The Ellies 2022

Miami’s Visual Arts Awards 

October 26, 2022

Jee Park. "Chrystie 

Street," 2022, mixed 

media. Dimensions 

variable. Courtesy of 

the artist.

Welcome | October 26, 2022 

Tonight, we are delighted to celebrate the 5th 

anniversary of The Ellies, Miami’s Visual Arts Awards. 

Thank you for being here to honor our community’s 

visual artists and their role in making Miami the 

dynamic cultural capital that it is. 

Oolite Arts created these awards to celebrate and 

elevate artists’ careers with a series of prizes named 

for our founder and arts pioneer Ellie Schneiderman. 

Ellie, who saw the awards come to fruition before 

passing away in 2020, was a visionary set on 

creating an organization that would “help artists help 

themselves.” It's a mission that Oolite Arts strives 

to achieve every day. 

We build on her artistic legacy with each award, now 

totaling a combined $2.5 million in direct support 

to South Florida artists. We’re especially proud to 

have named five eminent artists as recipients of 

the Michael Richards Award. The accompanying 

$75,000 honorarium is given to those who have 

achieved the highest levels of professional distinction 

in the arts while also giving back to our community. 

Tonight, Robert McKnight joins the list of honorees 

that includes Edouard Duval-Carrié, Karen Rifas, 

Maria Martinez-Cañas and Cesar Trasobares. 

Congratulations Robert! 

[ 4 ] #TheEllies | TheEllies.org

In these pages, you’ll find our Creator Award, Teacher 

Travel Grant and Social Justice Winners for 2022. 

We’re proud that they are a part of the Oolite family, 

and wish them every success as they develop their 

artistic practices. 

Dennis Scholl 

President and CEO 

Oolite Arts 

[ 5 ]

Oolite Arts’ Founder 

Ellie Schneiderman, 

for whom The Ellies are 

named, in front of the 

organization’s main 

location in 1985. An arts 

pioneer, Schneiderman 

passed away in 2020. 

Photo credit: 

Miami Herald File 

[ 6 ]

[ Above ] Fola Akinde. “Birth of the Spirit,” 2022. Courtesy of the artist. 


The Ellies | Creator Award Winners 2022 

Fola Akinde $5,000 

Yoruba Mappings 

For a body of work that explores the revitalization of 

spirituality and Yoruba religion in Miami 

Margaret Cardillo $12,000 

Jane the First 

For a documentary on the first female sportscaster in 

America, Jane Chastain, who got her start right here in 

Miami at WTVJ, and faced a reception - from her coworkers 

to a national audience - that was controversial at best 

Carolina Casusol Valle $5,000 

In Conversation with My Fellows 

For a body of work that focuses on the stories of Latin 

American immigrants in the U.S. coupled with 104 species 

of flora that flourish in dry, hot and rock environments 

despite the adversities 

[ 9 ]

Rose Marie Cromwell $10,000 

King of Fish 

For a book of photographs that tells the story of “Coco 

Solo,” a former U.S. military base in Panama, repurposed 

as an under-resourced public housing community, and 

eventually demolished to become a container yard serving 

the Panama Canal 

Carolina Cueva $8,000 

In Being, In Space: Form and Care 

For a sculptural installation that reimagines everyday 

objects in Western homes to reflect modern day indigenous 

identities and cultures 

Cara Dodge $10,000 

This Bitter Earth 

For a short narrative film focused on the iguana, a symbol of 

queerness viewed as “other,” that is being hunted by those 

seeking to maintain hierarchy and order 

Smith Durogene $5,000 

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow 

For a photography series that captures the character of 

South Florida’s neighborhoods, particularly as many are 

being replaced by new development 


Liz Ferrer $6,000 

[Cries in Spanish] 

For a bilingual episodic web series that follows the stories of 

Latinx and queer characters living outside of the norm in the 

U.S. and is inspired by a viral meme of the tear-stained face 

of novela villain Soraya with the mocking subtitle “Cries in 

Spanish” 

Alexandra Fields O’Neale $10,000 

Bound//Unbound 

For a sound art installation on Key Biscayne that uses 

the ocean as narrator to describe the cyclical nature of 

enslavement through the Middle Passage and freedom 

through the Saltwater Railroad 

Dara Friedman $25,000 

River Hill 

To create a meandering labyrinth in an industrial brownfield 

in Buffalo, New York that offers an opportunity for people to 

physically wind and unwind 

Jayme Kaye Gershen $12,000 

Six degrees 

To create a hybrid film that interweaves universal stories 

about identity and culture that connect a changing city 

[ 11 ]

