New MIA exhibition proves that home is where the art is
Miami artist displays evolving Caribbean-American home life
Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and architect Cornelius Tulloch went back to his roots while quarantining in his childhood home during the pandemic to create Genesis, an exhibition of 14 photographs on view at Miami International Airport that documents how Caribbean and Black life in Miami has transformed within the domestic space.
The latest exhibition at MIA’s Cameraworks Gallery between gates D22 and D25 until February 2024, Genesis is a series created in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the pandemic that captures tender moments between family and community through uncertain times, resonating and connecting with viewers via images of shared experiences and familiar spaces.
Day after Day, our spaces performed in ways they had not [before]. As we spent more time in our homes, the idle mind wandered; reality blurred into a dream, and the ordinary became everything but expected.
In Genesis, Tulloch combines his background in visual art, design, and architecture to explore the everyday Black domestic home and reimagines it as a cinematic stage for cultural performance. Architecture and lighting coalesce to evoke emotion and contribute to the mood, becoming characters and living elements themselves as well. The works' spatial compositions and altered lighting produce dramatic colors that transform the space into a surreal and dreamlike home. The initial production of Genesis was funded by a 2020 Ellies Creator Award and presented by Oolite Arts.
I see my work as expressing Black identities between various cultural backgrounds. Identities exist in a space that holds a tie to their cultural traditions across the Atlantic and one that also assimilates into American culture. My work visualizes contemporary Caribbean-American life.
Drawing from his Jamaican and African American heritage and Miami upbringing, Tulloch’s work embodies a conscious introspection and reflection on identity, cultural heritage, and the natural and built environment. His spatial storytelling through his work has been shown in institutions like the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; NYU Center for Black Visual Culture, New York; The Faena Art Project Room, Miami; and at MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy.
From being a 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts to adding his work to the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem, his success has come from the unique perspective inspired by his cultural background. In 2022, Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum's Black Visionaries Program named him an Emerging Visionary Grantee. He has grounded his projects within Miami's community as a two-time Oolite Ellies Award recipient and YoungArts Jorge M. Pérez Award recipient.
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