"Video of the Week" Robert C. Broward -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Keeping with the heavy architecture theme I have going today I thought I would post one more thing about Robert C. Broward. My choice for "Video of the Week" and the bio below is found on the Broward Family History website. It’s a great video of Robert Broward talking about his start and his hopes for his own legacy. I love the part where Broward talks about "Form following function" the true meaning of that phrase and the importance of emotional enticements.

Broward family website

ROBERT C. BROWARD, ARCHITECT

Robert C. "Bob" Broward is one of Florida’s most renowned living architects. The organic design of his buildings reflects his lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship and quality of life.

The great-second-cousin of Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Bob grew up in Jacksonville. At age 17, he inherited a stack of old Broward family letters that dated from the early 1800s through the post-Civil War period. These faded, torn, and fragile letters contained remarkable stories that piqued his interest in his most unusual family. Thus began a 65-year search for the Broward family’s history, the result of which is this book.

His childhood experiences in North Florida's unspoiled pine woods fostered in him a respect for our natural environment that led him to America's most famous organic architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1948, Bob worked on the construction of Florida Southern College, the largest complex of Wright buildings in the world. Wright gave Bob apprenticeships to study at both of his compounds, Taliesin East in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona.

Since he began practicing in Jacksonville in 1956, Bob has translated Wright's principles into an approach to architectural design specific to Florida: using open space, natural forms, and natural materials to complement Florida's environment. In 2011 he was designated Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

His love of architecture and history has led him on a diverse and untraditional life’s journey, as a writer, a teacher, and a champion of both modern architecture and historic preservation. Bob is the author of the award-winning book, The Architecture of Henry John Klutho: The Prairie School in Jacksonville, which explores the career of one of Florida’s early architectural geniuses. For over four decades, he served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida’s School of Architecture, challenging hundreds of young architectural students to reach for the highest values in that noble career. In addition to his many award-winning designs for homes, churches, schools, museums, and commercial buildings, he has played a key role in preserving some of Jacksonville’s most significant historic landmarks.

Architect and Artist Robert Swedroe showing at St. Thomas University’s Sardinas Gallery -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Cyber Waves

Acclaimed Architect And Artist To Show Work At St. Thomas University’s Sardinas Gallery

St. Thomas University‘s Sardinas Gallery will host the opening reception of A Glorious Spectrum, a collage exhibit by the acclaimed Florida architect and artist Robert Swedroe, Thursday, October 11. The University is inviting media and South Florida art lovers to meet the artist and enjoy his works’ dazzling colors and dimensional pieces. Swedroe originally worked as a senior design architect for the famed Morris Lapidus and after a 33 year sabbatical from his art he began producing the intricate and brilliant-color collages. The Gallery is located on the 2^nd floor of the Main Library, 16401 NW 37 Avenue in Miami Gardens.   Staying cutting edge in the ever-growing South Florida arts community, St. Thomas University has been offering a unique graduate-level degree (few and similar in the US) that teaches the business of art. A Master’s degree housed in the Institute of Communications, Entertainment and Media, the program is an Art Management specialization. Its curriculum encompasses the economic, marketing, and financial aspects that empower business owners and management involved in the arts circles.   Link to St. Thomas University website Robert Swedroe website

Self-Described 'Redneck' Takes On Kabul Art Scene -- posted b Florida Fine Art Blog

Aman Mojadidi poses as a "jihadi gangster" in a photo titled "After a Long Day's Work," part of the "A Day in the Life of a Jihadi Gangster" photo series



Self-Described 'Redneck' Takes On Kabul Art Scene

Radio Free Europe By Frud Bezhan

Im an Afghan by blood and a redneck by the grace of God," Aman Mojadidi says in introducing himself. "I'm an atheist and a radically politicized artist."

Nine years ago, the Afghan-born American performance artist returned from Florida to his native Kabul. In that time the 41-year-old has made a name for himself as a leading provocateur within the Afghan capital's emerging art scene.

