Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2012 BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com EMILY MICHOT / MIAMI HERALD STAFF The new Miami Art Museum building is on budget and on target for a fall 2013 opening, but the long-promised park to go along with it has fallen victim to the city's financial crunch. More than four years ago, the city of Miami eagerly embraced an ambitious scheme for the park portion of the mega-million-dollar Museum Park project on the bay in downtown Miami. Unanimously approved by the City Commission, the plan for a $68 million, 20-acre green space was supposed to turn most of near-derelict Bicentennial Park into Miami’s version of Chicago’s celebrated Millennium Park. The vision: lure thousands of visitors with lush public gardens, a dramatic entrance on Biscayne Boulevard with rows of royal palms growing out of a shallow pool, a great lawn, glass pavilions and a sculpted mound to provide visitors sweeping vistas of water and greenery. Well, scratch all that. At least for the foreseeable future. Facing a daunting fiscal crunch, city administrators have drastically scaled back the long-delayed park plan to a roughly $10 million basic blueprint. City officials have put aside most of the park’s distinctive features until an undetermined future date to focus on building two key if also simplified elements: a new baywalk, and a promenade from Biscayne Boulevard to Biscayne Bay that will provide pedestrian access to the art and science museums now rising on Bicentennial’s north end. There will still be a park with trees, sod and pathways between the promenade and the deepwater boat slip that marks the project’s southern boundary, city leaders pledge. It just won’t be anything like the elaborate plan that the city paid the New York firm of Cooper Robertson & Partners, famed planners of Battery Park City on Manhattan’s lower tip, $4.2 million to design. “It will be trees and open space,’’ said city Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, chairman of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, which is funding the bulk of the park project. “You will be able to walk around, take a nap under a tree, play soccer. But it will not have that Millennium identity.’’ ‘Still the vision’ Sarnoff and city administrators, who are now weighing five bids from contractors for the baywalk and promenade, say the reduced scope of work will include some needed environmental remediation to cover contaminated soil as well as basic infrastructure so that the Cooper Robertson plan can some day be realized. “That’s still the vision our commission has embraced, although it was a few years ago,’’ said assistant city manager Alice Bravo. “We’re putting in the bones. We’re going to have an aesthetically pleasing park that will be in harmony with the museums and over time can be enhanced further.’’ The city had previously, and quietly, discarded some costlier elements of the Cooper Robertson plan, including a planned underground parking garage and a restaurant, reducing the estimated cost to around $45 million. But the decision to scale back the park plan much further comes as the $220 million art museum building reaches the halfway point in construction, on schedule for a fall 2013 opening. The new Miami Science Museum, due for completion by the end of 2014, broke ground in February. The museums, which occupy about eight acres just south of the ramp to the MacArthur Causeway, have their own extensive landscaping plan by Miami’s ArquitectonicaGeo. So will a broad plaza between the two museums that is being designed by James Corner Field Operations, the New York firm that collaborated on the wildly popular High Line, the abandoned elevated rail line in lower Manhattan that was converted into a linear park. But Miami Art Museum leaders say they’re worried about what the downsized city park will look like, and whether it will be ready in time for their grand opening, scheduled to coincide with the arrival of the international art hordes for the Art Basel/Miami Beach fair in early December 2013. They’re especially concerned about the critical promenade, without which they say the museum could not open. Their worst fear: Having an unfinished mud pit at their doorstep just when they have the attention of the international art world. Almost as bad, they say, would be a bare-bones park that detracts from the impact of their lavish new building, designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & deMeuron. “We remain very concerned about the quality of the overall scheme,’’ said MAM director Thom Collins. “Think about it. The park could be such an incredible amenity. This is the last parcel in that crown of downtown waterfront. It should be a real jewel. Our building is going to be beautiful. The plaza will be incredible. Our immediate landscaping will be beautiful. But what will happen south of there is in question.’’ Aside from plans for the simplified baywalk and promenade, the city has released no plans or renderings of the scaled-down green space, nor issued any descriptions of its scope. No work is apparent at the park. Fiscal reality Several mature trees, uprooted from the site of the Brickell CitiCentre project, were recently moved to the park by the developer, Swire Properties, and clumps of Bicentennial Park trees survive. But the center of the park space — used for special events like the Cirque du Soleil tent — remains a bare, treeless desert. Sarnoff said the scaling down answers the city’s fiscal reality. The Omni CRA special taxing district, which was to finance the full-fledged Cooper Robertson park, saw revenues drop significantly during the economic crash and has yet to fully recover, he said. The agency is also now on the hook to repay a $45 million loan the city took out to cover its share of the under-construction PortMiami tunnel, leaving relatively little cash for the park, he said. The bulk of the baywalk is being financed by the Florida Inland Navigation Board, a special taxing district that pays for improvements along the state’s coastlines and financed reconstruction of the site’s seawall. The Omni CRA, meanwhile, is contributing about $5 million toward the park. The Museum Park plan, including the new homes for the art museum and the science museum, was a cornerstone of former Mayor Manny Diaz’s efforts to revitalize downtown Miami. The museum buildings are being funded through a combination of Miami-Dade County bonds and private donations. The park portion was included separately in the so-called mega-plan that Diaz negotiated with Miami-Dade County to simultaneously finance the PortMiami tunnel, the new Miami Marlins stadium and affordable housing in Overtown, using in part revenue generated by the Omni and Overtown CRAs. The tunnel is halfway done, the stadium is open, and the Overtown CRA is set to consider a plan to issue $50 million in bonds to subsidize several new housing developments in the historic but impoverished black neighborhood. Some wonder if the promised park will ever materialize. “It’s a shame, really,’’ said Science Museum director Gillian Thomas, whose building is scheduled for completion a year after the art museum is done. Thomas said the city’s piecemeal approach is reasonable given the fiscal constraints it faces. In any case, she added, she is not a fan of some aspects of the Cooper Robertson park plan, singling out the palms-in-the-pond element. “This approach creates a nice canvas, with quite a good frame with the waterfront and promenade,’’ Thomas said, adding: “It’s such a lovely spot. I’m sure long-term there will be a fabulous plan. Whether it’s the Cooper Robertson plan or some other plan is open for discussion.’’ Corporate support But she said an artfully designed park along the lines of what the city originally promised is essential to the success of the broader Museum Park project, whose goal was to attract thousands of people to a stunning but sorely underused corner of downtown Miami. A park with features such as interactive installations would likely attract numerous visitors independently of the museums, she said, just as art-filled Millennium Park, which was built over an old rail yard next to the Chicago Institute of Art and the home of the Chicago Symphony, sharply boosted tourism to that city’s downtown Loop. Making that happen at Museum Park, however, may now require donations or corporate support, possibly through the formation of a park conservancy like that established for Central Park in New York, Thomas said. Tax revenues are also sure to rise at the Omni CRA in coming years, especially if Malaysian casino giant Genting builds a planned resort on the site of The Miami Herald’s building, which it bought from the newspaper company. “If you have a fabulous park, you get even more people down there,’’ Thomas said. “It would be great for the city and it would be a sensible thing to do, but they would need to find the cash.’’

