Artistically Social

Amy Rosenberg's Miami Art Events Recap

Amy Rosenberg is an attorney and arts and environmental advocate who founded the Arsht Center’s young patrons group and is the co-founder of the environmental non-profit organization Dream in Green. Amy is a member of Art Basel’s Junior Host Committee and sits on the boards of LegalArt, the Funding Arts Network, New World Symphony’s executive committee and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers.

Season has come upon us early this year. Art and people-watching were at its peak during Wynwood’s Second Saturday Gallery Walk. The raw, gritty area west of the Miami Design District was transformed into Chelsea by the throngs of art lovers – dolled up in everything from couture to mesh and mohawks.

“Collapsing Inward,” Christian Curiel’s show at Kevin Bruk was one of the evening’s standouts. Curiel, a former Miami boy, now living and creating in Brooklyn, is a gifted storyteller whose images of children in seemingly innocent situations evokes a whiff of death, dislocation and dread. Onlookers gazed in awe at his lone sculpture, “The Struggle” with the sense that they were looking at a giant scoop of hot pink soft-serve ice cream resting on a base of glitter and salt.

Clifton Childree’s R-rated transformation of alternative art space Locust Projects into DREAM-CUM-TRU, an adult-themed amusement park fallen into debauched decay amused and enraptured the crowd. The low and high point for many was the enclosed labyrinth that led to a tiny walled room with a narrow slit through which the maze walkers were free to anonymously molest anyone who walked by.

Artist Daniel Arsham’s long-awaited opening at Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery generated ooh’s and ahh’s from the crowd. A visiting curator from Toronto keen on Daniel’s show was overheard saying that his painting style was so good it looked like photography. A compliment indeed!

New World Symphony patrons were treated to a blast of Baroque at the Vivaldi and Bartok concert at the Lincoln Theater. The symphony was followed by an exclusive fete for Friends of New World Symphony at white- hot nightclub SET. Guest nibbled on hors d’oueuvres courtesy of Thierry’s Catering and sipped complimentary Grey Goose cocktails while listening to lilting renditions of Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley classics played on the flute. Friends of New World Symphony is a group of young supporters of the celebrated Miami-based orchestral academy who strive to bring classical music to future generations. The group promotes its cause through concerts and events that regularly feature progressive musical arrangements that highlight the Symphony’s groundbreaking style.

The wonderfully eclectic Wolfsonian-FIU is now showing “Thoughts on Democracy,” a reinterpretation by sixty noted contemporary artists of the 1943 Norman Rockwell series “Four Freedoms.” Rockwell’s illustrations were originally published in the Saturday Evening Post and graphically depict the American concepts of freedom of speech and worship and freedom from want and fear. The illustrations were later turned into posters and raised $133 million during the height of World War II for the war effort. The current crop of posters are quirky, comical and often ruminative. Several allude to the current war in Iraq, Guantanamo and the subprime mortgage crisis. The exhibition was made possible through a special grant from the Funding Arts Network, a dynamic local arts non-profit organization, in partnership with the James L. Knight Foundation.

The works were as dazzling as the people at the IKF preview auction that took place at the Art Center on Lincoln Road. Guests sampled rare beef on plantain chips as they mingled and examined the four displayed works of art. Organizers revealed the new four color auction catalogue chock-full of cutting edge art from leading contemporary Latin American artists. The official auction will kick off on October 14th at CIFO (Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation) and proceeds will benefit children in need of life-saving medical care.

LegalArt, a non-profit organization with the goal of nurturing and protecting the rights of Miami’s art community , flew in artist-activist Joe Uehlein and attorney Jennifer Hill to present a riveting and important seminar on Art and Activism. Those in attendance discussed ways in which artists can help promote change in Miami and the world.

MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, had a who’s who of artists and collectors at its opening for “Dark Continents.” Jason and Michelle Rubell were casually taking in the art alongside the irreverent Bert Rodriguez and Adler Guerrier, two artists whose work appeared in the2008 Whitney Biennial. The works referenced femininity and nature and included a large-scale murals, drawings and sculptures.

Last but not least, Lolo Reskin, the heart and brains behind Sweat Records (the only independent record store and organic coffee house in Miami) gathered a cadre of music lovers at Churchill’s to raise desperately needed funds for Sweat. Last week, Sweat was robbed and vandalized. Indie music favorite Jesse Jackson was one of the organizers and performers at the first of several events to raise funds.

Until next time…