Through various art forms, including film, photography, and public installation projects, Mojadidi has waged a relentless campaign against what he sees as the excesses of the Afghan government and political stagnation in the war-torn country he was forced to flee as a child.

Mojadidi's chief targets have been corruption, which he says permeates all levels of society, and the monopolization of political power by the country's former warlords and militia leaders.

"The rampant corruption manifests itself here in a way that it affects everyone, not just the higher levels of politics. I also think [a problem] is the political control in the hands of jihadist leaders," Mojadidi says.

"I don't think the country will be able to really move forward as a nation until political power ceases to be in the hands of those who rest all their authority on the fact that they did jihad against the Soviet Union," he adds. "They are keeping the country stagnated in that period."
...

Some, predictably, take offense to pictures depicting him as a warlord sitting beside his golden wooden leg, trying to watch television while a scantily-clad, burqa-wearing woman tries to get his attention.


By the same token, photos of him sitting in a barber shop adorned in a Confederate flag, swilling Budweiser beer, might rub some in the religiously conservative country the wrong way.

But while Mojadidi has occasionally come into conflict with the Afghan authorities, he has never been formally charged. And he has answers for his critics.

Working in Afghanistan has been "schizophrenic," Mojadidi says. He insists that although the country is a "junkman's paradise" in terms of artistic practice, the development of the Afghan art scene is being held back by religious radicals and powerful politicians keen on stifling criticism.
...

What drives him to labor every day in the hostile conditions in Afghanistan, he says, is the same reason he moved back to the country in the first place.


"What moved me here has a lot to do with doing something to contribute to Afghanistan and to do something to help Afghanistan in some way," Mojadidi says. "There's also a desire to get to know my cultural heritage and try and connect more with that heritage."

Link to whole Article here
Link to Aman's website here

Best Bizarre Statues Or Public Art In South Florida -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Edward Leedskalnin creator of the Coral Castle 

by Skot Olsen

Best Bizarre Statues Or Public Art In South Florida

CBS Miami by Glenn Osrin

Everyone’s definition of bizarre differs, yet is greatly influenced by what society expects to be normal. When it comes to statues or public art, message, presentation, color or location can add significance to the piece by clashing with norms that make it outrageous, scandalous, weird or outstanding. Here are a few of Miami’s best bizarre art pieces that require some contemplation.

Link to Article

Mr. Osrin has a few good choices for the best bizarre public art pieces, including the famous Coral Castle.  I think the new Gandhi Statue in Davie could be included just for the fact that its in Davie of all places.  What other public works stick out?  Remember the blue bikes parked everywhere?  Or the lifesize bronze statue of the "Barefoot mailman" located at the Hillsboro inlet.  How about the the old bank door frame entrance on Riverwalk next to the train tracks in Fort Lauderdale? GL

Mary Becht Honored with Howard Kleinberg Award -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Mary Becht  Honored with Howard Kleinberg Award

The 2012 Howard Kleinberg Award recipient has been announced by the Carbonells. Established in 2000, the award is named after Howard Kleinberg, long-time Editor of The Miami News, historian, and author of numerous articles and books on the social and cultural history of Miami and South Florida. It is awarded as special recognition for contributions to the health and development of the arts in South Florida.
This year’s honor will go to Mary A. Becht, who has served as Director of the Broward Cultural Division since 1984 and has been a pioneer of a long list of arts and cultural milestones. Becht has grown the Broward Cultural Division into a nationally-recognized local arts agency that is used as a model for many of the more than 5,000 local arts agencies throughout the United States. She leads the staff, the board, the committees and the Division’s annual budget of $3.9 Million, serves a constituency of more than 550 not-for-profit cultural organizations and a community of 1.7 million residents. She has served as on-site evaluator for the Florida Cultural Institution Program and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also served as vice-chair of the United States Arts Urban Federation, president of the Florida Association of Local Arts Agencies, chair of the South Florida Cultural Consortium and president of the Broward Women’s Alliance.
This award is the fifth annual award of recognition to be received by Mary Becht including, the First Annual Arts and Culture Award from National Association of Counties in 1990; the Arts Administrator of the Year Award from Arts Management News Service of Columbia College in 2002; the Public Leadership in the Arts Award from National Association of Counties in 2004; and the Ray Hanley Innovation Award, from Americans For the Arts’ United States Urban Arts Federation. Many programs from the Broward Cultural Division have served as models for her peers around the county.

