Opening Night, I

There’s still plenty of time to see ¿Porqué, Cazador? Here are a few glimpses at Opening Night, I. Don’t miss Opening Night, II — Sunday, Dec. 4, 6 p.m.

Flagler Arts Space for Art Basel Week

It’s that time of year again, Folks! The holidays are upon us, and I mean that in more ways than one. For artists here in South Florida, Art Basel is a (holiday) tradition of sorts many of us look forward to. And this year, in honor of our approaching 1 year inaugural celebration (a.k.a. FAS’s first birthday), the Flagler Arts Space is proud to announce that we will be hosting a new exhibit to coincide with the Art Basel events and festivities.

Introducing the latest in our lineup, please give it up for: Porque, Cazador?       

(Translation: Why, Hunter?- a small touch of wordplay in reference to and reverence for two outstanding art instructors here in the city of Miami who all of us here at FAS have had the pleasure of calling our mentors, Mr. Tom Wyroba and the late Mr. Jim Hunter.) The show features the work of :

Annie Blazejack
Leo Castaneda
Reinier Gamboa
David Olivera
Ramon Lopez
Nicole Serize
Juan Travieso
and a few special guests.

The exhibit opens on Saturday, November 26th at 6pm and lasts through the evening. Porque, Cazador? will have its closing reception on Sunday, December 4th from 6-10pm. Everyday between these two dates, the gallery will be open from 12-6pm to accommodate all who are interested in viewing the selected works on display. Please stop by and support our young gallery during the monumental unveiling of Art Basel’s events throughout the week. We look forward to seeing you!

For more information, visit our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flagler-Arts-Space/155720281144838?ref=ts

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink!

Of course we wouldn’t want you to come to an art opening and leave feeling thirsty- neither thirsty for drink nor for inspiration. That’s why, at this Saturday (10/8) night’s Freedom Bound show (5-10 pm), not only are we handing out fluted glasses of the bubbly (think Materva, Ironbeer, Jupina, wink-wink) but we’re also serving up some re[fresh]ing talent.

In Freedom Bound, two artists’ somewhat disparate works find interconnectivity through water. Dr. G Casas-Guerra, a retired psychologist whose work speaks to the duality of the Cuban resolve to achieve the American dream while remaining nostalgic to the island’s glory days, addresses water in terms of its transcendental capacities: think emigration and the ocean as a symbol of both freedom and entrapment, the creator of communities, a new beginning. David Olivera, a young Miami-based artist impelled by multiple perceptions of history obtained through a visionary filter of research, addresses water’s principal properties: its simultaneously reflective and transparent nature, water as muse- a siren calling forth sailing vessels, significant ports, a sense of adventure.

Freedom Bound features a selection of paramount paintings and kick ass sculptural works brought together by an unyielding observation of the forces that compel us to simply be.

Guests will encounter the visual facets of two individual artists who have a common desire to explore their individuality within a universal context. The Flagler Arts Space will make it a point to expand your horizons. Come see for yourselves!

Light refreshments will be served. As always, parking is free. Come pre or post Wynwood Art Walk. Questions or comments, let us know!

All Hail- Velocipedes and Shank’s Mare!

No! We’re not proclaiming the discovery of some new species of dinosaur. Of course we don’t want you to eat the hind quarters of a female horse! So, what are we talking about exactly you ask? Well, earth-friendly means of getting around the MIA, duh! The theme of this show, Velocipedes and shank’s Mare, is alternative transportation – bicycling, walking, running, no motor zone boating, train-ing, skateboarding, horse-back riding, rickshaw-ing, hitching a piggy-back ride, cart wheeling, etc.. Velocipedes are the precursors to bicycles, usually without pedals. Shank’s Mare is a New England term for walking. The show is a fundraiser for Green Mobility Network, a charitable 501c3 organized to promote bicycling and walking in Miami-Dade County. A percentage of all sales will go to Green Mobility, with the rest going to the artists. Light refreshments will be served- (all of them picked out because of their responsible transit themed logos and branding- clever us!) The festivities start on Friday, Sept. 30th and go from 6-10pm. If you can’t make it Friday, drop by Saturday, Oct. 1st between 1-6pm and stay for the open mic session. Great art – both nights. Great cause – this lifetime. See you there!

