ArtesMiami donated to the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) in order to support the exhibition of El Monte. ArtesMiami also publicized the exhibition. According to PAMM, El Monte, is a solo exhibition of new work by Miami-born twins and photographers Elliot and Erick Jiménez. Borrowing its name from Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera’s seminal book on Afro-Cuban spirituality, the exhibition immerses viewers into the world of Lucumí, its sacred cosmologies, the twins’ lived experiences, and the complicated history of Western art. El Monte marks the brothers’ debut solo museum exhibition and their first foray into installation, sculpture, and mixed media elements in addition to their signature photographic techniques.

As identical twins and first-generation Cuban Americans, the lives of Elliot and Erick Jiménez are permeated with a sense of duality. Early on, their upbringing was shaped by a blending of influences, including Lucumí diasporic beliefs, also known as Santería or Regla de Ocha—a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that emerged in Cuba in the late 18th and 19th centuries, melding elements of colonial Spanish Catholicism with West African Yoruba traditions. A unique and diverse cultural narrative emerges from this interweaving of two unlikely theologies, a transcultural dialogue that has become central to the artists’ visual interpretations of the folklore, cosmologies, mysticism and deities of their diasporic heritage. The exhibition was curated by Maritza Lacayo.