Bass Museum to Build New Wing With $7.5 Million Grant From City of Miami Beach - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Bass Museum to Build New Wing With $7.5 Million Grant From City of Miami Beach
Miami New Times
By Ciara LaVelle

The new wing will include two additional classrooms, complementing the existing Lindeman Family Creative Center, according to a press release from the museum. The center hosts art classes for children from babies to age 12, as well as an Art Club for adults and a series of film screenings, lectures, and workshops for teachers.

When the new wing is completed, the educational facilities at the museum will be able to hold a total of 125 students: 25 in two of the classrooms, and up to 75 in a larger venue. The educational center will have its own entrance, separate from the main doorway into the museum. The Bass projects that it'll be able to serve twice as many students as it does now when the new classrooms open next year.

Fewer details are available concerning the Bass' new exhibition space. ""We are working to create an improved and functional design that will provide 47 percent more exhibition and program space within the museum's same building footprint," said Silvia Karman Cubiña, Executive Director and Chief Curator, in a statement.

The Bass' last major architectural upgrades took place in 2001, when the museum added a 20,000 sq. ft. addition onto its original Art Deco structure. (That was when the museum added its centerpiece ramp connecting the ground and second floors, as well as its sculpture terrace.)
But why the generosity from the city's coffers? "Miami Beach is such a progressive city and its commitment to the arts continues to reinforce its position as the most important cultural destination in South Florida," said Bass president George Lindemann in a statement.

Article found here 
Museum website found here

The Bass Museum is somewhat of a hidden gem among the more well visited museums, even to those who live on Miami Beach.  I am happy to see they have a strong master plan and that those plans have been selected for and awarded art grant funding on the City, State and National level.  The Museums location is perfect for all the newer art development on Miami Beach and should play a more central role moving forward. GL

Gator in the Bay: Giant Art Invades Miami - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Gator in the Bay: Giant Art Invades Miami
Miami New Times
By Carlos Suarez De Jesus

As the story goes, a teenager visiting a Florida tourist trap bought a baby alligator and flushed it down the toilet. Months later, it emerged from the sewers, as big as a school bus, to stalk unsuspecting humans.

Well, Lloyd Goradesky's gargantuan Gator in the Bay was never dropped into the john, but the football-field-length floating reptile is set to prowl the waters off the Miami Yacht Club on Watson Island when Art Basel in Miami Beach rips into town December 5 through 8.

It's one of the first public art projects announced for this year's monster art fair and also one of the strangest — just the kind of thing to augment the Magic City's reputation as a mecca for artistic lunacy.

"I've been photographing wildlife in the Everglades for more than two decades," Goradesky says. "When someone approached me a few years back and offered me the barge to use during Basel, that was how this project got its start."

The floating gator is intended to raise awareness of the fragile nature of the Florida Everglades and reflect the cooperation between industry and the local environment. Goradesky explains he chose the iconic reptile for his Basel opus because the creature is a barometer of our ecological health.

Article found here

Art Basel is just around the corner and I will be posting many more articles in the coming weeks.  Unfortunately I will not be able to attend this year, first time I will miss the event since it all started with Art Miami back in the early 90's. I will still post my "Glenn's Guide to Art Basel 2013" but this time it will be a list of where I wished I could go.  Someone please take pictures for me!  GL

 

National Gallery of Art to get 250 works from Virginia Dwan Collection - posted by Florida FIne Art Blog

 

National Gallery of Art to get 250 works from Virginia Dwan Collection

The Washington Post  

By Katherine Boyle

The National Gallery of Art has received a promised gift of 250 paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs from American art collector and gallerist Virginia Dwan.

 

The pledge includes works by 52 modern artists, such as Robert Smithson, Yves Klein, Ad Reinhardt, Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin. The gallery noted that the gift will enhance a number of areas in its permanent collection, including postwar abstraction and minimalism. 

