Cadillac Hotel and Beach Club, 3925 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach FL, 33140
Hours of Exhibition (November 16, 2023 through December 14, 2023):
Monday – Saturday: 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Sunday: 12 pm – 8:00 pm
The Garden of Evil by Christina Pettersson is a large-scale allegorical drawing on wood panels, imagining a futuristic Miami Beach overwhelmed with invasive animals; a visually tropical but ultimately apocryphal world where only the most opportunistic creatures remain. This technicolor menagerie of non-native fauna populates a solitary, gnarled driftwood tree, all that remains of our vanquished coastal landscape. Even the decapitated head of a Henry Flagler statue, the once heroic developer who ushered in the destruction of Florida’s natural wonders, is only ocean detritus. The garden is dead. This “Alice in Wonderland” sinister paradise lost reminds us that however beautiful, an environment absent of native flora and fauna will soon find itself absent of humans as well.
Pettersson’s large-scale drawings, videos, installations, and group performances focus on the hidden histories and environment of Florida. Solo exhibitions at Faena Arts, Miami International Airport, Locust Projects, Everglades National Park and the historic Deering Estate on Biscayne Bay, reflect her lifelong passions in her hometown. She is the recipient of a Wavemaker Grant (2023), Miami Individual Artist Grant (2023, 2022), Specific Cultural Project Grant /State of Florida (2021), Ellies Creator Award (2020, 2019), Knight Challenge Grant (2018), Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship (2017, 2010, 2006), and is a Fulbright Scholar (2000).
https://christinapettersson.com
Photo credit: Zaire Aranguren