After a decade in the spotlight, Miami’s art scene has produced some Winners & Losers

The first decade of this new century was, for Miami, all about the visual arts. The past ten years changed the way the world viewed us, and perhaps more important, they way we viewed ourselves. A place formerly known for Scarface and scandals, Miami Vice and South Beach nightclubs, gained a more substantial reputation as an exciting center for contemporary art.

The 2002 arrival of the prestigious art fair from Switzerland, Art Basel, put Miami on the international map. Art Basel’s directors chose Miami for their American debut because they saw something extraordinary here: a vibrant and burgeoning homegrown art scene in which talented individuals who once might have moved to New York instead decided to stay put, to make art and to teach. They attracted other talented artists, who moved to Miami to join them.

Our institutions -- the museums and schools that in some cases barely existed in the previous century -- progressed with surprising speed in quality, competence, and reputation.

Miami gained a firm footing in the cultural landscape, with a number of true winners to show for it. But along the way, some of the quirky and charming artistic joie de vivre that had made it special was forfeited.

As 2009 comes to a close, it would seem an appropriate time to look back at what has been won and what was lost, what was established and what was forgotten during Miami’s art decade.

Art Basel Miami Beach The world’s largest contemporary art fair is now part of Miami’s cultural lore, starting with the tale of Basel’s Miami Beach debut, which was canceled after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It came ashore the following year to great fanfare and fun, and Miami’s arts scene has never been the same. Even as financial bubbles began to burst, it seemed as though the extravagance of the December super-glam week, where artwork jumped off the walls and into the hands of collectors big and small, would never diminish. But in fact this year’s Art Basel is a somewhat downsized event, which is fine. A little breathing room at this point is a good thing.

MOCA Over the decade, North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art solidified its position as the best contemporary museum in the area. (That there is even competition is another winning point for Miami.) Thanks in large part to the leadership of its director, Bonnie Clearwater, the museum has built a cohesive collection, with an impressive number of local artists included, and produced and imported professional, inspired exhibits. There have been a few missteps. The same roster of local artists can get repetitive, as can some of the conceptual themes behind recent shows. But MOCA has made Miami proud.

Dorsch Gallery Brook Dorsch moved his gallery to a warehouse in Wynwood in 2000, one of the first to recognize the area’s potential, and hence Miami’s potential. Since its raw beginnings, the gallery has grown into a handsome yet still authentic exhibition space. In a break from the crowd-pleasing, youth-oriented predilections of Miami, during Basel the gallery will feature a retrospective of Robert Thiele, an artist who has truly grown with Miami. More than 30 years already. Practically ancient!

Major Art Collectors Miami can have an inflated image of itself, and Miami’s art collectors can have inflated egos to match. But in this case, our big and important collectors really are big and important -- and there is no doubt Miami has benefited. For instance, Micky Wolfson’s collection was the foundation for the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum. Dacra Development chief and collector Craig Robins is the force behind Design Miami. Few cities can boast as many notable private collections that are open to the public, such as those of Martin Margulies, the Rubell family, and Debra and Dennis Scholl. Their exhibition spaces are now joined by the brand-new Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space in the Design District. In addition, Tony Goldman and family will soon take over the former MOCA Goldman Warehouse to display works from their private collection

Fredric Snitzer Gallery Fred Snitzer has run the most successful gallery of the decade, with artists lining up to be on his roster, and buyers lining up acquire their works. He has developed a reputation as the man with the eye for young, cutting-edge artists. This year his gallery is once again in an exclusive position at Art Basel -- that is, at the main show in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Snitzer’s is one of only two Miami galleries selected to participate this year. (There used to be a few more, such as Bernice Steinbaum, Diana Lowenstein, and Genaro Ambrosino, who were dropped. But then, they didn’t sit in another exclusive position occupied by Snitzer -- on Art Basel’s selection committee.) Like no other gallery, Snitzer is synonymous with Miami’s contemporary art scene.

Painting Enough of the hard-to-understand and even harder to sell installation and conceptual stuff. During an economic slump it’s all painting all the time.

Broward The ugly step-child of South Florida’s art scene no more. Broward has come into its artistic own with the arrival the excellent Girls Club gallery in Fort Lauderdale, the private exhibition space featuring the collections of Francie Bishop Good and David Horowitz, and the revival of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood.

New World School of the Arts This relatively new institution (1987) boasts graduates who shaped Miami’s art community through national and international recognition, along with instructors who are well-respected artists themselves. The unique magnet high school program and the college component have made a significant contribution to the growth of Miami’s cultural community -- all this with very limited funding.

Locust Projects Since 1999 this nonprofit alternative space has been providing artists a refuge to make experimental, often site-specific work free from the demands of the for-profit world. At its original location in gritty Wynwood, this could mean shows that were delightful, surreal, or just plain messy. Now Locust has grown up, got itself a board of directors, and last spring moved to a new spot in the Design District, where the results thus far have been mixed. It now attracts more crowds and more money, but also indulges in stuff like “tastings” with contestants from Bravo’s Top Chef. Not exactly the kind of the challenge art aficionados were looking for.

