These Miami Artists Prove Their City’s Art Scene Is Bigger Than Art Basel

ARTSY EDITORIAL

BY FRANCESCA GAVIN

NOV 28TH, 2016 4:05 PM

Unlike many cities that harbor strong art scenes, Miami still maintains opportunities for artists, by way of available space, relatively low costs, and a rich, multicultural creative community. While it’s host to a healthy selection of serious art collections, museums, galleries, and project spaces, the warm coastal city possesses a sense of remove and quietness for artists (save for during Art Basel in Miami Beach each December), which lends them a sense of creative freedom that art capitals often lack. As a result, the art coming out of Miami consistently feels fresh and experimental.

Over the past decade, as Miami Art Week has increasingly gained steam and real estate developers have moved in, the art scene has undergone change. The once studio-friendly Wynwood has experienced extreme growth, leading the city’s contemporary art epicenter to shift to other neighborhoods, like Little Haiti. But even so, compared to the corporatization of space in places like New York, Miami maintains a distinct edge. Ahead of the city’s busiest art season, we caught up with eight Miami artists to learn why they’re inspired to work in Miami year-round, and what they’ve been up to lately.

Miami native Moore feels totally invested in the city and its interconnected community. “An artist can do whatever they want here,” he says. “There aren’t a lot of external forces that dictate what kind of work should be made and that enables a kind of freedom that is hard to find in other cities.”

His work fluidly crosses between sculptural and architectural; he’s currently designing his own house. Many of his works for galleries, such as those shown with local gallery Nina Johnson, consider the structures of furniture—juggling ideas of function, form, politics, and social dynamics. “A lot of my work aims to break down perceived ideas of value based on materials and functionality,” Moore says.