06/19/2026
This , we’re spotlighting Lonnie Holley’s “The Roots Lost at Sea” (2020), on view now as part of “Spirit Matter” in “Four Rooms: Selections from ICA Miami’s Permanent Collection.” The internationally acclaimed visual artist, performer, and musician began sculpting in 1979 after a devastating family loss, carving memorial markers for his nieces from discarded industrial sandstone because he could not afford commercial headstones.
That deeply personal act sparked a five-decade artistic practice centered on reclaiming overlooked materials from his surroundings, one he traces back to a long tradition of Southern Black creators who have found meaning in discarded objects. In “The Roots Lost at Sea,” Holley pieces together a wooden bat box, rope, canvas, sticks, and model-ship sails with raw tree roots. The resulting assemblage acts as a physical conversation telling a story of migration, memory, survival, and resistance.
See this work and more in “Spirit Matter,” curated by Donna Honarpisheh, Associate Curator, Art and Research Center at ICA Miami, on view through October 4.
Reserve free tickets now: https://icamiami.org/exhibition/four-rooms/
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Lonnie Holley, “The Roots Lost at Sea,” 2020. Wooden bat box, roots, rope, canvas, sticks, and model-ship sails. Museum purchase, with support provided by the Nadia Toscano Memorial Foundation.