Internationally celebrated for his work across mediums like photography, sculpture, installation, and video (yes, he does it all), artist Jack Pierson has long captured the melancholic glamour of queer life, fame, and longing. Known for his text-based signage sculptures and diaristic images of friends and fleeting moments, Pierson’s work is as intimate as it is iconic. Beginning this month, The Bass Museum of Art presents “Jack Pierson: The Miami Years,” a landmark solo exhibition that delves into the city’s profound influence on his artistic journey.
Opening September 24, the show features new and historic works, including the monumental Array (Miami) and the first-ever re-creation of Pierson’s 1985 bedroom from a South Beach hotel. The exhibition reflects the two key periods when Miami served as a turning point in his personal and professional life.
Aventura recently caught up with Pierson to talk about his time in the city and what “The Miami Years” means to him today
Aventura: What does the city of Miami mean to you?
Pierson: It means quite a lot. It was somehow like my graduate school…I went there for Christmas vacation and spent all my money and couldn’t get home. So, I took a job and lived in this $55-a-week hotel by the beach. The six months being away from everything I had ever known, being my own person after art school, after a move to New York…all of a sudden, I was in Miami Beach, and it just seemed like heaven on earth. I really did have some amplification of my innate sensibility that occurred in Miami Beach in 1985.
What parts of that story will be reflected in your exhibition at The Bass?
The centerpiece is a huge 8-foot-by-21-foot wall loaded with pictures I took. Some are my real art and some are just snapshots. It sort of tells the story from right to left, from 1985 to 1989, of my time in Miami. I’m also re-creating the bedroom from that hotel I mentioned.
What are your thoughts on Miami’s evolution into a global art hot spot?
I went through a period of recoil and resentment related to Miami. But last year I went back to Art Basel specifically. Yes, there’s the traffic and, yes, the city I knew is gone below Fifth Street…but tucked in there somewhere, my world still exists. I had a nice couple of weeks down there last February, soaking it in and making sure that this homage I wanted to make was still deserved.
How do you see your relationship with Miami now, and moving into the future?
The show is a good amount of excitement, and there’s part of me that wants to go there for the winter again this year. I re-fell in love with [Miami] again last February. It’s all different and it’s all the same. And that’s like life.
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