SPARROW - Miami Art Week Exhibition

Opening Reception w/ Local Miami Band + Bites: Thursday, December 4, 2025

Time: 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location: Fifth and Biscayne Micro Gallery, Downtown Miami

Admission: Free and open to the public with RSVP

The Fifth and Biscayne Micro Gallery proudly presents SPARROW, a community-centered Art Week exhibition honoring legendary Black Miami artist Purvis Young. The exhibition opens with a reception on Thursday, December 4, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the micro gallery’s Downtown Miami location.

SPARROW features street photography by Blue, Chris, Timeless Jubilee, Reese, and Thor—local photographers navigating homelessness—under the artistic direction of Miami-based artist Christopher Mitchell.

Drawing its name from the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, an endangered bird native to South Florida, SPARROW embodies themes of fragility, endurance, and quiet resilience. The exhibition captures the overlooked rhythms of Miami’s urban life through the lens of those often unseen within it.

On display December 2025 - February 2026

Born in 1943 in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, Purvis Young experienced homelessness after his release from Pr*son at age 21. Young transformed discarded materials—plywood, cardboard, glass—into visionary paintings that documented his community’s struggles and resilience. His early installations in Goodbread Alley became emblems of Black Miami’s endurance and laid the groundwork for Miami’s thriving art districts.

SPARROW, Fifth & Biscayne’s inaugural Art Week exhibition in his honor, continues Young’s legacy by providing a platform for those whose voices and visions are often excluded from the art world. Honoring his conviction that creativity is both an act of survival and a force for social change, the micro gallery reminds the city that “There’s no Basel without Purvis Young”.

Curated by high school students Alford Archer, Hannah Cabrera, Cade Hardy, and Shayna Lewertow, SPARROW was developed at First Church Miami, where the Micro Gallery operates inside the church’s coffee shop. The exhibition presents photographs taken on disposable cameras by unhoused members of The Breakfast Club, a ministry of First Church Miami that has served the Downtown community for over 40 years.

Through these unfiltered and deeply personal images, viewers are invited to explore the hidden corners of Historic Overtown and Downtown Miami—spaces that exist on the margins of the city’s glimmering façade. Each section—Solitude, History, Migration, and Exclusion—tells a story of displacement, belonging, and the enduring search for dignity.

The project was guided by Rev. Nyya E. Toussaint, an emerging historian who directs the micro gallery.  This event is hosted in collaboration with the Center for Religion and Culture (CRC) at Flagler College, with funding from the Konbit Arts & Faith Project, a Tenx10 Faith and Service Initiative at Flagler College, and the Missing Voices Project, both initiatives directed by Visual Artist and Associate Director Carmelle Beaugelin Caldwell.

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