I have wanted to post this for some time now.  Mary has contributed so much to the arts in South Florida it is hard to imagine where we would be without her leadership.  This is a much deserved award.  GL

Robert C. Broward -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville in Arlington

Robert C. Broward

Two nice articles I found on Robert C. Broward. Mr. Broward was inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame last year for his contributions to the Architecture of Florida. Mr. Broward’s story is a great example of the power of inspiration and mentoring. A local Florida boy, Robert began as an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright as Mr. Wright was building the Florida Southern College campus. Robert C. Broward spend his life combining the sensibilities learned from Frank Lloyd Wright into the landscape of Florida. In sixty-one years of architectural practice in Florida, Mr. Broward has produced diverse designs including small homes and chapels, as well as large warehouses, office buildings, churches museums, movie theaters, high-rise buildings, oceanfront residences and corporate headquarters. He is also the author of “The Architecture of Henry John Klutho: The Prairie School of Jacksonville” an important book about the famed architect Klutho and his ties to Jacksonville. GL

Link to Spotlight Article found on Culture Builds Florida website

Link to Article found on Unitarian Church website

Florida Artist Hall of Fame website


Miami Art Museum donations on pace with building -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Miami Art Museum donations on pace with building
Miami Herald By Daniel Chang

Miami Art Museum officials are more than halfway to their goal of raising millions in private donations for their new waterfront home.

Seeing is believing for donors to the new Miami Art Museum now under construction alongside Biscayne Bay in downtown’s Bicentennial Park.


With elevated platforms resting atop columns, a trellis-like roof, and a grand staircase that opens onto the water’s edge, the MAM building designed by the Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron has generated enthusiasm among architectural critics and museum officials alike.

Lately, MAM director Thom Collins said, that sense of excitement has spread to the museum’s benefactors.

As workers give shape to the museum’s Stiltsville-inspired design, donations to the building campaign are on pace to meet the promise made by museum trustees to raise $120 million in private funds to offset the costs of construction and future operations, he said. More than half has already been pledged.

“People don’t get on board until they see things,’’ Collins said during a recent tour of the construction site. “We’re well within $2 million of finishing the bricks and mortar fundraising.’’
...

The guaranteed maximum price for MAM’s new building is $131 million, Collins said, but the total price tag on the project, including an endowment to ensure its future operations, is about $220 million.


Public money from a general obligation bond approved by Miami-Dade voters in 2004 will pay $100 million of that cost. Museum trustees pledged to raise an additional $120 million in private donations, including $31 million to offset construction costs, $70 million for an endowment to ensure future operations, and $19 million for transitional expenses.

Link to Article

Shanghai seeks premier art status with new museums - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The China Art Palace, formerly the China Pavilion

Shanghai seeks premier art status with new museums

By Bill Savadove (AFP)

SHANGHAI — Shanghai on Monday opened two new art museums on the former site of the 2010 World Expo, as China's commercial hub seeks to rival art capitals like New York and Paris.

The China Art Museum, intended to be Shanghai's premier showplace for modern art, threw open its doors in the former China pavilion, which was the signature building for the world's fair.

"The scale and configuration is matchless in Asia. It is close to America's Metropolitan Museum of Art, France's Musee d'Orsay and other internationally famous art museums," Shanghai culture chief Hu Jinjun said before the opening.

The government-backed museum has an exhibition space alone of 64,000 square metres (688,890 square feet), Hu told state media.

