3-D sculpture parking

Swampspace Gallery

is pleased to announce the Official Open Call for Submissions to the

SWAMPSPACE SCULPTURE GARDEN CHALLENGE 2012

Here is how it works:

We are looking for ideas and objects to embellish the grounds 

of our tropical garden and parking facility.

Entrants must submit objects for consideration in fact, anytime. 

No idea is to outlandish,

but we reserve the right to trash stuff deemed not acceptable.

Thanks and good luck to each and all.

Kindly present your free sculptural proposal
with optional literary support of 150 words or less

@ 150 N.E. 42 Street in Miami's Design District.

*

*

March of Dimes

"If it goes without saying, why did you say it?"

Charlie Brown

Lavish lunch at Mai Tardi? snooze you loose. A mechanical wrecking claw gingerly navigates around the 500 year old oak trees while making short work of the majestic mosaics that adorned the walls of the stylish destination in Miami's Design District

Who knows what 'tonnage of treasures' may be hidden under the rubble of progress. A chunk of sign anchorage is excised to make way for further encroaching expansion of the highway.

Street art gets destructive all over the site of the old Living Room R&R installation while nearby the Locust find a new home and perhaps a new purpose on the site of the old Placemaker. A bit of greenery wouldn't hurt their new hive...

Spotted in the Design District, prior to his planterification makeover, this awesome Paloma Teppa life size Mr.Ed ushered in the beginning of the end for the old artists barns.

The DD, ever more impervious to slump, was hopping with surreal crowds ala 2012 as witnessed by this formidable convergence of Salvador Dali enthusiasts cued up to gawk at a pricy viewing of the great mustache's works on loan from private collections.

Open House at the new Swampspace Gallery was a family affair with amused guests greeted by Murray the new rooster. Everyone enjoyed comfort food and a casual exhibition featuring recycled Scharf Closet #18 from Young At Arts and a charming diminutive sculpture by Bhakti Baxter. Also adorning the inaugural show was a work in progress by Lucia Del, a Hubble sized round mirror courtesy of DV and a monolithic Arsham coffee table prototype. We are getting tons of junk mail for the previous inhabitants.

Waiting to take the swamplunge and conspicuous by their absence were the predictable and reluctant cast of influential locals; perhaps waiting for a nod and a wink from higher-ups. The curious shall inherit the swamp as invariably history is written by revisionists.

Not so hot art dates making the rounds.

Another brave gal from FEMEN gets swampy in nippy Moscow.

Little Leo DeNiro gets his swamp on.

Keith Haring worked on paper... and anything else that was not moving. Currently at the Brooklyn Museum.



Murray the Rooster works on his reflection at Swampspace.

*

New Deluxe Location

Swampspace Gallery

is pleased to announce

Failing Upwards

a christening before the launch

A soft opening at our

new deluxe location!

Sunday March 11th 4-10pm

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

shel silverstein

150 N.E. 41 Street Miami Design District

*

FebruFest

The old Boat Show is now the Yacht Show... and it is still bigger than Basel for sheer number of obnoxious pomp and circumstance.

The Design District is pounding with the wrecking ball scheduled demolition of obsolete architecture like hell yeah, this gem where legend Willy Chirino once recorded hispano-hits making way for Luis Vitton and a Wall Mart in Midtown.

Yet with the recent untimely Palm Beach Art Fair and Art Wynwood one can wager others still have boat-loads of mula left over to buy that uber sleek yacht you've always wanted.

Graffiti (and a luxury car) go up in the bastion of civility, the Palm Beach Art Sleeper.

Media is celebrity worship, with an emphasis on acceptable behavior.

Shopping carts laden with generic cash... at the art fairs.

I want one.

Light for Sale.

Brahman begs the Question, is my body ready for the body shop?

S & S Diner next to a fail.

Double Fail actually equals success across from Arsht.

Bridge Red knocks it out of the North Miami courtesy of Sherri Tan.

Not a blurry photo, Gentle giant Bob Thiele's studio.

