News

Bad Bunny photogs Elliot and Erick Jiménez have a new exhibit at PAMM

The twin photographers are debuting a mystical new show rooted in Afro-Caribbean spirituality

Laura Ratliff
Written by
Laura Ratliff
Elliot and Erick Jimenez photographic print
Photograph: Courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami
Advertising

Bad Bunny’s go-to photographers are coming home—and they’re bringing spirits with them.

Elliot and Erick Jiménez, the identical twin duo behind TIME’s first-ever Spanish-language cover featuring the reggaeton superstar, are getting their first solo museum show at Pérez Art Museum Miami this August. The exhibition, "El Monte," promises more than pretty pictures—think sculptural installations, Lucumí mysticism and photos that hover between painting and dream sequence.

RECOMMENDED: The best museums in Miami for a sweet culture fix

Opening on Thursday, August 28, "El Monte" dives deep into the Afro-Caribbean spiritual tradition of Lucumí, an influence the Cuban-American brothers grew up with in Miami. The work explores identity, ancestry and duality through staged portraits, moody lighting and symbolism-rich scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Renaissance painting—if Renaissance painters had been raised in Hialeah.

The show’s title nods to Lydia Cabrera’s 1954 book El Monte, a foundational text on Santería and Afro-Cuban religion that was only translated into English for the first time in 2023. PAMM Associate Curator Maritza M. Lacayo, who organized the exhibition, says the brothers’ work “builds a bridge between Miami’s Caribbean communities, its religious and spiritual practices, and those of their ancestors.”

Elliot and Erick aren’t new to the art world—they’ve exhibited at places like the Bass Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and have racked up awards from the CHANEL Artist Award Program and the CINTAS Foundation. But this show marks a milestone: their first full-scale museum solo exhibition, in a city that helped shape their vision.

With "El Monte," PAMM is transforming its galleries into something “mysterious and whimsical,” in the curators’ words, an immersive space where viewers can step into the twins’ shared imagination. Expect photo-based works that shimmer like paintings, structures that evoke ritual and a sense of reverence that never veers into stiffness.

"El Monte" opens August 28 at Pérez Art Museum Miami and runs through the fall. Catch it before it crosses over!

You may also like
You may also like
Advertising