MAG Magazine

Fortunately, as Miamians, we are exposed to an extreme variety of art forms. We have evolved with our city, and have come to find art in the most unexpected places. We appreciate our streets, walls, and spaces, our incomparable vibe, but must at some point question where it all came from.

Last December, just before the holidays, I spoke with Dance NOW! Miami founders and creative directors Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten about Miami Open Stage, their new quarterly open stage series showcasing local talent at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

Armed with an enormous metal crossbow (seemingly lifted from the pages of feudal folklore versus an artist’s studio), using wooden 2 x 4’s as ammunition, Justin Long and Robert ‘Meatball’ Lorie invited onlookers to initiate a countdown (on one particular evening, each successive countdown was shouted out in a different language each time) until a ‘target board’ roughly 100 yards away was … +

A dose of popular culture made its way into the Dorsch Gallery, most recognizable for presenting works and metaphors far away from the likes of Hollywood, Obama gnomes and Picasso.

February 16 through 20, 2012. Can the contemporary art community in Miami harness the busy aura of Art Basel Miami Beach…in February? The creators of Art Miami aim to find out with the launch of Art Wynwood, launching its inaugural edition over President’s Day weekend.

One of the premier orchestras in the world looks to cement its place in Miami Miami plays host to some of the finest arts organizations and events in the nation. For several seasons now, South Florida also has been the locale for what is arguably the greatest symphony in the United States, the Cleveland Orchestra.

  Can the contemporary art community in Miami harness the busy aura of Art Basel Miami Beach…in February? The creators of Art Miami aim to find out with the launch of Art Wynwood, launching its inaugural edition over President’s Day weekend.

  The most pedestrian friendly conglomeration of fairs were located at the stalled Midtown Miami development where, the Bridge, Red Dot, Art Miami, Photo Miami, Scope, Art Asia and the Green art fairs all pitched tents. There was plenty of parking nearby and unusually thin traffic compared to recent years.

Apart from the major institutions here in Miami (MAM, MOCA, Bass and the private collections), it’s rather difficult to get up close to works by internationally established artists, considered masters in their own country. In Wynwood, the Ascaso Gallery breaks that spell.

Miami’s Mad Cat Theatre Company is currently running its last show of the season, So My Grandmother Died, Blah Blah Blah, and it’s a real crowd-pleaser. Daringly blending a motley assortment of off-the-wall characters with a script that’s both emotionally deep and gut-wrenchingly funny, writer-director Paul Tei has yet again brought some new and wacky life to the city’s theater scene. If … +

There have been a lot of changes at the Bass Museum lately. The most notable of these might be the external arrival area, recently redesigned into a naturally flowing and attractive space by Oppenheim Architecture + Design. But there’s more going on, and one only needs to head just inside the museum’s doors to catch a glimpse of its further transformation. This … +

It’s an enormously dangerous task to try and meld fashion and fine art in Miami; a city that, in the global imagination, has its fashion credibility stapled in bikinis, barely-there shirts and dresses, and spangly Ed Hardy nonsense. Fashion illustration, on the other hand, is another matter. The raw, instinctive and fast-paced creations of past masters including Cecil Beaton, René Gruau and … +

Some say that the Opera is not for everyone; declared by most as an acquired taste, it is often an intimidating venture for those looking to break into the select aficionado club. Always advocates for the discovery of new, and old, passions in the Miami Art Scene, Opera – and the Miami Lyric Opera to be exact – will be no exception … +

The Betsy-South Beach has long been a purveyor of fine art. With their latest exhibition – a career retrospective of photographer Robert Zuckerman – they continue to showcase dynamic and innovative pieces; and these are particularly worth seeing. From the works that marked Zuckerman’s foray into photography during the 1970s to his current labor of love – a meditative amalgam of photos … +

With the arrival of Facebook in 2004, a new frontier for communications and interpersonal relationships was established. With many in favor – and no less against – the Social Network stands up today with more than 700 million registered users. As a result, Social Networks have become a standard in today’s world, and many leading industries already count on their own niche … +

The hipster in me takes credit for knowing hit songs before they are even written, discovering new bands before they form, hot spots before they’re hot, and artists before they emerge; the hipster in me has met a perfect match. PAX (Performing Arts Exchange) has one-upped me and thrown me back into the dreamy-eyed leagues of the awestruck local. Only a bit … +

Mitchell Kaplan took a look around in the early 1980s, disheartened by what looked back. His community was on the ropes. “If you remember Miami back then,” he said a while ago, “it was a pretty bleak time back in 1982. The Mariel boatlift had just happened a couple of years before. Even TIME magazine had a cover story entitled Miami: Paradise … +

Things have been busy for Constance Collins Margulies. For the past year, the president of the Lotus House Shelter has also been working on a project that, she hopes, will turn the Miami art world upside down. She is the ringmaster for the staggering array of art that from October 21st through 23rd will spill onto the streets of the Wynwood Art … +

The evolutionary process behind the Wynwood art district is a defining and ongoing one. Since the neighborhood formed, it has been an epicenter for Miami’s progressive, innovative artistic community, thanks, in large part, to the dynamic galleries that compose it. Of these, one of the most recent to emerge is Maor Gallery.

The city of Miami is no stranger to Cuban heritage – and that’s an understatement, to say the least – the home of The Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, the famous Calle Ocho and Viernes Culturales, and what Miamian doesn’t enjoy a cortadito after lunch? Yes, these are staples of the Cuban community of South Florida, but Choreographer and Artistic Director Pedro … +

It’s not often that the notion of a Medieval illuminated manuscript leaps off the page into the physical world. Less often does that richly decorated text reach into theatre and scientific observation at the same time. In extravagant, Caribbean-tinged color and painstakingly researched flora and fauna, Mark Messersmith initiates contemplation and foreshadows the sinister possibilities of nature’s steady erosion from human abuses. … +