“Second Nature” Debuts at Miami Beach Botanical Garden: A Solo Exhibition by Victoria Pesce Elliott
Miami Beach, FL - “Second Nature”, the highly anticipated solo exhibition by artist and writer Victoria Pesce Elliott, will debut at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden sobre May 1, 2025, from 6 PM to 8 PM. This exhibition promises a unique blend of sculpture, collage, paintings, and lighting fixtures, all created from natural materials found in the tropical environments surrounding her homes in Miami e Jamaica.
Victoria Pesce Elliott is renowned for transforming overlooked and discarded materials into powerful works of art. As a South Florida native who divides her time between Miami Beach e Jamaica’s Treasure Beach, Elliott draws upon her three decades of experience as a James Beard Foundation judge, journaliste food stylist to inform her artistic practice, which she began six years ago.
Em “Second Nature”, Elliott explores the inherent tension between handmade, machine-made, and natural elements. The exhibition’s title references not only her materials but also her lifelong impulse to gather and transform, recognizing potential in things that others have discarded or overlooked. Her collages feature meticulously painted backgrounds layered with organic materials like fruits, flowers, leaves, and preserved food items such as dehydrated fruit e bread encased in acrylic. These compositions highlight nature’s impermanence in contrast to human attempts at preservation and control.
Deliberate contradictions emerge throughout her work. Mirrors placed at unexpected angles invite reflection while challenging vanity. Precise grids impose order on otherwise chaotic arrangements. Stained, handwritten recipes evoke the intimate knowledge passed down through generations of women. Elliott’s light fixtures, sculptures, and vessels undergo transformation through car paint, acrylics, waxe resin, blurring the boundaries between the organic and the manufactured, art and function.
Drawing from her culinary background and her journalistic eye for detail, Elliott’s pieces act as both documentação e interpretation, capturing fleeting moments while transforming them into something enduring. Her work challenges our assumptions about beleza, value, and our evolving relationship with the natural world.
The exhibition will run through June 13, 2025, and is free to attend.
