If you’re in Miami’s Design District any time soon, you might want to check out the neighborhood’s Jungle Plaza. That’s where you will find the latest creation by urban artist Tainá Lima — better known as Criola.
Her largest work outside of Brazil, titled “Interdimensional Portal,” is now on display there, scaling a massive 39 by 137 feet. Criola draws on her Afro-Brazilian heritage depicting four Black women in profile, facing each other in a mirrored disposition through a central altarpiece. The scene is completed with snake plants, hummingbirds and serpents — all popular elements in Afro-Brazilian syncretic religions. The work is monument to the importance and power of Black women.
“For me, the possibility of having a mural in Miami is symbolic. I feel I am crossing imaginary borders constructed by colonialist logic that exerts real dominations and division,” Criola says.
The mural was commissioned by MDD’s new Director of Cultural Programming Karen Grimson who brings her years of experience and expertise to the city of Miami.
This is Criola’s second public work in the U.S., following “Black Girl Magic” done in Las Vegas last year. Her other works have been displayed in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Paris and Minsk, Belarus.
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