Anina Major: The Sacred Mangrove at Pérez Art Museum Miami
Conceived as a walkable ecosystem, The Sacred Mangrove brings together a series of large-scale woven clay sculptures alongside bottle trees, crushed shells, and materials drawn from the Caribbean landscape. Visitors move among island-like groupings of tower forms, through a forest of protective objects, and along a shell path that turns the gallery into a space for slow looking.
Together, the works consider how cultural knowledge is carried, translated, and preserved across materials, places, and generations. Major’s engagement with weaving is rooted in the work of her grandmother, Saphora Newbold, a Bahamian straw weaver whose palm-leaf hats, dolls, and bags helped support the family and put both Major and her mother through college. Yet, her grandmother hoped the next generation would not need to continue the practice. This contradiction, between weaving as a source of livelihood and independence and as labor to be left behind, became foundational to Major’s work.
After relearning palm-leaf plaiting, Major began rebuilding woven forms strand by strand in clay, preserving their woven structures beyond the natural lifespan of palm. This material shift preserves the knowledge embedded in the practice while questioning what society considers precious or disposable. By translating objects and practices tied to the tourism economy into ceramic sculpture, Major challenges the distinction between craft and fine art and affirms the cultural, ancestral, and economic value of Bahamian weaving.
The Sacred Mangrove reminds us that culture is not inherited passively—it is made and remade through the work of countless hands across generations. The exhibition’s title draws on the mangrove as both a living Caribbean landscape and a model of reciprocal care. Mangroves protect shorelines and sustain complex ecosystems; people, in turn, must safeguard the mangroves that make life along those shores possible. Major extends this relationship into an environment shaped by responsibility, tenderness, resilience, and protection.
Installed in PAMM’s waterfront lobby gallery, The Sacred Mangrove remains in direct conversation with the world outside the museum. Biscayne Bay and the cruise ships visible through the gallery’s windows extend its themes into Miami’s present-day landscape. Tourism is not an abstract subject here; the systems of movement, consumption, and exchange that shape the Caribbean can be seen beyond the glass. In a city with deep historical and cultural ties to the Caribbean, Major’s work places local experience within a wider geography of labor, migration, memory, and belonging.
Exhibition dates: 1 October 2026 - 1 August 2027
Anina Major: The Sacred Mangrove is organized by PAMM Curator Jennifer Inacio.