New show and music at Flagler Arts Space: Velocipedes and Shank’s Mare

What’s that, you ask? The theme of this show is alternative transportation – bicycling, walking, running, no motor zone boats, trains, etc.. Velocipedes are the precursors to bicycles, usually without pedals. Shank’s Mare is a New England term for walking.

Featured are photographs, paintings, etchings, silkscreen prints and drawings by local artists of how people get around the world over, from Cuba to Miami, Germany to France, Georgia to Massachusetts.

The show is Saturday, Oct. 1, from 1-6 p.m., at Flagler Arts Space, 172 W. Flagler St., Miami.

Join us for refreshments (including bicycle-themed beer and wine), music (bicycle songs on the playlist, of course), and an open mic for those who prefer to make their own music.

The show is a fundraiser for Green Mobility Network, a charitable 501c3 organized to promote bicycling and walking in Miami-Dade County. A percentage of all sales will go to Green Mobility, with the rest going to the artists.

For more information, contact Tom Blazejack, 305-608-9448.

See you there!

See and Be Seen: PEOPLE, PLACES, + $20.00 THINGS A Solo Art Show by Ray Lopez

Everyone knows that you don’t go to an art opening just to look at the art! It’s nearly impossible to get an eyeful in, what with all the people watching, air kissing, and chitchatting. You go to the openings to see and be seen. You go to be a part of the scene. If this sounds like your cup of tea(-quila), Boy, do we have a show for you!

On Saturday, September 1oth, the Flagler Arts Space (172 W. Flagler) will host an opening reception for an exhibition that focuses on three smokin’ bodies of work by a wearer of many different hats, namely those of curator, teacher, and illustrator/fine artist, the esteemed Ray Lopez.

In his upcoming show, People, Places and $20.00 Things, Lopez presents a melange of styles and subject matter that combine to inform and give insight into his wide range of art-making abilities (keep in mind that Lopez, who received a degree in Illustration from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA , is trained to be able to span a wide breath of mediums in order to reach a multitude of targeted audiences). The show blends Lopez’s body of fragmented hyper realistic portraits, impressionistic landscape paintings, and experimentations with visual vocabulary into an inspiring eye candy cocktail of sorts that will leave you feeling shaky in the knees, woozy in the head, and light in the pocketbook as you reach for those Jeffersons to ensure you go home with the love of your (art)life.

So, if you’re looking for that cultural remix that inspires you to get primped and pressed, gets you out of the house, and sets your blood pumping, stop by the opening. Free admission. Free parking. Free food and drink. Trumps the club scene, if you ask us.  Yet you still get to live it up- art style!

Doors open at 6pm and the event runs till 10pm, leaving you ample time to still make a night of it in case we disappoint (which we guarantee won’t be the case). See you there!

Call for Art (and songs!)

Attention all interested parties! The Flagler Arts Space is now soliciting submissions (2-d/3-d artworks and songs or cover recordings) for our juried show, Velocipedes and Shank’s Mare, taking place in late September. The theme of this show is active transportation- bicycling,walking,running. Velocipedes are the precursors to bicycles, usually without pedals. Shank’s Mare is a New England term for walking.

The show is a fundraiser for Green Mobility Network, a charitable 501c3 organized to promote bicycling and walking in Miami-Dade County. A percentage of all sales will go to Green Mobility, with the rest going to the artists. Songs will be played during the show.

Please submit .jpegs of work or .mp3 recordings to flagler.arts.space@gmail.com by September 1, 2011 along with the name, size, dimensions and materials used in the piece. Please include “Bike/Ped show” in the subject line. Don’t forget to provide contact information, too.

