Farley Aguilar’s “Invisible Country” Rocks the Spinello Projects

As Farley Aguilar stood in a room overflowing with art fans among 14 of his large, bright paintings at Little Haiti’s Spinello Projects,his mother, ironically, tried to slip him a little cash. This was the opening of Aguilar’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, and not only is there an…

Rapper Robb Bank$ Is a Phenomenon Among Millennial Hip-Hop Fans

Upstairs, in a dressing room backstage at the Orpheum in Ybor City, Robb Bank$ walks in small circles, winding himself up like a spring, mike in hand and awaiting his turn onstage. It’s about 9 p.m. Saturday, November 14, the last date of the 21-year-old rapper’s U.S. tour, an all-ages…

Charles Hashim’s Photos Tell Miami’s Story

Opa-locka, circa 1979. There’s a rowdy crowd of mostly black young men standing in anticipation of an illegal drag race. They’re like live wires — lines of dudes on motorcycles raring to take off down an unused airstrip. Photographer Charles Hashim isn’t concerned about being mauled by the wound-up spectators;…

Video: Art Basel 2015 Brings the Penis Sculptures

After a week of art partying during Art Basel Miami Beach 2015, we all looked a little haggard, like someone flogged us hard with the ugly paddle. But at New Times, we don’t let soul crushing exhaustion keep us from joking about some fine art or boobs! No siree! In…

Beatriz Monteavaro Presents “Nochebuena” at Locust Projects

While dismantling the home where Beatriz Monteavaro and her family spent decades before her parents sold it, the slight brunet artist and her sister found volumes of photos that told the story of their early life: of family gatherings, birthday parties, pets and people who had passed away, couples now…

Look Alive Fest 2015 Was a Very Different Side of Art Basel

Wet streets and way too many rowdy party options made this Friday during Art Basel Miami Beach 2015 a time to seek refuge from two kinds of storms. Over in Little Haiti, at Churchill’s, was a safe — albeit loud — space where people who both create and genuinely love…

Art Basel Miami Beach 2015: Winners and Losers

Art Basel is finally over. The behemoth art fair that sweeps into our fair city every year has packed its bags and blown us a very European kiss goodbye. And in its wake, it’s inevitably left both the victorious and the conquered. We here at the Miami New Times have…

Miami’s Art Scene Turns to Little Haiti as Wynwood Rents Rise

Chickens poke around in the grass as cars fly down NW Second Avenue past a bustling laundromat, botanicas packed with votive candles and cascarilla, and — just near 63rd Street — the neon-purple ampersand in a window that marks the contemporary art gallery on the corner. The gallery is the…

Letter16 Photo Book Captures a Forgotten Time in Miami’s History

Before the sweet instant photographic gratification presented by digital devices, citizens of the world documented their lives using this very sensitive and fickle thing called film. It had a limited number of exposures and you couldn’t see what or if you captured anything until it was developed in your college’s…

Thompson Miami Beach Celebrates One Year With Twin Shadow

Miami Beach has more contenders for newest, “coolest” hotel than the Republican Party has presidential candidates. And much more attractive ones too. But with its one year anniversary concert last night, the Thompson Miami Beach proved it was the clear winner in the categories of style and party production. Part…

Magnus Sodamin at Wynwood Walls for Miami Art Week

When artist Magnus Sodamin was young, his grandfather would take him fishing in Norway before sunrise. His grandmother would accompany him into the forest to hunt for mushrooms and into the mountains with a spike and hammer to look for cool rocks. Before flying home to Connecticut, he would fill…

Margaret Cho Gets PsyCHO Advocating for Change

When you read about all the impressive things comedian and actress Margaret Cho does in the span of a year — both the volume of activity, level of impact, and quality of its humanity — it’s hard to think of her as anything other than a role model. It seems…

That Time I Saw the Perfect Ricky Martin at Hoy Como Ayer

That Ricky Martin, the sultry Puerto Rican with a skill for shaking his bon-bon, was born Christmas Eve is no surprise. He’s certainly some kind of miracle child with the power to light up the darkest of winter nights. Not long after the turn of the millennium, I remember one…

The 50 Shades of TropiGoth at III Points Music Festival

When I was little, Goths listened to Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Cure. They wore black lipstick and ripped fishnets and their hair wasn’t quite brushed. That was definitely cool. But then when I was in high school, the term Goth was suddenly used to describe the followers of Marilyn…