Opening Celebration for "Jason Seife: Coming to Fruition"

Date & Time

Price $Admission is $16 for adults and free for PAMM members.

Venue Pérez Art Museum Miami
1103 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, FL 33132 GET DIRECTIONS

Phone Number 305.375.3000

Join us for the opening of Jason Seife: Coming to Fruition, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Artist Jason Seife and exhibition curator Maritza Lacayo will be in the exhibition space and available to discuss and share the works, the artist’s process, and the trajectory of his practice throughout the evening.

Also enjoy sounds by Miami-based and bred DJ Phaxas, who is spinning live from inside the museum. A raver, vinyl aficionado, and late-night groove junkie, she sprinkles mystery bits of classic dance culture and creative soundscapes in all her productions, DJ, and live sets.


Schedule:
5–7pm | Happy hour on the terrace
6–8pm | Jason Seife and Maritza Lacayo in the gallery
6–8pm | DJ Phaxas in Paresky Hall

Admission is $16 for adults and free for PAMM members.

About Jason Seife
Jason Seife lives and works out of Miami, Florida. Despite being accepted to some of the most prestigious art schools in America, Seife opted for a more hands-on approach and dove straight into the art world. Paving his way through graphic design, Seife has worked with some of the largest names in the music business including Kanye West, Pharrell Wiliams, Big Sean, and Nicki Minaj, designing everything from album artwork to jewelry and merchandise. Refusing to be limited to one form of art, Seife's true passion lies in painting. His work is loosely based off reinventing the past by using modern-day materials and compositions to change the way the viewer experiences a once overlooked piece of art.

In his newest body of work, Seife references old Persian carpets, an art form that in modern times is often taken for granted. Reviving these old weavings by tediously painting them on canvas in colors and mediums that were not normally used in their origin. Seife presents the pieces in a new and exciting way. The creation of these works is both a therapeutic and a spiritual process, being able to channel his obsession with detail into the intricate geometry and compositions of the carpets allows Seife to find himself working hours on end without lifting his brush. What initially drew him to these works was not only the aesthetic but the dense history and meaning behind the imagery. The way the weavers were able to link each rug's particular pattern, palette, and style with a specific and identifiable geographic area or nomadic tribe really stood out to him. Seife aims to mirror this practice with his take on the carpets by having each color and pattern specifically correlate to what state of mind and emotion he was in while creating the specific work. allowing him to be able to look back and see a chronological timeline of both his mental and emotional state embedded into the paintings. Essentially creating a language through shape and color that is hidden in plain view.

Seife has had successful shows both domestically and internationally and was recently featured in a special project with The Bronx and Brooklyn Museum where his work was projected on the facade of both museums at a larger-than-life scale.

About Maritza Lacayo
Maritza Lacayo is assistant curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). At PAMM she has curated numerous exhibition projects, including The Artist as Poet: Selections from PAMM’s Collection; Marco Brambilla: Heaven’s Gate; George Segal: Abraham’s Farewell to Ishmael; Polyphonic: Celebrating PAMM’s Fund for African American Art; Jedd Novatt: Monotypes and More; among others. Lacayo has various exhibition projects forthcoming, including Jason Seife: Coming to Fruition, and monographic exhibitions featuring Calida Rawles and José Parlá. Lacayo has organized traveling exhibitions on behalf of PAMM, including Marisol and Warhol Take New York; Leandro Erlich: Liminal; and Joan Didion: What She Means (forthcoming).

Lacayo frequently contributes writing to arts platforms and exhibition catalogues including monographs for artists Tomokazu Matsuyama, Richard Dupont, Carlos Estévez, Elliot and Erick Jiménez, and Vaughn Spann. She has managed the production of several publications and exhibition catalogues for PAMM including Dara Friedman: Perfect Stranger; On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection; Ebony G. Patterson…while the dew is still on the roses…; The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art; and Beatriz González: A Retrospective (Named one of The New York Times’s Best Art Books of 2019).

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the American University of Paris and a Master of Letters in Modern and Contemporary Art and Art World Practice from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

About Denise Faxas
Denise Faxas aka Phaxas is a Cuban-American, multi-faceted artist that is driven by a fascination with audio, music, and sound design. Miami-based and bred, she creates from a need to express concepts through bass, rhythm, and electronics. Emerging from a passionate involvement as a sound engineer for various venues and musical acts, and as a performer for a nationally touring electronic act, Phaxas has carved out a space as a solo electronic producer, remixer, and DJ and was named 2021’s Best Electronica Act by the Miami New Times.

With influences from house, lo-fi, electro, bass, and post-dub music, she produces, collects, and plays a fresh breed of rhythmically elaborate yet melodically warm electronica. Her skill sets as an audio engineer, sound artist, performer, and vinyl DJ make for a sonically explorative and dance-inducive atmosphere. She has played on several notable stages including III Points Music Festival, Wynwood Pride, House of Creatives Music Festival, Artopia, Afrobeta's Mooncake Festival, Klangbox's Klangbang, the Ground Miami, Floyd, Dante’s HiFi, Soho Beach House, Miami Sound Bar, ICA Miami, Peréz Art Museum Miami, and numerous other venues and art galleries.

She is a co-founder of the female all-vinyl DJ collective Waxy, who have a weekly residency at Miami’s beloved Wynwood staple, Gramps. She co-founded and co-hosted a weekly internet radio show called Mashene along with fellow DJ Heather Holiday, which focused on women in electronics. Additionally, she has collaborated as a sound designer with various visual artists. Most recently of note, she was the sound engineer and system designer for the multi-channel installation Dreams of Unknown Islands by artist Sasha Wortzel, who has exhibited several iterations at Oolite Arts, the Cooley Gallery, and the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum. In the last three years, she has self-released a full-length album, a four-track EP, and a remix compilation. Additionally, Phaxas has specially released tracks featured in compilations that raise funds and awareness for Black Lives Matter, environmental education, and queer issues.