Miami is known as the gateway to Latin America, and this is no different in terms of its repositories of contemporary art. With prominent locals such as Jorge Pérez, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz and Ella Cisneros-Fontanals, it follows that at least one or two commercial galleries will fill the need for others to discover the richness of both historic and current works sourced south of the Magic City and beyond.
Maman Fine Art, headed by gallerist and archivist Daniel Maman and Patricia Maman, has locations in Miami and Buenos Aires and represents over twenty artists concentrated in traditional forms of sculpture and painting. The Buenos Aires location opened in October 2001, where it quickly became recognized among its peers for promoting both established and emerging contemporary artists. Easily the gallery's most prized and internationally well-known artist is Guillermo Kuitca, an Argentinean multidisciplinary master known for his ominous opera house blueprints, vast interior-space paintings and detailed road maps on mattresses. All of these recall his personal history as the son of Russsian Jewish immigrants and a witness to the brutal oppression of Jorge Rafael Videla. For a private space in Miami to host such a talent (with varying works diffused throughout private collections in town, not to mention a solo exhibition at the Miami Art Museum in 2009), says quite a lot.
Maman also shows the works of painter Carlos Alonso, neo-Pop artist Alejandro Vigilante and reproductions from the art world's gone-too-soon ingenue Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both Maman and Latin American/Caribbean art specialist Gary Nader contributed to the curation of the sculptural work spread throughout Icon Bay near the Viceroy Hotel and Icon Brickell. With the opening of the Pérez Art Museum Miami creeping up this December, galleries like Maman's will play an integral part in the diversification of Miami's contemporary art landscape.
The new Miami location of Maman Fine Art is situated in the heart of the Miami Design District at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue, Suite 204 (the Melin Building).
