South Florida artist explores migration and movement in Pembroke Pines exhibit
.jpg "Edison Peñafiel works on his exhibition “Me pongo el sol al hombro y el mundo es amarillo,” during a summer residency at the McColl Center for Art in Charolotte, North Carolina in 2021.")
During a summer residency in a repurposed church in North Carolina, Edison Peñafiel lived just steps away from his studio, an arrangement that allowed the South Florida artist to work long days surrounded by fabric, sound and color.
Nearly five years later, the work he created there is finally being shown as it was originally imagined.
On Jan. 29, Peñafiel will unveil ”Me pongo el sol al hombro y el mundo es amarillo” (”I Carry the Sun on My Shoulder and the World Turns Yellow”) at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The installation draws on themes of migration and displacement that run throughout his work.
Peñafiel, 40, immigrated to the United States from Ecuador at 17 in 2002. Now based in South Florida, he stays active in the arts scene of Broward County, he told the Pembroke Pines News, working with organizations like Arts Seen 365, a platform that promotes accessible visual art experiences.
The exhibition was completed in 2021 during a two-month artist residency at the McColl Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A garden to move through
While the gallery at the Charles F. Dodge City Center is expansive, Peñafiel says it still presents challenges for a project of this scale.
The title of his upcoming exhibition quotes part of a monologue recited before the song “No soy de Aqui, Ni Soy de Allá,” by Argentine singer-songwriter Facundo Cabral.
The installation is not a direct response to the song, but Peñafiel said it offers a language to explore overlapping ideas that the music can evoke.
“Music is very important in my work,” Peñafiel said. “Not only this author and singer, but others from the same era, which brings these protest music references that are very strong.”
The installation’s title, he said, reflects a longing for home, for relatives, animals and landscapes of the past , while also speaking to what people carry with them going forward.
“It’s kind of a nostalgic reference of the things that are left behind but also what we carry and what we project into the future,” Peñafiel said.
The title, though, came after the work was completed. Known primarily for black-and-white imagery, Peñafiel said the work marked a deliberate shift toward something new.
“I guess during that time I wanted some rest, I felt happier with more colors because the other pieces from before are darker and moodier,” he said.
.jpg "McColl Center - Summer 2021 (5).jpg")
And the work he produced is just that, a colorful installation consisting of seven large-scale fabric banners layered to create an immersive space. Three measure 10 feet by 8 feet, while four stretch 10 feet by 13 feet.
“We cut like 1,700 flowers with laser cutters,” Peñafiel said. One of the central symbols in the work references his mother, who visited him during the residency and taught him how to sew the borders of the panels.
The flowers are lilies, both a personal and symbolic choice.
“My mother’s second name is Azucena, which my great grandfather gave her the nickname ‘Liliflower’ and so we call her Lily,” Peñafiel said.
Lilies, he added, are often associated with reincarnation and new beginnings.
The figures in the work appear at rest, lying within a bright, garden setting. The banners are double-sided, one side washed in yellow, the other in light blue.
“These people are dressed waiting to begin,” Peñafiel said. “The title being the element of hope, that all kind of plays together.”
Peñafiel said the curtains reference conversations around borders and migration that became prevalent during President Donald Trump’s first campaign, using curtains instead of walls to reframe how movement and crossing are imagined.
Movement, Peñafiel says, is a crucial part of the viewers experience.
“The pieces do not move, the viewer needs to move to understand the narrative,” Peñafiel said.
From Ecuador to South Florida
Peñafiel’s artistic path was not linear.
Like many artists, he initially enrolled in college as a business major, hoping to pursue a more traditional route. His connection to art, though, predates any formal education.
“I have always been involved in the arts and crafts through my mother, through my two sisters who are graphic designers,” Peñafiel said.
Both his older sisters taught him techniques involving light, shadow and composition.
That familiarity resurfaced when he enrolled in elective photography classes at Broward College. Although he admits he did not complete every assignment, Peñafiel says one professor’s approach left a lasting impression on how he identifies as an artist.
“‘My second semester students have exhibited in the local museum,’” Peñafiel recalled his professor saying. “And so I thought, ‘Challenge accepted.’”
By the end of the semester, he was part of a group exhibition through an open call at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale.
Peñafiel began exhibiting in group shows across Miami and Broward as early as 2012. Though he briefly resisted committing fully to art, a business law class ultimately convinced him that, “Art was the way to go,” he said.
Though he didn’t cross the border himself, Peñafiel says he was in a precarious legal situation after immigrating from Ecuador that shaped his understanding of migration and displacement. He describes the installation as a moment of rest within that larger trajectory.
It’s a multi-sensory experience, Peñafiel said, and he is interested in seeing people’s reactions come Thursday night.
“Usually people come and ask me, ‘What is this about?’” Peñafiel said. “It’s like no, you tell me what it’s about.”
He said what the work ultimately offers is an invitation to move slowly, to pause and to look anew.
The opening reception of the exhibition is free and open to the public, located at 601 City Center Way. The installation will run until April 11.