Leslie Gomez-Gonzalez $5,000 

olvidar, es olvidarnos (to forget, is to forget us) 

For a traveling installation that consists of a blue dinner 

table with a woven banana leaf table runner that travels 

to different communities in an effort to have people share, 

listen, and sit together 

Yi Chin Hsieh $6,000 

The Dinner Party 

For an exhibition project where small groups will experience 

a dinner party setting with participating artists; however, 

instead of food, the participants will be served limited 

edition artworks and learn the stories behind them 

Jacek Kolasinski $10,000 

Creole Archive Project - Book Project 

For a book on the cultural linkages between Poland and 

Haiti, beginning with the Haitian Revolution and continuing 

to modern day 


[ Above ] Jacek Kolasinski. Installation from the “Creole Archive 

Project: Poloné Nwa,” 2022, mixed media. Dimensions variable. 

Courtesy of the artist. 

[ Previous Page ] Alexandra Fields O’Neale. “Bound//Unbound,” 2022. 

Photo by Monica Sorelle. 

[ 15 ]

Amanda Linares $11,000 

Yo vengo de todas partes, y hacia todas partes voy (I come 

from everywhere and everywhere I shall go) 

For an immersive installation spurred by the artists’ 

discovery of her paternal great grandfather’s stone 

home in Spain, which explores themes of immigration, 

interconnectedness and identity 

T. Eliott Mansa $15,000 

Room for the Living / Room for the Dead 

For an exhibition that recreates the sunken living rooms 

popular in the 1970s as a shrine to the dead, and is activated 

as a gathering space to play cards and dominos, or bring 

flowers and photographs for their departed loved ones 

Francisco Masó $8,000 

Interaction of Political Colors 

For a limited, silk-screen edition of works that examines the 

use of color in totalitarian societies, based on a study of the 

colors and patterns worn by secret police in Cuba 

[ Left ] Francisco Masó. “Page 19. Volume III. Tome I. Aesthetic Register 

of Covert Forces series,” 2017 – ongoing. Acrylic on canvas. 25 × 21 in. 


[ 17 ]

Rhonda Mitrani $12,000 

With Grace 

For a short, experimental documentary on the life of a 

Cuban woman who emigrated to Miami Beach after the 

revolution, and uses a feminist lens to examine age and 

gender roles and the subtleties of machismo in Cuban- 

Jewish communities 

Johann C. Muñoz $8,000 

“entre el estampido de los cohetes y la música de varias 

bandas” (“amidst the explosion of rockets and the music of 

several bands”) 

For a transdisciplinary performance chronicling the journey 

of Numa Equís, an accordion player from Magdalena, 

Colombia, who migrated to the U.S., and her transforming 

relationship with musical traditions and identity 

William Osorio $10,000 

The Path to the Volcanoes 

For a series of large-format paintings exploring the recent 

mass exodus of more than 50,000 Cubans after the protests 

of July 2021 and the assault on civil liberties by the Cuban 

government 


Jee Park $6,000 

Close to Home 

For an exhibition exploring the rise of violence against Asian- 

Americans based on the Suui, a traditional Korean burial 

garment used as a gesture of love and regard for the deceased 

Larissa Perez $5,000 

The Grove 

For a photograph and interview series exploring and 

documenting the Bahamian community in Coconut Grove 

as a way to share its history and cultural heritage 

Lee Pivnik $10,000 

Symbiotic House 

To develop a habitable shelter and art and ecology center 

in the Redland that is a model for a Miami facing the 

compounding crises of climate change, housing insecurity 

and income inequality 

Victoria Ravelo $8,000 

Our Inheritance / Those Who Come After 

For an exhibition centered on the personal and collective 

memories of the Latin American and Caribbean diaspora 

[ 19 ]

[ Above ] Anastasia Samoylova. “Controlled Burn on a Country Road, 

North Florida,” 2021. Courtesy of the artist. 

[ Next Page ] Oscar Rieveling. “Auto-mariachi” (study), 2019. Performance 

with Mariana Smith Studio at Mana Contemporary. 

Photo by Juan Matos. 


Ema Ri $6,000 

Flower Columns 

To continue the thread of love, time and memory by creating 

columns made with resin and dehydrated flowers from the 

artwork “Here With You” 

Oscar Rieveling $6,000 

Auto-mariachi 

For an exploration and performance of mariachi music 

focused on the musicians, and answering the question: Who 

serenades the serenaders? 

