70. Jim Drain

​In honor of our People Issue, which will hit newsstands and computer screens November 25, Cultist proudly presents "100 Creatives," where we feature Miami's cultural superheroes in random order. Have suggestions for future profiles? Email [email protected] with the whos and whys.

70. Jim Drain

Artist Jim Drain's unique work has showed in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, Beijing and Basel --  locales that are quite a ways from his beginnings in Cleveland, Ohio and Providence, Rhode Island. The crux of his work is his unique sculptures, melding knitted textiles

and reworked, found furniture. Drain has found his contemporary art

world-niche by putting these sculptures into larger societal contexts

via his self-admitted nerdy fascinations (example: Atari-inspired

'pixellations' translated onto a knitted sweater).

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1998. He was a member of the

Forcefield Collective (associated with the Fort Thunder Warehouse in

Providence) who exhibited at the Whitney Biennial in 2002, but went solo

after the group disbanded. His work has broken through the thin wall

dividing underground artists and those lifted high onto the Art Basel

platform. He exhibited with New York-based Greene Naftali in 2005 for

Art Basel: Statements with I Wish I Had A Break. And the ultimate honor has already been bestowed, with three works now in The Collection at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).

This year, Drain has (almost simultaneously) completed a handful of Miami projects, including "Saturday's Ransom" at Locust Projects and a vinyl wrap surrounding the 41 Street lot adjacent to the De La Cruz Collection

will debut next week alongside a special installation inside the

world-renowned collection, itself.

1. List five things that inspire you.

-Fluorescent crayons
-Grainger leveling mounds (a specific grinding tool to level out tables, chairs, etc.)
-Eye-dazzler

quilts or blankets (also called Germantown Navajo Rugs, they were first

seen in the 1880's when the Navajo nation used U.S. Navy-grade dyed

wool yarn to manufacture brightly colored rugs.)
-Ground flax seeds
-New Balance shoes (any wide shoe)

2. What was your last big project?

"Saturday's Ransom." I've been working on it since February. It's been the main focus this entire year.

3. What's your next big project?

The

vinyl wrap around the 41 Street lot next to De La Cruz will go up on

the 28 and the 29. The sculpture inside the De La Cruz Collection will

be completed by Thanksgiving.

4. Why do you do what you do?

Because otherwise I'd be in jail.

5. What's something you want Miami to know about you?

Mark

Handforth and Dara Freedman talked about being in Miami before the art

fair started, and they wanted to get away from people. The nature and

the beaches [here] are amazing, and whether they, themselves,

participated in all of it didn't really matter. For me, being in a place

to think, being in a very existential place. I would want people to

know, essentially, nothing about me. Being in Miami, I guess I would

want people to know I have a deeper engagement with art here. I want

people to know that I really like to wear Speedos to the beach.

What's something you don't want Miami to know about you?

I don't want people to know about my secret man crush: P. Scott Cunningham.

The Creatives so far:

71. Claudia Calle
72. Kevin Arrow

73. Andrew Hevia
74.

Ana Mendez
75.

Michael McKeever
76.

Diana Lozano
77.

Ricardo Pau-Llosa
78.

Agustina Woodgate
79.

Tarell Alvin McCraney
80.

Jennifer Kronenberg
81.

Farley Aguilar
82.

Colin Foord
83.

Karelle Levy
84.

Shareen Rubiera-Sarwar
90.

Ingrid B