Terence Riley It seems like only yesterday that Terry Riley was spirited way from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and enthroned as director of the Miami Art Museum. Then, a couple of days later (actually this past October, three and a half years later), he announced his resignation, effective immediately. It seemed abrupt, but upon reflection Riley had achieved his main goal: commissioning a new bayfront museum, designed by renowned Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. If completed, it’s likely to become Miami’s most spectacular building. If not, most likely for financial reasons, someone else (not Riley) will be left holding the bag, along with the myriad other problems facing our principal public museum.

Design District The area has hit highs and lows as an arts destination over the past ten years, but now with the very successful Design Miami fair an anchor during Art Basel, and some cool art galleries back in the neighborhood, it’s on a winning streak again. That means Craig Robins is too. He’s the developer and collector who almost single-handedly revived the area, and who has helped fuel it with donated art spaces and public art through times good and bad.

Dennis Scholl and the Knight Foundation Arts Challenge There is serious art money flowing to the community from this Miami-based foundation, and seriously good reasons to befriend Dennis Scholl, a respected Miami art collector, various arts-board member, and the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director. In that capacity, Scholl oversees the five-year, $20 million Arts Challenge, which this month will distribute $3.7 million to 20 local groups and individuals. (The winners are announced elsewhere in this issue of the BT.) That much money has the power to make and break, so it’s important it is doled out fairly and equitably.

Art Photography The genre has always struggled to get some respect, often considered a not-so “fine” form of the arts. But Miami has given it some real cred, with several of our local collectors having amassed important compilations. In addition, last year Dina Mitrani opened a gallery devoted entirely to contemporary art photography. For the fourth year in a row “photo MIAMI” will be one of the major satellite fairs in Midtown during Art Basel.

The Walls of Wynwood Let’s face it -- Wynwood has always been ugly. Essentially a warehouse district with little in the way of architecture or foliage of any kind, beauty was only found indoors. But that is changing with the proliferation of eye-popping outdoor murals, some legally commissioned, others not so legal. Credit for the legal murals goes to Primary Flight, a collaborative effort begun in 2007 and now involving more than 100 contributing artists. Their graffiti-inspired work can be dramatic and wild, or more somber and figurative. Whatever the case, they’ve changed the face of this urban landscape for the better. And it will change significantly again during this year’s Art Basel, when collector and Wynwood developer Tony Goldman partners with the über-cool New York-based Deitch Projects for a “Street Art Mural Park.” International muralists will cover Goldman properties to create what they say will be “one of the largest collections of outdoor art in the U.S.”

Wolfsonian-FIU Museum Loosely devoted to 19th- and 20th-century design, the Wolfsonian always comes out on top, not only because of its tightly curated, niche exhibitions that feature propaganda art, architecture, furniture, and even cars; and not only because of the leadership of longtime director Cathy Leff; but also because it resides in a stunning Art Deco building that’s fun to visit whatever the offering. Up for this Art Basel: exhibits highlighting automobile designs and advertising.

Very Young Artists After jumping from one gallery or museum show to another, it can seem that the emphasis in Miami is less on the art itself and more on the (young) age of the artist. Emerging artists, of course, can create exciting, challenging work with a fresh view, and Miami has made a name for itself from just such art. But as a result young artists too often are shown and promoted prematurely. For the time being, however, that seems to be a winning calculation.

LOSERS

Galerie Perrotin Aside from Art Basel itself, no other Miami arrival was as heralded as this star-studded French gallery. In 2005 it flung open the doors of its fabulously renovated two-story building in Wynwood, after which Miami’s heightened position in the art world was supposed to be cemented forever. But for Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami turned out to be a one-week town. After the Basel crowds departed, others failed to fill in for the rest of the year. So Perrotin closed his doors last year. Despite that official closing, there is a show there, open for one week during Basel.

Conceptual Art No, it’s not dead, but you could say it’s on life support. Conceptualism, based on the idea that the concept is as important as the product (sometimes simply anything that is not painting or sculpture) was born in the latter half of the 20th Century and gained prominence in recent years, with the likes of Damien Hirst as its superstars. Here in Miami, good examples can be seen at places like David Castillo Gallery and Locust Projects. But in this time of the Great Recession, sprawling, high-concept installations (and some would say increasingly incomprehensible works and theories) have lost much of their radiance.

Coral Gables The art center of the last century, the Gables and its art walk slowed to a crawl, and most of its important galleries decamped to Wynwood. Today it is home to only few interesting outlets, although the work of some noteworthy Latin artists can still be found there.

The Containers One of the most novel and cool contributions from Art Basel in the early years. International galleries exhibited their artists in actual shipping containers arrayed next to Miami Beach’s boardwalk. A sand-filled, martini-fueled hike among them was on the must-do list for Basel’s opening night. But the container offerings got a little musty over the decade, and this year Art Basel pulled the plug.

Performance Art This exciting art form and its cadre of daring performers (talented Miami natives among them) still can’t find much funding or much of a home, outside of random gallery opening nights. At the beginning of the decade, there was promise. Unique interactive spaces such as PS 742 in Little Havana provided an outlet for local performance expression, while the Moore Space in the Design District brought in out-of-towners we’d never seen. It’s a real loss for an art town.

