3rd #ArtRoute through Miami

Stop #1: Rubell Family Collection

Definitely start your #ArtRoute at this AMAZING place. I was surprised to find such a big

gallery in Wynwood filled with really COOL, contemporary art exhibitions. There wasn’t

any spot in this gallery that didn’t impress me. When I visited the gallery, Andro

Wekua’s was exhibiting his installation, “Still Human”. It confronts the complex

consequences of the digital revolution and recent technological developments as they

redefine human condition. Exhibitions like this one where you are actually able to

interact with the art piece, are my favorites.

Sadly Rubell Family Collection is closed for installation and reopens on December 5th .

About the gallery owners: Don and Mera Rubell are two of most influential art patrons

in the world. They founded the Rubell Family Collection in 1964, and in 1993 created a

45,000-square-foot museum for their holdings in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.

They have a reputation for spotting artists bound for major market success early on in

their careers and acquiring a large portion of their output before they make it big. If you

ask me what’s my biggest goal and dream for the future, I would say it’s definitely

becoming like Don and Mera Rubell; spotting artist around the world and opening my

own gallery.

Stop #2: Ascaso Gallery

The second gallery you MUST visit in Wynwood is my favorite one: Ascaso Gallery. In my opinion, this gallery is the only one in Miami that exhibits so many prominent Latin

America artists, such as Carlos Cruz Diez and Jesus Rafael Soto. This gallery offers the

people of Miami and its surroundings a new alternative for cultural and artistic

interaction, fostering encounters, introducing proposals of various tendencies and

projecting many different manifestations of Latin American art in their salons. When I

visited this gallery, I fell in love with Julio Fernandez Larraz’s art. He is a Cuban painter,

sculptor, printmaker, and caricaturist known for his mastery of realism. He is known for

his broad brush strokes, use of deep vibrant colors, and juxtaposition of his subject

matter. Whenever you visit a gallery, I suggest you write down at least two artists that

called your attention the most and then do a brief research about them. This way you

will learn something new each weekend.

Stop #3: De la Cruz Collection

Before doing anything else in the Design District, you need to STOP at this gallery. Wow,

this gallery has so many different artists in exhibition, yet all of them create a dialogue

among themselves addressing a shift in artistic, as well as cultural, practice and form. I

absolutely loved it, every corner of this gallery has an interesting piece worth admiring.

My favorite artist from this gallery was Aaron Curry. Curry is a contemporary American

Artist known for his coloured sculptured. His work fuses a variety of motifs and

sources from Surrealism to Pre-Columbian art, graffiti art to digital image. His totemic

sculptures, works on paper and collages reflect a kind of prism which defines a new

form of appropriation and reference-making.

About the gallery owners: In the late 1980’s, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz started

collecting from their home which they opened to the public by appointment only. From

2001 to 2007, Rosa founded and chaired the non-profit Moore Space, a kunsthalle

located in the Design District. It was then that Rosa and Carlos started planning and

building the present de la Cruz Collection on 41st Street, a 30,000 square foot museum.

Stop #4: PAMM new exhibition – Surrounded Islands by Christo and Jeanne Claude.

I really hope that someday PAMM recognises #TheArtRoute and starts giving me, and

whoever follows me, free passes! I don’t know how many times a month I end up

visiting this museum haha. You are going to LOVE this stop, the surrounded Islands

exhibition is truly unique and interesting. I honestly didn’t know what to expect and

didn’t do much research either before coming to this exhibition. But I was impressed

BIG-time. First of all, the story behind the artists’s life seems as if it came out of a movie.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are a married couple who created environmental works of

art. They were born on the same day, June 13, 1935; Christo in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and

Jeanne-Claude in Morocco. They first met in Paris in October 1958 when Christo painted

a portrait of Jeanne-Claude's mother. They then fell in love through creating art work

together.

Christian and Jeanne- Claude completed these works of art on May 7, 1983, between

the city of Miami, North Miami, the Village of Miami Shores and Miami Beach. Eleven

islands were surrounded with 6.5 million square feet of floating pink woven

polypropylene fabric covering the surface of the water and extending out 200 feet from

each island into the bay. The fabric was sewn into 79 patterns to follow the contours of

the 11 islands. What I loved about this project was the artists were also aware and

concerned about the environment. Two years earlier, attorneys, biologists,

ornithologists, mammal experts and marine engineers started to work on the project.

Also, the marine and land crews picked up debris from the eleven islands, putting refuse

in bags and carting it away after they had removed some forty tons of varied garbage.

Stop #5: Las Olas Art Fair – Bright Line Train

I couldn’t be more excited to finally have a train in Miami that took me to Ft. Lauderdale

without having to drive or pay so much for an uber. The Bright Line not only it’s

convenient, but also incredibly affordable! For $20 you can go back and forth... I loved

its station structure, it’s beautiful and so clean. It makes you feel as if you are in an

airport, but it’s way better. Your route has to visit Las Olas at some point because this

place is magical. I think of it as a more relaxed version of Miami Beach. I suggest you

follow @ArtFestivals account to know when the next Art Festival will be.

P.S: I don’t recommend you to go Ft. Lauderdale’s Main Library by yourself with a big

camera. I wanted to take pictures of its brutalist architecture style, which is SUPER cool,

but outside the main entrance, it happens to be the place where homeless people can

legally live at with tents… I was walking towards them when I heard them screaming and

coming to talk to me, so I literally ran haha. So maybe avoiding this stop is a good idea.

Stop #6: MOCA at North Miami

Last, but not least, the Museum of Contemporary Art is the best way to end your route.

Here I learned that we cannot judge a place by how it looks on the outside. MOCA’s

main entrance is under construction, so it doesn’t look as good as it should, however it

will impress you once you are inside. It is open on Sundays, which is not very common

among museums or galleries in Miami, so I recommend to save your Sunday for this

hidden gem. “Tracing the red threat” is the current exhibition by Mira Lehr, and it took

my heart. The artists takes viewers on a journey through a multi-media installation that

evokes dense thickets of mangroves, dangerously beautiful schools of jellyfish and the

ethereal luminosity of the coral reef. Working in the eco-feminist tradition, Lehr

illuminates both the beauty of this aquatic landscape and the threats it faces from

climate change, pollution, and development. The exhibition title refers to the classical

myth of Ariadne, the king’s daughter who helped the hero Theseus defeat historian

opponents using a ball of red threat that led him safely through the monster’s

labyrinthine lair. Lehr uses this tale as a metaphor for the path we must navigate

through the equally treacherous tangle of natural and human forces that currently

threaten the aquatic ecosystem of the South Florida coast. Lehr’s seductive installation

remind us, not only of the gifts nature gives us, but also the importance of preserving

these gifts for future generations.

MAP: