Onajide Shabaka: Miami Walking Studio

Onajide Shabaka: Miami Walking Studio

The "studio" of South Florida artist Onajide Shabaka often occupies a metaphorical space of a walk or hike in the urban or rural environment. Through a well-developed research-based walking practice, working both outdoors and in the studio, he explores the environment and its biology, allowing site specific histories to reveal untold or hidden narratives. Since 1989, his art practice has focused on ethnobotany, geology, and archeology as they relate to human history, society, and culture.

The four programs of Shabaka's Miami Walking Studio take place in two enclosed gardens on Miami Dade College campuses. Shabaka invites participants to try out his practice of walking and discover hidden landscapes and overlooked seedlings, rocks, or other natural detritus. Then, under the artist's guidance, audiences investigate the environments and explore the language of plants by using drawing, mapping, and printmaking techniques.

Two Miami Walking Studio programs are open to the public and two are open only to MDC students.

Public Programs
Saturday, November 4, 2023, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Public Workshop at the Environmental Center, Kendall Campus, Miami Dade College, SW 113th Place, Miami

Saturday, February 24, 2024, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Public Workshop at the Palmetum, North Campus, Miami Dade College, 11380 NW 27th Avenue, Miami

MDC Student-Only Programs
Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Student Workshop at the Palmetum, North Campus, Miami Dade College, 11380 NW 27th Avenue, Miami

Wednesday, February 7, 2024, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Student Workshop at the Environmental Center, Kendall Campus, Miami Dade College, SW 113th Place, Miami

Tickets are $15 and are currently available for the November 4 program. Space is limited, so please register in advance.

Miami artist Onajide Shabaka earned a BFA from Florida Atlantic University in 1993 and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2000. Recent solo exhibitions have included On the edge of tomorrows… in 2022 and Alosúgbe, a journey across time in 2019, both at Emerson Dorsch, Miami; and Floridian Lacunae in 2019 at the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood. His work has been featured in the group exhibitions On the Samara's Wing: Ethnobotanical Negotiations of Cultural Space at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery, Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Still Life at The Franklin, Chicago, both in 2021. He has been artist in residence at Project Row Houses, Houston; Everglades National Park; and IS Projects, Miami; and has received the 2019 Locust Projects WaveMaker Grant; a 2018 Oolite Arts Ellies Creator Award; and a 2017 Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) Travel Grant to Paramaribo, Suriname.

Onajide Shabaka: Miami Walking Studio is curated by MOAD Consulting Curator Isabela Villanueva and is part of the series MOAD Projects, exhibitions and commissions that provide platforms for local artists to realize new projects or present recent bodies of work.

MOAD's programs are made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. They are sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.