Miami-based, first-generation American artists Nicole Combeau and Sue Montoya use photography to explore how the senses of place, memory, and movement intersect during migration in their new joint exhibition In Between Sentiments, now on display at Miami International Airport (MIA) Galleries’ Cameraworks Gallery near gates D22 and D25 until February 2, 2025.
MIA Galleries partnered with the Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) to host the exhibition, which mirrors the theme of the 2024 WOPHA Congress: «How Photography Teaches Us to Live Now.” This year’s Congress, taking place across South Florida from October 23–26, 2024, will bring together over 40 international women and non-binary photography collectives and organizations. More than 25 acclaimed art historians, educators, and preeminent photographers will also gather at the Congress to create an unparalleled platform for exhibitions, workshops, discussions, and panel sessions that aim to rewrite the canons of photography history, making it a significant event in the global art community, according to WOPHA.
Curated by Amanda Bradley, WOPHA’s Associate Curator of Programming, In Between Sentiments invites travelers to pause and contemplate the stories woven into each photograph. With their unique approach, Combeau and Montoya use the camera to uncover the sentiments between person and place, in often fleeting moments.
Combeau’s work depicts the relationship between body and landscape. Her photographs, taken in Colombian and American locations, such as Miami, Florida; Joaquina Falls, Oregon; and Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, are characterized by deliberate manipulations of light and double exposures. Combeau’s technique merges body and landscape into a single plane, reflecting that people both come from and become the places they move through. Her work often involves collaborative narratives, building a dialogue between the subject, the photographer, and the medium.
Montoya’s photographs document her journey through six different cities across the U.S. and Mexico. Each memory is paired with a song that visitors can listen to by scanning a QR code included on the exhibition’s postcards. Travelers can listen to the entire playlist or take a postcard to mail, creating an interactive experience that enhances their connection with the art. Montoya’s ongoing series, Letras Viajeras (Traveling Letters), is a multimedia project combining re-photographed postcards in different locations with excerpts from love songs that culminate into long love letters to places left, people lost, and lived experiences.
Conceptualized by art historian and curator Aldeide Delgado, the 2024 WOPHA Congress will be hosted at prominent Miami-Dade County venues including the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Norton Museum of Art, HistoryMiami Museum, and MIA. In Between Sentiments will be on view from September 5, 2024 – February 2, 2025 at Miami International Airport (MIA) Galleries’ Cameraworks Gallery near gates D22 and D25.
WOPHA is dedicated to promoting and researching the contributions of women and non-binary photographers to the medium’s history. Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs, WOPHA aims to create an inclusive platform that supports and amplifies the work of underrepresented photographers globally. For more information on the WOPHA Congress and its full schedule, please visit www.wophacongress.org and RSVP here.
Nicole Combeau is an artist, photographer, and educator born to Colombian migrants in Miami. She received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in Photography and Video and completed graduate-level training in Expressive Art and Somatic Education from the Tamalpa Institute. She has exhibited nationally in New York City, Massachusetts, and Miami, and has created public photographic activations at the Pérez Art Museum of Miami, the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, and Bakehouse Art Complex, among others. She was a ProjectArt resident artist and completed an ArteSumapaz residency in Colombia in 2020.
Sue Montoya was born in Los Angeles and raised between Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Miami. She received a BFA from the New World School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of Florida. She has exhibited internationally in Berlin, Mexico City, and Miami. She has completed artist residencies at 4Most Gallery, Anderson Ranch, SOMA, Radio 28, and Artpace. In 2022, she was shortlisted for the Frankenthaler Climate Art Awards for Change Atlas, a transmedia exhibition exploring climate change in Miami.