Emerson Dorsch is pleased to present Beatriz Monteavaro and Saya Woolfalk in their debut exhibitions with the gallery. While the shared origins of the exhibition titles are coincidental, they resonate with a synchronicity between the two artists: in the case of Monteavaro, subcultural iconography is repurposed and thrust into a potential apocalyptic future; in that of Woolfalk, cultural anthropology as a whole coalesces into an imaginary utopia.

Beatriz Monteavaro’s early inspirations were drawn from science fiction, horror movies, American theme parks, and 1980‘s English subcultures. She is an active musician in the Miami area, playing drums for several projects. Her early works would take icons from these fantastic and nihilistic sources - Adam Ant, Siouxsie Sioux, Malcolm McClaren - and depict them elevated to the status of mythological beings and demigods. More recently, as the snake in the myth of Ouroborous, she has begun recycling these earlier works into rough-hewn collages and structures to present hypothetical functions for artworks in a potential post-apocalyptic world. On view in the gallery will be new structures and collages, along with a series of drawings reminiscent of punk fliers, and a working, interactive kick drum modified into a dark, serpentine sculpture.

Beatriz Monteavaro was born in Cuba, and received a BFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in institutions that include the Miami Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; NFA Space, Chicago; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C; Tent, Rotterdam; Galerie Edward Mitterrand, Geneva; and The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum at FIU, Miami, among others. She has had solo exhibitions at Las Cienegas Projects, Los Angeles; Derek Eller Gallery, NYC; Galerie Sultana, Paris; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami; The University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, and The Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, FL. In 2010 she was a recipient of The South Florida Cultural Consortium Grant.