WHO WAS MIGUEL FERRANDO, THE DOMINICAN PAINTER OF NEW YORK'S QUEER DOWNTOWN SCENE?

Nina Johnson presents Off the Shelf on September 10, an exhibition of Miguel Ferrando's (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1957–New York, United States, 1996) work. More than thirty pieces created over two decades will be on display, highlighting his experimental and imaginative approach to landscape, portraiture, and still life, while creating a visual language that reflects both sides of the Atlantic and his role as interpreter of multilingual, pluralistic societies full of juxtapositions, namely New York City and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Ferrando migrated to New York City in 1962, at the age of five, but returned frequently to the Dominican Republic, where the city of Santo Domingo and smaller towns like Las Terrenas were integral to his practice. His body of work reveals a fluid sensibility that oscillates between oceans and languages, anchored by a rigorous citation practice invested in marking the stylistically innovative techniques born of Caribbean modernism.

He admired and often referenced canonical European artists ranging from Caravaggio to Velázquez to El Greco. Yet, like the late-nineteenth-century Puerto Rican maestro Francisco Oller, Ferrando refused to adhere to any single European style and instead synthesized realism, impressionism, naturalism, and neo-impressionism into a distinctly Caribbean visual language.

Having trained at the Escuela de Bellas Artes with Guillo Pérez, Ferrando represents a transitional link between different generations of Dominican artists. He carries the legacy of the generation working during Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship (1930–1961). That generation often resorted to visual strategies like abstraction, symbolism, and tenebrism, since they were often unable to openly critique the socio-economic and political conditions of the island. In New York, Ferrando found his place within the queer downtown art scene. He lived on the Lower East Side and performed drag at the Pyramid Club. He belonged to a tight-knit circle of artist friends including Darrel Ellis, Richard Brintzenhofe, Allen Frame, Malcolm Morley, and Ann Wilson.

Although Ferrando's life was cut short at thirty-eight by AIDS-related causes, his intervention in the field of contemporary Dominican art and its diaspora is significant. His work has nonetheless been largely absent from those discussions. Yet, he shares with artists like Tony Capellán, Raúl Recio, and Freddy Rodríguez a set of recurring themes: the natural environment, Christian iconography and its relationship to political power structures, and Dominican and U.S. vernacular culture. His visual lexicon was informed by the culture, sound, and landscape of the Caribbean and the kaleidoscopic environment of Manhattan.

“Ferrando's compositions destabilize tropical fantasies and insist on the in-between. He conjures the distance itself, embracing a geographic-temporal flux and claiming it as not only habitable but a place of rich possibility,” said Naiomy Guerrero, art historian and curator.

Miguel Ferrando: Off the Shelf is on view through November 14, 2026, at Nina Johnson, 6315 NW 2nd Ave, Miami, Florida 33150, United States.