Exhibitions Activations

Celebrate Chinese New Year- Sat. Feb 21 st form 1 to 3 PM. There will be origami making to bring love, happiness and prosperity.(Spaces are limited.)

Artist Talk - Sat. March 7 th 5 to 7 PM

Curator’s Guided Tour- Sat. March 21 st 3 to 5 PM

All of the above event are FREE and open to the public

Gallery Hours: FRIDAY Feb 13 th , 27 th and Mar. 13 th 1 to 3 PM

For private tour: text 305.725.8630

A HOUSE OF SMALL ALTARS

A Solo Exhibition by MaiYap on view from February 7th to March 21st, 2026

Curated by Sophie Bonet

A House of Small Altars is an exhibition about how care survives. Rooted in the lived experience of Chinese–Panamanian artist MaiYap, the exhibition considers the home as a living archive—formed through repetition, devotion, and the quiet labor of holding things together.

Across diasporic histories, the house becomes a place where culture is not taught but practiced. Language, belief, and memory are carried through daily acts: cooking, offering, repairing, remembering. These gestures—often invisible—shape identity long before it can be named.

The installations function as small altars: not monuments, but intimate sites of mediation between the personal and the collective, the living and the ancestral. Through humble materials—spoons, hilo pabilo, incense, rice cups, beans, textiles, mooncakes—MaiYap honors the rituals that bind family, lineage, and belonging across time and migration.

Rather than asking viewers to observe differences, A House of Small Altars invites closeness. It asks for a slower encounter—one that recognizes in these objects a shared human need for nourishment, protection, devotion, and continuity.

- Sophie Bonet, Curator

MaiYap is a multidisciplinary Panamanian-born artist of Chinese descent. In 1992, following Hurricane Andrew and the birth of her child, she taught herself to paint as a way to navigate profound change. Since then, art has served as a vehicle through which she explores transformation, memory, and lived experience. Her work is characterized by an innovative use of materials: she paints exclusively with palette knives and incorporates everyday objects from her multicultural background to examine family bonds, discrimination against Asian Americans, and reproductive justice.

Her artistic vision is deeply shaped by her upbringing in Panama, where Chinese heritage intersected with the lush tropical environment. A pivotal shift in her practice occurred after the 2021 hate crime targeting Asian Americans, particularly the Atlanta spa shooting, which deeply affected her sense of safety and belonging. This was followed by the onset of menopause, a period of intense personal reflection and emotional transition. Together, these experiences prompted a reassessment of her artistic direction and a deeper engagement with vulnerability and resilience.

She has received major recognitions such as the Green Space Miami Award 2024 and has presented solo exhibitions in international institutions, including: Sustrato at the Municipal Museum of Cartago, Costa Rica (2024); Eco-Aesthetics in Motion at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, Florida (2024); Génesis at the Favalora Museum of St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida (2022); and Progenie at the GAC Motor Gallery, Panama (2022).

For 14 years, she taught several art courses at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. Since 2013, she has been the founder and director of Palette Knife Artists of Miami. She earned her degree in Advertising and Graphic Design from the University of Georgia. She currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.