Miami spotlight still shines on Latin art

In its 10th year of showcasing work from Latin American artists, the arteaméricas fair in Miami Beach that opens Saturday is highlighting something new: work from artists of any origin.

The new FotoAméricas section, which was open to all nationalities, is a reflection of Miami’s increasingly global reputation as an art destination.

Miami’s profile has been raised largely thanks to Art Basel Miami Beach, which marked its 10th year in December, and multiple satellite fairs that draw an international audience each year.

“You have now a much more international crowd of not only Latin Americans but Spaniards, Europeans,” fair president Leslie Pantín said. “You have [an area] that has changed dramatically in the last 10 years with all these international people that live most of the year down here in Miami.”

His own fair represents that shift, Pantín said: In its first year, “only Hispanics came.”

This year, the 52-gallery fair is expected to draw an estimated 15,000 art lovers from all over the Southern part of the state, New York — and, of course, Latin America.

Observers say that while Miami remains a city in artistic flux, its roots in Hispanic culture are deep.

“Miami is a city in search of its cultural artistic identity,” said Reed V. Horth, president and curator of Robin Rile Fine Art and curator of a Salvador Dalí exhibit that opens next week in Miami. “There are many names, shows and styles all vying to become what is quintessential about Miami. While the future remains uncertain, we are slowly becoming to Latin American art what Paris was to impressionism in the 1880s.”

Arteaméricas, which runs through Monday, is the first of three major events that focus on Latin America and its mother country of Spain to open in Miami the space of a week. On Wednesday, the five-day Dalí Miami exhibit, featuring 200 works by the Spanish artist, opens at the Moore Building in the Design District. Thursday brings the opening reception for Cuba: The Natural Beauty by photographer Clyde Butcher at the Center for Visual Communication in Miami.

The events are a testament to the built-in audience that South Florida provides for art with a Latin American or Spanish bent. With high-profile galleries and artists in the community, “it would be hard to argue any other city has had as much of an impact on Latin American art as Miami has,” Horth said.

Gary Nader, an art dealer and gallery owner, began auctioning Latin American art in the early 90s and just recently opened a show featuring masters and contemporary Latin American artists.

“When I opened my first gallery here 25 years ago, I registered ‘Miami, Latin American art capital of the world’ [as a trademark] because it’s where you find the most important things in Latin American art — in Miami,” he said.

Still, Nader said, only about 50 percent of what his gallery shows is Latin American art. And when he resurrected his auction house earlier this year, the pieces he sold were Latin American, modern and contemporary.

The presence of Art Basel Miami Beach has introduced collectors of modern Latin American art to more cutting-edge contemporary artists from the area, said art adviser Lisa Austin. And the growing population of affluent young Latin Americans are proving a solid target for those contemporary artists.

“They’re really making it a draw for the Latin American galleries to come here and show their work,” Austin said.

Beyond Miami, interest is growing in Latin American art elsewhere, said Tobias Ostrander, chief curator at the Miami Art Museum.

“Each part of the country is different, but the U.S. will be increasingly Latin in the next couple of years,” he said. “A lot of institutions nationally are paying more attention to their Latin acquisitions and collections.”

The museum, which will be called the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County when it opens in its new home late next year, is among them. With the donation of $15 million worth of Latin American art from Pérez and other acquisitions, the museum is seeking to build its collection to be more reflective of Miami’s cultural diversity.

“We want our public to come to the museum and to feel identified in one way or another through the works,” Ostrander said.

Ramón Cernuda, director of the Cuban art-focused Cernuda Arte gallery in Coral Gables, said he thinks Miami can build its profile by embracing Latin American art more fervently.

He and other observers pointed out that several institutions — including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, New York City’s El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Calif. — boast collections unlike any compiled in Miami museums.

“Miami is still debating whether it wants to or not be the Latin American art capital of the world,”said Cernuda. One part of the art community is focused on contemporary, cutting-edge works, he says.

“Another group that realizes Miami is the capital of Latin America — whether it wants to be or not.

Miami Herald staff writer Howard Cohn contributed to this report.