Swampspace wraps up six glorious years of serving the community with a kick-ass class-act group-show that was not quit politically correct, it was the grand finale and genesis for the phoenix incarnation of the next swampspace.

Be On The Lookout for general brash goodness with the swampstyle you've come to expect.

And be sure to catch Jessy Nite rockin shockin down the street at Primary Projects.

*

the Bucky Stops Here

Swampspace Gallery

presents

The Ephemera of ABMB

an event horizon

Opens

November 29 - December 4, 2011

"Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it."

Buckminster Fuller

Miami was once resplendent swamp sparsely inhabited by resilient enigmatic characters

whose visions transformed the tropic into a mecca for modern living.

Ten years ago the interruption achieved temporary singularity

with the arrival of Art Basel Miami Beach.

Today Swampspace is pleased to announce

Bucky's Seven Year Itch in the dawn of

technological singularity.

Proceeds Benefit DASH

Miami Design District

3821 NE 1 Court - Miami, Fl 33137 - swampstyle@gmail.com

*

september salad

Broccoli or Cauliflower ?

Destiny is a powerful thing. When Walt Disney met Salvador Dali in 1940, they hatched a joint venture to animate something. It took 50 years to complete the collaboration from storyboard to wikipedia entry.

Such is the the vicious complications that art and science invariably create by their mechanisms for change. Such is the ebb and flow of gentrification and cyclical ideas. Miami is no exception.

Harry Bedknob, Potter Broomstick

Be it by magic or slight of trickery, the power of art is undeniable. So what exactly is the best case scenario. Back in 1992 South Beach was a tolerable place, primed and percolating for another phantasmic transformation. Today not so much and suffice to say, "glad it is there" but we only go when clients call. Same can be said for Wynwood arts district, "glad it's there" but with crowds in the thousands on art walk nights, we only go when absolutely needed.

Cool is the New Provocation

More recently, when the personifications of Design District and Wynwood joined forces to advance this arts awakening, it took less than six years to see a fruition of noteworthy acclaim. The Goldmans, Rubells and Robins and Snitzers and Dorsches and Scholls, the Dade and Broward and Dumbos from coast to coast, it is not only the swamp that has morphed into a bona fide cultural mecca. Art Crawls are creeping into every town from middle america to Istanbul Turkey. Art along with the other distractions such as sports and hollywood, keep the masses insecure and preoccupied to the satisfaction of those behind the curtain of machinations.

But distractions can only sustain so long as cries for attention are muddled by jazzy flashy information. Two powerful pieces at Primary Flight typify the times. They are the above canvas of surprising depictions in a most unusual style and this drawing of a rose-encrusted icon. Powerful works that supplant the power process for the hungry artists and bewildered patrons.

Boots on the ground, Big Brother Big Sister of greater Miami joined with several artist and the Design District family to raise awareness of the need to support our youth. The event called Currently Under Improvement focuses on the betterment of community and the responsibility art has to social relevance.

Sag-a-delic Chic

The third cousin of art and science is Fashion. So when two swampy luminaries join forces you fashionistas are sure to take it to the club the bank and down the runway. Nektar De Stagni and Danny Santiago Vintage Market in the Design District.

TED Down Under

Super proud and congrats to the fellas at Coral Morphologic for their findings and melding of art and science. Collin and Jarred are two very swampy superstars.

YESterdayVille

Curious George Sanchez Calderon is at it again with his unique vision of the swamp. His artist run venue Tomorrowland featured the video works of illusive and illuminating Daniel Newman. Other shows will follow through the end of Basel 2012.

Goldie Guy David Rohn performance and installations are like an outrageous fairy tale gone swampy at the hypnotic Carol Jazzar Contemporary in Miami Shores.

Rockin n Rolling with Meatball. Hold on to your bladder as Robert Lorie blows them out of the swamp with a powerful landscape paintings and comical inflatable installation at the Little River Yacht Club.

October will be the last quiet normal month before dear swamp is once again slimed by Art Basel and the ridiculousness of the season. Who will be crowned the most beautiful, Dali or Disney?

*