Miami, FL – December 7, 2023 – YoungArts hosted its annual VIP Breakfast and Artist Talk in partnership with Art Basel Miami Beach in celebration of Miami Art Week on December 7, 2023. The arts community gathered on the YoungArts Plaza for breakfast and conversation in lounge areas created by YoungArts partner Anthropologie. Guests visited the YoungArts Gallery to view the exhibition, Desde el Charco, featuring works by Isabella Mellado and curated by Luisa Múnera, YoungArts Senior Manager, Artistic Programs and Curator, before making their way to a talk with artist Isabella Mellado (2014 YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts) and astrologer and tarot reader Aida Alejandra Ramirez.
In their solo exhibition, Isabella Mellado invites viewers into their journey of discovery and self-actualization. Through paintings and photographs framed with symbolism found in folklore, mythology, tarot, astrology and even quotidian life in Puerto Rico, Mellado explores the sense of duality that is inherent to being a queer Puerto Rican of the diaspora.
Notable guests included YoungArts Board Chair Sarah Arison and trustees Natalie Diggins, Kristy Edmunds and Dr. Joan Morgan, Victoria Britto, Phillip Dunlap, Kathryn Mikesell, Donnalynn Patakos, Marco Poggiali, Victor Sandoval, Anne de Villepoix, Beth Kreider and Kate Elliot of Anthropologie, artists and YoungArts past winners Nina Ahmadi, Priscilla Aleman, Daveed Baptiste, Catherine Camargo, Britton Collins, David Correa, Carlos Hernandez, Cornelius Tulloch, James Allister Sprang among others.