Wynwood Art Walk: Miami’s Saturday Night Bohemia (Pictures)
On this, the third of my Miami art walks, which include Gables Gallery Walk and the Cultural Fridays (Viernes Culturales) on Calle Ocho, the Wynwood Art Walk, which takes place on the fringes of Miami’s up-and-coming Design District, could easily earn the title for edgiest art experience.
Perhaps the cutting edge of man’s ideas exists at the periphery of his suffering, and consequently, this cutting edge emerges, like a phoenix from the ashes, from the sidelines of Miami’s inner city.
The Wynwood Art Walk takes place the second Saturday of every month between the hours of 7 and 10 pm, give or take an hour or two. Unlike the Gables Gallery Walk that takes place on the first Friday each month, or even Viernes Culturales, which happens on the final Fridays, Wynwood feels dicey. Street theatre abounds outside dimly-lit liquor stores and corner markets along the darker sections of NW 2nd Ave., oblivious to its contributions, in the form of arguments between pimps and prostitutes, and the drunken ramblings of homeless people, their wardrobe hanging on makeshift clotheslines outside windowless stucco buildings secured by heavy iron gates. All the while, the patrons of culture walk elbow-to-elbow among them, sipping wine from plastic cups and burping brie, observers of the interplay of human emotions, expressed on canvas and in living matter.
“Dicey†can be both innovative and pretentious, and on this tour, I saw a little of both. GETTING THERE
From South Beach, it’s a simple matter of heading out east over the MacArthur Causeway, taking the Biscayne Blvd exit to NE 2nd Ave, heading north, and cutting over (left) on 20th Street to Miami Avenue. I parked my car with ease outside the Art Futures Gallery at the corner of 23rd St and Miami Ave. The Art Walk is centered roughly between NW 21st and NW 36th Streets, between Miami Avenue and NW 2nd Ave. The galleries exist primarily in clusters, and a car is recommended for traveling between said clusters. This map will prove useful—print it out and bring it along. Here are the directions from South Beach. THE RIDICULOUS AND THE SUBLIME—HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WALK
The urban landscape comprising the Wynwood Art Walk may appear stark and barren, but looks can be deceiving: the total of museums, collections, galleries, complexes and studios here number over eighty—requiring many repeat visits in order to adequately experience its treasures. What follows is but a tiny sampling of what there is to see. MOST PLAYFUL
Gallery Diet (174 NW 23rd St, Miami, FL 33127, 305-571-2288), the proverbial new kid on the block (opening in November 2007), presented a number of imaginative and off-beat creations: a huge carpeted ball of earth resting in the middle of the floor (“Carpet World”), with a smaller, grey carpeted moon-ball off to the side, part of Charley Friedman’s visiting A’Cappella exhibit (February 9 - March 1, 2008). The back corner featured some enormous (used) Q-Tips, while patrons contemplated a couple of Friedman’s larger-than-life shaved nipple portraits a short distance away, which seemed to glare back at them.
“I’m very interested in how humor plays out,” explains the New York-based Friedman. Instead of wielding a paintbrush, “I think of humor as my raw material.” His other pieces, consisting of various media, included a clock made from lobster heads, a 4-channel video of Friedman singing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and a photo series of him selling candy on a street corner. INNOVATIVE ART
The place with the most unusual art was the Art Futures @ 2300 Studio Gallery at 2300 North Miami Ave. Unfortunately, my camera couldn’t capture the uniqueness of much of its literally “moving†displays, which included digital video loops, and 3-D imagery, bouncing off the canvas in a powerful way, in addition to its more conventional bronze and glass sculptures, and conservationist art in oil and photography.
Among its current exhibits: prints from photographer Diego Portuondo’s “Head On” series (second above, rear wall); “hybrid†realist Troy Abbott’s hand-crafted, metallic cages with enclosed computer screens featuring warbling songbirds…
An eye-catching 3-D (lenticular) piece by Mark Diamond featuring iris leaves jumped out at me from the wall, as did the “living paintings†of Claudio Castillo, digital creations with a watercolor-like effect that swirled around with all the trippy appeal of a lava lamp.
A contemplative Hotei statue, sits lotus-style in the window, holding a pane of glass over his face, created by Arno Elias.
A metallic abstract, created by sculptor Greta Gruber, made an attention-getting floor-piece.
Paul Thomas Martin’s Voltage 1, 2, and 3 also captured the seeming ordinary quality of electric plugs in a creative way. Gallery owners Peter Bodnarchuk and Alarra Hewstan commented that what set them apart from the rest was the fact that their artists wholly crafted their own art, as opposed to many these days who function as mere designers, overseeing others who manufacture pieces in an assembly-line process. MOST PERSONABLE
The award for the most personable space was undeniably the domain of Mamushka, a local owner and creator whose vision led her to this area 11 years ago, one of the first two galleries to open. She’ll be the first to tell you she was “made in Cubaâ€, but since then, her life has taken a zig-zag journey through Greece, across Western Europe, and various places in the US. The niece of renowned Cuban poet José Lezama Lima, she’s an engaging lady, with quite a tale to tell.
The wine flowed freely as she enthusiastically entertained her guests, regaling them with her past triumphs and upcoming film festival in March. Out back, guarded by her faithful Labradors, sits a tour bus, along with a boat, means by which she can spread her contagiously vivacious approach to life.
This woman’s energy resonated with me, and I made sure to add my name to her guestbook before I left. The art there was eclectic: her Caribbean creations existed side-by-side with sacred Hindu sculptures in this radiant space, which is also used as a banquet hall. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A CANINE
The Pan American Gallery at 2450 NW 2nd Avenue stood out, not only because of its striking three-dimensional art, but due to its friendly collie, who posed in the middle as if he were a work of art himself. It gave a wonderfully down-to-earth atmosphere to the space, as visitors took turns petting him.
The visiting exhibits featured the steely creations of Carolina Sardi, and the gunpowder-infused paintings of Tomas Espinas, and the paintings of Jorge Luis Santos, a young Cuban abstract painter, now through February 23rd.
OTHER IMAGES OF NOTE
More pictures here. THE ART OF OBSERVATION
The more I moved from gallery to gallery, the more I began to notice the people observing the art. They clumped together in groups, often clad in colorful and unusual clothing, or else traveled solo, striking poses in front of the canvas, allowing the artist’s vision to come to life for them.
I realized that this process of observing art was itself an art, because in the midst of this paradoxical process, we become the unaffected observers of life itself, awakening to its creativity in objects and arrangements both striking and mundane: the sprawl of a sleeping house-cat…the pile of dirty laundry…the hum of a back alley washing machine in need of servicing. This, too, is art!
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Gus says:
Doug, very thought provoking observations about art. And those are some really cool pictures. Did you take them with your cell phone camera?
Posted on 03/14/2008 at 6:53 AM