Adler Guerrier: Formulating a Plot

“Formulating a Plot” traces the artist’s interest in urban history and social activism through a selection of 15 years of work including photographs, prints, videos and mixed-media installations alongside a new, architectural intervention. Nationally-recognized for his use and reinterpretation of cultural symbols, images and texts in objects ripe with social and political meaning, Adler Guerrier (b. 1975, Haiti) documents moments — real and imagined — in metropolitan areas, including his home-city of Miami.

Miami has served as the focal point for many of Guerrier‘s investigations, standing in for the 20th-century U.S. city. His work at once emphasizes the specificity of Miami’s neighborhoods and architecture, and the anonymity and indistinctness of many cityscapes. Taking on the role of the flâneur, or urban wanderer, Guerrierexplores how economic, political and social upheavals manifest in the physicality of a place. Drawing on concepts and tools from across art history, architecture, cinema and literature, he creates visual narratives that evoke a sense of intimacy and temporality.

“Guerrier’s work challenges our understanding of memory, both collective and individual, and highlights the intimacy with which we view environment, history and experience,” said Diana Nawi, the curator for the exhibition and PAMM Associate Curator. “Formulating a Plot is the first opportunity to look at the arc of Guerrier’s career and the themes that have pervaded his practice. It’s a pointed look at the transformation of urban spaces and the societal changes that activate those transitions.”