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Miami Couple Give Up Their Home for Art

Published: June 2, 2009
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Photo by Steven Brooke, courtesy the artist
Installation view of the participants' living room by Fritz Haeg for "Salon Colada, Miami HQ" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

NORTH MIAMI, Florida— Keith Waddington and Mindy Nelson are turning their lives inside out for art this summer. The Miami-area couple, who are scientists and artists, signed up to participate in an exhibition called "Convention" for which they will see their foyer and living-room furniture shipped out to the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and a bunch of people shipped into their residence for a series of salons meant to foster discussion on diverse topics.

"Salon Colada, Miami HQ" as the Waddington-Nelson part of the exhibition is known, was conceived by Los Angeles–based artist Fritz Haeg. While museum-goers will make themselves comfortable on the couple’s transplanted furniture, Haeg has designed a seating arrangement in the vacated space in their home suitable for conversation.

Waddington and Nelson were selected in part because of their dual backgrounds as artists — both paint and create other works — and scientists. Waddington is a biology professor at the University of Miami who teaches courses in animal behavior, process in science, and a new area called ArtScience. Nelson in an ecologist and behaviorist studying fish abnormalities for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Convention" is on view through Sept. 13.

Read more at the Tuscaloosa News.

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