicate the labor process. Meanwhile, another installation in the gallery consists of a small drip of a mixture of collected sweat, water and dirt from a boat’s bilge. This concoction will fill a mold for a record that will ultimately be frozen, then played during an upcoming performance before it melts and self-destructs.

The opening reception will take place from 6 – 9 p.m. Feb. 7, 2024 and the exhibition will be on view through April 14, 2024 at Oolite Arts, 924 Lincoln Road.