Labors during lockdown: Emerging artists debut their pandemic creations at NSU Art Museum

While COVID-19 coursed through the community, it forced a shift in priorities and propelled the term “essential worker” into the lexicon. For many, art was delegated to the periphery of their lives.

But for seven emerging artists, it was all they had.

Connected by little other than the pandemic’s touch on their blooming careers, these young South Florida-based artists will showcase their creations from their lockdowns at an exhibit titled “Future Past Perfect,” opening at the Nova Southeastern University Art Museum Fort Lauderdale from July 30 to Oct. 15.

Each artist will have their own solo exhibit inspired by or created during their lockdown experience.

The artists include Nathalie Alfonso, Lulu Sanchez, Susan Kim Alvarez, Joel Gaitan, Kandy G Lopez, Alejandro Piñeiro Bello and Zoe Schweiger.

Bonnie Clearwater is the director and chief curator of the NSU Art Museum, and she’s most excited for these artists to have the gallery floor to themselves —some of whom she’s known throughout their careers.

“Because there was so much isolation during the pandemic, part of our goal was to bring together artists that didn’t know each other and create a new network of support,” Clearwater said. “But it also gives them a chance to receive feedback on their work.”

One of those artists is not looking for traditional feedback on her art, however.

Nathalie Alfonso, 26, originally from Colombia, doesn’t want viewers to simply observe the end product of her exhibit “LineScape Dusk,” but the work that went into it. She works with soft pastels, a medium she said reveals the artistic process through countless strokes and smudges visible to the observer.

Growing up surrounded by manual labor, she wanted to marry her working-class roots with her identity as an artist.

“My dad is a pool builder contractor here in South Florida, and my mom has always been a fulltime housekeeper, and people would never see what happens behind the scenes, just the finished product,” Alfonso said. “I feel the romantic side is when the audience comes to see the work, they get to see the process.”

But this isn’t an exhibit Alfonso will take on tour. What makes it most unique is it’s meant to be destroyed.

Her work consists of four wooden panels, all covered — including the surrounding wall — in exposed layers of pastels that rub off with the slightest touch. They depict her distinct style of hazy, dreamlike natural scenes.

When creating “LineScape Dusk,” Alfonso was inspired by society’s altered perception of essential workers and their thankless labor during the pandemic.

“In a sense, we don’t see them. They’re there; they’re fundamental, but we only see what we get out of our relationship with them,” she said.

During 30-year-old Lulu Sanchez’s lockdown, she spent time reflecting on another public health crisis.

The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s is still very much with her, as AIDS-related complications claimed the life of her uncle, prominent New Wave artist Adolfo Rene Sanchez, from whom she draws artistic inspiration.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to kind of blur the line of who the author of these pieces was,” Sanchez said.

While the late Sanchez is the primary influence of her work, other figures from her past take the spotlight too. One is a family friend who died at the age of 19 while Sanchez was finishing her exhibit.

“This moment made me realize how we’re all facing our potential mortality,” she said. “I’m young but so was he. Things turned so quickly, and I reconsidered how fragile life is.”

In her exhibit, titled “ADOLFOLAND,” Sanchez celebrates her roots while deviating from her uncle’s influence into her own style. That includes vivid colors, imagery from her family’s Cuban ancestry, and the occasional dismembered body part.

To understand the present moment, Sanchez has reevaluated her connections to the past and those she’s lost.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Future Past Perfect

WHEN: July 30 through Oct. 15. 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; hours are noon– 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 11 p.m.–7 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday.

WHERE: NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; 1 E. Las Olas Blvd, Fort Lauderdale,  33301

TICKETS: $16 for adults; $10 for seniors; $8 for military; $5 for students; free for NSU Art Members, NSU students, faculty and staff and children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased online or in person.

INFORMATION: Call 954-525-5500 or visit nsuartmuseum.org.