Miami International Airport (MIA) wants to make sure everyone can enjoy next month’s conference and exhibition series taking place around town as part of the Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) Congress — even if they can’t make the trek into town.
WOPHA is dedicated to promoting and researching the contributions of women and non-binary photographers to the medium’s history. The theme of this year’s WOPHA Congress creative gathering is “How Photography Teaches Us to Live Now” and will take place on 23-25 October at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Norton Museum of Art, the HistoryMiami Museum and other locations in South Florida.
But travelers can get a preview of the event, and enjoy it long after, thanks to an exhibition running now through 2 February 2025 at Miami International Airport’s Cameraworks Gallery, near Gates D22 and D25.
“We are always proud to host art exhibitions at MIA that promote and reflect Miami-Dade County’s richly diverse arts community,” says MIA director and CEO Ralph Cutié.
Titled In Between Sentiments, and curated by WOPHA associate curator of programming Amanda Bradley, the joint exhibition at MIA features the work of two Miami-based American artists: Colombian American artist and educator Nicole Combeau and Sue Montoya, who was born in Los Angeles and raised between Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Miami.
Both artists have contributed work to the exhibition that explores how the senses of place, memory and movement intersect during migration. Combeau has six pieces of her photographs in this exhibition whilst Sue Montoya has seven pieces on display.
Combeau’s work emphasizes the relationship between body and landscape, with photographs taken in Colombian and American locations that include Miami; Joaquina Falls, Oregon; and Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico.
Nicole Combeau, “Mi hogar está en la sonrisa de mi abuela, en la forma en que los pájaros vuelan, en los sonidos rítmicos del viento – ahí, me encuentro a mi misma” Xiomara, Colombian. Delonix Regia “Flamboyant”, Malagasy. Photographed in Miami, 2024.
According to the exhibit notes, Combeau’s work is characterized by deliberate manipulations of light and double exposures to create images that reflect the concept that people both come from and become the places they move through.
Image: Nicole Combeau/MIA
Montoya’s photographs document her journey through six different cities across the US and Mexico. And each photo memory is paired with a song that visitors can listen to by scanning a QR code included on the free exhibition postcards.
Gallery visitors can listen to the entire playlist onsite while touring the exhibit or take a postcard with them to scan and listen to later and or mail the postcard on to a friend.
Sue Montoya, IV “era una hoja en blanco” Photographed in Del Carmen, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, México & San Diego Churubusco, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, México, 2022.
Montoya has an ongoing multimedia series, “Letras Viajeras (Traveling Letters),” in which she combines re-photographed postcards in various locations with excerpts from love songs. The pieces become long love letters to places left, people lost and lived experiences.
Image: Sue Montoya/MIA
“I am thrilled that in addition to hosting WOPHA events across Miami-Dade County this October, we also have the honor of hosting the stunning In Between Sentiments exhibition at MIA until next February,” says Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the county’s first female mayor.
“Miami-Dade County has a long-standing commitment to promoting equality, diversity, inclusion, and our local arts community, which is why we are especially proud to share the work of two hometown female talents with millions of our visitors at MIA,” she added.
Miami International has one of the country’s most robust airport-based arts and exhibitions programs and includes a wide array of well-curated temporary exhibitions, commissioned public art and site-specific installations.
One of the more popular permanent pieces is The Alphabet, a multi-location piece by Miami architect/artist team Rosario Marquardt and Roberto Behar, who work together as R & R Studios. The work consists of English and Spanish phrases, including Besame Mucho and All We Need Is Love spelled out in colorful silk flowers.
The Peace and Love part of the series, located on Concourse D, between Gates D29 and D30, recently got a refresh.
Related Articles:
- Inside the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Kansas
- IND Airport’s traveling mural tells the story of Afghan refugees
- New statue honors Mary Golda Ross, a Native American ‘hidden figure’
- Mural celebrates legacy of Madam C.J. Walker at Indianapolis Airport
- 3D statues at Dallas Love Field celebrate women in aviation
Featured image: Installation view of Sue Montoya in In Between Sentiments at Gate D22. Photo by Pedro Wazzan. Courtesy of WOPHA