Coralina Rodriguez Meyer $10,000 

Hachuela 

For an exhibition of documentary sculptures and moving 

images created in collaboration with reproductive health 

crisis survivors, allies and justice leaders as a healing 

sanctuary for black, brown and queer bodies 

Anastasia Samoylova $8,000 

Floridas 

For a photographic exhibition that explores Florida’s many 

contradictions — beach vs. swamp, wealth vs. poverty 

- and pairs Walker Evans’ photographs from 1934 with 

contemporary images by the artist 

[ 21 ]

George Sánchez-Calderón $15,000 

ScarFace 

For a marionette show based on the movie Scarface and 

its seminal story of Miami, immigration and the “American 

Dream” 

Carlos Sandoval De León $15,000 

Light Stream 

For a public artwork that honors migrants in search of 

work and is part of an initiative commemorating underrecognized 

narratives connected to Miami’s roots in the 

American south 

Smita Sen $8,000 

Geology of Longing 

For a series of experimental dance films where the artist 

traces her deceased father’s geological research across 

the globe, investigating the ways the human body and the 

planet preserve memories of life after death 

Dainymar Tapia $11,000 

In the Company of Women: At Large 

For an exhibition of South Florida-based women artists that 

provides them with the ample space to develop and display 

ideas they are working on 


Robert Thiele $12,000 

And Elsewhere 

For a survey catalog documenting the artist’s body of work, 

allowing for a new scholarship on his achievements and 

contributions to Miami’s art scene 

Clara Toro $6,000 

Eight Minutes 

For an outdoor photo exhibition installed in open spaces 

in Wynwood, telling the stories of longtime residents, 

including a family whose home was torn down in 8 minutes 

Cornelius Tulloch $20,000 

Porch Passages 

For a series of artistic architectural installations in Liberty 

City and a digital archive that hosts a storytelling space 

for Black and Caribbean dialogue, history and creativity as 

rising tides and gentrification change the fabric of Miami’s 

inland minority neighborhoods 

[ Next Page ] Cornelius Tulloch. Rendering from the project, “Porch 

Passages,” 2022. Courtesy of the artist. 

[ 25 ]

[ 27 ]

Monica Uszerowicz $5,000 

Dreaming as the Water Rises 

For a poetic essay and zine based on the dreams of Florida 

residents about climate change, exploring how the climate 

crisis is affecting people 

Nadia Wolff $15,000 

Kin 

For a ceremony that honors the weight of the Atlantic 

coastline for Afro-diasporic queer people, and includes a 

performance around the braiding of a person’s hair into a 

basket structure on the crown of their head 

Antonia Wright $10,000 

Women in Labor 

For a generative sound art installation that protests the 

changing laws around access to safe and legal abortions. 

Through computational algorithms, the piece sonically 

amplifies the increase in mileage a woman will now have to 

travel by state to access reproductive care 


Ricardo Zulueta $6,000 

Speculative Cyberscapes 

For a site-specific installation comprised of textured 

paintings depicting technological networks and 

accompanied by an experimental 3D video animation 

engendering a liminal space of contemplation 

[ 29 ]

Teacher Travel Grants Winners 2022 

Jose Luis Garcia $5,000 

New World School of the Arts 

To travel to New York to visit museums and archives and 

attend photography workshops that will help spark his 

students’ interest in black and white darkroom photography 

and other non-digital photographic processes 

Juan Alejandro Landaverde $5,000 

Homestead Middle School 

To travel to Japan to study the art and history of printmaking 

and traditional Ukiyo-e prints to create a curriculum 

focused on Japanese culture and artistic practices for his 

students in Homestead 

Mark Russell $5,000 

Jose de Diego Middle School 

To travel to Europe to study art history in order to bring 

back new lessons to his students in Wynwood about the 

rich history and methods of art-making 

[ 31 ]

Silvana Soriano $5,000 

Morningside K-8 Academy 

To travel to a residency in Spain to learn the art of Mokulito, 

a Japanese lithography that uses wood instead of stone and 

screen printing, to complete a printmaking curriculum for 

fourth and fifth grade students 

[ Previous Page ] Jose Luis Garcia. Installation view of “Missing Pieces,” 

2022. Photo by Pedro Wazzan. 

[ Right, ] Mark Russell, “The Vessel,” 2022, Marker and gold leaf. 



