NOTE FROM MARIO: I never really aspired to have a gallery of my own, but I did know that I wanted to keep curating and and working with artists, and at the time a gallery was the only framework within which I understood how to do that. My good friend Maria and I were trying to get an independent curatorial practice together when Jahi approached her about doing an art fair in December. A lot of talks, debates, late nights, and ideating later, and Supermarket was born.
Maria introduced us to Joan and his incredible work shortly after we had decided we would open a gallery. The show was a huge hit, the first of many with Supermarket.
STATEMENT: SUPERMARKET Gallery presents its debut exhibition, Migración de Jarana, featuring the work of Afro-Peruvian painter Joan Jimenez.
For their first fine art exhibition in Miami, SUPERMARKET and Joan have worked together to curate works embodying his personal anchors: authenticity, tenacity, and anarchy. We’ve decided on a selection of works that are vibrant and celebratory, warm and natural, with an emphasis on his identity and how it informs his aesthetics. Migración de Jarana (trsnl “Migration of Revelry”) is centered around the sincerity with which Joan moves through the world. Each piece in the exhibition is an invitation into jarana, and how the artist has experienced it while relocating from his native Lima to Miami.
Joan is most successful at breathing life into stills from scenes of jarana—a pleasant festivity in the air, the street, at home, an embrace between lovers, friends, and neighbors; embodied and spiritual. The artist invites us into a scope of dialogues happening in tandem with one another. Themes of community, love, race, and self-awareness are met with an intimate blend of tenderness and joy featuring a familiar cast of characters that are equal parts affectionate and rowdy. They’re local, they’re lively, they’re our friends and family, they’re Black, they’re Peruvian. More importantly, these moments represent the moving parts of Joan’s life and the lens through which he meets the world where it’s at.