A Night at the Bazaar with Emerging Artist Ava Albelo

On Saturday, August 16th, hundreds of creatives gathered at Riverset Studio to celebrate art, small businesses, and good music. The concrete warehouse on 9th Ave bustled with life and fresh ideas, along with interactive events for attendees. 

Among the creators displaying their work, Cuban-American artist Ava Albelo exhibited two of her pieces, “People like you find it easy” and “LIVE NUDE GIRLS.” Having just moved back from Wisconsin, this was her first art show in Miami, positioning her in a new but familiar environment.

Ava Albelo, next to her piece "People like you find it easy," Acrylic on Canvas (2025)

The art industry will always be tough to navigate. It’s all about who you know or what you can offer, but Ava’s years of making art and curating community exhibits have taught her a thing or two. We talked with her a bit about her process and opinions, sparking an interesting discussion of what it really means to be an artist.

Compared to the work you were making before leaving Miami, how do you feel your art has evolved over the last four years?

“I feel like I’ve transitioned to a lot more 2-D compared to the needle felt and knitting I was making before. I guess at first I didn’t really trust myself to draw. However, when I went to college, my art program was very small and unconventional. They would let us do ‘whatever feels right,’ which I didn’t understand at first because I was looking for more direction. But I realized, in giving us the liberty to do what we wanted, I was able to experiment with things that were a little different for me.

“I shifted to a more ‘cartoonish’ style, which I then began to hate because of the connotation that comics have. And so, I started leaning towards painting. Although I still love comics as a reader and creator, painting is a whole different language.”

Would you say there is a consistent theme or storyline in your work?

“I would say that I am the consistent through line in my work. A lot of these pieces are very anecdotal or autobiographical. Take this piece for example [People like you find it easy]. There’s a woman in strange stockings on a couch, what do the shapes mean? It all plays into a narrative but gets distilled into basic shapes and symbols. As an artist, I’m inspired a lot by Philip Guston in his later career with neo-abstract expressionism.”

“LIVE NUDE GIRLS” India Ink on Recycled Wood Panel (2025)

I’ve seen that music is very important to you. How crucial is it to your creative process or inspiration?

“It’s a really large part of my inspiration. I was a radio DJ for two years while I was in college, and I just love music so much, I live my life vicariously through it. I’m always trying to find the best pairing of songs with my work. I also always fantasize that one day, when I’m really famous, I’ll have paintings on display with headphones so that people can listen to the songs that inspired the work.”

While getting into the art business, what’s the greatest advice someone has given you?

“One time, the head of the art department at UW gave me very good advice that was equally as confusing. He was a professor who always spoke in riddles, and I never really knew what the hell he was saying. One day I was talking about my plans for grad school, and I wanted to know what the best way was to get there. Instead of giving me helpful advice, he turned to me and said: You have to know yourself within your own artwork.”

“I sat on that for a few months, until I realized what he meant. In order to succeed far in the art world, you have to understand every choice you make and what it says about the greater message you’re trying to achieve. You could point out any part of your artwork in a critique and ask: Why? How does that serve you? That advice allowed me to think deeper and realize that every choice is important. When you are in a critique environment, everything can get questioned and should be questioned because that’s what makes a great piece of art.”

If you were to go back to your first art event, what is something you wish you knew then?

“Regarding other artists, I’ve learned the hard way that you can drag a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. I used to run a lot of my own shows when I was in Madison. A big problem I had was making sure artists brought their work on time, finished them on time, or even attended the event on time. So I’ve definitely learned to proceed with caution.”

“But at the same time, when it comes to art shows, I wish I knew to have as many as you can. After my first show, I realized that I can totally do this on my own. Everything is pretty accessible. I’ve hosted shows in tiny art supply stores, sketchy warehouses, and an abandoned community center. One show combined artists with musicians, where everyone was collaborating with each other.”

“But the best thing to do as an artist, especially at the beginning of your career, is to bombard people with your presence. Do not let people forget about your work, because who cares about your work? No one. You have to be the first person to talk about your work and give them a reason to respond. Having a show is giving people a reason to talk about your art.”

If you want to learn more about emerging artist Ava Albelo, you can follow her at:

@Marychainss on Instagram.