A new contemporary art museum also welcomed holiday crowds on Monday to exhibit works from the 1980s onwards and give a permanent home to Shanghai's annual art festival.

Called the "Power Station of Art", the 40,000-square-metre (430,556 square feet) museum takes its name from the former power station building which was converted for the Expo.

 The Power Station of Art

Critics have raised questions over how Shanghai will fill the massive spaces with meaningful exhibitions.

"They're basically modelling themselves on New York or London," said Chris Gill, a Shanghai-based artist and arts writer.

"China tends to build these huge art museums. The problem is what they're going to put in it. The content side is always compromised by the political situation," he told AFP.

China censors art that it considers politically sensitive or pornographic, with local officials having the right to pull individual works or shut down shows.
Shanghai officials in September barred display of a photo work by artist Chi Peng, which shows a gorilla at Beijing's famed Tiananmen Square, according to his microblog.

In 2006, Shanghai shut down an exhibition by dozens of Chinese artists at a private art museum for showing "pornographic" images, described as pictures of naked women.

The exhibitions in place for the opening of the China Art Museum are heavily weighted towards Chinese art, but one floor has foreign works including a painting by Rembrandt and another by Johannes Vermeer -- on loan from the Netherlands' Rijksmuseum.

Shanghai university student Wang Qingyong marvelled at the size of the new museum.

"There is a lot of space. More works will come," she said gazing at a painting by the American artist Robert Bechtle.
Shanghai has already tested the China Pavilion as a venue for art, spending $1.4 million for China's biggest ever exhibition of the works of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso last year, but attendance was lower than expected.

The city has high hopes for attendance, distributing free tickets for 10,000 people a day to the China Art Museum and 6,000 daily for the Power Station of Art over the week-long National Day holiday, which started Monday.

Link to Article
Link to another article about the Museums

Like there were not enough reasons to visit Shanghai, old and new.  These new Museums and the cities commitment to modern art will be tested by China's still very strict censorship policies.  Perhaps as long as the artists are Western and criticizing there own cultures they will get a pass.  But what happens when one of these museums shows work by a Chinese artist critical of the Chinese government?  When China's best known contemporary artist Ai Wei had an opening last year in New York, the Chinese government jailed him so he could not be at his own show. Imagine how they would react to a retrospective of his work at one of the new museums in Shanghai that they fund.  GL

Link to Free Ai Weiwei website

Pop Art Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective now open at the Vero Beach Museum of Art - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

 

Jasper Johns

Vero Beach Museum of Art opens new Titelman Gallery

Written by Pam Harbaugh  Florida Today.com 

While art lovers avail themselves of Brevard’s two fine art museums — the Foosaner Art Museum and the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts — they are only a pleasant drive away from the Vero Beach Museum of Art.

On Saturday, the museum opened “Pop Art Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective” in its new Titelman Gallery. The exhibition comprises 32 iconic works by historically important artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana. The exhibit runs through Jan. 2.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art opened in 1986 and won accreditation from the august American Association of Museums in 1997. Then, in 1999, it began a massive expansion and redesign project, which doubled its size to 54,509 square feet. Museum visitors also enjoy the adjacent Jim Beckwith Sculpture Park.
 

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is at 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is generally free, with donations accepted. Occasionally, the museum presents exhibits for which an admission fee is charged. Admission to the “Pop Art Revisited” exhibit is free.

 

Link to Article

Link to Vero Beach Museum

 

 

Local group honors Gandhi's birthday with statue in Davie park - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Photo by Ginny Dixon / October 2, 2012

Local group honors Gandhi's birthday with statue in Davie park

By Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel

The stooped figure was clad in loincloth, sandals and carrying a staff. But there was no mistaking the benign smile.

Mahatma Gandhi, who sparked India's independence in 1947, made his Florida debut Tuesday evening in the form of a 7-foot-tall bronze statue in a Davie park.
It was the first such statue of the revered leader in Florida. Five other statues have been erected in Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and New York.

