Art Wynwood: Show Recap & Artist Spotlights

Miami is a hub for arts and culture. In fact, galleries of all sizes travel far and wide to come to Miami to share their artists' work with our sophisticated art collectors. Most of these art collectors live in spacious million-dollar luxury homes, located in affluent neighborhoods, so they have the wherewithal to acquire new artwork as they please. 

There’s a reason why Miami continues to host annual art fairs as it’s proven to be a success for both the artists and the art collectors involved. 

Art Basel is the biggest and highest grossing art market of the year which occurs every December and brings in hundreds and thousands of people from all parts of the world. It is Miami Beach's largest art fair that includes leading galleries from five continents showing significant works by the master's in modern and contemporary art, as well as a new generation of emerging stars. 

Aside from Art Basel, Miami also hosts another show, Art Wynwood, which is a premier winter contemporary and modern art fair, on a much smaller scale. This year the show was held from February 14th through February 18th, falling on Presidents Day weekend. 

Thousands of art enthusiasts headed to Downtown Miami’s One Herald Plaza to see artworks and sculptures from over 50 local and international galleries showcasing over 500 artists' creativity and unique individual techniques.

Drawing more than 25,000 attendees during the 5-day event, this show did not disappoint. Beginning with a Wednesday VIP premiere preview for serious art collectors and ending with quite a shock as a massive storm hit the downtown area flooding walkways - but not stopping the crowd from showing up. 

I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be a part of this event throughout the entire five days which allowed me to discover all of the art that was being presented in every gallery.

I must say, I was taken back at how many artists created their pieces with the use of bright bold colors which brightened up the entire art fair experience. 

There were some incredible works of art by wildly talented artists who used thick textures, various fabrics, stones, and fascinating techniques that had me thinking "how did they do that?". Here's a short video to show you my personal experience at Art Wynwood.

One gallery in particular, Blue Gallery located in Delray Beach, stood out to me the most as it showcased eye-catching colorful original collections of internationally acclaimed artists paintings and sculptures that shared abstracts, semi-realistic, realistic and figurative styles. 

I had the pleasure of meeting with the founder/owner, Rami Rotkopf (pictured in blue), and his family at the show. I asked him how he got in the art business, and this is what he shared with me.

Here are some of my favorite pieces and some interesting facts about each artist which I found fascinating. 

David Schluss is an Israeli-born artist, currently 81 years old, and lives here locally in Florida. Influenced by artists like Chagall, Miro, Botero, he paints with his hands, using his fingers as paintbrushes. It was an accidental discovery that he now uses this technique. It was while he was working on a painting that he made a mistake and used his hands along with a rag to fix it - that’s when he realized that this process made the painting far more interesting than what he had created with his brush. This prompted him to use his hands for all of his work moving forward. His graceful and whimsical paintings are a representation of celebration, joy, and enthusiasm shown in an artistic way. His work is displayed in museums and various exhibits worldwide. 

Joel Amit is an Israeli-born artist, currently 42 years old, currently residing in Jerusalem. He received his architecture degree from Bezel Arts and Design Academy and then spent his time planning and building students and artists villages in the Negev desert. He took his experience in constructing, knowledge of building materials, and started creating two-dimensional metal wall and wood sculptures with 600-800 individually painted laser cut metal pieces. Amit calls his art the “Staccato '' movement which represents beauty and spontaneity of life in a magical and rhythmic way.

Sveta Esser is a Russian-born artist, currently 49 years old, resides in Germany. She creates her Pixel Realism work of art by only using the pallet knife where she starts from the top making her way down to the bottom with each square at a time with no color being alike. Her style of art can be described as “Pixel Art” or “Pixelism” as you view the painting as an image through your phone since our phones are pixelated, while our eyes are not. 

At the end of the day, attending these art shows are a way for you to experience a visual stimulation and heighten your personal understanding. Art is subjective and affects people differently so make the time to attend an art show when you can to allow your mind to think outside the box.