The open-air museum of urban art Wynwood Walls, which has more than 7,400 square meters of murals, incorporates new works by thirteen artists from the US, Mexico, Cuba, Portugal and France as of Monday as a preview of the Week of Miami art.
Due to the pandemic, in 2020 there was no Miami Art Week, which is celebrated in the first days of December with the Art Basel fair in Miami Beach as the flagship.
Because of that there are "Many people" eager to see the works of "the best street artists in the world" in one place, Jessica Goldman Srebnick, curator of Wynwood Walls and executive director of Goldman Global Arts, tells Efe.
This year thirteen artists are chosen, who will make ten murals and three sculptures.
Some of them began today to create their works in public view, since this museum is not only interested in the finished work but also in the creation process.
THE AGENTS OF CHANGE
Goldman Srebnick stresses that, since the pandemic has altered lives, changed customs and made everyone reflect, it was decided that the theme of the 2021 exhibition would be artists like "change agents".
The Japanese AIKO, the Portuguese Diogo "Addfuel" Machado and Bordalo II, the Americans David Flores, Greg Mike, Scott Froschauer, Joe Iurato, KAI and Kayla Mahaffey, the French Mantra, the Cuban-American Ernesto Maranje, the Mexican Farid Rueda and the local artist Quake are the chosen ones.
His works will occupy the blank walls in this large open-air gallery, which are the ones that used to be used by other artists to express their art.
The curator says the museum is regularly renewed but each work is guaranteed to remain on display for at least three years.
No work is forgotten, as it remains in the memory of the public and the organization, but it is also captured in videos, photographs, blogs and Wynwood Walls social media accounts.
It is "very painful" having to cover works with white paint from time to time, but it is necessary to show how urban art evolves, says Goldman Srebnick.
In front of a blank wall, where tomorrow he will begin to paint his mural, Ernesto Maranje, born in Hialeah (Miami-Dade) to Cuban parents, says in Spanish that he feels very fortunate to be among artists with so much "talent".
This will not be his first work at Wynwood Walls and he will dedicate it like the previous one to a subject that concerns him, the environment, nature and, above all, animals.
ART IN FAVOR OF NATURE
A Florida panther, an endangered native species, will dominate your mural, but it’s Burmese python snakes that have "left his mark" in South Florida to which he is dedicated.
It is an invasive and predatory species that is decimating local wildlife in the Everglades, the great wetland of South Florida.
In his view, urban works of art do not have to "have a message" explicit. He prefers people to draw their own conclusions.
Artist Kayla Mahaffei, an African-American from Chicago, has already finished her mural and signed her signature on a wall near Maranje’s.
Nature is also very present in this colorful work in which the light-filled faces of two African-American child figures occupy the scene along with flowers, butterflies and other insects.
In a statement to Efe, Kayla says she does not know why women are always a minority in urban art exhibitions. It may be marketing or aspiring to stand out in traditional art and "high level", He says.
When Efe asks him if it could be because they are afraid of being on the streets, he says it could be, but that nowadays you don’t have to take risks in the marginal neighborhoods of cities to be considered a street artist or graffiti artist.
You can paint from your own home or anywhere else, he says.
The French Mantra is about two days away from finishing a large mural that occupies a huge wall next to one of the museum’s entrances.
On a small crane, wearing a helmet, motorcycle goggles and his body covered to protect himself from the powerful rays of the sun, Mantra is doing a work in which the figures of large butterflies are guessed.
His art, he says, connects with his memories, but also with problems that cause him concern, such as the decline in butterfly populations in many parts of the world.
Wynwood Walls was created in 2009 by the now-late businessman Tony Goldman, who wanted to transform a neighborhood that was full of abandoned warehouses and warehouses and had the idea to dedicate it to art.
He thought those large windowless buildings could be giant canvases to bring the best street art in the world to Miami, and he got down to business. Today there is no Miami tourist guide where Wynwood Walls is not mentioned as a must see.
Large murals aren’t just on the Wynwood Walls compound – they flourish everywhere in this neighborhood.
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