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Posted on Sun, Aug. 12, 2012

By Anne Tschida
Special to the Miami Herald

On opposite ends of town, the shimmery fluid abstractions crafted by locally based Lynne Golob Gelfman combine to create a large survey of the work from of one of Miami’s most interesting – though sometimes overlooked – painters.

Gelfman’s compositions, which can be found in a number of museums across the country including here in Miami, are references to the never-static natural environment that surrounds us -- but not literally. Through repetitive markings and variations of one color scheme within each frame, the paintings seem to flow and shift, reminiscent of waves, clouds and sand, in perpetual states of change and formation.

So the titles of the two exhibits up for the summer are more than appropriate: scapes at the Frost Museum of Art at FIU, and sand at the Alejandra von Hartz Gallery in Wynwood.

Because of the subtlety to these compositions, the slightest change in light or in viewing positioning can transform the dynamic of the whole piece, which becomes clear when visiting the FIU show, spread through two rooms on the top floor. This location allows for natural light to shine in from a roof sky-light during the day, especially in the second room where several large paintings that first appear sandy- and dusty-colored hang. But move in closer, step from side to side, and the metallic material that Gelfman has applied to these works make them glimmer and gain a luminescence that at first, from a distance, is imperceptible.

That gets to the essence of why Gelfman’s paintings are so seductive and engaging: they are about movement, color, patterning and illusion more than studies in representational landscapes. Unfortunately, artificial light is not as generous in allowing some of this detail to shine through, so it’s great that some of these works get that exposure.

