In response to pandemic, The CAMP has given Miami-based artists, Brasilian sculptor Beatriz Chachamovits, and Mexican painter Khotan Fernandez, free reign of the gallery to conceptualize, curate, and produce an exhibition: “Symbiote,” (available for in-person viewing by appointment). What happened was a coalescing of perspectives that we could not have predicted, no matter how similar we thought their paintings appeared. 

"As an environmental artist, my work has been intrinsically tied to scientific studies and research that investigates and highlights the state of the coral reef ecosystem. Due to our recent pandemic situation and the isolation it caused, my focus as an artist has changed. Instead of emphasizing the vast array of problems corals have been facing, an imperative need to talk about the importance of being alive, healthy and happy became urgent. The Coral Pile series is a response to those needs. It is a reflection of the state I crave to be in. To be closer to people. To be hugged by my loved ones. To be touched even by strangers. After ten years without using colors in my practice, I returned to drawings and paintings that show bright colors and vivid reef landscapes that intensely vibrate."

"The inspiration came while doing the works, most of which are modest in dimensions combining them with freehand paper or canvas cutouts from abstract scribbles and paintings done with my two-year-old daughter who celebrates the wealth of potentiality every day. The actual moments of where interacting with my daughter turned in my moments of creation came at a time when all was quiet and I would rework them at night. Constant in my mind were questions like those of Gauguin and “Where do we come from?”, “what are we?”, “where are we going?”