Travel Review
Winter 2023/24
Miami Art Show 2023
Part I of II
Trend Magazine Online™

By Jay Whipple

Trend Magazine Online™

Art, Art, and More Art...Portions Re-published from a previous edition!

UPDATE! This year Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami, and Aqua Art Miami, will take place from December 5 - December 10, 2023. Art Winwood will take place February 14 - February 18, 2024, and Art of Transformation AFRICA Global will return to Opa Locka from December 2 - December 10, 2023. This 9-day event is part of Miami Art Week/Art Basel and reportedly is South Florida's largest display of African disaspora art. The city of Opa-Locka is covered on the QCT Miami Daily Black Heritage Tour^sm.

Click on the following lists of 2023 Exhibitors: Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami, Aqua Art Miami!

Miami Art Show 2019 Highlights...

I had been applying to attend and cover this event since 2015 when finally in 2018 I received an invite from the good folks at R. Couri Hay Creative PR located in New York City. I was not able to personally attend due to a previous engagement with tours in Charlotte, NC, so I tasked two of my associates to cover this eclectic display of art from around the globe. Comic book author Jeff Carroll and his wife Nivia, who is a photographer, kept their word and did attend as promised and I was able to put together a piece based on their photos and feedback.

<<<Lyric Theatre Event

While assembling that article I could not help but to wonder what it was like to experience those wonderful works of art in person. That opportunity came knocking nearly a year later in 2019 when our publication was re-invited by the good folks at the Olivia Cole Gallery located in the trendy nationally-renowned art district known as Wynwood right here in Miami. I was available to go this time around and could not wait to experience first-hand what my associates enjoyed the previous year as they perused from art piece to art piece.

Street Festival>>>

<<<Street Festival Vendors

I decided to kill two birds with one stone by first stopping at a street fair that was near the Historic Lyric Theatre which was the venue for The Art of Conversation; an event that was free to the public and featured live musical entertainment. I reserved a spot but was too pooped to party after covering the CONTEXT Miami Art Show event. I arrived at my main destination at approximately 2:15 PM after catching the free Metro Mover Downtown after transferring from the Metrorail. Fortunately I did not have far to walk from the Omni stop near Biscayne Boulevard which was only about a tenth of a mile from the CONTEXT Art Miami pop up display tents.

^^^Dog?

<<<Art Circuits Guide

I was immediately introduced to what was to come after walking up on a very dark-looking exhibit featuring a dog. I then heading towards what I believed was the main entrance to the exhibit but was given a slight run around as I was told to go over here, then there, then here again before I ran into a nice gentleman named Juan at the Art Miami entrance who was working the event and was nice enough to allow me to enter that pop up tent then walk to the CONTEXT area in a different section of that enormous tent.

^^^Butterfield Horse

<<<Black Forest

Once inside the CONTEXT tent I was immediately impressed by the atmosphere, art enthusiasts, and the greeter that furnish me with a really slick Art Circuits Guide that detailed all of the major fairs taking place in Miami by area. I then proceeded into the exhibit and encountered my first "stop here inkling" that featured what appeared to be a bronze horse but turned out to be actually crafted with wood. The artist is Deborah Butterfield who was born and raised in San Diego, CA, and began creating sculptures in the form of horses in the 1970's first from mud, clay, and sticks; then scrap metal and found steel, and today bronze work cast from "stray, downed pieces of wood." Her work was presented by the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery of Chicago, IL.

My next stop here inkling came as a result of what I interpreted as a mind trick piece that featured black and white spirals that were somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite throw-back scary shows The Twilight Zone starring Rod Serling. The presenting gallery was Espace Meyer Zafra of Paris/New York which has a track record dating back to 2000 and focuses on Latin American and European artists who specialize in optical art, kinetics and geometric abstraction. Next up was an exhibit that got my interest because it featured my favorite color Black in the form of a forest. The presenter was the Galleria Alfredo Ginocchio of Mexico City Mexico which has been in business for 30 years and has displayed the works of 46 artists.

Eyeballs>>>

I could not help but stop at this next exhibit as I was drawn to it by a set of eye balls curiously staring at me from a framed piece of art. At first it appears to be one set of eye balls but they double as you draw closer. I am not quite sure of just how this illusion has been accomplished but suffice it to say that it is a stroke of genius. The presenter of this whimsical work was Spoke Art of New York City. I am an Army Veteran so this next exhibit was a no-brainer as it caught my attention primarily because it features familiar folks in uniform ascending steps while distracted by a pretty girl wearing a bathing suit. The presenter was SAY Art Space based in Seoul South Korea (we did some training near there back in the 1980's) and Los Angeles, CA; who provide space to artists "regardless of their nationality, age, or genre."

This next exhibit caught my attention because I thought that I was seeing things when it appeared to actually move. It features sunflowers in the foreground and ships on the ocean in the background. If you stare at it for a minute the flowers seem to move either by imagination or for real. I could not figure out which theory was true but the title "Moving Flowers" suggests the latter. The presenter of this puzzling work was the Blink Group Fine Art Gallery located right here in Miami and not too far from this area off Biscayne Boulevard. Their "mission is to ensure that every detail and every aspect of our artist and client relations is perfect."

Click here to plan a group visit next year!

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