TARA LONG AT LOCUST PROJECTS: A SWEET, DARK, AND SURREAL UNIVERSE
The artist unfolds an installation that invites viewers to move through scenes in constant tension between allure and ruin.
Locust Projects presents LA ESQUINITA (Little Corner), premiering the first major solo show by Tara Long. In an all-encompassing installation, Miami artist and musician transforms the exterior and lobby into a quirky and surreal “Sweets & Souvenirs" shop filled with more than 500 tempting mini sculptures for sale.
As part of Locust Projects’ commitment to supporting experimental art and ideas, it has turned over its entire space inside and out to Long’s creative all-encompassing vision. From the exterior “bodega” signage, visitors are led from the “Sweets & Souvenirs” shop embodying Miami’s seductive facades to a secret door behind the cashier counter leads into a "grand hall." In the Main Gallery a towering, teetering 20-foot wide by 12-foot tall cake serves as a stage illuminated by a massive moon lightbox hung overhead.
Here, darker intonations of decay are revealed, hinting at bitter truths. Sounds of a 20-minute ethereal and melancholy musical score directed by Long, produced exclusively for the exhibition by Illangelo & Angelfire, plays on an infinite loop. The sugar‑coated spectacle culminates in an immersive, audio‑visual “swamp‑scape,” a humid tableau where sawgrass and mangroves creep across the furnishings to suggest nature’s inevitable repossession of Florida’s over‑developed coast.
Long—known in her earlier incarnation as Poorgrrrl, the underground pop provocateur who ran Miami’s legendary DIY club and championed a wave of boundary‑pushing sound artists—now taps that same nightlife lineage by inviting a consortium of the city’s most elusive creators into a pop‐up speakeasy inside the final room. Open on Friday and Saturday nights of Miami Art Week (and during public‑access weekends), the bar doubles as a refuge for reflection and a stage for unannounced performances, giving visitors one last taste of decadence before the swamp closes in.
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Tara Long, photo courtesy of the artist
Blurring the line between confection and commentary, LA ESQUINITA draws sharp parallels between Florida’s Big Sugar land grab in the early 20th century with today’s goldrush-like influx of Big Tech capital into Miami — contemplating how both industries sweeten – and hollow – local culture and impact South Florida’s landscape.
Tara Long: LA ESQUINITA (Little Corner) is commissioned and organized by Locust Projects and curated by Executive Director Lorie Mertes.
The exhibitionwill be on display until January 17, 2026, at Locust Projects, 297 NE Street, Miami, Florida (Estados Unidos).
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