Surveillance and Eye-Pad Show
Nov 10, 2016 – Feb 10th, 2017
- Silvana Facchini Gallery
- Wynwood, Miami FL
Piping Hot Laundry! WASHWORKS
photography 1980-2003
- Laundry Bar
- Miami Beach
- Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2003
Wynwood Outdoor Installation: “WASHWORKS On Line”
installation of enhanced digital photography + mixed media
- Laundry Bar
- Miami Beach
- Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2003
Homeless – Powerless
Metro-Dade Cultural Resource Center Opens With Installation by Sheila Elias
- Tropical Tribune
- October 5, 1994
Chicago born Sheila Elias, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, is an established internationally acclaimed artist. Her works have been featured in exhibitions coast to coast and has accorded international acclaim such as the Liberty show at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Elias has been doing installations reflecting her studio’s neighborhood since the 1980’s and she has received recognition for her unique vision blending social consciousness with the aesthetic of art.
The current installation HOMELESS POWERLESS depicts the plight of the have-nots versus the privileged society. Part of the gallery has the articles about the homeless papered to cardboard figures that have a kinetic appearance. The other side of the gallery has paraphernalia as a metaphor for the elite society.
The current installation HOMELESS POWERLESS depicts the plight of the have-nots versus the privileged society. Part of the gallery has the articles about the homeless papered to cardboard figures that have a kinetic appearance. The other side of the gallery has paraphernalia as a metaphor for the elite society.
Some of Elias’ previous installations were: Rescue Mission One, 1980, Elias gave 750 bags to street people in front of the rescue mission in Los Angeles California. Each bag was hand painted with a symbol of the Pompidou Museum this event brought the symbol of a museum to street people who understood art in an innate sense.
In Tribute to LA Street People, 1981, Elias hung an 84 foot line across San Pedro street form the top of one building to another with 6’x5’ foot shopping bags on the line. Painted on the front of these bags was the repeated image of the Pompidou Museum.
Artist introduces a bit of glitter to L.A.’s Skid Row
- Los Angeles Times
- October 7, 1981
- By Dorothy Townsend
The work, titled “Homage to the street people” is a string of eight huge (6 square feet) shopping bags splashed with black Xs and glitter dust. With considerable efforts and numerous near mishaps, Elias and friend were trying to get it strung across the 84-foot chasm of San Pedro Street between two buildings, No 443 and 444.
Twice they got it up and twice the rope holding it between the two structures broke. Within an hour, though, reinforced with wire, the work was raised with joyous yelp from the artist’s crew. But the man on the street was gone by then.
“I’m doing a homage to the street people,” explained Elias, “ The Xs are my symbol for the Pompidou Museum in Paris. I’m bringing the museum to street people.”
Wearing a black T-shirt and back-billed cap, both splashed with white-painted Xs and glitter dust, Elias said the work is both joyous and somber.
