After 4 years of actively working and living in my art studio in Wynwood Miami, I had to let it go this past December right before Art Basel 2016. For an artist the act of creating art can be very complicated. Many things have to be sacrificed in order to create, for me it was a reasonable living situation. The warehouse converted space was called Viophilia a word that described the obsession with art. We built the walls, we painted, we invited collaboration and in the end only the memories that were documented remained.

For years the derelict warehouse was home to loud underground ska parties, urban art pushers,  a vintage pin-up model photo studio, a skate ramp, a colony of mice and at last a place where artists could envision a space and create interactive art installations, exhibits and even musical performances.  While the space sometimes took the best of me with many sleepless nights from the police sirens roaring loud outside my window, it also took the best of my work and allowed me the time to focus intensely on my craft.

I met many new artists, embarked on a new path creating murals with an amazing partner and also attended the funeral wake of a local artist who was also struggling to make it in art. I look at space in a whole new light now, for it is not the space or location that makes development happen, but the people who inhabit that space that can make that space vibrate with life.

For now, Viophilia rests in peace, as a temple of creativity and its ruins lay scattered upon that concrete floor. I thank all those that made it what it was by giving their time and helping to make it what it was.

Special Thanks

Francy Freixas
Amir Shakir
Natalia Molina
Ella Arie
Christopher Maslow
Christi Arce
Kendall Morgan