Bakehouse Art Complex

Bakehouse Art Complex, located in Wynwood Miami, was known as American Bakery Company in 1920's. Today instead of the smell of bread and pastries, the building smell like paint and artistic enthusiasm. 

As a part of Contemporary Art class, our group did a field trip to the Bakehouse Complex. Having a chance to listen a couple of artists telling about their work and introducing their own galleries, was incredible. 

 The idea of BAC is to provide studios for new and young artists for a affordable price. The building has currently 60 studios and 2 galleries.

Studio 59 and one of the studio's two artists, Nicholas Nehaniv. 

Art Basel

                                                        http://miamibeach.artbasel.com/

"From December 6 through 9, Miami Beach, Florida, will host the 11th edition of Art Basel, the most prestigious art show in the Americas. More than 260 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part, showcasing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries."

 

 

Sophia Grace & Rosie

If your Monday morning hasn't started the way you hope, I promise that after watching this video it will get better. The clip is from the Ellen show where Sophia Grace & Rosie have become the regular guests. Since Ellen every time gives them presents, this time the girls decided to give something for Ellen.

If you aren't familiar with these two Brittish girls, you apparently haven't been on YouTube. Sophia Grace & Rosie, became famous from their videos where Sophia Grace was singing and Rosie dancing and toady the girls have more 3 million views. With their pink dresses and Brittish accent they travel around the US interviewing celebrities and filming "Tea Time with Sophia Grace & Rosie".

Street Art

Street art and graffitis are many times criticized and seen in a negavtive light. Well the other hand it's understandable, there are people whose purpose to create graffiti work is not even art but just to destroy someone's property. Luckily, there are artists who want to prove that spray paints can be also used to create unique art pieces on everyday surfaces. 

In Miami, Wynwood is the favorite place for many graffiti artists. Paintings on buildings' walls make the city a lot more vivid and when you walk around the streets it feels like you are in a comic book. The work is so detailed that you can nothing but wonder how on earth they were done by only using spray bottles? Oh well, some people just know how it's done. 

Pictures here: http://woodlandshoppersparadise.blogspot.com/2012/09/miamis-wynwood-street-art-3-of-3.html

Here's a good blog that's only focusing on street art around the world from Valencia, Spain to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Enjoy! 

http://www.unurth.com/

Coco Art Live Fair 2012

On October 26,27 and 28th, Coconut Grove's Convention Center filled with contemporary artists and people who were eager to see the newest inventions of the art world. Art works varied from music to installations and dance shows. 

Everybody who wanted could try drawing or painting so not only the artists were allowed to create art in front of the audience.  

You could also join for "brunch" but unfortunately this time the expression "too good to be true" was right. Even though the cupcakes looked amazing, they were just decorations. 

You can find out more about this project from here. 

http://artlivefair.org/index.html

Here and There

The beauty of art is that it can be found everywhere.. On the streets, in stores, or at home. A lot of times many people think that art is something compared to rocket science and in order to understand it, you need to have a double degree in art history and physics. No, the only thing you have to have is patience and open eyes. 

A good example of transforming everyday things into art is Hans-Peter Feldmann, a German visual artist and 2010 Hugo Boss award winner. He is known as a collector and is able to create art of almost out of anything. Once he had paid a few women 500 euros to give their purses and all the contents. Later the purses with their contents were seen in installations in one of his exhibitions. 

His most famous work is $100,000 dollars, an installation of $1 bill pinned on the wall, and yes there's 100,000 of them. Probably majority of the people would find some other use for that big amount of money but Feldmann came up with something else; an art piece against capitalism. The message that he is tried to convey was how money has become the  most powerful factor, even in the artistic world that should be free from all the outside authorities. 

http://www.artbahrain.org/archives/jul-aug2011/award_THE_HUGO_BOSS_PRIZE_2010__Hans-Peter_Feldmann_july.php

Probably the best thing in art is that anybody can make it, whether it's music, photography, poems, drawing, painting, acting, or whatever you can come up with. The hardest thing about it is to get rid of the thought "No I can't, I'm don't how to.." Even the Hugo Boss award winner Feldmann, said "I'm not artist, I'm just a person who happens to love photos."

This morning I woke up at 5:30 for no reason, so I decided to go get breakfast from Starbucks. It was still dark outside so it felt almost like an autumn morning in Finland, although instead of 5°C it was 25°C but still I wanted to wear a scarf since it's mid-November and Christmas is coming.. A good morning got even better after realizing my coffee was served from Starbucks Chirstmas cups. For some it's just a paper cup, for me it's cute design that tells that one of the holiday of the year, Chirstmas, is coming. 

See, art is everywhere.. 

Wynwood Art Walk

November's Art Walk was just as good as the ones before and even the 10 minutes pooring rain didn't bother the enthusiastic groud.

(picture here)

I think Art Walk is one of the best events in Miami. In addition to numerous open galleries, they have open air markets where new and young designers sell for example clothings and accessories. When you get hungry or thirsty instead of trying squize into one of the packed bars or restaurants, you can buy delicious arepas or waffles from the stands. It's once in month and even though you don't carry a calender in your purse or don't even use the calender on your iPhone, you still won't miss the date because it's on the second Saturday of every month.

Wynwood is the place to find not only contemporary and interesting art, but also people. If you're lacking creativity in attire or just need some inspiration for your style, I recommend you to join one of the Art Walks and see what people are wearing. It's like your're reading a colorful fashion magazine.

(picture here)

There's no chance that you would go back home with a sad face, the live music, vivid art and great people guarantee you a good night. Even if there's a chance of rain.