Museum guides are often unobtrusive presences. Visitors peering at paintings and scoping out sculptures may hardly notice them at their posts. But these art aficionados notice a lot—from hearing gallery-goers scoff at works they dislike to patrons weeping in front of pieces that move them to tears. We caught up with professional guides at five of Miami’s most iconic museums to learn about their line of work and their favorite works of art.
Wynwood Walls
Catalina Rubiano
Known as an outdoor museum of international street art that has shown the likes of innovators Kenny Scharf, Futura, Os Gemeos, Swoon, and Shepard Fairey, Wynwood Walls has become a phenomenon, spurring the creation of murals throughout the Wynwood district. When Catalina Rubiano walked into the place for the first time as a guest in 2011, she thought it was magical.
“I was surrounded by art in the environment of murals,” she says. “I never imagined this was going to be my life 10 years later.”
The self-taught artist from Colombia says she could never escape visual art, even as she was being persuaded to become a doctor or lawyer. To satisfy both her creative desires and practical side, she studied film. But then, she says, “I decided to take my hobby seriously because I loved it, and it made me happy.”
Now a muralist and tattoo artist, Rubiano shares her love of mural arts as Wynwood Walls’ museum education assistant manager and a tour guide.
What are your favorite pieces at Wynwood Walls?
Lauren YS’ Say Gay and Vhils’ Ethereal
Describe the impact Say Gay has on you.
It’s a political statement in the form of art, created in response to the State of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” initiative. It is a tribute to The Last Supper, with LBGTQ+ characters shown. Artists like Lauren YS not only express themselves, but also give a rock and roll statement with their murals. It’s really important to share your experiences in a creative space, even if it’s controversial.
What’s your favorite fact to share with museum visitors about Say Gay?
It’s done in freehand with spray paint, so no sketching [was done] ahead of time.
Any memorable guest reactions to Say Gay?
I was doing a tour and explaining the meaning of the mural, and this couple really saw themselves in it, and it really resonated with them. They got really emotional.
What is it about Ethereal that resonates with you?
I think it’s amazing to see them destroying the walls with jackhammers to create real-life depictions of regular people.
How do guests respond to Ethereal?
Instead of adding to the wall, Vhils took away parts of it, so people want to touch and feel the wall. It connects people a lot when they can touch a piece.
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Maria Mauro
Maria Mauro’s connection to art runs almost as deep as her link to the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). After studying art history at the University of Buenos Aires, Mauro came to Florida with both a knowledge of and appreciation for the arts, with an emphasis on Latin American artists. She started volunteering at the Miami Art Museum, where she says, “I could engage in art and with the community.”
When the Miami Art Museum was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2013 and moved to its new location on Biscayne Bay, Mauro didn’t skip a beat with the transition. Today, PAMM is a flagship art institution, its 200,000-square-foot space an ode to modern and contemporary, particularly as it relates to the Latin experience. Its galleries showcase works of the African diaspora and significant pieces from Latin America and the Caribbean. And you can find Mauro there on any given week, giving up to 10 tours a month and sharing stories of the numerous pieces of international art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
What are your favorite pieces at PAMM?
My favorites change every day. But I love Francisco Sobrino’s Transformation Unstable, Juxtaposition, Superposition and boom by Gary Simmons.
What’s special to you about Transformation Unstable, Juxtaposition, Superposition?
You have to walk around it. You have different perspectives because the shadows change. The piece demands the viewer move and shows them how to be physically active in relation to the piece.
What’s one of your favorite things to tell guests about Transformation Unstable, Juxtaposition, Superposition?
The Plexiglass squares are not glued together, instead they are intersected.
Why is boom a favorite of yours?
It’s a chalk drawing on the wall, done on-site. It is an ephemeral work; when the exhibition is over, the work will disappear and [have] to be done again the next time it is exhibited.
What’s the best way to view boom?
Stand back and have a whole view and then get up close to discover how it is made: a white chalk drawing on a black wall that looks like a blackboard. Discovering this triggers many questions. Why did the artist choose this material? What will happen with the work? The work is an invitation to question our assumptions.
What reactions do guests have to boom?
At first, they are captivated by its size and by iconographic elements we are all familiar with. After finding out how it was made—the fact that the artist was there on-site creating it, in addition to realizing that this particular iteration of boom is unique to this place and time—most visitors [find] it really special.
What tips can you offer for how PAMM visitors can best interact with these pieces?
With any piece in any museum in the world, take your time. Artists take a lot of time creating these pieces, and viewers should do the same with observing [them]. Also, these objects are not against the wall, so start walking around them to see how you feel at different angles.
The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
Lauren Baccus
Lauren Baccus’ love of art began inside a craft store in Jamaica. Run by her mother, the store teemed with beautifully rendered pieces—dolls, books, and crafts handmade by Jamaican and other Caribbean artisans. After she moved to Trinidad, Baccus says she was surrounded by another type of art form: masquerade.
“Carnival is a way of life in Trinidad,” says Baccus, herself a textile artist. “I had a really deep and embodied understanding that Carnival is art, and art is life and art is embodied in this form of expression. Beyond that, Carnival allowed me to see that art is accessible through dress and performance.”
Today, as the public program manager for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Baccus says one of the best things about her job is connecting “the artwork with the people who are walking through the door.” Part of that includes creating programming that develops widespread interest, including a recent conversation between architect Germane Barnes and photographer Dario Calmese, both Black artists who discussed the equality and inclusion of Black people in spaces not traditionally made for them.
