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Scott Murray:
He’s keeping his day job. |
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Nick Lobo’s Cough Syrup, Play-Dough Diorama.
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By Victor Barrenechea
BT Contributor
Looking for an alternative
to the increasingly predictable art fare offered up every second
Saturday in Miami? Make a detour to Twenty Twenty Projects, a
grimy warehouse gallery in Wynwood that has been consistently
showing some of the most challenging work by Miami artists. “In
that space, they’re willing to take more risks,” says
local art collector Maggie Hernandez, adding that Twenty Twenty provides
young local artists a place to exhibit the kind of highly conceptual
work that many feel is becoming harder to find, due in part to the
rise of Art Basel and the subsequent boom of commercial art galleries
in its wake. To Hernandez, finding a place that shows this type of
art is like looking for a needle in a haystack, a haystack that has
only gotten bigger.
The gallery is run by 27-year-old Scott Murray,
who also lives in the gallery’s back room. Murray, a Miami native, started
out as an artist himself, having graduated from the Maryland Institute
of Art. In 2002 he moved back down to Miami with intentions of
continuing that path. “I don’t have a real extensive
background of showing stuff in Miami,” admits Murray. “I
was just making art and not really trying to market myself.”
In 2003 Murray got a job at the Fredric Snitzer
Gallery, sweeping the floors and performing odd tasks for $10
an hour. By the time the gallery made its move from Coral Gables
to Wynwood, Murray was promoted to gallery assistant, and got
a firsthand glimpse at how to run a gallery. His job included
talking to potential customers about the artwork, as well as
making sales. “At
this point,” remembers Murray, “I had a pretty extensive
knowledge about all the artists in the gallery.”
Then in 2006 Murray moved into a second-story
warehouse studio in a rundown, out-of-the-way section of Wynwood
that would be the future location of Twenty Twenty. His initial
goal was to use the space to create his own art, but soon, Murray
says, he was burned out. Yet he still wanted to “make things happen.” It
dawned on him that transforming his studio into an alternative
art space would be the perfect way to do that.
“There’s definitely been a bit of a lull in artist-run
spaces here,” says Daniel Arsham, a local artist who operated — along
with Bhakti Baxter, Martin Oppel, and Tao Rey — a now-defunct
Edgewater alternative space called The House. In 2000 the group
began mounting exhibits showcasing a specific group of local Miami
artists who would produce concept-driven art with little regard
for commercial success. The House would later evolve into another
space, Placemaker, both of which Murray claims as big influences.
“He’s obviously not in it for the money. He’s
trying to carry on what we were doing,” says Arsham, who
believes Twenty Twenty and the Bas Fisher Invitational, created
by Miami artists Naomi Fisher and Hernan Bas, seem to be the only
places carrying on in that spirit. But while the Bas Fisher brings
in many artists from out of town, Twenty Twenty is specializing
in Miami’s homegrown art scene.
Local artist Jay Hines, who shows at Twenty
Twenty, remarks, “Nothing
like this in Miami has happened for a long time. Everyone was talking
about these ideas and Scott actually did it.” He says he
sees the same energy at Twenty Twenty as at The House and other
artist-run spaces that came before. Hines calls it “a place
for people to actually discuss ideas and come up with projects — obviously
it was needed.”
The gallery’s first exhibition took place in December 2006,
a show Murray describes as “moderately successful.” But
when he extended the show to January, the next month’s turn
out was “ridiculously successful.” Since then he’s
been having regular shows every month, about half of them guest-curated,
usually by a Miami artist.
“This is a way of being deeply involved in the artist community,” Murray
says. “It really is like [hosting] a network of artists that’s
continuing to grow.” The network he refers to includes artists
like Nick Lobo, Tom Scicluna, Daniel Newman, Jay Hines, and Mark
Gibson. “They’re just more conceptually driven,” he
says, adding that in a very broad sense there’s a common
thread among their works.
When preparing an exhibition, he takes an
idea the group may have in common and develops the show around
that. “I’m trying
to build more of a focus,” he says. By showing the same Miami
artists, he believes he’s creating “a cycle that facilitates
artist productivity.” His is a place where the artists can
show on a regular basis and their work can evolve and grow. The
sense of community Murray encourages is evident after openings,
where it’s not uncommon to find artists and gallerygoers
playing darts and boozing it up until the wee hours.
Hines describes Twenty Twenty as a place
for projects with no limits — limits that would likely be imposed by the commercial
constraints of other galleries. Take Tom Scicluna’s most
recent exhibition, in which the gallery was emptied out except
for one single object, a large ship’s mast that extended
from one end of the space to the other.
Or look at Nick Lobo’s Cough Syrup, Play-Dough Diorama,
in which Lobo constructed, out of play-dough and cough syrup, a
sculpture of a crystal-meth lab living room, copied from a crime-scene
photograph. “He’s more concerned with his relation
to art history than the salability of his work,” says Murray. “A
commercial gallery might not be motivated to pick up an artist
like that. It’s more important to me to establish their integrity
and their place in art history.”
It may be a noble aspiration, but as a result
Murray makes only enough money to pay for the gallery — just barely. Though
he has a full-time job, the money made there, or from gallery income,
goes toward renting the space and putting on shows. Murray admits
he lives in poverty, but says it’s a sacrifice he’s
willing to make. “For me,” he says, “success
would be turning this into a commercial space that puts together
really conceptual shows that sell.” Murray cites
Peres Projects in Los Angeles as a model for what he’d like
to see Twenty Twenty become. He also adds that he’d like
to “open collectors to more conceptual [works] and maybe
create a Miami market.”
But his more immediate plans are a little
less ambitious — if
not more unconventional. These include a system in which he will
put together group shows of Miami artists that he will then export
to other likeminded galleries around the country, in exchange for
artist exhibitions from their locales. Granted, this art-show transfer
project is something he doesn’t see happening until at least
2009. “It’s more me trying to facilitate these [artists’]
desires to expose themselves to a new audience,” he says. “I
have a pretty consistent audience. It’s cool to see a response
from somewhere else.”
Twenty Twenty Projects is located at
2020 NW Miami Ct., Miami. For operating hours and information
call 786-217-7683, or visit twentytwentyprojects.com.
Feedback: letters@BiscayneTimes.com |