"In this day and age, we need a role model for peace and nonviolence, and there is no better role model," said Davie Mayor Judy Paul, whose town dedicated the property for the monument at Falcon's Lea Park on west Stirling Road.

The $50,000 statue was paid for by the Kerala Samajam, a local Indian cultural group. The group will also manage the statue's upkeep. The ceremony marked the 143rd anniversary of Ghandi's birth. He was assassinated in January 1948.

"It represents a population," said Town Administrator Richard Lemack. "It's a wonderful opportunity for the entire community."

Link to Sun Sentinel Article

 

Governors Look to Arts for Economic Boost - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

From the Central Florida Arts Blog
Governors Look to Arts for Economic Boost

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

“With concerns over job creation and business growth holding a prominent—and persistent—position on policy agendas today, governors are increasingly finding innovative ways to support economic growth, according to a new report from the National Governors Association (NGA).

New Engines of Growth: Five Roles for Arts, Culture, and Design focuses on the role that arts, culture, and design can play in governors’ policies to create jobs and boost their economies in the short run and transition to an innovation-based economy in the long run.

In particular, arts, culture. and design can assist states with economic growth because they can serve the following roles:

    Provide a fast-growth, dynamic industry cluster;
    Help mature industries become more competitive;
    Provide the critical ingredients for innovative places;
    Catalyze community revitalization; and
    Deliver a better-prepared workforce.

Globalization and the changing economy have affected individual states differently, but all are searching for ways to support high-growth industries, accelerate innovation, foster entrepreneurial activity, address unemployment, build human capital, and revive distressed areas.

Using the five roles as a framework, state leaders—governors, economic development officials, and state arts agencies—have a way to intentionally and strategically make arts, culture and design an important part of an economic growth agenda.”

Link to Article

The Gene Hyde Collection at the Fort Lauderdale History Center's New River Inn - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

THE GENE HYDE COLLECTION

ON DISPLAY NOW UNTIL DECEMBER 23, 2012 

for a glimpse into Fort Lauderdale's plentiful past.

 

About the Exhibit: For over half a century, the late, local photographer Gene Hyde used his keen eye and sense of place to create some of today's most recognizable historical photos of Broward County. He recorded fascinating people, places, and times pivotal in the county's development. His photos evoke nostalgia for the not-that-distant past; a way of life Broward County residents will never see again.

  

Fort Lauderdale History Center's New River Inn

231 SW 2nd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Free and Open to the Public

 

 

Ft. Lauderdale History Center website

 

 

 

New Dali exhibit opens at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=58265#.UHn9Vhi84iY[/url]
Copyrig

Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail).  AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum

New Dali exhibit opens at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg

By: Tamara Lush, AP

ST. PETERSBURG (AP).- In the mid-1920s, a young Salvador Dali was searching for his style. 

He painted a startlingly lifelike basket of bread in a typical Renaissance form. He dabbled in cubism and painted in abstract black, white and gray. He also painted a scene in 1925 that he called "Desnudo en el Agua" (Nude in the Water), which gives an inkling of the surrealist genius to come.
 

The painting is a close-up of a woman's shapely buttocks, and the unique perspective reveals that Dali was looking at subjects and paintings in a whole new way as a young artist.
 

"He's not doing an academic perspective," wryly notes Hank Hine, the director of the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.

That subtly erotic work, along with 11 others, is on display at the Florida museum until March 31, 2013 in a show called "The Royal Inheritance: Dalí Works From the Spanish National Collection." The paintings, which span from 1918 to 1983, have never before been exhibited the United States.
 

The works are on loan from the National Collection of Modern Art in Spain.

Link to the article on ArtDaily.org 

This AP article is a nice overview of the exhibition, the St. Petersburg Museum and the origins of the collection. The article states that since its opening, the Museum has welcomed an average of 1,000 people a day.  That is a testament as much to the beautifully designed Museum building (architect Yann Weymouth) as to the Dali collection itself.  GL

The Dali Museum website

Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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Salvador Dali, Bed and Two Bedside Tables Ferociously Attacking a Cello (detail). AP Photo/Salvador Dali Museum.