What is your favorite piece at MOCA?
Haitian artist Manuel Mathieu’s Amnesia
What excites you about Amnesia?
It’s a quiet piece that makes you question, “What is our collection of memories?” He created this piece after getting into a car accident, losing his short-term memory in the act. The piece asks us the question, “How does each of the arrangements tell a story about us? If it were moved, what does that mean to the narrative of who we are?”
What are some reactions you’ve seen guests have after viewing Amnesia?
Through that work, I can’t tell you how many people have shared their own experience of tragedy and how they reconstructed themselves, both physically and through mental experiences. Sometimes it’s from an actual car accident, just like Mathieu.
Any tips you can offer to guests to better interact with Amnesia?
Ask questions like, “ How is it making me feel?” and “Where is that feeling coming from?” Then investigate that a bit. This is an artist who is masterful at his craft. The pieces that challenge me the most are the ones that I tend to enjoy more over time, like this piece.
The Bass Museum of Art
Cynthia O’Keefe
At a time when she craved it the most, The Bass Museum of Art provided Cynthia O’Keefe with a much-needed emotional escape. The global pandemic of 2020 hit O’Keefe and her hospitality firm hard, disrupting much of the field and her own work. “But the museum became my lifeline,” O’Keefe says of The Bass. “It provided me with an outlet during a time that I needed great comfort.”
A member of The Bass since 2016, O’Keefe became heavily involved three years later, influenced by the power that it had in Miami Beach’s public art scene. With pieces like Ugo Rondinone’s Mountain and Jim Drain’s Chess Tables contributing to conversations around public art, O’Keefe says The Bass’ outdoor initiatives have helped complement the international contemporary art housed inside its 35,000-square-feet museum.
In addition to being a volunteer docent at The Bass, O’Keefe also chairs the museum’s Women’s Circle, an organization of female leaders who work to elevate the voices of women artists and art professionals.
What are your favorite pieces at The Bass?
Het Pelsken Restored by Kathleen Gilje and The Nudist Museum by Ellen Harvey
What excites you about Het Pelsken Restored?
Artist Kathleen Gilje is an art restorer by trade. In 2021, she created Het Pelsken Restored, which is based off a Peter Paul Rubens original. It’s a portrait of the artist’s second wife, and it questions the identity and performative nature of what is happening in the portrait, all at the same time. My biggest enjoyment is the wink and the intelligence of it.
Can you share how guests react to Het Pelsken Restored?
By far, the first reaction is a whiff of the head—and a lot of going closer because you see it thinking it was a master, but it’s from 2021. People always do a double take, like, “Wait, what did I just see?’”
Why is The Nudist Museum a favorite piece?
Ellen Harvey’s piece shows all types of images of the female form: how we look at nudity in commercials for sportswear, during the Renaissance, in beauty pageants, and more. She has taken these images and re-created this tremendous mural.
What are some fun facts you like to share with guests about The Nudist Museum?
There’s a lot of intentional painting outside the lines, literally, in this mural. You’ll see strokes outside the frame, spilling over to the margins.
Superblue
Cassandra Johnson
Miami is a far cry from Cassandra Johnson’s 8,000-person hometown in Colorado. But for this art history graduate, the destination is only part of the journey.
On family trips to Greece, Johnson remembers being “the only one in my family who would ask the museum guide questions and listen to the stories they would tell about the artwork and artists.”
After college, Johnson learned about a job opportunity at Superblue in Miami—a city that she had never visited. Despite the unchartered territory, she saw Superblue as “an awesome concept.” And it’s hard to disagree. The more than 50,000-square-foot space is a labyrinth of lights, sounds, movement, mirrors, mazes, and more that arrest the viewer.
Johnson took a gamble and landed the job in 2021, working her way up from a guide to her current role as concierge manager, providing tours for VIP guests. As she sees it, working at Superblue is an opportunity to appreciate art—and to flip the notion of art on its head. As a lover of Renaissance-era art, it’s something she has had to do for herself, too.
“A lot of people tend to look at [Superblue] as amusement park–esque,” Johnson says. “I love the artists so much that I’m trying to go around to educate and provide a medium where we can all try to understand exactly what these works are depicting and who it’s for. Immersive art provides a good conduit.”
What are your favorite pieces at Superblue?
James Turrell’s AKHU and teamLab’s Life Survives by the Power of Life II
What is special about Life Survives by the Power of Life II?
This piece is presented on an 8k monitor. As you watch the screen, it cycles through the four seasons, showcasing Japanese flora. The special thing about this piece is that it alters its own coding every hour of every day to mimic the natural ecosystem. … Another interesting aspect is the symbol in the center of the piece. Toward the end of fall and the beginning of winter, you can see a twisted bare branch in the center of the screen. At a certain angle, this branch forms “Sei,” which is the Japanese calligraphic character for life.
What do guests often say about Life Survives by the Power of Life II?
You have to sit with this piece to recognize its beauty. Guests regularly do [that] as they are exiting the first installation. Once guests understand all of the elements of this piece, they want to keep returning back to it to see all of the changes that make the piece so special.
Describe the impact that AKHU has on you.
Turrell wants you to focus on the light in front of you. [When] you do, you’re getting bathed in it. Unlike our other spaces, where you can touch things, you can’t here. You go in not knowing what you could feel or see. To the viewer, it’s a new experience every time.
How do guests often react to AKHU?
I’ve seen a few people come out of the room tearing up because it allows them the time to take the inner monologue away and understand what it is to really be in the moment.
Facebook Comments