Dwan is the former owner and director of the Dwan Gallery, which had locations in Los Angeles and New York in the 1960s and ’70s. Among her most famous group exhibitions was “My Country ’Tis of Thee” in 1962, one of the earliest pop art shows. 

“The National Gallery of Art is thrilled to be the beneficiary of Ms. Dwan’s seminal collection,” gallery Director Earl A. Powell III said in a statement. “The pledge will significantly strengthen our holdings of art from the 1960s and 1970s.”

The works will go on display for the exhibition, “From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971,” when the East Building galleries reopen in 2016 after a planned closure for maintenance and expansion beginning next year. 

Article found here

Great news for those of us that love work from the 60's - 70's.  I can't wait for the East Wing of the National Gallery to reopen!  GL

Newest Miami Condo Enticement: Modern Art - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

A rendering of Oceana Bal Harbour, which will include works by artist Jeff Koons.

Newest Miami Condo Enticement: Modern Art
The Wall Street Journal
By Robbie Whelan

Condo associations share ownership of all sorts of things: pools, fitness rooms, freight elevators. Why not pieces of multimillion-dollar conceptual art?
Eduardo Costantini, a 66-year-old Argentine developer and art collector, is courting buyers at his second U.S. project, Oceana Bal Harbour in South Florida, by offering them ownership of two works by Jeff Koons, the New York-based artist famous for producing high-art versions of everyday objects.

Jeff Koons

The artwork at Oceana Bal Harbour will include: ‘Ballerina (Seated),’ scheduled completion date 2010-2014, by Jeff Koons.

The works, “Pluto and Proserpina” and “Ballerina” are both larger-than-life sized sculptures that Mr. Costantini says he purchased last year for $14 million. The first is an 11-foot tall work that depicts the classic theme of the rape of Proserpina, the Roman goddess of the spring, by Pluto, lord of the underworld. The sculpture is made out of chromium and live plants, and covered in gold coloring; the developer plans to place it in front of a reflecting pool the breezeway of the apartment condo complex, which is designed by Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Miami firm Arquitectonica.

The other work, a sculpture of a seated ballerina that resembles in style some of Koons’s balloon-animal inspired work, will sit at the other end of the breezeway. One of the two Koons works, “Pluto and Proserpina,” will first be lent to the Whitney Museum in New York to be shown in a retrospective of Mr. Koons’s work. The Bal Harbour condo is set to start construction later this year and be completed in 2016.

The developer says he is not specifically targeting art collectors to buy the condos, but having modern art in the building is part of Miami’s development as an international, cosmopolitan city. Units in the building are expected to start at $3 million.

Jeff Koons

The other piece of artwork by Jeff Koons at the building will be: ‘Pluto and Proserpina,’ 2010-2013.

“Miami is becoming truly a metropolis, and Jeff Koons is a representation of that, with the visibility that he has, and the quality of his art,” Mr. Costantini said. “You have like, citizens of the world, who travel a lot, and have more than two residences, but they have the sensitivity to appreciate good things, good quality.”

The price of the Koons works, as well as the cost of maintaining and insuring the sculptures, will be included in the sales prices and maintenance fees of the 250 condo units in the building. Mr. Costantini’s company, Consultatio, plans to invest about $600 million in the property, he said, and at sell-out, the units are projected to be collectively worth more than $1 billion.

The commonly owned art model has been done before, but usually with lower-profile artists. Other times, the art in question is part of the structure of the building. At Jorge Perez’s Icon Brickell, one of the most ambitious boom-era condo projects in Miami, designer Philippe Starck lined up monumental sculptures resembling Easter Island-style human heads that appear to be supporting the towers’ bulk. The artworks are also owned by the building’s residents.

Link to article here

Exhibition Space Available during Art Basel - Pinion Gallery/Hotel Mimo - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Great opportunity to show your work at a well attended show.  The Hotel Mimo is downtown near the new Miami Art Museum.

