Ema Ri wins Orlando Museum of Art People’s Choice Award

Ri is a multidisciplinary, second-generation queer Cuban American artist from Miami who works across several mediums, including sculpture, painting and installation. (Photo via Orlando Museum of Art)

ORLANDO | Ema Ri is the winner of the 12th edition of the Orlando Museum of Art’s Annual Florida Prize in Contemporary Art.

Ri is a multidisciplinary, second-generation queer Cuban American artist from Miami who works across several mediums, including sculpture, painting and installation. For them, different materials can resonate with different aspects of life, whether through metaphor or through the physical qualities of the material itself.

“I’m always comparing my lived experience or the human experience in inanimate objects or the things I see in nature,” Ri shares. “When working with drywall, I’m more thinking about how walls mimic parts of our human bodies, they remind me of our skin. They stain, they scar, they tell the story of that space.”

The award, presented by AdventHealth, was one of the highlights of an exhibition that featured the work of 12 artists at the Orlando Museum of Art during the summer and the winner, who received a $5,000 prize, was determined through public voting.

Receiving the award was an honor, according to Ri, but knowing that members of the public connected with their work made the recognition even more meaningful.

“Being chosen by the people speaks volumes,” Ri says. “They are coming from different perspectives and they were all gravitated towards my work.”

Among the artworks included in the curated exhibition is “Keep Your Promise,” a pedestal covered with dried flowers that features an impression outlining the artist’s body.

“I’ve worked with flowers because of their delicate nature,” Ri explains. “It has a lifespan that shows when it’s just a bud, when it’s blossoming, when it’s starting to actually show its true form, and then when it starts to wilt. I find all of that process beautiful.”

The artist, who is represented by Fredric Snitzer Gallery in Miami, said they were initially unsure how audiences outside of what they described as the “Miami bubble” would respond to their work.

“I wasn’t sure how people would respond to it, but I was very happy to know that people, you know, were gravitating towards the work, were responding in a very positive way,” Ri says.

The Cuban American, who is now a full-time artist, said the public’s response to their work is particularly meaningful because many of the pieces were created from what they describe as “difficult emotions.”

“I think sometimes it is important to see pain, to feel pain, because we’re all experiencing it in some way,” Ri shares. “If there’s a piece or a performance that resonates, I think it makes us feel more connected instead of being detached from the feelings that we actually are hiding in our core.”

Another piece featured in the exhibition is “You Can Only See as Far as Your Heart Allows,” a painting that incorporates circular motion. When asked about the work, Ri explained that its title comes from a Spanish saying, “Corazón que no ve, corazón que no siente.”

“I always find elements of the figure in the work, whether it’s the silhouette, or in this situation a partial eye” Ri adds. “It reflects my life, seeing destruction and death and injustices happening all around me, and people just ignoring it just because they need to report to their job, they need to get by another day.”

The artist said their upbringing also contributed to a feeling of not being “enough” at different points in their life — not Cuban enough, not queer enough — and that those experiences influenced their artistic practice, but now they now focus on creating pieces that can bring people together and encourage them to connect through shared experiences.

“Despite our cultures and identities, we all share a need to express love, to create community, to love unconditionally, and I tend to focus more on that in my practice,” Ri says. “I want to make artworks that bring people from all walks of the earth together to resonate with an emotion or a thought.”

The Florida Prize recognition adds another layer to Ri’s work, particularly because the winner was selected directly by members of the public. For an artist whose work explores identity, emotion, memory and community, the response offered by the audience became part of the experience itself.

For more information, visit www.OMArt.org.