Woody De Othello: Coming Forth by Day

Miami-born artist Woody De Othello presents “coming forth by day”, a new series of ceramic and wood sculptures, tiled wall works and a large-scale bronze exploring the primordial relationship between body, earth and spirit. The immersive installation incorporates grounding natural elements, from clay-painted walls to subtle herbal scents.

Rooted in precolonial and diasporic African traditions, Othello draws on spiritual practices, hermetic philosophy and cultural artefacts such as nkisi power figures, Dogon ritual objects and Egyptian pyramids. His anthropomorphic sculptures, marked by richly glazed surfaces, suggest a quiet vitality: forms that lean, rest or embrace, shaped by memory and emotion.

Known for animating everyday objects—clocks, mirrors, phones, vessels—he blurs the boundary between body and object, revealing how unseen forces inform feeling and communication. As his first solo museum exhibition in Miami, “coming forth by day” reflects Othello’s connection to the city and his ongoing exploration of ancestral heritage. Through material experimentation, he considers how objects bear history and act as vessels for spiritual and emotional experience.