JORGE M. PéREZ TO OPEN EXPERIMENTAL MIAMI ARTS SPACE IN DECEMBER
Jorge M. Pérez—the Miami-based real estate developer, collector, and philanthropist who is best known in the art world for his major contributions to the Miami Art Museum, which was renamed in his honor—is planning to open a new experimental arts space in December. The launch of the venue is Pérez’s latest effort to support South Florida’s cultural sector. Earlier this year, he established the $50,000 Pérez Prize as well as a new grant program that will award $1 million to Miami arts organizations annually.
El Espacio 23 will house Pérez’s extensive private holdings of contemporary art, which comprise several thousand works. Named after its location on Northwest Twenty-Third Street in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood and housed within a repurposed, 28,000-square-foot warehouse, the museum will host regular exhibitions, residencies for curators and artists, and a variety of special projects. The arts space is also organizing a series of artist activations with creatives working in the local community. The first set of artists selected to collaborate with the museum are Alberto Baraya, Raimond Chaves, Gilda Mantilla, and Susana Pilar Delahante.
Inaugurating the museum will be a group show, “Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” that will examine the conflicts and contradictions of contemporary society. Curated by Jose Roca, in collaboration with Patricia M. Hanna and Anelys Alvarez, the exhibition will be divided into multiple themes such as state terror and spatial politics and will feature the work of eighty artists, including Ai Weiwei, Alejandro Campins, Rashid Johnson, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Ana Mendieta, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Barthélémy Toguo.
“This new center was born from the belief that at the core of any of the world’s great cities, is a thriving community of artists and creatives,” said Pérez. “This is a project forty years in the making, and I look forward to inspiring and challenging visitors to think beyond the scope of their personal worldviews, while also cultivating the artists and curators of tomorrow.” Pérez also said that he remains “whole heartedly committed to supporting the Pérez Art Museum Miami” and views the establishment of El Espacio 23 as an “extension of that mission.”
