
"Art Week in Miami has been, basically, the culmination of the year's efforts and begins the next season at the same time. We will be showing works at Aqua, Red Dot and doing Square Foot Art Basel Miami Redux, a call-to-artists exhibition in our Miami gallery," says Helen Hyder, director of Projects Gallery. "The latter represents approximately 200 12"x12" works from, literally, across the globe, based on the idea of a democratic approach of first come first served as we automatically accept the works of the first 100 artist who apply."
Square Foot Art Basel Miami Redux is a brilliant idea. No curators, no judges-- just artists from across the globe who take the initiative to submit their art to Projects Gallery. YOU, the viewer are the curator and judge. I can see MFAs who don't do art pulling their hair and shrieking "YOU CAN'T DO THAT." In fact, you can. One huge problem in the art world is the various forms of elitism. Projects strike a blow here against all of them (yes, others have done similar things but all too infrequently).
The gallery is located at Wynwood Lofts, Unit 208, 250 NW 23rd St., Miami.
The gallery makes an effort to work with artists who have an unusual approach with materials and whose work shows a mastery of technique.
"Projects Gallery is a gallery that functions with a brick and mortar location but, over the last 10 years, has become increasingly involved in doing art fairs," says Hyder. "The esthetic glue of the gallery has been our interest in artists who work with unique yet ordinary materials, and the challenge has been to build reputations with artists we have worked with for a number of years and at the same time develop and discover new artists who continue to enhance the gallery platform."
Images below from Projects Gallery's Room at Aqua 2013
-Harry Enchin, a software developer and innovative image creator from Toronto, Canada uses archived 100-year-old photographs that are integrated with contemporary reshoots.
-Joanne Mattera, art blogger, art critic, curator, writer and artist, who specializes in encaustic works.
-Shirley Steele, from Texas , innovatively marries technology and image generation in unique digital printmaking techniques.
-Vivian Wolovitz, from the horse country outside of Philadelphia, well-known and extensively shown in New York , wil show new pieces from her Greek residency.
-Alex Queral, born in Cuba, creates innovative portraits carved into telephone books. His work is represented in numerous books on contemporary book making and in several museum collections, including Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the Woodmere Museum of Art.
-Dana Donaty, from the Miami area, a successful muralist who will be debuting her high-energy, vivid fantasy and reality paintings.
-Margery Amdur, fresh from a series of museum shows across the U.S.A, will be installing one of her unique, complex sponge-based sculptures.
-Florence Putterman, a practicing 87-year-old icon of women painters, whose work is included in numerous museums and is the subject of numerous art magazine reviews, will be showing work. Her work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
-Ira Upin will show images from his strong-man series (currently on exhibit at Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art and the Venice International Exhibition).
-Frank Hyder, from Miami, whose work is in numerous museums in Latin America and the U.S.A., will show examples of his luminaries and mixed media paintings and sculptures.
-Boris Renjifo from Cali, Columbia will show his bronze and stone sculptures.
-Ross Bonfanti, from Canada, will show his world-renown "concreatures." These “beasts” have been shown from London to Singapore.
Hyder says composing a show is a complex process of balancing the visual with the market to "create a bouquet." But there is more to it than the creative and the commercial--there is the mundane, the nuts and bolts.
"With so many events happening at exactly the same time, it requires enormous pre-event preparation and then the impossible traffic situation during the fairs makes daily executive infinitely more difficult than normal." she says.
Many galleries have difficulties showing at one location while Projects works in many. Be sure to check out their artists and offerings. They really go all out and offer a voice to artists who might not have a chance to "speak" during Art Week in Miami.