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American Craftsman Museum proposed for Tampa's Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

American Craftsman Museum proposed for Tampa's Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park
Tampa Bay Times
By Richard Danielson and Susan Thurston

An art collector from Palm Harbor is proposing to build a $31 million museum showcasing the American arts and crafts movement next to Tampa's premier riverfront park.

Rudy Ciccarello would arrange the financing to build the American Craftsman Museum at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, according to a 42-page proposal made public Friday. Ciccarello also proposes to pledge his own assets to provide collateral for a construction loan and to cover any shortfalls during construction.
In return, the nonprofit Two Red Roses Foundation, which Ciccarello started with gifts from his own collection, is asking the public to contribute $1 million a year for the first five years that the museum is open....    The museum would house a wide array of decorative objects from the 1900 to 1920 American arts and crafts movement — furniture, pottery, ceramic tiles, metal work, woodblocks, fine art, lighting, textiles and stained glass.
"A collection without comparison," said Tracy Kamerer, chief curator at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, which exhibited some of the foundation's collection in 2009. "It's probably the best collection of arts and crafts in the world, and they're all museum-quality pieces, everything I've seen — and there's a lot of it I haven't seen."

Link to Article
Mr. Rudy Ciccarello's art collection website

Another museum in Tampa?  Why Not!  Tampa has some of the most generous benefactors of any city in Florida and the people of Tampa are better for it.  The cultural facilities are thriving with all the community enthusiasm and support. There must be ten world class museums in the Tampa area, a fantastic zoo, large aquarium and several preforming arts theaters. GL
 

Wynwood Named 19th Most Hipster Neighborhood In America - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Wynwood Named 19th Most Hipster Neighborhood In America
By Morgan Brennan

Forbes Magazine

Wynwood is known these days for two things: its arts district and its fashion district. In the mid-2000s artists began taking up residence in the area's abandoned warehouses. Today more than 70 galleries occupy the area and the hood hosts an ArtWalk every second Saturday of each month. The area also boasts one of the largest permanent outdoor mural exhibits in the world, called Wynwood Walls.

Link to Forbes Article

The article below explains what happens to the artists once a neighborhood they work in becomes "trendy" and "hip."  High rent prices force out the very same artists that took a low rent district and turned it into a "hip" district. GL

A Rolando Barrero Says: 'Miami IS Dead and it's Dying.  It's Gone Commercial"

By Rebecca Dittmer

NewTimes Blog

"Miami is dead and it's dying. It's gone commercial. All the best galleries have closed and people have retired. People who showed cutting edge work have left and all that's left is 'sanctioned' work, work that has already been christened as good," says Barerro with resignation. "The rent is so high, so they have to bring in work that sells and is collectible. They can't bring in work that makes people think."

Needless to say, Barerro has no plans of heading south. Instead, he has planted his roots in Boynton Beach and plans to tend to the burgeoning arts district there for a long time to come.

Link to NewTimes Article

"Video of the Week" - Review of Miami’s iconic Bacardi Tower and annex by Allan Shulman - Florida Fine Art Blog

Shulman+Associates principals Allan Shulman and Rebecca Stanier-Shulman discuss a uniquely Miami marriage of Miesian Modernism and Latin-American craft.

Video found as part of article by Archdaily.com
Link to article found here

Naples Art Association executive director has a new vision for art - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Naples Art Association executive director has a new vision for art

News-Press.com have a nice interview with the Director of Naples Art Association on how she has guided the organization through the recession.  With so many arts organizations and museums having trouble I thought some of her ideas deserved highlighting.  One in particular, reaching out to the artist members in the community and seeing what their needs are, finding out how to better serve them, was a great idea.  In these challenging times, if you want support from the community you had better be supporting the community yourself.  With programs and exhibitions that are from and about the local community, with the community's involvement and input, a museum can still thrive.  Treating a museum like a private club, dictating from on high with exhibition ideas that do not reflect the community and shunning the local artists input are sure ways to turn off the very people you need.  Art Museums and art organizations should become so vital and well known that when funding cuts or program cancellations are discussed the whole community speaks up in support of the organization not just the few whose jobs are on the line.  GL

