April. fools rush in and out

“a voice that desires a reply sounds different than an echo that wants attention.”  Raphael Rubenstein

The Knight brothers of Miami Herald fame worked together to build a media empire gobbling up newspapers and television stations from coast to coast consolidating consensus while the Federal Communications Commission began to dismember the Fairness Doctrine during the Reagan 80's. 

Back in the day not so long ago, two guys with typewriters and chutzpah could finagle a fortune to last generations.  I posit from their looks in this photo that their ideas of art was not quite what we see today in studios, galleries, museums and private collections, public commons and dumpsters.

From a surveying glance at contemporary art one might think today's philanthropic visionaries should look more like Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, but the well heeled patrons of culture still look mostly like Alberto Ibargüen. 

No this is not the Robert T. Knight Activity Center, it is the O Cinema on the fringes of Wynwood.

Also in wild wild Wynwood is this merchandise maker declaring their allegiance to street art with a handsome top to bottom study in calligraphic shades of grey.



A rather jurassic facsimile of a happy gladigator awaits his reptilian cold storage at the Museo Vault.

A slow ride up the obstacle course of endless road improvements, we arrive at the Little Haiti community center  near Churchill's Pub where the monthly musical event known a Big Night welcomes all to the splendor of Haitian everything.

Connoisseurs of all things Abobo! like Eduard Duval must be pleased that the Rhythm Foundation is spotlighting caribbean culture.

  Great music n cool people,  but long wait for drinks so BYOB (bring your own Barbancourt).

Meanwhile not sure what is going on up in Aventura or North Miami... but this looks like performance art.

The Miami Design District is blooming with a sophistication unrivaled even by SOBE standards.  Currently under construction so pardon our facelift,  the wait will be worth the millions.  

Not surprising your swampspace gallery is open for business by appointment only unless you are friends with you know who then the back door is always open.

The door is also open at the De la Cruz where homely art historian Katy Siegel of Hunter College recently spoke softly to a crown of familiar faces. Not a bit reticent, Seigel's recital from her book about modern painting since the end of WW2 was an event success in terms of comfort words for the artist today.

 Her photo of Cindy Sherman as Lucille Ball is rich as is her understanding of the phenomenon of artistic failure is not casual and dovetails well with the singular expressive gist of the W.A.G.E. wo/manifesto  “the remuneration of cultural value in capital value.” found at Hyperallergic.  Siegel's sequel may be to follow up on her observations of the art world with thoughts on Failure with regard to curators and collections. We'll leave success to the superstars.

The ultimate compliment L to R:  Robbie Conal, Ron English, Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf get Simpsonized by likeminded legend Matt Groening.

As nouvelle collectors scramble to acquire whatever their handlers suggest, it is no wonder articles like this one online reflect the status of calculated consensus for a burgeoning culture of investors with excess crazy dollars. 

When donning camo, consider the background...

 

Ron English  does Andy Warhol in bubble gum pink and signature quiff.



  Andy once told me "don't eat anything bigger than your head".

 No touchy that third rail.

 Brooklyn Rail's Phong Bui big ups for WeiWei. 

Greetings from Bullseye Country.   Peter Beard inscription from the library of swampthing.

 

Finally, it is no secret that there is an exodus of excellence currently afflicting the swamp.  More than one of my artist friends is relocating to other pastures.  Other because there is non greener than Miami. But i am not swamp salesperson and so best wishes to my creative comrades on their fruitful adventure be it NYC or Paris or  Los Angeles California the favored destination of the moment. Perhaps it is a station in life, youth is mostly fluid. Perhaps it  is the disillusion with enchantment.  I suspect it is that same fire from within that hurled me out of the swamp years ago and brought me back fools circle. It was not about running away but more so about heading towards something.

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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.

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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

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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.

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