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“I’ve always seen art as a way to better understand my culture and roots,” said art collector Jorge M. Pérez, who was born in Argentina to Cuban-exiled parents. While the bulk of the South Florida real-estate developer’s vast art collection has been focused on Latin American and Caribbean works, Pérez discovered what he calls “an unexpected kinship” to African art and art of the African Diaspora. “While I didn’t always experience a direct connection to African and African Diaspora art, that all changed once I traveled to the continent myself,â€�...

Pérez says he found many similarities to the works produced by Latin American and Caribbean artists: “Among these parallels were questions of political and social oppression, colonialism and identity, all of which were deeply embedded in many of my favorite pieces from Cuba and numerous other Latin regions.” You can see 100 of his pieces in an exhibition titled, “Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” at his year-old private museum, El Espacio 23 in Allapattah. The art is exceptional — and the curator behind “Witness” is, too. Zimbabwean-born Tandazani...