Artist Highlight: Joel Gaitan
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Joel Gaitan’s practice is a profoundly personal exploration of his family ancestry and identity as a first-generation Nicaraguan living in Miami, Florida. Believing that storytelling is the poetry of life, Gaitan highlights the Nicaraguense lifestyle and aesthetics through his traditional hand-built terracotta vessels. Gaitan's practice is multifaceted and layered as he highlights various colors, styles, and forms in his work, facilitating space for viewers to celebrate Central American traditions.
Can you tell us about your artistic practice?
My practice is a reaction to my journey of identity and spiritual practices, followed by nostalgia and family archives and their personal stories of identity and migration. I mainly work on ceramic sculptures inspired by Pre-Columbian shapes with a modern take on them, still keeping the presence of storytelling. Ceramics are sacred to Central America from everyday usage to art and indigenous resistance, which is why it is not only an art form – it is a carrier of energies, messages, secrets, and attitudes.
Tell us about a personal artistic project or body of work that you are currently excited about.
Right now I’m very excited to have two exhibitions currently up in New York City at El Museo del Barrio and the Rockefeller Center, which were both produced here at Bakehouse. It’s amazing knowing I just had my first museum show at a leading Latino cultural institution, as well as in the Historical Art Deco building of Rockefeller Center in the heart of NYC.
Tell us about how you have developed as an artist since you began working at Bakehouse
In the year that I have been at Bakehouse, I have been given the opportunity and resources to enhance my practice. It’s even cooler to be surrounded by a talented artist community here in Miami. Bakehouse has shown great support in my work and has exposed me to great studio visits as well.