The most recent works -- found in the dune series at the Frost -- are based on Gelfman’s trip through one of the most fascinating ecological and geological outposts in the world, the Lençois Maranhenses in northeastern Brazil. Covered in undulating, white sand dunes that are interrupted by turquoise lakes, there is virtually no vegetation in this strange amalgam of desert and water. The vistas are endless and -- thanks to natural forces such as wind -- the sand is always shifting; like them, the paintings leave the impression that they go on forever and simply won’t stand still. To underscore this idea of limitlessness, in many paintings Gelfman lets the paint drip over to the sides, a signature mark of hers.

Other works flow in a less horizontal movement and suggest aerial views of a landscape, a metropolis, or ruins. Such is the case in the first room at FIU, where a number of paintings were inspired by a trip to North Africa, a parched land dotted with remnants of numerous ancient civilizations. These feel more like excavations than reflections.

Gelfman has also been influenced by a Japanese aesthetic, which is apparent in how her use of muted colors leaves a contemplative residue; and her extensive time spent in South America. (She lived in Bogota, Colombia for a time.) But the New York native, a Columbia University MFA graduate and long-time teacher who has made Miami home, seems to be most impressed over time with the nature directly around her, particularly the action of the tides, waves and sand that she observes daily with early morning walks along Biscayne Bay near Old Cutler Road.

Examples of this make up a part of the sand show at Von Hartz. These smaller works, in shades of greens, blues, purples and often in a grouping, are unmistakably references to these surroundings, although still planted in abstraction. The blues sparkle when passing by them, as the sea does when the sun hits lapping waves; while the greens might suggest the kinetic state of the shore-line sand as the waves constantly run over it and then retreat. As the sun’s light passes through clouds, bounces off waves, and glints off sand crystals, the motion never stops in this micro world.

As the artist explains, some of these works in groupings are frames that together tell a visual tale, whereas some of the larger-scale paintings are all-inclusive and stand alone. Both are represented. One especially intriguing series is comprised of two rows of small paintings, five in each, all in variations of white. As Miamians are well aware, hot mid-day heat can turn the world white – so called white-heat, washing out the subtle colors that can be observed at softer times, in early morning or twilight.

This series seems to detail that intense time of the day, when the sky, the water, the sand can fade to white. In the first couple of frames, some distinct color still emerges, until it almost all is erased by the last panel. “These are almost like drawings,” says Gelfman. “I like how the paint disappears into the surface,” becoming smooth and monotone.

Smooth in this case is literal. While nature, perspective and illusion make up part of the picture, Gelfman’s work is also about process. These compositions can appear so tactile – like tapestries at times – that viewers inevitably want to touch them. And because she does indeed sand her works and employ other techniques, she manipulates the surfaces of her paintings in such a way that when actually touching them (if you do, do it gingerly), they come as a surprise. Some are as soft as baby skin, others rough; at times her intense process has ripped the canvas. She uses acrylic, oil, sanding machines and unrevealed techniques to create her pieces.

Several years ago, in almost direct reference to the process of her work, Gelfman titled her shows in New York and at the Fredric Snitzer Gallery resist and react, emphasizing the push and pull of the imagery as well as the actual texture of the works.

Her patterning, in fact, can make the natural and man-made worlds overlap. At times the paintings can look more like woven textiles – or, conversely, vague images of a chain-link fence, the ultimate urban structure that unlike sand under waves, is immutable. As Gelfman says, “illusion is part of the work.”

On the back wall at the Von Hartz gallery, several very different works have been displayed. Called discs, they are circular molds on paper of a sanding-machine wheel, which Gelfman has used throughout the years. But they are also portals into the process of creation: the abrasive power of a sander helped form her imagery, while the abrasive power of nature helped form our environment.

While gentle and meditative on one level, the deeper one probes Gelfman’s work, the more complex it becomes -- waves, dunes and clouds are awe-inspiring, but both because of their beauty and their potency. Gelfman would have us explore it all.

Vinyl records are a totem of the past, a nostalgic symbol of a time when Americans seemed to share more — at least in the way of music: People of a certain age can still remember when, say, Carole King’s 1971 Tapestry sold 25 million copies and engulfed the nation.

Simultaneously, vinyl records are up to the moment. Young hipster collectors now snatch them up both for the sheer physicality of playing a vinyl record and the artistry involved in record covers. DJs like the sound of vinyl: as local legend DJ Le Spam (Andrew Yeomanson) says, an MP3 download is like “a fax of a song.”

Visual artists have long put vinyl to their own uses, and the exhibition at the Miami Art Museum, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl has a bit of everything: outsider artists, emerging artists and established icons like Ed Ruscha. Within the show, vinyl records are photographed, melted and deconstructed for other ends: most of the work has little to do with music directly, and remain conceptual works of art.

