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| By Viviana G. |
The McCormick place, originally built in 1924, was first a US Customs Warehouse and a witness of so many nefarious and merchants of soul coming into Miami through the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. And lucky for us, Mr. Edward J. McCormick, Sr. purchased the property in 1970 and dedicated it tohis father, Dr. James McCormick. Now thanks to Sean McCormick third generation, he converted the place in 2012 into a central hub for artists.
Sean McCormick has saved and kept the historical building with its original shape but highlighted as an art structure, which everyone can see between the highway webs, ramps, and Metrorail in Downtown, Miami. His vision as a curator is to house works from visual and performing arts to music and fashion. Along with his project he is also saving all the surrounding areas of the building.
I myself experienced the fortune of sharing the McCormick Place with so many artists when I was invited to show my new spring 2014 Wonderland collection at its annual DWNTWN Art Event. And now I want to invite you all to read and share part of our Miami treasures, as your Miami Icon Designer I want to give back the same as my city has given to me.
McCormick Place not only houses so many artists, but also hosts a gallery event every Friday showcasing different visuals and music, and brings together a very nice intellectual group of people and media where they are able to connect and interact with one another.
If I were able to go to every Friday event, I definitely would be the first. Please allow me to introduce to you some of these amazing artists!
Oscar Hernandez, known as OSKI, is a multi-disciplined artist; he attributes his formal education to his teenage years at the Design and Architecture S.H. of Miami. His first solo exhibit was in 2012 at The Hotel Panama, in Panama City. When returning to the U.S., he was featured at the Horizon Arts Gallery show during Art Basel 2012. Today he found a place as an Artist resident in McCormick Place and was once more featured during Art Basel 2013 at The Hotel Clinton. He is a very charming man, full of energy and free spirit, and you can have a very enjoyable conversation with him, so easy that you want to continue hearing more!
Check out his web-site: www.OskiArt.com
This free spirit has a lot to say with a fascinating life story of his own. Born in Cuba, his father was a political prisoner released finally after critical injuries, but that did not stop him from swallowing a few of his gold Spanish coins before leaving the Island and taking his family to Spain and freedom. They survived two years in Madrid by selling sandwiches at Plaza de Toros, and it was here that Andre’s journey through the arts began. Finally, coming to New York at the age of nine but bringing with him the memories from Cuba and Spain, clashing with the new contrast “Manhattan,” is where he fell in love with Pop Art. He loves the human body, his muse being his wife Stacey Conde he said, “It is her soul that I share with the world in every painting.” I invite you to take a look at his amazing work at www.andrescondeart.com.
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Monique Lassooij, a magical lady who started out as an abstract painter in The Netherlands where she was born and raised. Through the years she developed her passion for figurative paintings. She studied with Dutch artists Pien Hazenberg and Henk Hubenet, then attended The Royal Academy for Fine Arts in The Hague and her paintings hang in numerous private collections in the US and abroad. She received in 2010 “The Audience’s Choice Recipient Award” of Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Fl., in addition to The Honorable Mention, in 2013 from Irreversible Magazine International Competition. She explains that her “work explores the paradox in modern pop culture and society with an underlining humor.”
Check out her blog: http://lassooij-fine-art.blogspot.com
Devoted to arts since a very young age, and already taking classes at age 16 with artist Jose Amore, in Buenos Aires, where Ana was born and grew up, she knew that her call was to be an artist. She studied in The National School of Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredon and is also a drawing, painting and art history professor and participating in numerous exhibitions around the country, including The Municipal Concourse of Alba Company Award, Mural in the Roberto Arlt Park, in 1989. Today, a member of Amnesty International, she has created several themes and has been exhibiting at The Hangar Gallery at Art Basel since 2011 to present, and painted an array of murals for Miami, which she calls “home city.” She is very happy to have found a new home and left behind her adolescent years of military government without rights!
A person totally full of character, a presence always wearing his famous “bandanas,” and full of humor, honest and with a big heart, this is Eleazar Delgado, the man, the artist, the arquitect. Born in Oklahoma but raised in Caracas, Venezuela, he studied architecture and interior design at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He fell in love with Miami and could not resist the call of the city to paint it as is seen and felt by many: full of life, vivid colors, the sunshine, the sparkling nights and all its influence at grand. He gave us “Behind the Lights,” a series of the city collection, which earned him much acclaim throughout Miami’s art circles and was featured in the Miami Herald, CNN, Plum TV, Ocean Drive, and many more.
Eleazar Delgado “Sea Grasses in The Sky” from The Polo Collection. I am very grateful to have worked together with Eleazar styling my Wonderland Spring 2014 Collection and to have been part of his vibrant colored paintings.
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| Eleazar Delgado Back Drop, Photo Antonio Martez, Design Viviana Gabeiras.
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McCormick Place Miami and the man behind the building, Mr. Sean McCormick, I thank you on behalf of Miami and so many artists for all the support you are bringing to our city. As you, “The Curator” behind the venue, have said to all of us, “the place, where any idea can come to life.” It is totally true that McCormick makes you feel like you are in New York City, it is a village itself with a variety of people and intellectuals, bringing together so much, but most important the communication that you have allowed to happen in a very simple way and yet big, through Art.
And me, I am just a simple vessel communicating to all by always being real and throughout “The Real Life of Viviana G”.
Your Designer,
Viviana G
