Displaying items by tag: perez art museum miami

In early October, Franklin Sirmans has just eight days left to work through his Los Angeles bucket list: He’s planning one more round of golf, some tennis with a gallerist friend plus at least one Mets versus Dodgers baseball game. He’ll also make a few final pilgrimages to his favorite restaurants. “I’m not going to miss the chance to go to my sake house, which has an amazing DJ on Saturday nights,” he says. While he’s here, Sirmans has co-opted the bar of the Beverly Wilshire as his ad hoc office.

For its 2014-2015 season, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) has asked artists Nicole Cherubini, Mario Garcia Torres, Iman Issa, Shana Lutker, and Gary Simmons to create site-specific projects in the museum. In creating the commissioned works, the artists have been asked to respond to both the museum’s architecture and Miami. Projects range from Cherubini’s clay works to a large mural by Simmons to a historiographic installation from Torres.

“Site-specific and commissioned works are a vital part of PAMM’s curatorial and public vision and program."

The Pérez Art Museum Miami wants a $2.5 million boost in government support, with taxpayers set to cover a third of the museum’s budget next year.

Housed in a new $130 million waterfront headquarters built largely with government money, PAMM’s celebrated debut late last year also tripled the non-profit’s annual operating expenses, to $14 million from $5 million. Private dollars have not kept pace with the higher costs, leaving a gap that PAMM wants Miami-Dade to help close with a 60 percent increase in the museum’s operating subsidy from hotel taxes, according to interviews and budget documents.

According to officials at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, on Sunday, February 16, a visitor smashed a vase from Ai Weiwei’s “Colored Vases” installation. The work, which is estimated to be worth $1 million, was destroyed by a local artist who was charged with criminal mischief and later released in lieu of bail. Maximo Caminero allegedly told a police officer that his act was a protest against the museum’s decision to exhibit only international art and its exclusion of local artists in its shows.

The Pérez Art Museum, which opened in December, released a statement saying, “As an art museum dedicated to celebrating modern and contemporary artists from within our community and around the world, we have the highest respect for freedom of expression, but this destructive act is vandalism and disrespectful to another artist and his work, to Pérez Art Museum Miami, and to our community."

Caminero claimed that he was inspired by one of Weiwei’s most famous works, “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,” a series of three photographs showing the contemporary Chinese artist dropping an ancient Chinese vase. Weiwei is no stranger to controversy and has openly criticized the Chinese government’s position on democracy and human rights.

The 200,000-square-foot, Herzog & de Meuron-designed Pérez Art Museum at Miami Museum Park has officially opened to the public. Located on Miami’s Biscayne Bay, the museum features expansive galleries and an education center.

Fundraising efforts for the museum began in 2004 when Miami-Dade county voters approved a general obligation bond for $100 million in public money. Private donors contributed another $60 million for the building’s construction and institutional endowment. After developer Jorge Pérez pledged $35 million and a number of important artworks to the project in 2011, officials decided to name the institution The Pérez Art Museum.

A retrospective highlighting controversial Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei is currently on view at the Pérez Art Museum. The exhibition opened at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., last year and traveled to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario earlier this year.

An anonymous donor has given $15 million to the future Pérez Art Museum Miami. The Miami Art Museum announced on Friday, May 17, 2013 that they received $12 million in cash and $3 million art. It is unclear whether the donor has had any involvement with the museum and why the benefactor wishes to remain nameless.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami, which is months away from opening, was formerly known as the Miami Art Museum. The institution closed in 2011 and construction on the new building, which was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and overlooks Miami’s Biscayne Bay, began immediately. Fundraising efforts for the project began in 2004 when Miami-Dade county voters approved a general obligation bond for $100 million in public money. Private donors contributed another $60 million for the building’s construction and institutional endowment. After developer Jorge Pérez pledged $35 million to the project in 2011, officials decided to rename the Miami Art Museum The Pérez Art Museum Miami, which did not go over well and led to a number of board members and collectors withdrawing their support.

The latest gift, which comes with no strings attached, brings the museum to 85% of its $220 million fundraising goal. The generous donation will go towards the museum’s endowment.