South Beach is coming up roses, literally, as Sagamore, The Art Hotel on Miami Beach, along with its owner, Martin Taplin, art collector and curator Cricket Taplin, and the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, announce Will Ryman’s 65th Street to be publicly installed on the hotel’s beachfront for Art Basel Miami Beach 2011. A towering sculpture with one bud reaching as high as 22 feet, the exhibit reflects Ryman’s flair for the dramatic and absurdly wonderful.
The dwarfing blossoms will spring up from steel stems on Sunday, November 27, and remain on display through Sunday, December 4, 2011. A fanciful and colorful display of flora blooming on white sand beach and set against the Atlantic’s perpetuity, the installation will enamor viewers with its larger-than-life landscape.
Offering a bug’s-eye-view of the world, 65th Street will feature four colossal pink and red buds, ranging from five to ten feet in diameter, with the tallest bud inhabited by a brass aphid and beetle. Ryman, familiar with non-traditional materials, utilizes stainless steel, yacht-grade fiberglass resin, automotive paint and brass to create sculptures designed to withstand the elements.
Will Ryman is the latest in a long list of distinguished artists to exhibit at the South Beach hotel. Since the inception of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002 when the international art market incorporated the city of Miami as a prime art venue, Sagamore, The Art Hotel, has hosted celebrated artists from around the world including Massimo Vitali, Yoko Ono, Spencer Tunick, Olaf Breuning, Elliot Erwitt and Roxy Paine, among others.
“Will Ryman is one of the most important artists of our time; his art will make history and we are extremely fortunate to celebrate his amazing talent at the Sagamore,” says Cricket Taplin.
This year Sagamore, The Art Hotel, will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Annual Art Basel Brunch. One of the most sought-after Art Basel events – which commenced in 2001 despite the events of 9/11 canceling the launch of Art Basel Miami Beach– the hotel partners with six local museums including the Bass Museum of Art, Lowe Art Museum, Miami Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum of Art at FIU, the Wolfsonian-FIU and Lincoln Center in New York City.
“It is a privilege and an honor to have Will as the featured artist of our 10th anniversary,” continues Taplin. “My husband and I began collecting his work in 2006; we have followed his career since and are constantly impressed with his larger-than-life concepts and ideas. He takes everyday objects that are often overlooked, blows them up and places them center stage, reminding you, literally, to ‘take time to smell the roses.’”
A native New Yorker, Will Ryman is internationally known for his large-scale figurative sculptures based on urban scenes and oversized flora. His work steadily incorporates a range of materials including plaster, fiberglass, stainless steel, paper machê, magic sculpt, brass, copper tubing, and cast aluminum. A writer turned artist, Ryman’s work is heavily influenced by the works of absurdist playwrights and philosophers.
His work has been included in numerous exhibitions including Tangled Up In You: Connecting, Coexisting, and Conceiving Identity (2008), at 21c. Museum Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky;
Contemporary Figurative Sculpture (2010), at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; Sculpture: Selections from the collection of Martin Z. Margulies (2007), at Margulies Warehouse, Miami; Greater New York 2005, at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts (2007), at The American Academy of Arts and Letters; Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820–2009 (2009), at The National Academy of Design, New York; and The Shape of Things to Come (2009), at The Saatchi Gallery, London.