News-Press.com Article Link
Naples Art Association Website

Quisqueya Henriquez at David Gallery - posted by FloridaFine Art Blog

From the invitation; 
Quisqueya Henriquez After Some Twisted Lines  
October 11 - November 2, 2012  
 
Reception Thursday, October 11, 6-10 pm

                                David Castillo Gallery is proud to present After Some Twisted Lines,  Quisqueya Henríquez's third solo show with the gallery. Henríquez  deepens her investigation into appropriation, architectural form and Art  History with new works in collage, fabric, video, and Rorschach  technique.     

After Some Twisted Lines grapples with the  Lacanian condition, which asserts that entrance into language and visual  representation tragically severs humans from the unadulterated real at  birth. Henríquez challenges the impossibility of the real by exploring  how we exist, communicate, and desire after some twisted lines. Rorschach references  the psychological test for which a subject interprets inkblot images.  Henríquez's Rorschach test, bold in scale and ornithological in  aesthetic, invites phenomenological response, affective relationships  and pleasure. The artist builds a menagerie on the foundation of  clinical analysis.     

Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals  is a seminal taxonomy of facial expression across species. To browse  its pages is an exercise in the instability between self and other,  originality and appropriation, art and research, procedure and  spontaneity. Henríquez adapts this framework for the post-internet age. After Some Twisted Lines evokes  the process of computer screen-capture that subtly informs the artist's  works in collage. The resulting artworks bear the names of renowned  conceptual artists, from Surrealist Hannah Hoch to fashion, still life  and portrait photographer Irving Penn. Henríquez's collage emotes Dan  Flavin's fluorescent minimalism, Louise Lawler's meta-photographs of  artworks on exhibition, and Gordon Matta-Clark's site-specific  interventions upon abandoned buildings.  The dominance of social media  and virtual exchange has led Olga Goriunova to coin autocreativity,  a methodology for thinking creativity as an assemblage of human,  technical and social. Henríquez works at the forefront of autocreativity  to make salient the continuity between appropriation and network.   

After Some Twisted Lines lays  bare the problematic of making artwork within Art History; locating  materiality within semiotics; inhabiting the intimacy of interior within  architectural countenance; and recognizing beauty within a network  culture that numbers it a scarce resource. Henríquez gives form to what  Arakawa and Gins theorize as "body-wide" modes of sensing, and does so  in full view of convergence culture. Henríquez asks the viewer to defy  the shortcomings of simulation and lust after the real.

Henríquez  was born in Havana, Cuba and lives and works in Santo Domingo,  Dominican Republic.  After graduating from the Instituto Superior de  Arte in Havana, Cuba, Henríquez has exhibited throughout Latin America,  Europe, and the US. Her work is in important private and public  collections including El Museo del Barrio, New York; Museum of  Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL; Miami Art Museum; Cintas Foundation,  NY; Rhode Island School of Design; and Colección Patricia Phelps de  Cisneros, NY, among others. Henríquez had a mid-career retrospective at  the Bronx Museum of the Arts, which later traveled to Miami Art Museum.   The artist's recent solo exhibitions include the McColl Residency in  North Carolina; BARNA and Centro Cultural de España, both in Dominican  Republic.  Among her recent group exhibitions are the Cintas Foundation,  Miami and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL.

David Castillo Gallery

YoungArts to move into Miami’s Bacardi complex - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

YoungArts to move into Miami’s Bacardi complex

Some good news out of Miami.  No make that some great news.  My favorite building complex in Miami, one that has been on lists over the years for most endangered historic buildings, has been purchased by an amazing arts organization.  How often do you hear about a Miami building project where "all parties are happy"  a "match made in heaven" like "it was meant to be"?  This is a welcome story and maybe part of a new start for a city plagued with a history of controversial projects full of corruption.  The YoungArts Foundation is a well respected and well funded organization that was looking for a permanent home.  The Historic Bacardi complex was looking for a new use.  Throw them together with Frank Gehry as the architect and new artistic adviser and you've got everyone's attention.

