December 22 – March 10, 2024
For 50 years before Miami grew into the renowned art mecca it is today, Zena Posever pioneered as an artist, teacher, and activist residing on Miami Beach. The sculptures and paintings in this exhibit are a sample of her wide-ranging career in the visual arts.
Upon moving to Miami with her family in the 1940s, Zena, an experienced art therapy teacher, immediately volunteered with the American Red Cross to teach wounded soldiers recuperating in the hotels. She set up a ceramics studio to cast their productions in what would become Mt. Sinai Hospital’s future home on Alton Road. Zena sketched strollers along the popular Soldiers Pier, forerunner of today’s boardwalk, which provided a little income before she became art director at the early Jewish Community Center on West Avenue in Miami Beach.
Her unique contributions to life in South Florida from 1944 to 2000 richly deserve a lasting place in its history. Her works are in the collections of The National Portrait Gallery and the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts among others.
