Sacred Grove
Interpreting  our Nature

works by

Lea Nickless & Xavier Cortada

Opening reception
December 1, 2004, 6 – 10 pm

Open by appointment or
Dec 2 & 3 (2 – 6 pm), Dec 4 & 5 (noon – 4 pm)

Xavier Cortada Studio
104 SW 9th Street, Street Level/East Side
(across from the Brickell Metrorail Station in Miami, FL;
for directions visit https://cortada.com/map.htm)

For more information, contact Lea Nickless at
305-903-8988 or visit www.leanickless.com

Sacred Grove art exhibition showcases work by Xavier Cortada and Lea Nickless

Sacred Grove:  Interpreting our Nature, a two-person exhibition featuring works by Miami artists Lea Nickless and Xavier Cortada, will open on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 with a reception from 6 – 10 pm. The reception is free and open to the public.   The exhibition will take place at Xavier Cortada Studio, 104 SW 9th Street, Street Level/East Side. For a map go to https://cortada.com/map.htm.

The exhibition will remain in place through January 8 and is available by appointment or on December 2 and 3 from 2 – 6 pm and December 4 and 5 from noon – 4 pm.

Sacred Grove will feature large-scale paintings and other works that are inspired by Florida’s mangrove forests.  Florida’s abundant natural beauty is all around us — large clear skies, exquisite beaches and subtropical lushness. Less understood and accessible are the mangrove forests that line our coastal regions.  Yet the mangrove is critical in the evolution of the peninsula we call home.  A land builder, the mangrove’s aerial roots collect quantities of drifting debris and organic matter, gradually extending the shoreline.

Urban life at the beginning of the twenty-first century encourages an increasing disconnection from nature.  We live in climate-controlled concrete structures, seldom feeling the earth in our hands or remembering that the land where we stand was once a mangrove forest or a woodland hammock.  In Sacred Grove, Cortada and Nickless capture and celebrate an essence of their physical world and by so doing, connect viewers back to nature’s nurturing energy.

The mangrove also serves as a metaphor for Miami and those who live here. Stated Cortada, “the mangrove roots symbolize the residents who have set roots and built community. They also speak to our interconnectedness — by reaching out to others, we build a stronger community, much like the walking feet of mangrove roots do to build formidable structures and nurture new life.”

Additionally, the natural world “holds a key to our connection to the divine,” stated Lea Nickless. “My work for this exhibition is based on the idea that the divine is present in nature and her cycles. And that we are part of those cycles – a sacred connection.”

Xavier Cortada, a Miami-based Cuban-American artist, attorney and activist, has exhibited his works in museums, galleries, and cultural venues around the world and has pioneered the use of the Internet in collaborative art-making. He has been commissioned to create art for The White House, The World Bank, Nike, HBO, Global Health Council and Miami Art Museum. His web site (https://cortada.com) displays some of his artwork and contains information on the various projects in which he is involved.

Lea Nickless is a painter, bookmaker and photographer who lives and works in Miami. She has also worked for more than twenty years in the field of arts administration for various institutions including work for Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, The Wolfsonian-FIU, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, and Miami-Dade College. This is her first exhibition in Miami. For more information, go to www.leanickless.com.

Images attached in jpeg format. For additional images or for more information, contact Lea Nickless at 305-903-8988.

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