ART WALK

This year the Miami DDA has partnered with Miami Dade Art and Public Places to bring you the first series of Downtown Miami "Art Walking Tours". Miami Dade Art in Public places has commissioned over fifty-five artworks since 1973 including renowned international as well as Miami-based artists. We are proud to bring you a curated walking tour of eleven select pieces of the collection.

Miami DDA would like to thank Brandi Reddick (Miami Art in Public Places) for expertly curating these tours. We would also like to thank Brandi and Thom Collins (Miami Art Museum) for lending their incredible expertise and voice to the downloadable Audio files that guide you on this tour and accompany each artwork.

You may want to estimate that the tour will take around 90 minutes – depending on how much time you decide to spend with each art piece. Take this tour at your leisure, view the works of art and explore downtown.


The Art Walk will lead you inside the Main Public Library, so we recommend that you take the tour during its opening hours: 


Monday-Saturday 9am-6pm
Sunday-Closed 


The tour makes use of the metromover, a free public transportation system throughout Downtown. You may want to pick up a route map at any one of the stations or view/print it from http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/metromover.asp


1st Stop
Plaza of Miami Dade Cultural Center (See on Map)

“Cheval Majeur”

 by  Raymond Duchamp-Villon

Duchamp-Villon is highly regarded as one of the most important Cubist sculptors. Cheval Majeur is his most celebrated work and has been referred to as the most powerful piece by any strictly Cubist artist.


2nd Stop
Miami Main Public Library (entrance from Cultural Plaza), Entrance Rotunda (See on Map)

“Words without thought never go to Heaven”
by Edward Ruscha
California artist Edward Ruscha is best known for his exploration of the meaning and power of words. In this commission Ruscha took a quote from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, floated each word on a sky-like ground, and installed the mural in a continuous frieze. In a second phase, Ruscha designed sixty related lunettes for placement throughout the library.

Walk across pedestrian bridge to Metro Dade County Building
3rd Stop
Metro Dade County Building, West side of the Plaza (See on Map)
“Dropped Bowl with scattered Slices and Peels”
by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
This monumental outdoor sculpture represents an imaginary moment in time when a huge bowl of orange slices and peel drops to the ground and shatters

Take the Metromover, Brickell Loop, from Government Center to Riverwalk Station
4th Stop
Metromover Riverwalk Station (See on Map)
“M”
by Roberto M. Behar and Rosario Marquardt
Designed as an entranceway to the Riverwalk Station, “The ‘M’ stands for Miami, Magic, Metro Mover and as a landmark in a land of immigrants that may also celebrate motherhood and memory and hence the birth of the first Pan American city under construction.

Continue on the Metromover, Brickell Loop, to Bayfront Park Station
5th Stop
Bayfront Park, West Side, next to main entrance (See on Map)
“Slide Mantra”
by Isamu Noguch
 
This lyrical and playful work is entirely carved from Carrara marble and weighs 29-tons. Noguchi wished to show his long held belief that play could lead to a new appreciation of sculpture.

6th Stop
Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus(See on Map)
“Lazers Maze”
by Forrest Myers
In Lazers Maze, Forrest Myers uses open, interlocking cubes set on edges to create a dynamic form that references the architecture and complements the monumental scale of the campus buildings

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“Dos Grandes”
by Bill Barrett
Vertically oriented and situated on three points, Dos Grandes is an elegant, curvilinear sculpture with elements that intersect and undulate in space. Barrett balances visual tension with organic form, producing a work that is both abstracted and animated.

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“Zamir”
by Richard van Buren
Elegant and sparse, Richard Van Buren’s Zamir is a study in weight and balance and an example of American Minimalist sculpture. The artist incorporated vertical upswing in the core of the sculpture, which appears to push the limits of balance and create visual tension.

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“Marina” 
by David von Schlegell
In this piece, von Schlegell makes use of his lifelong interest in yacht and airplane design, referencing the external skin of an airplane with sheets of shiny aluminum joined with visible rivets.

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“The X”
by Ronald Bladen
Ronald Bladen’s Minimalist construction, The X, stands almost twenty-three feet tall. Due to its large scale, the form demands the viewer experience its powerful presence and consider its heroic proportions.

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“Double City Boots”
by Kenneth Snelson
Precisely balanced stainless steel cables and tubing form a delicate and airy structure in Snelson’s Double City Boots. Snelson’s art investigates structures, ranging from his trademark gigantic discontinuous compression sculptures to models of the atom.

Miami Dade Community College – Wolfson Campus (See on Map)
“Manhatten Schist- Portrait of a Rock”
by Robert Lawrence Lobe
Lobe interprets and manipulates nature as the source of inspiration for Manhattan Schist: Portrait of a Rock. To create the piece, sheets of aluminum were hammered over the surface of rocks, producing a sculpture which transforms a seemingly solid mass into an organic, weightless structure.



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