NADA MIAMI 2023
12/5 - 12/9 2023
VIP Preview: 12/5 2023 10am-4pm VIP Hour: 12/6 2023 10–11am
​
Booth D-104
Cleo the Gallery is pleased to present our booth for NADA Miami 2023 with work by Emily Llamazales and Sam Newton. This showcase presents the theme of transformation from environmental pressures with two different inspirations.
With the lens on Sam Newton’s work there is transformation through the narrative of personal truth. Departing from her previous exploration into classical self portraiture during the pregnancy of her first child, Newton embarks on representational studies of horses to serve for her disposition. Threading both a reference for wild horses as symbolic of power and freedom together with her newfound shift into the anxiety and tension of motherhood, her work cartoons these animals. The horses are stretched out and unstable in their new condition and forced into tight compositions. When animated with another figure they either clash with their opponent or buckle under the weight of their impression. The pressure of their environmental constraints transform their typical triumphant representation in art history to better represent a bridled mother of now under the struggles of daily routine and larger political and societal oppression.
From personal truth to fictional narrative, the transformation found in the work of Emily Llamazales reflects an interpretation of text. Her newest ceramics are a response to Aase Berg’s poem, ‘Mörk Materia’, an epic that constructs a post-apocalyptic vision of Earth with a new order of biology during post-radiation and post-climate disaster. The ceramics are collaged with fragments of information about this world, transformed through the accumulation of shells, rocks, twisted metals and scars of inflicted surface textures. They become coding for the artifacts of this environment, lending disparate data to the alien terrain of a fictional proverb for what could be our current climate crisis and future adaptation. This is nuanced by the awareness of hands on manipulation within these shapes: there is a thoughtful design in the foreboding of this new world. It becomes more of a decisive reflection and study on the transition of surroundings rather than actual fragment, evocative of the translated emotive vision into representation present with Newton’s work as well. Both artists, inspired from their narratives, are creating illustrations of their environmental discomfort.
Cleo the Gallery is pleased to note that this two person show is a continuation of our commitment to showcase emerging talent from the Southern United States:
Emily Llamazales is an interdisciplinary artist whose work draws from science-fiction and reimagined biology in order to address concerns about our ecological future. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art and Design from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art (2019), was selected as a finalist for the 2023 Emerging Artist Fellowship by Atlanta Celebrates Photography, awarded a 2022/2023 Emerging Artist Award from the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and is a recipient of a 2022 Idea Capital Grant (Atlanta). Llamazales previously served as the Program and Development Coordinator at Burnaway, a non-profit magazine of contemporary art criticism from the South. She lives and works in Atlanta, Ga.
​
emilyllamazales.com / @emily_llama
Sam Newton is a painter living and working in Tampa, Florida. She has shown her work nationally at Museum of Florida Art & Culture (2022), Parallelogram Gallery (2021), and Day and Night Projects (2020). Newton has served as an art instructor at the Tampa Museum of Art, and currently works as the Marketing and Exhibitions Coordinator for Tempus Projects. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a BFA in Painting and is a founding member of the Artist Collective QUAID Gallery.
​
Cleo the Gallery
Booth D-104 at NADA Miami
Ice Palace Studios
1400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, FL 33136
​