Second Saturday

Art patrons fill the streets of the Wynwood Art District on the second Saturday of every month just north of downtown Miami, in an area which normally belongs to the homeless and textile warehouse workers. Above, gallery walk participants walk in front of a video installation projected on a warehouse exterior. Below, a girl watches another video installation at Locust Gallery on NW 23rd St., one of several dozen small galleries in the emerging Wynwood art scene that are connected by a series of dark streets on the brink of gentrification, bottom.

This weekend I finally got out to another 2nd Saturday gallery walk in my neighborhood with my friend Josh. I had been on a bad streak of either being out of town or otherwise occupied/lazy over the last few months and hadn't seen any of the new gallery shows that are basically, besides the Chinese clothes warehouses, abandoned lots, and a Salvation Army depot, the main outposts in my backyard.

My beginning work on the Wynwood/Miami emerging art scene is somewhat connected to my larger project on the development boom -- but I've approached it a little more loosely. Really, I just love to be out in my own neighborhood trying to meet people and get a sense of what is all around me... and I don't do it enough. This Saturday I was lucky to meet, and re-meet several friends of Josh and artists in the neighborhood who I'm going to try and meet up with and photograph their artistic process and connection to where we all live. I don't really think of Miami as a great place for artists -- especially now that the Miami Herald reports that it is the least affordable city in America -- but Jason, one of the artists that I re-met, says that he can't think of a better place to be and show art. I'm excited to learn what he means.

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