Mayfair Hotel Kicks Off Art Basel Week Presenting Miami Says Art 2
Dec. 2-8, 10:00am-8:00pm
The Mayfair Hotel & Spa Miami
Palm Terrace
3000 Florida Avenue
Coconut Grove, FL
Free and open to the public

Last year’s Art Basel Week kicked off with a much talked-about tribute to Miami’s arts pioneers – alongside the city’s new cultural visionaries – with the retrospective of visionary artist Martin Kreloff’s 1976 “Miami Says Art” (which 36 years ago brought together the city’s then up-and-coming arts luminaries to look into his camera and exclaim “ART”). During last year’s Art Basel Week, Kreloff reunited cast members from his original 1976 show alongside Miami’s current crop of cultural champions, all coming together to help create a new time-capsule honoring Miami’s arts evolution, and providing a window into the city’s bright future as an art destination. The photos and resulting artwork have been kept under lock-and-key for a whole year, and the much-anticipated installation will be revealed for the first time at a preview reception for the media on Monday, December 2, at noon at the Mayfair Hotel in Coconut Grove.

Miami Says Art 2 features a wall series of portraits by Kreloff, featuring some of the original 1976 cast alongside Miami’s new museum directors, gallerists, performing arts leaders and directors of cultural institutions (all once again looking at the camera and proclaiming “ART!”). Kreloff has also collaborated with Miami artist Gustavo Oviedo on a black-box installation featuring video, projections and sound art, “Art Euphoria” melding photos, original artwork, video and sound recordings for an experiential walk-through time capsule.

The original 1976 “Miami Says Art” cast included: American figurative artist Alex Katz; Arnold L. Lehman (now the director of the Brooklyn Museum, who presented the 1976 exhibition while then serving as director of Miami‘s Metropolitan Museum and Art Center); philanthropists and collectors Ruth and Richard Shack, and Martin Z. Marguiles; Judy Drucker, cultural impresaria; socialite/designer Gloria Vanderbilt; publicist Charlie Cinnamon; Miami arts advocate Margarita Cano; gallerists Dorothy Blau, Gloria Luria and Virginia Miller (co-presenter of the 1976 exhibition); abstractionist Lynne Golob Gelfman; and the Founding Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Lou Anne Colodny.

Last year’s tribute reprised the original 1976 art happening, gathering more than 100 arts leaders alongside original cast members, including: Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Chairman Adolfo Henriques, and Executive Director Monty Trainer (also president of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival); director of the Brooklyn Museum Arnold Lehman; New World Symphony CEO Howard Herring; president/CEO of the Arsht Center John Richard; Dr. Carol Damian, director of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum at FIU; Wolfsonian director Cathy Leff; Dr. Jeffrey Hodgson, New World School of the Arts Provost; Ruth Shack; Dahlia Morgan; Swannee DiMare, Frances Sevilla-Sacasa; Dennis Edwards; Carmen Betancourt-Lewis; Deborah Hoffman; Harvey Burstein; Roberta and Eric Fliss; Marc Levin; artist Lynn Gelfman; gallerist Virginia Miller; Mary Luft; Rosie Gordon-Wallace; Beth Boone; Michael and Mary Ellen Peyton; Iran Issa-Khan; Maria del Valle; Susan Caraballo; George Neary; Octavio Campos; Jane Wooldridge and Robert Rosenberg. Kreloff and Oviedo are asking last year’s participants to send in voice-recordings via their mobile phones, saying the word “ART,” to incorporate into the black box installation as sound art.

The artist Martin Kreloff says: “After many years of living and working on the West Coast, Miami welcomed me back with open arms, as if it was urging me to return home … and what a homecoming it has become! From the sleepy burg I first encountered when I moved to Miami in 1967, the city has exploded into a vibrant and vital cultural destination that pulsates with the glow of a world class art scene. Playing off the original concept of the 1976 show, we photographed Miami’s cultural and artistic leaders (both past and present) last year during Art Basel week, jubilantly proclaiming the word “ART!” From that jumping off point, I’ve taken the photos and added the playful, colorful psychedelic patterns that were utilized in the artwork from the 1976 show. I’ve also collaborated with Miami artist Gustavo Oviedo on a black box multimedia installation. What will this year’s Miami Says Art be like? All I can say is … Miami: You really know how to say ART!.” Said the General Manager of The Mayfair Hotel & Spa Miami, Axel Gasser: “The Mayfair Hotel & Spa is proud to kick off Art Basel Week with Miami Says Art-2, also launching the Mayfair Hotel’s 30th anniversary yearlong celebrations and recognizing Miami’s cultural history and the future of our art destination in true Mayfair style.”