Smurf Universe

Smurfy Summer Daze.

With the dog days of summer comes opportunity. This is a great time to visit people that are most deserving of our affection and encouragement. So let's do our due diligence.
Under the highway with George Sanchez Calderon. Maybe the spankiest studio in the land of Oz south of Wynwood. I wonder if we are related?




The Place with No Front Door.

We've all seen buildings with no window and buildings for cars (more on that later) so you might say to yourself, " oh wow!" when approaching this building with no obvious entry. Well just like alice in wonderland one must step through the looking glass to enter into a world of street cred and prestige in the swamp.




Smurf Central.

Back in 1984 I never imagined S M U R F would be in the encyclopedia. History shows these funky blue belgian bunnies were embraced by us the proto-hip-hop culture. Today you will find our prodigy chilling at Our House West Of Wynwood. Weird that the best thing in Wynwood is not actually there.



Oh Yeah!

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Bravo New World?

Voluntary Humiliation Queue

Scores of Miami artist peppered with other dreamers from across this "liberal arts" nation gathered in the sweltering heat of the swamp to audition for the next reality teevee show. Solicited by the otherwise respectable Bravo with cohort Jessica from sex in the city, young, old and freaky lined up to have a shot at soothsayer andy's fifteen minute promise.



Breakfast Special, Artlurker and Captain Justice.

The unholy affair was a particularly welcome spectacle for certain natives steeped in the art world. If you put aside the profound repercussions of how mass culture marketeers vie in desperation for the packaging and delivery of relative reality to soccer moms, nascar dads and their culture starved offspring, then it is easy to have a beer for breakfast now an then. The day of the cattle call was tantamount to the tropical storm warnings we are accustomed to in the swamp.



Gotta be In It to Win It.

I imagine plenty of the callused rejection that artist are accustomed to was delivered.
By 2pm the deciders had decided on about a dozen. They are presumably the predetermined local heavies, a couple of cute chicks, several ethnics types, freak-showies, somebody's gay cousin and the usual plants. The reality felt dreadfully scripted.
Which begs the question, with auditions in NY, LA, Chicago and Miami, is there any marketing or anthropological value to the archive of artists that Bravo has amassed? Are the bloody contracts void for those rejected? Will it all end up in a shredder?




I fell in love with this old fart, but she was betrothed.

Talent is the art of persuasion, it is having rhetorical monkeys fly out of your arsenal at that very special moment.




The casting was a civil affair, everyone's behavior was exemplary, except for BruceHighQuality. in their rented sexcalade. Gotta love the relevant irreverent!

If I had to write a name for Bravo's Untitled Art Project it might be "reality bites back" or "sex in the museum".

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When it rains, that's swampy

Ahmadinejad takes a smoke break with the sisters... Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and mother superior.

Very swampy day today in the swamp. Good day to visit the swampspace gallery.




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Sweet Basil's BigTop Bonanza

Tents-R-Us. Mid-Town east of I-95 , 8 feet above sea level.

The Art Circus is Coming to the Latin Manhattan.
The art industry is an economic engine, a Rolls Royce diesel power-house.

Notice the myriad of temporary structures being erected on empty lots from downtown to the Design District, from Coral Gables to South Beach. BTW, when is hurricane season over? Who cares, it's time for the eighth annual 'art n shock n awe' !! Come out and take in the Painting, Sculpture, Video, Design, Performance, and a Museum-load of Partying. The anticipation is contagious.

Tis' the Season of the Artzi Fartzy Folk. ArtBaselMiamiBeach is poised to attract the curious senses, a multitude of casual observers and 500 private jet-setting eye-balls. The art world, as with the science community, consists of a diverse melange of fascinating characters immersed in the creative process of elimination and aquisition. That we are not all are predictable makes for a worthwhile junket into the cerebral realm of the visually engaged.

With the years the ABMB, the whole ball of wax, has gained tremendous nuanced momentum but somehow it is diminished with predictability. Like a perennial itch, there is a buzz in the swamp that beacons the bohemian spirit with the eye-candy.



The Swiss Basel captain would never let this happen to their containers.



ABMB is to art fairs what Godzilla is to Kaiju.

As with any good genre, Japanese monster movies are distinct and cliche yet varied, distracting, amusing and unnerving enough to relax us then engage the minds of the spectators. Art fairs are also distracting, amusing and unnerving. And like any good story, it has a beginning, middle and end.

Arguably all the other fairs annually world-wide are relevant and substantial in an old-world kinda way but Basil in Miami is down-right Tropi-Radioactive.



Re-Designed District.
The RNC venue was smaller than this crystal draped BigTop behemoth.
This will be the epicenter for Designistas and all things designy with wall to wall Fabuloucity.

The appreciation of finer things has always been with us. The search is an epic journey; even today with frequent-flier miles. It is where we draw delight and lust. The art market trades in something founded on our vices, one result of leisure time after we got beyond survival.
The iconic voyage is unchanged as collectors and curios once again venture to Miami in search of the thing that is most prized, though the gem may prove illusive, the artventurer will depart with stories of far swampier places, people and things.

The highest prized slaves.


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American Marble Recycled

"Jacob Epstein" 2008 swampthing

It was recently noted in the blogoscene that there is a deficiency in miami art postings, maybe it is because there are other more critical issues to consider, like getting the rent money. But like a good art-soldier, here is a bit of good news for artists who work with american marble aka styrofoam. As a fabricator to the stars I have been using eps foam professionally for years with great results... and allot of left-overs that are often re-used to make more art. Polystyrene is used in many plastics applications and is definitely not bio-degradable. Finally there is a 'green solution" to the great styro-dilemma. Thanks to new pal Will for the info:

Blue Earth Solutions - Blue, the new green. We recycle Styrofoam®™

Source: blueearthsolutions.com

Blue Earth Solutions is a publicly traded company that recycles Styrofoam®™ with StyroSolve©.The EPS turns into a gel, called Polygel©, which is pelletized and sold as raw material

Styroguy - Fun with styro-scraps.


FordFlexFossil 2008 swampthing


"Hammock" for Daniel Arsham 2008


"American Eagle" for Piotr Uklanski 2006


Bhakti-balls for Baxter 2006


Stellated Dodecahedron for R&R Studio 2007



Styrofoam is a curious passive metaphor for our unsustainable modern plastics dominated life-styles.

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