Please Contact: David Mcleish
Pinion Gallery website here
david@piniongallery.com
386-679-0924

Charting the Land of the Flowers: 500 Years of Florida Maps - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

A Map of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1754) by mapmaker Mark Catesby.

Charting the Land of the Flowers: 500 Years of Florida Maps

Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Old Water St., Tampa, through Feb. 16. 813-228-0097, Tampa Bay History Website here.

A landmark exhibit at Tampa Bay History Center shows the many shapes of the Sunshine State over the last 500 years.

Tampa businessman Tom Touchton began collecting maps 31 years ago during a trip to London with his wife. As the couple toured an antiques fair, he homed in on an unfamiliar sight — a young man whose booth displayed not art or furniture, but maps pinned to the walls. “Who buys maps?” Touchton recalls asking incredulously. The young man gave him some magazines about map collecting, which Touchton devoured overnight in his hotel room. By morning, he had convinced his wife to visit a map dealer whose shop happened to be located across the street from their hotel.

“I walked into the map shop … and said ‘I’m going to collect maps. Can you help me?’” Touchton says.

Several thousand maps later, Touchton owns what may be the definitive collection of Florida cartography in the world. Between now and February, 125 of his maps are on display at the Tampa Bay History Center exhibition Charting the Land of the Flowers: 500 Years of Florida Maps, timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Ponce de León’s exploration and naming of the state. Touchton describes it as “the most comprehensive exhibition of Florida maps that has ever been done and is likely to be done.”

The exhibition offers a taste of what Touchton, who served as TBHC’s founding chairman and has been a key patron for the institution, ultimately intends: the donation of his map collection and creation of a Florida-themed cartographic center at the museum.


More after the break...

Convening Culture 2014: Connecting the Arts with Environmental Conservation - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Citizens for Florida Arts, Inc. is proud to announce that registration is now open for Convening Culture 2014: Connecting the Arts with Environmental Conservation. This statewide cultural conference will provide opportunities for meaningful professional development for Florida artists and individuals involved in Florida’s cultural organizations and will also offer specific opportunities for participants to learn about the potential long-term collaborations and crossover between arts programming and environmental conservation. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about these two areas from nationally recognized leaders in addition to having the opportunity to network and learn from one another in the inspiring setting of the Vero Beach Museum of Art.Dates:January 28-29, 2014

Location:Vero Beach Museum of Art
3001 Riverside Park Drive
Vero Beach, Florida 32963
http://www.verobeachmuseum.org

For the full conference schedule and a link to registration, visit
http://www.florida-arts.org/conveningculture.

For more information, contact: Morgan Lewis, Division of Cultural Affairs/Citizens for Florida Arts, Inc.
850.245.6470 or Morgan.Lewis@dos.myflorida.com.

Nilda Comas - Art News and Classes - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

  Nilda Comas

 

Nilda Comas is a world class artist and I am lucky to call her a friend.  We have collaborated on several shows over the years, produced a book of her work and I have visited her at her studio in Italy.  In fact one of my top five all time art experiences was my visit to the bronze foundry and marble studio she works with in Pietrasanta Italy.  I strongly suggest, if you have the chance, to make it over to one of Nilda's workshops, it will change your life!  She hold workshops in Fort Luaderdale, Italy and Puerto Rico.  Oh and she is great with kids and holds fun classes for young artists. 

 

Nilda sends an "art news update"via email from time to time and will begin posting them on the blog.  I have just cut and pasted the whole email below.  There are lots of links at the bottom if you wish to contact Nilda and find out more about her workshops.  Nilda is working on some big important projects as you will read and I look forward to seeing the new work.  

 

Nilda will be the next artist I interview for my "Artist Spotlight" so look for that soon!  GL

 

We welcome Fall!

Six students will attend "Living Among The Artists Workshop" for two weeks

In Pietrasanta Italy during the first two weeks in October.

