Born in Oklahoma and raised in Caracas, trained at Miami's public college and Brooklyn's prestigious Pratt Institute, Eleazar Delgado’s life has had a ping pong trajectory that many Miamians would find familiar. As a careful student of the natural world and human form, as a philosopher, storyteller, painter and environmentalist - he is just the type of streetwise intellectual our city needs. 

“If I am depressed I just jump in a car and go to the beach,” he says, hustling between errands and his home studio. "I sit with the ocean and watch light dance on its water." 

The stark simplicity of Delgado's work conveys a palpable love for the untamed. Swaying trees and delightfully disunited color groups in his landscapes reminisce about a primordial time while his figurative studies evoke a similarly rustic past. With lights, murals, kinetics and expressionistic studies, he devoted his 2010 I, Miriam exhibition to finding the roots and wherefores of Miami's rich history. The next series has a wider scope. The artist set out to discover what Miami’s creators have in common, and his expedition metamorphosed into a 50-piece painted meditation of civil rights and the impact slave culture has on our combined consciousness. Next year, Delgado will premiere Sugar Ladies, Free Ladies.