"There's a Gator in The Pool", Summer is for the Locals
ALEX NUÑEZ
FAENA ART PROJECT ROOM
Thu - Sun
2PM - 7PM
There’s a Gator in the Pool invites viewers to step into a living painting by Miami-based artist Alex Nuñez. In this site-specific installation, Nuñez transforms the Faena Art Project Room into a vibrant, living painting, the walls swell with blue and green painted waves. On top of a large work installed on the ground with washes of blues sits a hand painted alligator with crystals shimmering like water droplets on its back, the gator taking a cool break from the summer sun. Native plants take over the space, lush green leaves against the fresh blue walls creating an oasis like escape. Evocative of South Florida’s unique intersection between paradise and unpredictability.
Rooted in Nuñez’s personal geographies with family histories tied to Cuba, New Orleans, and Miami, the exhibition reflects on the light and dark of the tropical landscapes she calls home. The gator is not just a creature of the Everglades but a symbol of the wild lurking beneath the idyllic, the unexpected reclaiming the everyday.
There’s a Gator in the Pool is a hypnotic sensory experience where color, light, and texture collide. The installation captures a feeling familiar to South Floridians, a wonder edged with danger and unpredictability. Around the room phrases like “ENDLESS SUMMER” or “Leave it better than you found it” reminders of respect for Florida’s flora and fauna and its unending summer season.
"I wanted to bring my family's backyard into the project room, a place that is a constant source of inspiration. I spend a lot of time with my family, and this work is a reflection of that. These paintings convey the meditative effect of taking in a Flordian Summer, sitting and marinating in the vibrancy. There's a tangible flurry of movement caught in the glimmers of sunlight, basking in the rich hues of the pool. The gator in the pool serves as a reminder of the wild reclaiming of domestic space " says Nuñez
The Project Room—Faena Art's dedicated art space in Miami—serves as a platform for experimentation and artistic innovation. The space encourages artists to explore new facets of their practice, fostering new models of social interaction that transcend traditional boundaries of art, science, philosophy, and social practice. There’s a Gator in the Pool exemplifies this mission, using immersive installation to challenge and seduce the senses.
BIO
Born and raised in Miami, Alex Nuñez is a Cuban-American mixed-media painter whose vibrant practice explores cultural identity and material experimentation. She holds an MFA from Hunter College (CUNY) and was awarded the C12 Emerging Artist Fellowship, culminating in a solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. Her 2022 solo show No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá was presented at Club Gallery in Miami. Nuñez’s work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio (New York). She is the host and producer of Sunday Painter on Jolt Radio, now in its eighth year of production, and a recipient of The Locust Projects’ Wavemaker Grant. Her work and projects have been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, CNN, Art Nexus, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, W Magazine, and The Observer. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Collective 62 in Miami. She is currently working with Art in Public Places on her first public art commission.
