Miami, FL
There Are Lots of Great Artists at Art Miami—But Only One Played 007 on the Silver Screen | Artnet News
It has been quite a week for Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan. In addition to the premiere of his new film Fast Charlie (opening today), five of his paintings are on view at Art Miami, the longstanding fair that preceded even the annual Art Basel fair in this now-packed December art week.
Many fans of the former James Bond star might be surprised to learn that Brosnan has been an avid and passionate painter for at least three decades. Yet he has been open about how painting helped him process the pain of losing his first wife to ovarian cancer in the early 1990s.
The actor, who has said that art was his “first love,” just had a show of 50 paintings and 100 drawings at a La Brea Avenue space in Los Angeles this past May, just as he marked his 70th birthday. Now, because of a last-minute spot that opened up at Art Miami, Brosnan gets his fair debut.
Specifically, the outing comes via OLEA, a collection management platform developed by co-founders Billy Presley and Jose Balthazar. After the actor accepted an invite from OLEA, it selected 5 Brosnan canvasses that are on view (Booth AM409) through Sunday December 10.
These include portraits of Picasso and Anthony Bourdain (a friend of Brosnan’s); a near-abstract painting titled Fishhook (2020-22), painted in serene blue and white nautical tones; and a Matisse-inspired interior.
Asked what he hopes viewers take away from the work on view, Brosnan said, “a sense of joy, a sense of wonderment and… unexpected surprise.”
Brosnan gives props to his current wife Keely Shaye Brosnan for encouraging him to show the hundreds of works he has created over the past few decades—many of which had been in storage and unseen by larger audiences—starting with the previous L.A. show and now at Art Miami. “You made it happen,” he wrote in a recent Instagram post, showing the two en route to the fair’s opening night.
“I think it will be nice for viewers to just know that Pierce is an artist and a painter,” Keely told Artnet. “Whenever he’s working on a script he’s always doodling.” In fact, scripts were displayed in vitrines amid the recent L.A. show. “People will see the the process is born on the script page and then becomes a painting. It’s fascinating. It adds a layer of depth to him as a person, writer, producer, actor. The next step is that he gets to share that with the world.”
On view in the booth of Markowitz Fine Art, the five works are all for sale in a six figure range according to OLEA. (Brosnan’s artwork already has an even more stratospheric auction track record: In 2018, his portrait of Bob Dylan sold for $1.4 million at the 25th annual amFAR Cannes charity gala.)
After a small South Beach brunch on Thursday with friends and colleagues, including a question and answer session with local reporter Luis Aguirre, Brosnan and his wife raced off to interviews about Fast Charlie.
In fact, Brosnan isn’t the only celebrity making waves at Art Miami.
Elsewhere in the fair’s big white tent, London dealer Castle Contemporary is presenting the latest artworks by Johnny Depp, who has turned to selling art in the wake of his extremely bitter and public legal battles with former wife Amber Heard. In the series at Art Miami, titled “The Bunnyman Genesis” (2023), a standing silhouetted figure with rabbit ears “stands before four different, yet parallel, realms in the collection of mixed media prints: ‘Cosmic’, ‘Flowers’, ‘Multiverse’ and ‘Origins’,” according to a statement from the gallery.
Each composition has varying textures and contrasting blocks of color. Castle managing director Ian Weatherby-Blythe told Artnet that these works, including some lower priced prints, had been flying from the booth.
Depp is currently on set filming a major movie about Amedeo Modigliani, was not on hand to see the works unveiled in Miami. However, a video inside the booth showed him busy at work on his colorful and intriguing screenprints.
“Art is how I get out onto paper, canvas, whatever—the circus in my head. I paint what I feel more than what I see,” said Depp according to a statement on the new “Bunnyman” works.
The Art Miami fair runs through Sunday, December 10 at One Herald Plaza (NE 14th Street & Biscayne Bay), on Biscayne Bay between the Venetian & MacArthur Causeways.
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Miami, FL
Designs revealed for Miami-inspired city in the Middle East
A masterplan has been unveiled for a coastal neighborhood in Bahrain which is partly inspired by the U.S. city of Miami.
Bilaj Al Jazayer Beach will span just over two miles of length along Bahrain’s coastline. According to an official release, the mixed-use district will draw inspiration from Miami’s low-rise Art Deco buildings combined with traditional local design.
The walkable locale will feature new homes, hotels, and retail options in addition to public green spaces and “state-of-the-art” amenities.
The city is designed around three main streets, which will be lined with native trees and are intended to encourage walking and cycling across the district.
The site will be flanked by two large hotels, with smaller, boutique hotels positioned at 500-meter intervals throughout, and residential communities nestled in between.
Neighborhoods will incorporate shaded green courtyards and alleyways that the city’s designers say are inspired by Bahrain’s traditional design principles to create cool outdoor spaces.
At the heart of the development will lie a public surf park, featuring wave-generation technology to simulate the experience of a natural ocean environment on land.
The beach links to a network of piers stretching into the sea, forming protective coves to safeguard the shoreline, and a green park will serve to separate the beachfront from the main road.
“We are creating a green and walkable community on the beach, which offers a range of crafted experiences for residents and visitors,” said Gerard Evenden, head of Studio ar Foster + Partners, the firm behind the designs.
“The permeable development features tree-lined streets, shaded courtyards, and a spectacular public park that directly connects with the waterfront. Needless to say, the west-facing district will also offer some of the best sunset views in Bahrain,” Evenden added.
Newsweek has contacted Foster + Partners for comment via email form.
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small island nation in the Persian Gulf, situated between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
With a population of around 1.5 million, its economy primarily relies on oil, financial services, and tourism.
In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the first project for the country’s Neom megacity recently opened.
Known as Sindalah, the opening of the “luxury island destination” represented a significant milestone for the project, which has become the world’s biggest construction site as part of an effort by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the nation’s economy.
However, a recent report from human rights organization ALQST warned that companies working with the biggest construction projects in Saudi Arabia, which includes several American firms, run the risk of “political and reputational risks” as the projects face allegations of dangerous conditions and abuse of migrant workers.
The report came amid allegations that thousands of migrant construction workers have died or gone missing since 2017.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com
Miami, FL
Triple shooting in NW Miami-Dade under investigation
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Miami, FL
Miami-Dade prison inmate sets his cell on fire, investigators say
MIAMI – Florida Department of Corrections officers recently asked Bureau of Fire, Arson & Explosives Investigations detectives to figure out how a 26-year-old prison inmate set his cell on fire.
Correctional officers accused Jeronimo Rosario of setting the fire shortly after 11:05 a.m., on Wednesday inside his locked prison cell at the Dade Correctional Institution.
BFAEI detectives reported Rosario likely removed the protective plexiglass cover from his cell’s light fixture, accessed the electric wires, and burned cloth from a towel.
FDOC records show Rosario has been in prison since March 1, 2023 after convictions of grand theft vehicle, fleeing and eluding police, and battery on police/fire.
Before the fire, Rosario was set to be released from prison on Feb. 2. On Thursday, he was facing charges of preventing or obstructing extinguishing a fire and lewd or lascivious exhibition at a correctional facility.
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