Rubell Family Collection May Not Leave Wynwood After All

Even locals who don’t know squat about Miami Art Week can tell you about the old Drug Enforcement Administration warehouse on NW 29th Street, stacked year-round with contemporary artworks. The Rubell family have housed their extensive collection of contemporary art there for a quarter of a century. But that era is coming to an end. Two years after the Rubell Family Collection (RFC) announced its intention to relocate to Allapattah in 2019, this December’s exhibit could be the last in its storied space.

Then again, RFC may not shutter those Wynwood warehouse doors for good.

“There is a chance that we may be able to continue, at least for a while, and present exhibitions here [in Wynwood] as well, so have two exhibitions concurrent with each other — one here and the other in Allapatah,” says museum director Juan Roselione-Valadez. “What we’d love to do here is present single artist surveys and retrospectives in this building.” Roselione-Valadez is quick to clarify that nothing is confirmed yet, other than that this year’s exhibition will run through June of 2019, and the new museum plans to open next fall.

The history of the Rubell collection stretches back 25 years. In 2002, when Art Basel debuted its American offshoot of the international contemporary art fair in Miami Beach, a community of 180 exhibitors put their art on display. Among those exhibitors was the Rubell Collection, with founders Mera and Don Rubell credited as one of the primary reasons the festival chose to land in Miami in the first place.

At the time of that first Miami-based Basel, the Rubell Family Collection was nine years old. Founded in 1993, Mera remembers what it felt like to gaze up at that 45,000 square foot dilapidated warehouse building. “We couldn’t believe that we would ever fill that building,” she says. “And now we’ve outgrown it.” 

From its conception, the collection has amassed in size and spectacularity. Mera and Don, alongside their children Jason and Jennifer, have been instrumental in supporting young artists worldwide through their collection, and hailed as one of the most powerful families in South Florida. Resident artists like Tomm El-Saih, who will be featured in the collection’s upcoming exhibition, praise the RFC’s magnitude of positive influence: “I have been nourished by their extensive holdings, and always expected with huge curiosity what they were going to present next.” El-Saih says she’s honored to be included in this season’s show. “Their exhibitions introduced me to a group of emerging artists from around the globe, whose works I couldn’t have [otherwise] seen all at once.”

Ambitious, thematic exhibits have been a hallmark of Rubell’s offerings through the years. “No Man’s Land: Woman Artists from The Rubell Collection” filled the exhibition space with art created by women in 2015, as issues of female representation in museums and galleries were coming to a head. In 2008, “30 Americans” focused on works by black artists; today, the show has traveled to over a dozen museums, and continues to tour, with dates reaching into the year 2020.

“That show has transformed our understanding of our relationship to presenting art to the public,” says Mera. “It has taught us about the responsibility and impact that art can have.”

This year marks a quarter of a century of exhibitions for the warehouse, and the Rubells are celebrating by shining a spotlight on a local art hero: Purvis Young. “Art saved Purvis. And Purvis saved art,” says Mera, whose collection contains more than 3,000 of the artist’s paintings. “He taught us what art is, which is just the absolute depth of what we share as human beings. We share sorrow, pain, love of family, hope — it’s all in his work.”

In his lifetime, Young became a local celebrity and fixture in contemporary art. After spending three years in prison as a teenager, which was where he first stumbled across art books in the library, the Miami native went on to produce his first protest-art inspired mural, capturing the attention of the art world. Young died in 2010.

As much an activist as he was an artist, Purvis was passionate about using his craft to send messages of sociopolitical dissent. Over 100 of his works now sit in RFC, awaiting the December launch and unveiling of never-before-seen work by the acclaimed painter.

“Purvis Young and New Acquisitions” is the first time that all seven of RFC’s galleries on the first floor will be given over to a single artist. “We needed the space to really illustrate all of his really pressing and really moving concerns, be it refugees, or mass incarceration or drug abuse or the need for civil protest,” says Roselione-Valadez.

For the team at RFC, admiration for Young runs deep. “We think he’s [Young] just unparalleled here as an artist. Really so, so significant. So many people in Miami and abroad have his work too which is special,” says Roselione-Valadez, “It was work that was and that is accessible to acquire, and his voice is really widespread.” 

Purvis’s legacy is timely, too. “I also think there’s a timeliness to this exhibition,” shares RFC’s registrar Laura Randall. “When you think about when he left jail in the early ’60s, it was the time of the all of these anti-war protests, the Civil Rights movement. You’ll see these themes are just as relevant today as they were then.”

Original artwork by Purvis Young.EXPAND

Original artwork by Purvis Young.

Courtesy of RTC


“Purvis and New Acquisitions” will run through June 2019. Moving to Allapatah is next on the horizon; Roselione-Valadez says they expect to open the first exhibition there next November.

From there, says Mera Rubell, anything can happen. Based on RFC’s past success, it wouldn’t be too wild to wonder if the 100,000 sq. ft building in Allapatah may one day find itself past capacity.

“Twenty-five years later, a building which we thought was beyond our imagination to fill, we filled. And now the building in Allapatah is beyond our imagination,” says the collector. “At the moment I can’t imagine that we would ever need more space than what we’ve just committed to. But the journey is long and who knows where we’ll be 25 years from now.”

“Purvis Young and New Acquisitions.” Monday, December 3 to June 29, 2019 at the Rubell Family Collection, 95 NW 29 St., Miami; 305-573-6090; rfc.museum. General admission costs $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors (65+), and free for any under 18 and members of the U.S. military. During Miami Art Week, the collection is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *