Pretty Days: MIA
Flannery Silva & Joshua Abelow
A-Z Toys, Miami Beach, 2017

Frozen Jail is a two-person exhibition featuring the works of Joshua Abelow (b. 1976) and Flannery Silva (b. 1991). Frozen Jail takes place inside of an industrial tent situated in the abundant inventory of a local Miami Beach toy store.

Included are a selection of watercolours made by Abelow between 2000 and 2001, shortly after he moved to New York while working in the basement of Ross Bleckner’s studio in Tribeca. Featuring images of expressive figurines, dolls and other miscellaneous tchotchkes the watercolours reflect a loneliness but also an optimism of finding oneself in a new stage of life.

Also included are a series of new empty doll box sculptures made by Flannery Silva in 2017. The sculptures, titled Doll Box A (No Fear), Doll Box B (Diana Theme), and Doll Box C (Snowflake Aid) exhibit active exteriors and empty interiors channeling the sensitivity and vulnerability of adolescence.

 

Documentation by Harry Gould Harvey IV

 

Pretty Days is an exhibition series using a group of industrial tents as its primary platform. These structures are set up in various locations and feature opening receptions where visitors can experience works installed inside the tents as well as the exterior environments. The project embraces how artworks can be nuanced and emboldened by location as well as how tents with specific conventions can be repurposed into contextual containers for these works. Using an infrared pain relief tent, a grow tent and a faraday tent, the project enables alternative ways of putting together exhibitions by promoting mobility, experimentation and locational context. This series seeks to engage with how we think about exhibitions and their documentation, and how they can be situated in the world outside of institutional conventions.

For Pretty Days: MIA, a series of exhibitions comes together in Miami set up around the city and will feature the work of both domestic and international artists. Pretty Days: MIA is organized in collaboration with Anna Frost and Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI).