I recently stepped into Sunset Place, an uninviting mall made up of inner courtyards and agoraphobic wide stairs, and entered Z Gallery -- a lesser Pottery Barn -- where I could acquire a reproduction of Velazquez's Las Meninas for a mere $55. This was a 40-by-30-inch photo reproduction of the original -- that is, the 10-by-9-foot painting from 1656 in the Prado Museum, which many would consider one of the most important works in Western art. Not a bad deal.
Add to this the fact that frames are seductive. Emmanuel Kant, in his famous Critique of Judgment, includes frames among "free beauties," together with the beauties of nature such as flowers and parrots (and crustaceans!). The frame encircles, protects, and adds distinction to whatever is inside it -- more so a well-known masterpiece replica. And let's face it: There is a certain didactic force in that copy of a master. Possessing it allows one to partake of history -- no matter how considerably removed in size, medium, and importance from the original. I've paused at a bottle-size replica of Michelangelo's David (in its original form a huge thirteen-and-a-half-foot statue at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence). Who cares about originality these days? Since Marcel Duchamp signed "R. Mutt" on a urinal in 1917, art is not so much made, but found.
Commercial reproductions of paintings go back to the Nineteenth Century, when the middle class could finally afford to decorate their interiors. By the Twentieth Century the beautification of the private realm became even easier, and what's now become a habit of decorating has fostered the popularity of the frame gallery. Nonetheless some of these interiors look pretty tacky. Here in Miami there seems to be some natural propensity for subtropical rococo, what with all those reproductions of Jupiter and Antiope by Jean-Antoine Watteau and Jean Honore Fragonard (not to mention all sorts of winged cupids) in Miami's living rooms.
Searching for the frame gallery, I decided to survey Coral Gables along Ponce de Leon. I found two types: the framing space with paintings and objects scattered about the front, samples in the back; and the more serious type of establishment with a showroom in the front and a back room for framing not visible to the public.
Within walking distance of Eighth Street Domingo Padrón Art Framing pops up, which exhibited Cuban originals of different styles, mostly landscapes, some of them interesting. A few blocks south, on the other side of the street, is Nader D'Art Gallery, a "custom framing" establishment with a handsome space. The paintings in the front were a derivative mismatch of abstract, Surrealist, and primitive Caribbean. The best selection was in the back of the gallery, with numerous Haitian painters, some naive and others more academic looking.
On to Gem Gallery, an antique shop at the Colonnade Hotel. The store was literally packed with big chandeliers, equestrian statuary, Tiffany lamps, wooden Corinthian columns, nautical objects, blue horses, second-rate Arabian-scene replicas, a piano with gargantuan legs (its faux-marble skin was coming off). There was a copy of a Singer Sargent, porcelain sets, Victorian bronzes ... in other words a collection of true kitsch. But then to offset it all were the Chinese pieces in ivory and jade, particularly the erotic collection shown in the window, which were quite interesting.
After crossing Miracle Mile, further south you find the Piag Gallery, a small space with tropical-looking little oils à la JMW Turner, mostly derivative landscaping. Across the street from Union Planters Bank three more framing galleries were lined up together: Da Vinci's Art & Frame, Gallery ZIV, and GDS Fine Arts. Most of the paintings at Da Vinci were by Gilda Sacasas, figures mostly in the yellowish color of primitive Cubism, which explored variations of despondency and love within Latin American themes. Next was ZIV, where you find an assortment of animal sculptures brightly and busily painted (think of Britto on amphetamines ... really). Most of the paintings at GDS were also by Sacasas, whose art I found harmless.
I have nothing against these spaces. They have a purpose and sometimes exhibit new, marginal talent. Yet as much as I want to stretch the notion of art to fit different persuasions, some of what I find out there is derivative to the point of ugly (of course this is not to say that high-end galleries can't be mediocre as well). But who needs more apples à la Cézanne, bottles à la Morandi, or fat girls à la Botero? I imagine them hanging within secure white walls, crowning the color scheme of an over-cozy sofa with intimate mood lighting and background music -- empty of all meaning. But I understand that my idea of good art can terrify someone else. I also understand that my old aunt may choose another copy of Van Gogh's Irises over a nice original piece by any contemporary Miami artist, if given the choice. At which point there's not much left to discuss about standards of criticism.
But if discussing and analyzing art is what you want to do, I recommend two local sites: www.miamiartexchange.com and www.artblog.net. They include critical articles by Michael Betancourt and Franklin Einspruch. "In My Humble Opinion," or IMHO, is Betancourt's biweekly column at one of Miami's best Websites, the artexchange, for artistic information. Einspruch's artblog is accessible and interactive; you find all kinds of comments and exchanges with serious effort at counterarguments. The downside is a too-small cyber audience. Perhaps Einspruch should try to reach out more to a wider community of bloggers. And at times I find Betancourt's discourse heavy and obscure, perhaps catering more to people embedded in didacticism or theory. That said, both offer choices for different readers and moods.
Openings
The Americas Collection: A group show that tackles the Miami theme of, yes, immigration, from six artists who hail from all over Latin America, in "Immigration -- Migration." Opening Friday, September 5, at 7:00 p.m. at the Americas Collection, 2440 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables; 305-446-5578.
The Art Museum at FIU: Vintage photographs of the American wilderness from the Smithsonian's collection underscore the country's fascination with land in "The Land Through a Lens." A lecture from Marcia Tucker opens the exhibit on Friday, September 5, at 8:00 p.m. at the Art Museum, SW 107th Avenue and Eighth Street; 305-348-2890.
Bernice Steinbaum Gallery: The work of Joe Walters makes up "Wetland," while Kate Moran and Soledad Salomé also get a viewing in the huge Design District space. Opening on Saturday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, 3550 N. Miami Ave.; 305-573-2700.
Casas Riegner Gallery: Four women artists become artist-curators for "Fourtell"; Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Liliana Porter, Matilde Marin, and Sandra Ramos each select a younger artist whose path seems promising. Opening Saturday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at Casas Riegner, 25 NE 39th St.; 305-573-8242.
Diana Lowenstein: Buenos Aires native Silvia Rivas exhibits her spherical images, which explore the nature of ambiguity and duality, in "Nocturnos." Opening Friday, September 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Diana Lowenstein, 3080 SW 38th Ct.; 305-774-5969.
The Dorsch Gallery: Paintings and drawings from Jordan Massengale, forming "Dumb Move," inaugurate the warehouse gallery's fall season, showing along with "disparos repentinos" by Javier Sasieta and work by Christopher Lynn. Opening on Saturday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at the Dorsch Gallery, 151 NW 24th St.; 305-576-1278.
Marina Kessler Gallery: The new Wynwood gallery highlights Chilean artists Juan Castillo, Ismael Frigerio, and Victor Pavez in "Working Identity," with the intent to expose us to Chile's contemporary visual arts scene; and in the upper space, "Abstractions" by Pablo Hernan Cortes. Opening Saturday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at Marina Kessler, 2628 NW Second Ave.; 305-573-6006.
MDCC Wolfson Campus Gallery: Exhibition of work from the faculty of the college. Opening Thursday, September 4, at 5:00 p.m. at the Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave.; 305-237-3696.
Rocket Projects: The new alternative space unveils some installation works with something to say for the new show: One, a look back at the decadent New York Eighties called "BOD" by Doug Meyer, the other the site-specific "In Defiance of Gravity and Other Matters" from Dimitry Saïd Chamy (see See and Be Seen, page 40, for more info). Opening Saturday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. at Rocket Projects, 3440 N. Miami Ave.; 305-576-6082.