Photo of Italy workshop

 

Already taking reservations for Italy Spring workshop. Please sign up early!

nildamcomas@yahoo.com               954-298-3621

---

ANNOUNCING 3-DAY

DRAWING THE HORSE WORKSHOP

NOVEMBER 22,23,24

Learn DRAWING:

• techniques
• anatomy
• perspective
• blocking-in
• shading

Emphasizing the study of the horse in Art

Location: Palm Beach County at a Polo Pony Farm "hands on" with live horses

....as our models

Lunch included RSVP please!!

$300.00 or $125.00 Per Day

nildamcomas@yahoo.com               954-298-3621

Much more news after the break...

The Knight Arts Discussion on NEA Grants - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Knight Arts is sponsoring a discussion on how to successfully apply for NEA art grants.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

5:00 p.m. - Conversation to begin promptly  at 5:30 p.m.           

The Little Haiti Cultural Center

212-260 NE 59th Street Miami, FL 33137

Parking: Complimentary parking will be available in the lot across from the Little Haiti Cultural Center

Link to Online Registration here

Knight Arts website here

New Local TV Series Showcases Art In Our Backyard and Across the Nation - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

New Local TV Series Showcases Art In Our Backyard and Across the Nation

 

ORLANDO, Sept. 24, 2013 -- A new weekly local television series debuts next month on WUCF TV, Central Florida's PBS station, highlighting arts and culture from our community and across the country.

"WUCF Artisodes" premieres Thursday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. with new episodes every week. The series is a partnership among 28 PBS member stations in different states with each half-hour episode featuring four to six stories from the performing and visual arts to every genre in between.

In addition to arts profiles from PBS stations around the country, each episode of "WUCF Artisodes" also will feature local stories, highlighting special arts initiatives or artists from Central Florida and a calendar of local events.

"Showcasing our dynamic arts and culture scene is part of WUCF TV's mission to inspire and entertain our audience," said Polly Anderson, WUCF TV's Executive Director. "We want to shine a spotlight on the great work that artists in our community are doing and give our viewers a front-row seat to the arts from coast to coast."

Next month's premiere will feature Orlando storyboard artist Mark Simon, whose work ranges from the recent horror film "You're Next" to national television shows and comic books, and upcoming events across Central Florida.

Other upcoming stories include a Spanish-inspired art gallery in Sacramento, Ca.; one Ohio man's journey to perfect the ancient art of papermaking; a look inside local digital media 3D animation and projection mapping company Ninjaneer Studios; an interview with the cast of the satirical sketch comedy television show "Portlandia;" and a feature on the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park's performance of Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time as part of local efforts to commemorate Kristallnacht’s 75^th anniversary later this year.

And beginning next month, viewers can visit the show’s new website with exclusive videos, a local arts calendar and the chance to submit story ideas for future episodes at http://wucftv.org/artisodes.

"Video of the Week" - The Power of Art - Rembrandt - by Florida Fine Art Blog

The Power Of Art: 3/8 - Rembrandt (BBC Series)

In keeping with the last post of the Rembrandt show at FSU I thought of a great art series I had seen years ago.  A quick search and I found it all posted on YouTube. Taken from a series Simon Schama did for the BBC back in 2006.  Mr Schama, a noted Art historian, chose eight artists in this series that tries to explain the need for and power of art through the ages.  The eight artists in order are; Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko.  This video is part 3 of 8 and focusses on Rembrandt.  In it we learn how Rembrandt bucked the tone and esthetic of the day, often to great cost to the artist.  With few exceptions, the artists that truly challenge the establishment and shine a light on the hypocrisy of their day are marginalized and ridiculed.   The appreciation for their work however grows as the establishments influence fades.   Until one day the only record of the lost ruling class is in the world famous artists depictions.  Time it seems  gives the artist the last word.  GL

FSU displays Rembrandt etchings - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

 

"Self Portrait Wearing a Soft Cap," Rembrandt van Rijn,

 etching, ca. 1634 / COURTESY FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

A Fortnight of Rembrandt: Selected Etchings from the Mower Collection

Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts

Sept. 20 through Oct. 6

From the Herald Tribune

Original etchings by the 17th century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn are on display at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee during a special two-week exhibition that is free and open to the public.

