Amanda Ryan
Miami’s Design District
Not more than two decades ago, the Buena Vista neighborhood in Miami was a victim of urban decay as wealthy and middle-class residents fled towards the suburbs. Once a center for home furnishings, the area’s commercial activities declined when many showrooms relocated to the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) in the ’80s. Storefronts sat empty and and buildings fell into disrepair.
As a result of the visionary efforts of developer Craig Robins and his development company Dacra, Buena Vista, now known as the Design District, is once again becoming a destination for tastemakers. Miami native Robins was responsible for the revitalization of the Art Deco District in South Beach in the early ’90s, with a focus on historical preservation and urban renewal. Soon after, Robins began buying property in the Design District and now owns nearly sixty percent of the real estate in the area. His focus on the neighborhood through the synthesis of art, design, and community rather than on single-building development is responsible for the lightning-fast turnaround of the area.
Over the last ten years, Robins has attracted scores of galleries, restaurants, and upscale design firms like the ones that once filled the district. The neighborhood is fast becoming a shopping destination with luxury boutiques for designers Christian Louboutin and Marni, as well as Louis Vuitton’s plans to open a Design District location by 2014 with other LVMH brands likely to follow. Robins has said that he envisions the neighborhood as Miami’s answer to New York’s SoHo or Meatpacking District.
Jason Shawn Alexander, Totem, 2011, ink, paper collage, encaustic, oil on canvas. Courtesy 101/Exhibit.
A Mecca for Galleries
101/Exhibit opened in the Design District in 2008 and has become a fixture on the Miami gallery circuit. Its first exhibition, Marilyn Manson’s Trismegistus, opened during Art Basel Miami Beach to a flurry of press attention. Its unconventional paintings set the tone for the gallery, which focuses on figural and representational works that engage the viewer on a visceral level.
Gallery owner Sloan Schaffer chose the area for its identity as an up-and-coming neighborhood where he can have a strong presence and reach viewers from a variety of backgrounds, as opposed to Wynwood, which is already somewhat of a destination for fine art collectors. Since 101/Exhibit opened, Schaffer says,“The area has come 180 degrees in the past few years. The Design District has seen such a rapid transformation, and I think it’s destined to be the new cultural center of Miami. This area is like the mecca for galleries and it has some of the greatest private collections in the world nearby. You’ve got the Rubell Collection, CIFO, and the Margulies Warehouse.”
Their latest exhibition, Undertow, features paintings from Los Angeles based figurative painter Jason Shawn Alexander and opens during Art Basel Miami Beach. Alexander’s contorted figures are reminiscent of the work of Francis Bacon, and his lovingly-painted faces contrast with bodies that delicately twist and melt into an abstract background. His figures exist in a dreamworld where they are simultaneously frozen in emotional states and perpetually moving. Schaffer says of Alexander, “Jason is the heart and soul of this gallery. He was the first artist I approached when I started the gallery and his work is constantly evolving.”
Jason Shawn Alexander, Migration, 2011, oil on paper on 2 canvases. Courtesy 101/Exhibit.
Alexander took a minute to chat with me in advance of his latest show:
You grew up in Tennessee, how do you feel your background relates to your art?
Primarily, there was no real art world in Tennessee at the time, especially in the area where I was raised. I learned to work internally—I wasn’t educated in art school and wasn’t exposed to a lot of artists growing up. I just knew that this is what I wanted to do, and that I needed to make work that was personal and meaningful.
What inspired you to become an artist?
My dad. My father grew up in California and he was always big into art. He painted and drew with us constantly, and he saw how I became enamored with it. He brought me lots of art books, mostly Renaissance stuff, and we looked at lots of comic books and cartoons together and drew our own.
You started out as a graphic novel artist. What drew you to that in the first place, and how did you make the switch over to painting and fine art?
At that point in my life, I was trying to find a venue for my drawing, and I was never really into superheroes or anything. Then I saw Will Eisner’s graphic novel Heart of the Storm and realized that you could create mature, emotive narratives through comics.
After a while, the idea of doing other people’s stories wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to start doing something more personal, but I wanted to go beyond literal storytelling. I became friends with some painters and other artists and it was like discovering my first graphic novel all over again; in art there are no rules, no editors, no boundaries. With painting I have the freedom to get across something that is as emotional as I want to get across. Everything that can be painted has been painted, I just need to paint it my way and infuse it with my personal history to create something that speaks to people on an emotional level.
Who are your artistic influences?
I’m inspired just as much by putting on a Skip James record as I am by other artists. If I have to pick a few, Cy Twombly is huge for me, I love his work, also, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Degas, and Kollwitz. But really, there are way too many to name.
Your newer works have a stillness and an air of contemplation to them, whereas your older works felt a little more confrontational. Where does this come from?
I think it’s kind of like with music—you have a young band and they make loud, aggressive music and then they mature. You just have all this emotion built up and you are trying to convey so much and it comes out all at once. I still have all of that emotion, but I’ve learned more subtle, mature ways to express that. You can say more with a whisper than you can with a scream. I am enjoying working with different materials now and allowing them to do some of the work for me in creating emotive content.
Who inspires the figures in your works? Are they drawn from people in your personal life?
Most of the models come from my personal life. When I paint, I am trying to paint the essence of someone rather than a literal portrait (photography will always do that better). In order to do that, it helps me to know their personality and their backstory so I can really express who they are. If I don’t know the model, I spend a lot of time with my reference picture creating a narrative so that I can convey more than what I see.
How much do you plan your works before you begin?
On the canvas, not that much, but I do spend a lot of time planning the works. I do studies to work out the composition and figure out how to approach it. De Kooning spent months figuring out his “manic stroke,” but he makes it look effortless. It takes a lot to make these things actually work. So basically, I plan so that I feel secure when I step up to the canvas, but I don’t do much underdrawing or it feels like coloring.
In a lot of your newer works you’ve been incorporating ink on paper and mixed media. How do these materials change your work?
For lack of a better phrase, I feel like I am really coming into my own as a painter. In order to paint, I had to drop one set of rules and adopt another. It was like taking a step back and starting all over again. I like using pen and ink because it’s the most instinctive medium for me, and I want to incorporate whatever materials will make the image work. Now that I’ve learned the rules, I can enjoy breaking them.
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