Miami Taco Place (Lolo’s Cantina)

In my Miami paintings, I share a selection of interior scenes that I observed during my stay at Fountainhead Residency between December 2019 and January 2020. Taking my cue from the city’s pastel colours and its seductive, joyful Floridiana, I set out to identify and document moments of wonder. I was fascinated by (and could relate to) the palpable notion of nostalgia in one of the most transient cities of America. 

Based on sketches and photos I collected while I was in Miami, I made these paintings after I returned home to London, mostly during the strict pandemic-related restrictions of 2020. Throughout the painting process, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgia for the time I had spent in Miami.

The paintings take real, observed Miami spaces as their subject, each of which is noted in their titles: the kitchen of the Fountainhead Residency house, a piano in a Miami home, a living room of a Miami guest house, a fireplace with a taxidermy bobcat from the Deering Estate (a house museum), as well as a scene from a taco place on the beach (Lolo’s Cantina) and another from Jimmy’s Eastside Diner (near Fountainhead).

Artworks from this project: