Story and Photos by Irene Sperber

Denise Wolpert, Director of Membership Services for the Bass Museum, with artist Federico Uribe

Don’t be put off by the hype toward the younger art patron if you’re less than dewy-eyed. The ArtCrowd events, at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach, can be fun and inspirational. These evenings, held quarterly, feature live performances, studio and private collection visits as well as film screenings. 

September’s offering was a visit to the adjoining studios of  Federico Uribe and Carolina Sardi, not far from the Haitian Market, a replica of Haiti’s famous iron market.  Each artist generously gave a talk on his work.

Uribe’s pieces are fascinating, especially for those of us who are process oriented, as we crane our necks to discern how the pennies, screws, wood chips, shoelaces – you name it---attach to form and canvas (He won’t tell. Harrumph. Only that he uses no glue. Hmm?).  The end result is perfectly executed images, with always an ironic and/or amusing twist to the message.  The males in his pieces are all self-portraits. I’m told.  Uribe is fascinated by the “Organic Creation of Nature”; likes listening to his own head – his own ideas. His enjoyment evolves from making designs from already created objects, such as palm trees out of garden rakes.

Artist Carolina Sardi with her "Home Cells", an orange honeycomb sculpture representing how we live

Sardi’s labor intensive steel sculptures evolve from the principle of organic geometry –lines, points and planes.  She tries to find the most essential thing that relates to the human being.  An Argentinian native, Sardi has lived in Miami for 12 years. Pan American Art Project Gallery (2450 NW 2nd Ave, Miami) will have an exhibition of her work in January.

The artists’ attached studios are both large warehouses with lovely jungle gardens running full length out the back for a breath of air as well as  a place to sit if the un-air conditioned studio floors became tiresome.  It was a delightful evening.   Both studios were well displayed in full gallery form.

Miami is not always a city that wears culture on its sleeve.  You must search and rescue your own cultural interests.

Close -up of Uribe's paintings made from affixed broken colored-pencils	Federico Uribe's studio:  Palm tree made with rakes (foreground), trees with wooden handles and propellers (background)
Full view of previous close-up