More than 60 etchings are on loan from philanthropists Drs. Tobia and Morton Mower of Baltimore who will visit campus, along with their curator, Aaron Young, for related events at the museum.

"A Fortnight of Rembrandt: Selected Etchings from the Mower Collection" opens Sept. 20, and will be on display through Oct. 6.

"Tobia and I are delighted to share our collection with FSU so that others can appreciate Rembrandt's unparalleled artistic talent and unique ability to capture the lives and times of his era," said Morton Mower.

"Rembrandt is a thrilling prospect. Works by this 17th century artist have become part of our visual lexicon in high art as well as popular culture," said Allys Palladino-Craig, director of the Museum of Fine Arts. "His prints of the mighty and the humble, of landscapes and mythological scenes, of Bible stories and character studies are all represented in the remarkable Mower Collection."
Additional Rembrandt works to be shown at the museum include "The Raising of Lazarus," "Christ Preaching" and "The Descent from the Cross."

The Mowers have loaned works from their personal collection to a number of universities. The Office of the Vice President for Research is sponsoring the exhibition at Florida State's Museum of Fine Arts.

The Museum of Fine Arts will host educational activities and workshops with FSU students and local K-12 students in conjunction with the Rembrandt exhibition.

Museum hours during the exhibition are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursdays; 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

The museum is the east wing of the Fine Arts Building at 530 W. Call St., Tallahassee. (850) 644-6836

 

Contemporary Kōgei Styles in Japan - Morikami Museum - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Contemporary Kōgei Styles in Japan
 
October 8, 2013 - February 23, 2014

This exhibition brings together approximately 90 Kōgei-style artworks comprising ceramics, textiles, dolls, and works of metal, lacquer, wood, bamboo, and glass created by 40 of Japan’s most influential and leading Kōgei artists of international renown. The exhibit is organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Ministry of  Foreign Affairs, Consulate General of Japan in Miami and Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens with special collaboration from the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, All Nippon Airways Co., LTD., and Stella M. Holmes.

Morikami Museum website here

Smithsonian Museum Day - Free Admission to Local Museums - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Museum Day 
Saturday 9/28/2013

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket... for free. 

Museum Day info here 
Map of Participating Museums here

Perez Art Museum Miami launches African-American art collection with Knight funds - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Faith Ringgold’s Black Light Series #1: Big Black (1967), now a part of the 

Perez Art Museum Miami’s permanent collection. 

Photo credit: nmwa.org

Perez Art Museum Miami launches African-American art collection 

with Knight funds

When it opens on the Miami waterfront in December, the Perez Art Museum Miami will have a collection devoted to contemporary African-American art, thanks to a $1 million gift from Knight Foundation and real estate developer and art collector Jorge M. Perez, the Miami Herald reported. For Knight, the funding is a way to ensure the new museum both reflects and engages the community that surrounds it.

“Diversity is one of our great assets. Collections that reflect the range of our cultures might challenge us; but if it’s great art, it will not only inspire us, it will connect us to one another and to our Miami home,” Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation’s president, said of the gift...

In 2007, Knight Foundation also provided a $10 million endowment grant to PAMM, to ensure that 40,000 Miami-Dade students will enjoy the collection annually.

The collection of African-American contemporary art is so far unnamed.

“We believe that there are likeminded patrons out there who believe in the idea of this fund allowing the museum to create a more diverse collection and because of that, we’ve chosen not to name the fund based upon our gift,” Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation’s vice president/arts told the Herald. “We want to give somebody else the chance to step up and take advantage of that opportunity.”

Perez Art Museum Miami website found here
Knights Arts found here