Miami’s Private Art Collections: Go Big or Go Home

With pastel Art Deco waterfront, perennial sunshine, salsa in the background and larger-than-life private art collections, Miami is my paradise winter destination. I have spent the last week examining the art on show. These totemic private collections exhibited in industrial warehouses and purpose-built constructions are hardly attainable for most. However, it gives us glimpses of the different styles and models that look at long term possibilities for art collecting. Enjoy the highlights!

De La Cruz Collection is located in the Miami Design District. The three-story building hosts Progressive Praxis, an exhibition focused on process and medium experimentation.

De la Cruz Collection, Wade Guyton and Félix González-Torres — Background: Wade Guyton, Untitled, 2012 Foreground: Félix González-Torres, Last Light, 1993

De la Cruz Collection, Félix González-Torres — Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Paris, Last Time), 1989

De la Cruz Collection, Tauba Auerbach — Tauba Auerbach

De la Cruz Collection, Mark Bradford — Mark Bradford, Left: Untitled, 2011; Left: 2871, 2012

De la Cruz Collection, Alex Israel — Alex Israel, Sky Drop, 2012

The Rubell Family Collection has a strong focus on supporting emerging and mid-career artists and is exhibiting High Anxiety, their latest acquisitions since 2014 alongside New Shamans/Novos Xamãs: Brazilian Artists inspired by the Rubells’ extensive research trips to Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Rubell Family Collection, Jesse Mockrin — Jesse Mockrin, Starlight Moonlight, 2013/14

Rubell Family Collection, Brent Wadden — Brent Wadden, No. 1 Dominion, 2014

Rubell Family Collection, Paul Kneale — Paul Kneale

Rubell Family Collection, John Williams — Background: John Williams, Summer Specials, 2015

Rubell Family Collection, Paulo Nimer Pjota — Paulo Nimer Pjota, Between Philosophy and crime, Part I and II, 2015

The Margulies Collection, in the middle of Wynwood Art District, is surrounded by street art in this industrial neighborhood. There are two current displays of colossal scale by Jannis Kounellis and Anselm Kiefer alongside permanent collection works.

The Margulies Collection, Franz West — Franz West, Wall on wall paint, 2003
“In the past, when I wanted to make a sculpture, it was also something an art dealer wanted. But it was still up to me weather or not to produce something. There aren’t any more sculptures standing around now. Instead I’m confronted with demands that I react to. It’s an interaction with the environment that determines how a work gets to the pedestal. It isn’t purely constructive. I don’t construct things from out of the void and place them into the world. I face the world and I respond to its demands the best I can. That’s the way I work – not constructive but responsive, as they say.”

The Margulies Collection, Jannis Kounellis — Janis Kounellis “I promise to be severe, to continue on the path of opposition and to extract that breath of glimpsed poetics, even if I have to drag it out by the roots”

The Margulies Collection, Anselm Kiefer — Anselm Kiefer, Geheimnis der Farne, 2007

The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation is in Downtown Miami. The building’s façade deserves a major mention and it is worth the visit on its own. The mini tiles wrap the building entirely, creating a jungle effect in the courtyard.

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Amilcar de Castro — Amilcar de Castro

Pérez Art Museum Miami is technically not a private collection. It is a partnership between Metropolitan Dade County Government and a private corporation. It was named after Jorge M. Pérez in recognition of a generous gift. It houses a permanent collection and temporary exhibitions.