Alternative Art Outlets As Miami’s art scene grew, and more opportunities developed to show work and make money through the commercial route, difficult and unprofitable efforts to run noncommercial spaces lost appeal. A few artist-run spaces exist today, the Bas Fisher Invitational being one, but in the new era, they need grants to survive.

Second Saturdays Over the decade, art walks through Wynwood and the Design District, the second Saturday of each month, morphed into the focal point of Miami’s cultural world. After Art Basel satellite fairs literally set up tents, putting the areas on the radar for visitors and locals alike, increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds hit the urban streets -- art buyers and observers alike. But a devolution of sorts has taken place, with fewer art aficionados on hand and more under-age kids looking for drinks. It’s become so unpleasant for some that there have been rumblings of certain galleries not opening at all on the sacred second Saturday.

The Moore Space Yet another unique art space that is no more. Experimental art and performers found a welcoming home here in the Design District for eight years, funded by collectors Rosa de la Cruz and Craig Robins. Given the dearth of performance spaces in town, maybe most missed will be those out-there evenings featuring Joan Jonas, Kalup Linzy, or Tracy + The Plastics.

Legacy Galleries At the beginning of the decade, even before Art Basel arrived, an artistic scene was sprouting, and much of it was being nurtured at spunky local galleries. But as inevitably happens, when a scene grows, along with rents, some won’t make it. Sadly, the nurturing homes for many of our native artists vanished. Most notably missed: Chris Ingalls, Genaro Ambrosino, and Leonard Tachmes.

Impromptu Art Those first few Art Basels at the beginning of the century threw off sparks of energy -- warehouses, streets, nooks and crannies filled with all kinds of crazy exuberance, courtesy of our own crafters and jesters. Vans were known to park and set up video art screenings on the spot. The late artist known as K-Man would open his suitcase on various street corners and present “the world’s smallest art fair.” The huge OMNI Art event encompassed several blocks west of what is now the performing arts center -- warehouses filled with monumental installations, empty lots and streets taken over by art of all types. George Sanchez created a Le Corbusier model house beneath an I-395 overpass, and a midnight party ensued. You’ll still find pockets of impromptu artistic encounters, but not quite like that.

Miami Art Central MAC was the stunningly beautiful exhibition center near the University of Miami. Funded by collector and arts patron Ella Fontanals Cisneros, it hosted some of the most remarkable and memorable shows to ever hit Miami. Alas, it was too good (and maybe too expensive) to be true, and closed its doors three years ago, leaving Miami the poorer for it.

Art Miami Miami’s senior contemporary art fair has had a hard time finding a voice and footing in its 20 years of existence. The presentation was erratic and the quality inconsistent, along with its leadership. And for most of this past decade, it took place a month after Art Basel. Talk about bad timing. But last year it joined in the early-December bacchanalia, setting up shop under an impressive tent in Midtown. Great move. With its new director and owners, better curation, and cool digs, Art Miami just might go from loser to winner.

MAM We want the Miami Art Museum to be a winner. We really do. The museum has executed some wonderful shows, and succeeded in promoting good local art in its excellent “New Works” series. It’s clear that being a dependent of Miami-Dade County can’t be easy, politically or financially, but MAM has never been able to articulate a clear vision of what it wants to be. At a time when the collection remains anemic and public funding has been drastically cut, MAM also lost its director, Terry Riley, leaving it even more rudderless. But if a focused new director can be found, and if intelligently curated collecting proceeds apace, and if the new Herzog & de Meuron building materializes on Biscayne Bay, MAM will have the last laugh.

The Living Room The jumbo size outdoor installation on the corner of N. Miami Avenue and 40th Street in the Design District -- a giant pink living room with lamps, curtains, and a big open window -- delighted both art lovers and regular folks when it was completed in 2001. The Living Room held great promise as an example of how inspired public projects like this could rejuvenate our blighted landscape. Commissioned by Dacra Development’s Craig Robins, the work, created by Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt, fell into disrepair after Robins sold the property to prominent Mexican businessman Ernesto Rimoch, who demolished the attached building. Today a collapsing chain-link fence and crappy graffiti have turned it back into that blighted landscape it had come save. The 30-foot-tall curtains fell off long ago.

TransEat This quirky “laboratory for gustatory experimentation and social action” that housed the “Miami Bureau of the Food Culture Museum” was run by Barcelona natives Montse Guillen and Antoni Miralda, both international artists and chefs. Hence an opening evening included artworks mixed with experimental appetizers made from, say, bugs. There never has been -- and probably never will be again -- a place like TransEat.

Emerged Artists In this youth/child obsessed city, good luck to you if you have an actual body of work to show for your artistic endeavors. You might want to hide that, along with your birth date. Over the years, work from more established artists began disappearing at an accelerated -- and depressing -- rate from museums and especially gallery walls. Maybe in the “teen” years of the next decade curators and directors will again take a chance on emerged artists.

Feedback: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it