Noche de Arte: Full Circle
Monday, 11/03/2025-11/24/2025, 06:00 pm-08:00 pm
Gallery 100 at InterContinental Miami Hotel
100 Chopin Plaza,
Miami, Florida, 33131
Website
Cost: Free
This November, Noche de Arte returns to where it all began—with the artists who started it all. Co-founders Jean Blackwell Font and Ignacio “Iggy” Font bring their creative partnership full circle in an intimate exhibition that reveals the origin story of collaboARTive through their individual works.
Full Circle celebrates the journey from two artists sharing a vision to a thriving community of 400 artists and a movement that has touched thousands. Through Jean’s exploration of inherited memory and Iggy’s meditation on transformation and renewal, the exhibition explores the themes that sparked collaboARTive in 2017: connection, accessibility, and the transformative power of creating.
For Jean and Iggy, what they do and say through collaboARTive is integral to the work they make. The organization embodies the same philosophy that drives their art: everyone has value, everyone has meaning.
The Work
Jean Blackwell Font: 15 Generations
Since 2010, Jean has developed her 15 Generations project to connect people of all historical backgrounds to each other and to their origins. Through personal interviews, oral history, photography, collagraphy, collage, and assemblage, this ongoing body of work stretches across oceans to Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
For this exhibition, Jean focuses on epigenetic trauma—the complex emotions and stories embedded within human DNA and passed through generations. Using assemblage, mixed media, printmaking, and collage, she creates an immersive visual experience that is both universal and deeply personal. Her work strengthens the understanding that we are a universal family, connected by bloodlines, language, shared traditions, and dedication to family—traits that bind every living being together.
Ignacio Font: Structures Series
Iggy’s Structures Series offers an accessible entry point into paintings born from human experience—the transformation of trauma into something beautiful that can hang in someone’s living room. Rather than focusing on the emotional weight, the series invites viewers to explore structure: the words that manifest each piece, the imperfect geometric lines that build the foundation, and the materials that carry the work’s deepest meaning.
Manifestations Structure emerged from the romantic notion of manifesting larger space for collaboARTive—space that belongs to the artists, where they can take care of each other and thrive.
Broken Structure gives new life to damaged canvases—sliced, torn, neglected, even partially eaten by rats. Old canvases abandoned by other artists, stiff canvas unused for years, gauze mesh forgotten in storage—materials that have outlived their original purpose become perfect for something new. The work is stopped at the point where it’s ready to be worked on—not complete, but good enough. The broken parts give us our strength and uniqueness.
The Structures Series embodies the same principle that built collaboARTive: making art from things that have been overlooked or neglected, giving value to what others discard, and recognizing that what’s been broken might be exactly what someone needs to thrive. Everyone has value. Everyone has meaning.
The Origin Story
In 2017, Jean and Iggy recognized a critical gap in Miami’s arts ecosystem: emerging and mid-career artists were being priced out of studio spaces and creative opportunities. They envisioned something different—a place where artists could work affordably, connect authentically, and build sustainable creative practices together.
This exhibition brings their journey full circle, celebrating not just where collaboARTive has been, but where it’s going— building Miami’s most welcoming creative community. What they do and say through collaboARTive is integral to the work they make: everyone has value, everyone has meaning.
Visit the Exhibition
When: Every Monday in November, 6–8 PM
Where: Gallery 100, InterContinental Miami, 100 Chopin Plaza, Miami FL 33131
Admission: Free and open to all
Join us for light bites from InterContinental Miami, complimentary postcard collage activities, and the chance to meet Jean and Iggy as they share the story behind the story—the moments, struggles, and triumphs that built collaboARTive into what it is today.