Miami Art Basel 2013

Pictures from this year's Miami Art Basel trip! All of these are in the Wynwood District, painted over a two-week period in late-November through Early December. Thanks so much to Danielle Brutto, Jon Graham, Josh and Tracy Kohn, Ishmael, the whole Heineken Mural Project crew and artists, Jorge Moreno, Living Walls, Samson Contompasis of Marketplace Gallery, Fountain Art Fair, and everyone else who helped make these possible.

On NW 25th between 3rd and 4th.

On NE 20th between Biscayne and North Miami Ave.

Courtyard mural installation at Fountain Art Fair, collaboration with Pixel Pancho, Never 2501, and Ever.

Courtyard mural installation for Fountain Art Fair, 8'x 8' latex on wood panel.

Exterior collaboration on Fountain Art Fair with Jaz, Elian, Cope2, Pixel Pancho, Pastel, LNY, Never 2501, and Ever.

On the way home, our group stopped in Jacksonville, FL to paint pieces on the outside of Cork Art Collective. Here is my part:

from my sketchbook

a few drawings from a much larger stash:

citizen-times

thank you to carol motsinger for her mention of the mural project in today's asheville citizen-times!!

"Asheville artists have officially left their mark on Miami. The group of muralists — organized by Spagnola — has gotten back from Art Basel after painting two Frida Kahlo murals on businesses in Miami.

But the group of six — including street and fine artists, and a videographer — is bringing back a lot from theexperience at the biggest contemporary art festival in the country.

Molly Freeman was one of the artists who added her touch to the project. She was kind enough to e-mail me a bit about what it meant for herand expresses that with a beauty that would escape my clumsy summary. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Molly:

“Working on a piece of this size really pushes toward healthy artistic collaboration. When you have to cover a huge wall, you almost have to have extra hands, and when you have multiple artists working toward a common creative goal then you get this incredible wellspring of creative energy,” she said.

“Art can be very solitary or competitive, but large-scale works, public works, are so much more about community and cooperation and the sharing of ideas.

“In terms of the Asheville art scene, this project has really inspired me to push toward that more collaborative, community-oriented approach to art. Coming back from Miami, I think our whole group's idea is to bring back a passion for making art — fresh, contemporary, beautiful art — on a large scale and integrate it into the landscape of our town,” she said.

“I really feel like public art and murals are the next frontier for Asheville to explore its identity.”

asheville to miami mural project: home at last!

home sweet home! murals painted: 2. miles logged: 1600+. temperature change: 58 degrees.

just got back from art basel: miami beach! i went down with a group to paint a mural in the wynwood district alongside some of the most talented and innovative street artists from around the world. this neighborhood is a hotspot of creative energy, and it really sparked something in me. i mean it was like a who's who of street artists that had done walls and buildings within a three block radius of where we were painting: barry mcgee, os gemeos, ryan mcginness, ron english, shepard fairey, swoon, futura, the list goes on (for pages.) in addition to the murals that were already there, nearly every empty space left was transformed during the weekend of art basel. i met artists from germany, hawaii, new zealand, east coast, west coast, and all with their own style, their own flavor. it was such a privilege not just to be there, but to be contributing to that kind of artistic landscape.

our group was dustin spagnola, ishmael (folly beach, sc), court mccracken, avery duncan, scott myers, and luke broussard (our documentarian/ambassador). we didn't know each other as a group really until we went down there, but it couldn't have turned out better. our final mural, on the backside of cafeina, was a collaboration in the truest and best sense of the word. it combined dustin's image of a topless frida kahlo braiding her hair (one of the most prone and stripped down pictures of the artist); ishmael's iconic trio of gas nozzles with their gun-shot-glass-shatter surface; and an organic, amorphous pattern i used to tie the two elements together. ishmael has a more in-depth summary of our process and concept here.

final mural at cafeina

me and ave

ish

bill thompson from satellite gallery and scott debus from charleston

scott (myers)

luke

max and rick

max

dustin, avery, court

ave

local brew!

ave again: so photogenic

me, court, scott, ish

cisco

msg and katherine from primary flight

ish, mark of the beast!

dustin

the crew!

i don't normally write a lot of personal things here but it's snowing now in asheville and something about the snow and being home and reflecting on this trip is making me aware of how thankful i am. so here's a thank you:

to everyone from asheville and elsewhere who supported this project (emotionally, creatively, financially), to art basel, to the wynwood district, to rebecca at cafeina, to the msg crew (rick, javi, max, and all the rest), to la boricua for the best chicken i've ever had, to dewey's, to the gyllenhaals, to corinne, to sara and rupert, to scott and troy, to tracy and josh, to morgan, to dustin's pops, and most of all to dustin, ishmael, court, avery, luke, and scott for being such an incredible group of people to work with, spend time with, and learn from. this was one of the most fulfilling projects i've ever done, and i couldn't have done it without these amazing people, amazing artists.

a video about the project is in the works, and i can't wait to relive the glory.