[ 33 ]

The Michael Richards Award is a nominationbased 

award, given to a Miami-Dade artist who 

has created a recognized body of original, highquality 

works of art over a sustained period of time 

and who, through their practice, is achieving the 

highest levels of professional distinction in visual 

arts. This artist is someone who has established 

and sustained their practice in Miami and has given 

back to the community throughout their career in 

a variety of ways. The award supports the selected 

artist’s practice and creative growth through a 

stipend of $75,000 over a two-year period, and the 

opportunity to be commissioned by Oolite Arts in 

collaboration with The Bass, to create a work to be 

exhibited at the museum. 

Michael Richards (1963 – 2001), to whom this 

award pays tribute, was an incisive, provocative, 

and poetic artist whose body of work primarily 

addresses racial inequity and social injustice. 

Richards, an Oolite Arts alum, passed away 

tragically in his art studio in the World Trade 

Center during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 

2001. A jury of national and local curators and 

experts nominated candidates and selected 

the award winner. 


Michael Richards Award 

Winner: Robert McKnight 

Robert McKnight was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. He 

moved to Miami with his family in 1953 and later received a 

bachelor’s of fine arts in painting from Syracuse University. 

As a member of The Miami Black Artist Workshop and 

KUUMBA Artist Association, McKnight has worked to 

generate opportunities for greater professional visibility for 

African-American and African artists. He has had numerous 

solo shows at the Art Gallery of Florida Atlantic University, 

Gallery Antigua, Amdalozi Gallery and Bakehouse Art 

Complex, among other places. 

[ 35 ]

[ Left ] Robert McKnight. “Competing Spaces #3,” 2005. Courtesy 

of the artist. 

[ Above ] Robert McKnight. “Midnight’s Order,” 2005. Courtesy of 

the artist. 

[ 37 ]

The Ellies Social Justice Award 

honors a visual artist who has made a 

commitment to working for equality in 

their daily lives and artistic practice. 

This award supports the selected 

artist’s practice and creative growth 

through a stipend of $25,000. A jury 

of artists and social justice leaders 

nominated the candidates and 

selected the award winner. 


Social Justice Award 

Winner: Rev. Houston R. Cypress 

Rev. Houston R. Cypress (He /They) is a Two-Spirit poet, 

artist and activist from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee 

Tribe of Indians of Florida. Through his artistic practice, 

Houston explores and articulates Queer Ecological 

Knowledge through community-based artistic, mystical and 

shamanistic techniques, including deep listening, ceremony, 

pilgrimage and service. Houston is also inspired by the 

dialectic between sovereignty and boundary dissolution, 

the biological and technological, and how languages can 

evoke states of consciousness. His marks appear on paper, 

on-screen, and on the land itself through experimental 

conservation initiatives. Poetry as a way of life. Enacting 

protocols of joy. Love = Action. 

[ 39 ]


[ Above ] Rev. Houston R. Cypress. Still frame from the video work 

entitled: “...what endures...,” 2021, a Digital Commission for the Institute 

of Contemporary Art, Miami. 

[ 41 ]

Oolite Arts 

Board of Directors 

Eric Rodriguez 

Chair 

Marie Elena Angulo 

Vice Chair 

Maricarmen Martinez 

Secretary 

Kim Kovel 

Treasurer & Chair 

Emeritus 

Chloe Berkowitz 

Edouard Duval-Carrié 

Alessandro Ferretti 

Lilia Garcia 

Jane Goodman 

Thomas F. Knapp 

Jeff Krinsky 

Lin Lougheed 

Reagan Pace 

Deborah Slott 

Staff 

Dennis Scholl 

President and CEO 

Anais Alvarez 

Communications 

& Development 

Sr. Manager 

Danielle Bender 

Cinematic Arts Sr. 

Manager 

Amanda Bradley 

Programming Sr. 

Manager 

David Correa 

Programs Coordinator 

Cherese Crockett 

Development Sr. 

Manager 

Maylin Enamorado- 

Pinheiro 

Digital 

Communications 

Coordinator 

Aaron Feinberg 

Chief Financial Officer 

Samantha Ganter 

Programs Coordinator 

Esther Park 

Vice President of 

Programming 

Hansel Porras Garcia 

Executive Assistant 

Dan Weitendorf 

Facilities Manager 

Melissa Gabriel 

Art Classes Manager

924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139 

OoliteArts.org | @OoliteArts

The Ellies 2022

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