From the Miami Herald; 
By Hannah Sampson hsampson@MiamiHerald.com


A pair of historic, glittering buildings sat empty beside a busy Miami thoroughfare. An arts foundation with a nomadic background was looking for a place to plant permanent roots and expand.
That is how the National YoungArts Foundation, founded 31 years ago by Ted and Lin Arison, came to find its new home: the iconic Bacardi Tower and Museum complex along Biscayne Boulevard. The campus will get a Frank Gehry-designed master plan and year-round programming to link downtown’s burgeoning arts scene with the hip Wynwood and Design District neighborhoods.
Officials with the organization and company will announce the news Wednesday.
“This was really, I believe, a match made in heaven,” said Paul T. Lehr, executive director of YoungArts. “There was no better place for us to go and there was no better purchaser for this campus than us and what we were going to do.”
Lehr said Bacardi U.S.A. sold the 3.3-acre site at 2100 Biscayne Blvd. to the foundation for $10 million, though the market value was over $20 million. The blue and white tiled tower, by architect Enrique Gutiérrez, was completed in 1963. The mosaic square known as the “jewel box,” designed by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz, was added in 1975.
They were designated as historic in 2009 by Miami’s historic preservation board.
Facundo L. Bacardi, chairman of the board of spirits producer Bacardi Limited, said the sale wasn’t about making money. The privately held company moved its Americas headquarters to Coral Gables in 2009 and has maintained the Biscayne Boulevard site but used it only rarely.
When Lehr approached him with the idea about nine months ago and discussions started within the company, “it was kind of like a light bulb went off,” Bacardi said.
“We were looking for somebody to extend the legacy of the property and how much it means to us,” he said. “I don’t think we could’ve come up with a better partner.”
While closely guarded, the news had been shared with some YoungArts supporters in recent days. Reactions were enthusiastic.
“It’s not only a milestone in Miami’s evolution as a cultural community, I think it’ll be a powerful magnet for talent for decades to come,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has supported the organization. “The whole thing just strikes me as perfect for a cultural center for this town.”
Despite working with more than 16,000 students over the last 31 years — including alumni like Vanessa Williams and Nicki Minaj, who have become household names — YoungArts has kept a relatively low profile. The organization finds and nurtures artists 15 and older, bringing in 150 a year for a week of intensive classes with masters in their field.
Even with its new home, the foundation is also planning a huge expansion of activities beyond Miami, including year-round events in New York, a Los Angeles version of Miami’s YoungArts Week and continued presence in Washington as the only nominating agency for the Presidential Scholars in the Arts.
“It’s all coming together at once,” Lin Arison said. “That’s because it’s meant to be. We’ve been doing our quiet work for 31 years, and now it is going to become visible.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/02/3031487/youngarts-to-move-into-miamis.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

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I'm Back!

 

I'm back!  It has been several months since I have posted anything and some may have been wondering if I would ever come back to this blog.  Well, I have been very busy with all that I do.   Seven months ago my wife and I had our first child, Lilly Grace. I don't know if everyone is aware but along with this blog I have two full time jobs and volunteer my time every week to art and community causes.  I was always able to budget my time until Lilly came around.  Knowing something had to give, I decided to take a few months off from writing this blog in order to have more time with our new little girl.  A few months quickly turned into 6.    Now that things have settled down and we have found a rhythm at home so to speak I felt this is the perfect time to begin again.  And what perfect timing as the art season is almost upon us.  This season I have lots to see and show you and some new great ideas on how to enhance this blog.  I hope your still with me and hope you have been out experiencing  all the art this great state has to offer in my absence. GL