For more information, call Tom Blazejack at (305)608-9448.

Youngblood: So Fresh

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Youngblood is back in town! And you know what that means don’t ya? Yup, you guessed it! A kick ass art show/ NWSA family reunion/fundraiser. And this year, the Flagler Arts Space is playing host.

In short, Youngblood is the brainchild of artist Michelle Gomez, herself a New World School of the Arts alum, established in 2008 as a way to showcase work from both the college and high school graduates while also working to bring in some funds to support the nationally recognized art school in providing materials to all those in her graces. This year, in celebration of NWSA’s silver anniversary (think 25 years old), Youngblood will feature the work of 21 artists in Saturday (8/13) night’s show, So Fresh (cuz’ you know you’re super fly in your mid-twenties)! A percentage from all the show’s art sales will go to supporting the NWSA visual arts department. As an added bonus, consider yourselves lucky to be experiencing the “fresh” curtatorial stylings of newcomer Danae Tarragona (c/o 2008), whom (I’m sure) you’ll see much from in the future.

So come on down between 7 and 10pm (pre and/or post the Wynwood Art Walk) to let your eyes party it up with the works of our featured art stars:

Abdiel Acosta
Annie Blazejack
Timothy Buwalda
Devin U. Caserta
Lu Gold
Olga Hayon
Matthew Krawcheck
Melissa Leandro
Kandy G. Lopez
T. Eliott Mansa
Rose Miller
Carlene Munoz
Kemi Odulana
Christina Pettersson
Camilo Rojas
Edward Rossel
Danae Tarragona
Aemi Thorne
Asser Saint-Val
Lauren Ventura
Jovan Karlo Villalba

The show will be up through September 3rd. If you’re interested in a private afterhours viewing, be sure to email your requests to youngbloodnwsa@gmail.com .

Art Crushes Cancer: A Benefit Show

On Saturday, August 6th from 6:30 to 10:30pm local girl gone good and visiting ‘maker’ here at the studio, Ana Fernandez, will be hosting a silent auction group show at the Flagler Arts Space benefitting two very worthy organizations.

How does a silent auction group show work, you ask? What’s the premise? Well….

See an artwork you love, place a written wager on it, if no one outbids you by the end of the night, you take it home with you (if someone outbids you, you can rebid, and so on and so forth). Simple as pie.

Mmmmm, “will there be pie,” you ask? Probably not, but complimentary refreshments and food will be served. Don’t be sad, here’s a pie (chart)- sort of- to break it down for ya.

50% of all proceeds will go to the Jim Hunter Graduate Scholarship (blue), while the other 50% will go to the American Cancer Society (yellow).

So, do I see $500? $500 from the do-gooder art patron in the back. Sold!

Enter the Dragon (of the art realm, that is)

For those of you familiar with the somewhat underground world of Miami’s burgeoning art talent, the name Juan Travieso should ring a very loud bell. Gregarious and ambitious, Travieso, a 2009 graduate of the Art Center College of Design in picturesque Pasadena, CA , has participated in roughly twenty art exhibitions (solo, group, and invitational) in the past two years alone. A feature on his work ran in the Sun Sentinel just last month, and before heading off to Beantown (a Boston moniker for those of us not in the ‘know’) in mid-August where he will continue his studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), he is once again jumping over the bar he has rigourously set for himself and bringing us 305 folks one final shindig prior to the big send off. The Flagler Arts Space presents New Tracks, a solo exhibition of Travieso’s works on canvas, hot off the press (talk about prolific, no piece is older than three months). The works stem from Travieso’s machismo-driven yet futile attempt to paint every single bird that is endangered these days. As the list grows, so does Travieso’s inefficacy. But the attempt is not without its merits- left behind is a stunning body of work that at its core encourages us to commune with nature and her gifts. The show premiers on Saturday, July 23rd at 6:30pm and will be open by appointment through the week.