MAG Magazine

The incomparable Maria Callas, known to many as “La Divina,” made her mark in the opera world with her mastery of the bel canto style. In 1957, Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala presented a production of Bellini’s La sonnambula at the Edinburgh Festival, with Callas as the star.

December 2012. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced $23 million in new funding for the arts in South Florida. The support brings Knight Foundation’s total investment in South Florida’s diverse and dynamic cultural community to $86 million in six years.

Looks, as always, are deceiving. A relatively simple warehouse space littered with Pulp Fiction film posters and postmodern street-level photographs acts as the hub for Lombardi Properties, the signature source of real estate in Wynwood.

A little over a century ago, Wassily Kandinsky announced the consolidation of a new abstract language, originating in inner necessity, in spiritual need. André Malraux later reaffirmed that conviction through a prediction which, up to the moment, appears to have been erroneous: “(Art of) The 21st century will either be spiritual, or it will not be.”

August, 2012. The Miami-Dade County Public Schools has appointed Evonne S. Alvarez to lead the high school program of New World School of the Arts. A seasoned academic administrator and educator, Alvarez will be responsible for planning, organizing, administering and directing academic and operational activities at the high school level, which are essential to the operation of NWSA.

Every spring they come back to Miami to dance together. Cuban classical dancers so exceptional that a few years back Time Magazine devoted an article to them entitled: “Psst! The Cubans Are Coming! Latin Ballet Dancers are storming the stage creating a revolution of Russian proportions.”

July 13 through August 12, 2012. At the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, visiting and local collaborators are polishing the glitter for a decadent performance party called “The Donkey Show.” A loose interpretation of the Shakespearian drama, “The Donkey Show” reimagines “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at legendary nightclub Studio 54.

Three artist collaboratives explore the city’s solild waste.  On a sweltering summer afternoon last month, a City of Miami fireman hosed down dozens of inner city kids trying to cool off during a raucous back to school party, from the ladder of his fire engine. A few yards away, at the Athalie Range Park on NW 5th Avenue and 62nd Street, a … +

The Wet Heat Project creates spirited documentary films, web destinations and events that explore an in-depth experience of the contemporary arts and artists of Miami, capturing history in the making… One story at a time. In the fast-paced Wet Heat video trailer, a rooster sharpens his spurs on the concrete pavement outside a Wynwood warehouse as artist Brian Burkhardt enters his studio … +

Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami Three weeks, 120 feet of paper (seamlessly unified), twenty days of travel: these are all numbers which apply to Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. A penetrating, raw documentary of road-tripping through the American landscape, this work was only a facet of Kerouac’s oeuvre belonging to the Beat Generation. Throughout his life, Kerouac refused such specific labels, … +

June 2012. Amazon just announced their list of the most well read cities in America. Miami is number six. And for those with a need to know, Alexandria, VA is number one. Amazon determined the rankings, based on per capita of cities with more than 100,000 residents, after compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in print and via … +

Hamlet, Prince of Cuba at the South Miami Cultural Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center When it comes to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, productions and adaptations abound, but Michael Donald Edwards, Artistic Director of Sarasota’s Asolo Repertory Theatre has the distinction of creating the first Cuban Hamlet. Edwards’ adaptation made its Miami debut with English and Spanish productions the second weekend of May at the South … +

Farside Gallery and Art@Work Expect to be floored, and ceiling-ed, when visiting the Farside Gallery and the accompanying art space in the lobby of Mosquera Orthodontics. But don’t expect to be overwhelmed with color and dramatics. The two architecturally based interventions are subtle and simple in their presentations, but not uncomplicated.

Galleria Ca d’Oro’s Gloria Porcella, the youngest of four generations of Rome’s renowned art connoisseurs, is on a clear mission to bring Italian art to the U.S. with the stateside debut of the gallery in Coral Gables. Having only opened last year during Art Basel, with the placement of Cracking Art Group’s Pink Snails all over Miami Beach, Porcella has already become … +

The nostalgias, longings and sadness of youth and the aging process, itself are the heavy subjects tackled at a joyous occasion. There are no paradoxes here. On a splendid evening in November, Miami-based orthodontist and collector Arturo Mosquera welcomed the public into his office space (and exhibition annex) for drinks, a full salsa band, food and good friends.

With so much attention placed on contemporary art coming out of Wynwood, it is sometimes difficult to note the cultural milieus found in other areas of Miami. Consider Little Havana. Marked by sidewalk cafes, ethnic restaurants, storefront churches, and tourist busses, it is also the site of a surreal underground art space run by Adalberto Delgado: The 6th Street Container.

Since its opening in 1974, exhibitions featuring leading artists from around the world, as well as notable emerging artists, have graced the walls of ArtSpace Virginia Miller Galleries. From its location in Coral Gables, noted art curator and dealer, Virginia Miller, continues to host contemporary artists, often introducing them to art enthusiasts in the United States in some new and important way.

For all of the inherent value laden in the masterpieces of Modern and contemporary art, there is something menacing going on beneath the surface. The public rarely, if ever, knows the scope of scandal, underhanded dealings and boldfaced deceit carried out, while dealers and auction houses cash in on the public’s money.

As citizens of such a uniquely blended city, we are lucky enough to experience a different culture on almost every corner. We pride ourselves in the development of our scene, in the enrichment of our own identity, and have become quite the hit for our art fairs, events, our galleries and museums, and of course, for the artists that inspire it all.

Darcy’s Law describes how a liquid disperses throughout a porous environment. The natural analogues are plenty: visualizations resemble everything from floodplains to capillaries to migration patterns.

Charest-Weinberg’s art gallery occupies a space in the unassuming Wynwood Lofts complex on NW 23rd street. It’s called the building home since 2008.