The Record — encompassing 99 pieces by 41 artists — originated at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, N.C. According to Nasher curator Trevor Schoonmaker, the show’s strength lies in its adherence to a mission of remaining serious contemporary art. “Some of the work refers to pop culture, but we don’t have any music ephemera, posters or whatever.”The intersection of pop culture and high art is tricky terrain, but it can be done right. In 2008, MOCA’s Sympathy For The Devil: Art and Rock & Roll Since 1967 revealed the not-so-quiet artistry of rock. Last year, at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, the show Artist Unknown/The Free World created a compelling portrait of contemporary life using countless Facebook images of ordinary people.

At MAM, the first exhibition room of The Record strikes just the right note. In the middle of the room is a thoughtful sculptural installation by William Cordova, a Peru-born Miami artist who was exhibited – along with locals Adler Guerrier and Bert Rodriguez — in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. The piece, Greatest Hits (para Micaela Bastidas, Tom Wilson, y Anna Mae Aquash) 2008 consists of a stack of 3,000 vinyl records, Peruvian gourds, a VHS tape and candles. Focusing on the ideas of transition and displacement, the monolithic work refers to three icons: Bastidas, a 18th century Peruvian independence martyr; Aquash, a 1970s leader in the American Indian movement; Wilson, a 1960s record producer known for his work with Bob Dylan.

The first exhibition room also has Laurie Anderson’s 1977 Viophonograph — a hybrid-creation between a record player and violin that Anderson played in concert — and David Bryne’s 1978 photo-montage for the album cover of Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food. Created with a Polaroid Big Shot camera, the 90-inch-by-90 inch piece is a life-size rendering of the band, pieced together with countless close-up photos.

A smaller project space, covered in plywood and photos contains an installation by the New York-based artist Xaviera Simmons, Thundersnow Road, North Carolina, 2010. Simmons, also a DJ, created a character of a folk rock singer posing for moody circa 1973 album liner photos in rural North Carolina. She then asked friends in music groups — Rain Machine, Midnight Masses, etc. — to compose songs based on the photos, ultimately making an entire vinyl album. This is perfectly-realized conceptual art, a world onto itself, filled with humor and loss, “Once we all listen to music with chips planted in our brains,” Simmons says, “maybe the first quaint iPods will inspire art shows.”

 

Developer Jorge Pérez is saddened by the controversy surrounding his $35 million naming gift to the MAM 

620 Greenwich Street, near Leroy Street, West Village

Through Saturday

“Dancer,” Dara Friedman’s mesmerizing, loose-limbed 25-minute ode to the seemingly extensive, fabulously multicultural dance talent of Miami, extends her longstanding interest in performance, urban space and structuralist film. Unfolding predominantly in fluid tracking shots, it captures some 60 performers in about 40 segments as they dance, singly or in pairs, during the day or at night, along the city’s sidewalks, in its parks and parking garages, and occasionally on its beaches.

Flamenco, ballet, modern, break, pole, belly, musical-theater and ballroom dancing are robustly represented, as are skateboarding and voguing. The use of grainy, no-fuss black-and-white underscores the improvisational air, as does the way the dubbed music is not always completely in sync with the dancers’ movements. Sometimes the sounds of their breathing, as well as of passing traffic, increase the impression of being there, in the flow. And occasionally Ms. Friedman dramatizes a dance style by changing the camera speed.

Co-produced by the Miami Art Museum and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, “Dancer” was presented on an immense screen outside the New World Center in Miami on Nov. 30, the night before Art Basel Miami Beach opened. At Mr. Brown’s gallery it covers a very large wall in a space carpeted in black, which highlights its silvery lights and darks. Inspired by Pina Bausch (1940-2009), whose penchant for constant motion it echoes, Ms. Friedman’s tribute to the human body as an expressive instrument also recalls the evocative title of Edwin Denby’s 1965 collection of dance criticism, “Dancers Buildings and People in the Streets.”

 

"Mademoiselle Pogany II" (1919) by Constantin Brancusi. The sculpture, made of veined marble on limestone and wood bases, is among the Modern works in the Ronald S. Lauder Collection. Source: Neue Galerie via Bloomberg

By Lance Esplund - Dec 14, 2011 1:38 PM ET

While a distracted art world picked over Art Basel Miami Beach, a real estate developer got the biggest bargain next door.

I mean Jorge M. Perez. For a mere $35 million gift in cash and art he got the Miami Art Museum to change its name to the Jorge M. Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County....