Visual Arts
Khalilah Ali, a Remarkable Journey
Introduction to Khalilah Ali. 1:31 min. Photo & design: Raymond Elman. In the Spring of 2018, photographer Robert Zuckerman introduced me to Khalilah Ali, the first wife (1967-77) of Muhammad Ali. Born Belinda Boyd (1950), Khalilah Ali was raised in Chicago where she attended Islamic schools. Her parents were members of the Nation of Islam. Boyd married Muhammad Ali on August 18, 1967, at the age of 17. After their marriage, she changed her name to Khalilah Ali. When Ali’s avoidance of the military draft during the...
read moreFrom the Midwest to Miami: The Artistic Journey of Tom Seghi
Driving through miles of open fields from his hometown of Chicago to DeKalb, Illinois, Tom Seghi was mesmerized by the stark beauty and rich tones of the landscape before him. The first in his family to attend college, Seghi was on his way to Northern Illinois University (NIU), where he would discover his passion for translating the Midwestern landscape onto canvas. Originally intending to study architecture, Seghi changed his career path to become an art educator and painter. During his graduate studies at the Art Institute (AIC),...
read morePhilip Levine: Art, Climate Change, Immigration, & Politics
Introduction to Philip Levine. 1:09 min. Photo: Raymond Elman. Philip Levine (b. 1962) is an American businessman and politician who served as Mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, he is a candidate for the Florida governorship. Philip Levine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and moved with his parents to South Florida at the age of 10. He attended Attucks Middle School and Hollywood Hills High School in Hollywood, Florida. Levine is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Political Science. In 2015,...
read moreFredric Snitzer: Dean of Miami Art Dealers
Introduction to Fredric Snitzer. 1:43 min. Photo & Design: Raymond Elman. Fredric Snitzer was born in Philadelphia in 1950, where he attended Fleischer Art Memorial as a child, and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) as a sculptor. He later earned an MFA degree from Penn State University. Snitzer eventually migrated to the Miami area, where his brother was finishing his neurosurgery residency. In 1977, Snitzer opened his first gallery on Biltmore Way in Coral Gables, followed by...
read moreElizabeth Gelman: Keeping the Candles Lit
Introduction to Elizabeth Gelman. 3:15 min. Photo: Lee Skye. Elizabeth Gelman was named Executive Director of The Florida Holocaust Museum in January, 2013. A newcomer to the Tampa Bay area, she has held leadership positions in several Chicago nonprofits including Spertus Museum, The Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn, and Terra Museum of American Art. Elizabeth received her MS in Written Communication and Certificate in Corporate Written Communication from National Louis University, a BS in Speech and Communication from Northwestern...
read moreA Conversation with Artist Mario Pérez
Introduction to artist Mario Pérez . 1:55 min. Mario Pérez was born in San Juan, Argentina in 1960. The second of seven children, and the son of a housepainter, he obtained a degree in visual arts at Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Although, he is a draughtsman and a painter, he is also interested in interdisciplinary artistic expressions. In 2003, Pérez was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. He also had the honor of being part of the National Exhibition “200 Years-200 Masters of Argentinean Art,” commemorating the...
read moreArtists’ Mothers by Alex Rocky Ferrer
Shortly after Labor Day in 1970, I moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts on the northern tip of Cape Cod, the first North American landing place of the Pilgrims (1620), in search of beauty, solitude, and a cheap place to live while I figured out my life as an artist making large-scale abstract paintings. I was so uninformed, that I didn’t know that the Outer Cape Cod towns of Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet comprised a famous productive art colony, where artists and writers such as Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline,...
read moreLuca Porcelli: Italy’s Gift to Miami
Introduction to Luca Porcelli. 1:09 min. I first met Luca Porcelli during Art Basel Miami Beach week in 2015, when he was exhibiting his work at Poltrona Frau in the Miami Design District. I had heard about Porcelli and his unique artwork when I lived in Italy, and it was my great pleasure and honor to finally meet him. An extravagant man, who never ceases to amaze with his creativity across various medium, Porcelli moved to Miami for stimulation, to learn new techniques, and to become a better teacher for the artists of tomorrow. After...
read moreTalking Art & Design with Tim Rodgers
Introduction to Tim Rodgers. 1:40 min. Video: Produced by Robin Hill and provided courtesy of The Wolfsonian–FIU Tim Rodgers has been the director of The Wolfsonian—FIU since 2015. Rodgers previously served as the director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in Scottsdale, Arizona as well as Vice President of The Scottsdale Cultural Council (SCC), a private, non-profit organization that administers the city’s arts and cultural programs and facilities. As director of SMoCA he successfully oversaw over 20...
read moreMurray Zimiles: The Holocaust and The Book of Fire
Introduction to Murray Zimiles. 2:15 min. Photos: Raymond Elman. Murray Zimiles (b.1941) is a painter, printmaker, curator and author. He was a professor of art at Purchase College, State University of New York, from 1977-2014. He earned his BFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Illinois, and his MFA from Cornell University. Post graduate study of printmaking at the Ecole Nationale Superior des Beaux Art, and at private workshops in Paris, France, lead Zimiles to co-author two books on lithography. In 2007, he was...
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