I’ve been sort of lost in space the past few weeks. Perhaps because we had a swarm of out-of-town guests. Just lovely. Perhaps because I had a few days away from town, exploring much of what New Orleans has to offer with a grad school friend. More of just lovely.

Perusing thoughts I’ve collected for future posts I found this one leftover from Art Week, long ago in December. Well, it’s a few post Art Week adventures Constant Companion and I enjoyed. I thought I’d posted them, but maybe just in my imagination. Here’s a flashback to the end of 2023 with us now.

Constant Companion and I had a list of art around town that was still on view after Art Week. We were able to get to most of the list. Somewhere I’d seen a note of an exhibit of Keith Haring’s work in the National Hotel, one of the grand dames of Art Deco hotels the dot our landscape.

The National Hotel was originally built in 1939 and opened in 1940. It was fully renovated in 2014, capturing the warm beauty of the Art Deco features of the building inside and out. Interestingly, its neighbor, the younger Delano Hotel (opened in 1917) was renovated in 1994 by Philipe Starck transforming it into an enjoyable surrealistic wonderland. The Delano sits empty, totally gutted waiting for another chapter.

The two of us wandered into the spacious lobby in search of Haring, alleged to be his first-ever exhibit during Miami Beach’s Art Week. The publicist forgot that early last year, the nine-story banner, ‘CityKids Speak on Liberty,’ created by Keith Haring and CityKids in 1986 adorned a tower on the Beach’s iconic pedestrian mall, Lincoln Road (see 3-13-2023 Art around town Post). Scattered around the lobby, the bar, and the hotel’s restaurant we found the Harings.

Then we discovered something else, something even better! A doorway off the restaurant that we’d never seen before beckoned and in we went. We were followed by the assistant manager of the restaurant who welcomed us to the “Martini Bar.’ We stepped back in time, before Keith Haring, before the 2014 restoration, to the glorious opening of the hotel.

The bar itself, we were told, was the original along with the light fixtures. What immediately stood out was the terrazzo floor. Many of the old hotels in town feature terrazzo, one of the characteristics of our tropical version of Art Deco. In fact, recently, I rambled around a clothing store on Lincoln Road and found this example that documented the early history of the building (for the life of me, I cannot find that picture. I’ll have to ramble back).

The National’s Martini Bar features two martini glasses and dancing olives. Our guide unfortunately knew nothing about the areas decorated with coin mosaics.

Another equally memorable post Art Week adventure was to see the exhibits at the historic Hampton House, a lovingly restored Green Book motel. If you saw the movie One Night in Miami a few years ago, it took place in the Hampton House. Here is the Cassius Clay room restored.

The Gimme Shelter exhibit brought together artwork from several local collectors and galleries to show the role of music as an artform that tells stories. One of Nick Cave‘s sculpture stood watch in the lobby. Note the terrazzo floor.

Local artist Regi O’Neal‘s saxophone player entertained by the pool. Another of his sculptures was featured in the Meridians sections of the Art Basel fair.

Among the other artists represented were Sanford Biggers and Jared McGrill.

One day a while later as I led a walking tour, I finally found the Shawn Kolodny sculpture for Creed in the Spanish Village on Espanola Way, tucked in the cul-de-sac near the elementary schoolyard. Everyone I’ve shown it to have liked it.

PS In my post Staycation Season is Returning (see 10-23-23), I wrote about the work of French artist Invader. A recent article in the New Yorker profiled this artist and his work – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/18/invader-artist-profile. The mosaic high above a building down the street must date from 2012, when he invaded Florida.

There’s more art out there for us to explore til we reach Art Week 2024.