Meet Summer Open alumnus Susan Kim Alvarez, a multimedia artist whose practice explores the fantastical chaos of her innermost world. Drawing from the folk stories of her Cuban and Vietnamese heritage, Susan’s artwork integrates the characters and mythological motifs introduced to her through traditional storytelling and experiences of cultural celebration. Through painting and mixed media sculpture, Susan is able to create new mythologies and imaginaries, particular to the joys and discomforts inherent in her own experiences of tradition.

Meet Carmen Smith, a painter at Bakehouse whose practice explores how the built environment affects emotional and psychological states. Smith draws on memory and the tropical urban architecture unique to South Florida, in creating work that is rich in its ability to elicit emotional responses grounded in memorial and spacial familiarity.

In the early 1980’s, Helene Pancoast was amongst a small group of local artists who embarked on acquiring an affordable art space in Wynwood Norte, now known and beloved as Bakehouse Art Complex. Last week, we received the news of Helene's peaceful passing. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Pancoast family and friends for their loss.

Meet Avi Jannus Young, Miami native and Queer artist working in drawing, fiber, collage, photography, ceramic, and painting. Young uses multi-disciplinary techniques in documenting the jubilation of the queer experience, present the sublime nature found in the range of intimacy, and inform viewers through representation imagery, in the hopes that it will evoke a sense of empathetic relatability.

Meet Philip Lique, multidisciplinary artist at Bakehouse since 2020. Philip’s practice focuses on Western civilization, religion, occult practices, and art history- themes that often become source material for sculpture, installation, printmaking, and independent publications. Lique is a self-described “obsessive maker,” integrating creation and daily routine in producing work that reflect the intersection of otherwise distinct interests.

Meet T. Eliott Mansa, who joined the Bakehouse Art Complex in January 2023, and is a Miami-based visual artist.

Meet Ian Fichman, a Bakehouse artist whose practice is mainly comprised of metalwork and illustration. In seeking to defy the familiar, each sculpture he creates is uniquely assembled in an effort to bring new characters to life. Fichman's stylized skeletal figures aim to chronicle his own experiences, in a way that anyone may identify with.

Meet Mary Ellen Scherl, a Bakehouse artist whose practice has largely been focused on women’s issues. Sculpting in clay, casting in bronze and stainless steel, carving stone, photography, film, installations, and painting are all within her toolbox. The subject of her latest work is an ambitious series of portrait paintings in oil honoring the women of our U.S. Armed Forces.

Meet Joel Gaitan, a Bakehouse artist who explores personal themes of migration, identity, and nostalgia in his reflection on Pre-Columbian ceramic traditions in Central America. With Joel’s modern take, he’s able to create a space for storytelling that holds energies, messages, secrets, and attitudes unique to his experiences and artistic practice.

Meet Augusto Esquivel, an artist at Bakehouse Art Complex who repurposes readily-available shank and sewing buttons to create three-dimensional sculptures.