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| Whatever Happened to the Miami Art Scene? |
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by Gean Moreno - 11 May, 2007
Whatever Happened to the Miami Art Scene?by Gean Moreno The question seems to always be in the air these days, dangling there like the proverbial pink elephant in the middle of the room, waiting for an answer. It is always accompanied by the implication that the presence of Art Basel Miami Beach and the innumerable event that surround it have changed things in a fundamental way. Some --cautiously-- avoid the question as if nothing has really change in the last few years, contently reaping the benefits of these changes. Some can't praise the changes enough, triumphantly reminding us that we are now on the international map, permanently penned into the itineraries of jest-setting collectors and mile-a-minute curators. Others, perhaps feeling deprived of these benefits, do little but ask the question rhetorically, constantly reminding us in scathing tones that we are a one-month art scene (December) and the rest of the year we go into hibernation or decamp on the beach. Then, there are those who look at things through the tinted lenses of nostalgia. They remember a time when artists started alternative venues, writers were an integral part of the scene, gallerists wield much less power, but did so with more aplomb, solidarity had yet to be replaced by a general eagerness to give the market what it demanded. Culture is a field of contending views and positions. The purpose of this panel, then, is not only to ask some tough questions about what has changed in out local scene, but also to perhaps get a better grasp on the complex character of the situation we live. Beneath the dominant personalities that organize our scene, incessantly quoted in the press (local and international), as if they were channeling the gospel, there have to be other position, other ways of organizing things, peripheral position that can perhaps be appreciated now that in jockeying for a position in the market the top-most layers of this scene seem to have, like actors now just going through the motions and cashing the checks, depleted themselves. “Whatever Happened to the Miami Art Scene?” 11 May, 2007 at Fredric Snitzer Gallery panel included (l to r): Alfredo Triff (art critic and educator), Eugenia Vargas (artist), Brook Dorsch (gallery owner), René Morales (associate curator MAM), and moderated by Gean Moreno (artist and writer). Panel Discussion Podcast Click here to Listen Now!
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