It’s awe-inspiring to watch Art Basel Miami Beach take over the entirety of Miami each year, and while most in the art world tend to relegate their art viewing to Miami Beach and the Design District, almost every square inch of the city manages to transform itself for visiting art aficionados. One area that often flies under the radar is Wynwood, the formerly rough neighborhood where Don and Mera Rubell once kept their collection in a building that had stored goods confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, but has since gone on to become a global hub for street art.
“It’s surreal,” the artist Karol Stefanini said of her just-debuted mural at 550 NW 24th St. in the neighborhood’s Art District as part of the sixth edition of Wynwood Mural Fest. “It’s literally the realization of a dream. Not just anyone gets an opportunity like this. To have a mural here, you need to earn your space.”
Stefanini’s latest effort at the old RC Cola Plant melds toothsome candy colors with cartoony tropical imagery for an upbeat take that demonstrates the breadth that graffiti can accommodate these days. Her second project for Art Basel Miami Beach, this new work encourages viewers to ‘Start Dreaming,’ a phrase that she says conveys a sense of joy, relocation and motivation.
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Her creative process begins long before brush and paint touch the wall. “All the murals and artworks I create are first born in my studio and workshop,” she told Observer. Stefanini begins by sketching ideas digitally; not unrelatedly, she describes the iPad as a boon for the art world.
“I often say that there was life before and after the iPad,” she said. “My entire creative process before the launch of these tools was done on paper using various painting materials, and it took a lot of time.” Now she can map out a complete artwork much faster, with all the colors, textures and possibilities virtualized.
Color could perhaps be considered Stefanini’s primary medium. “For this piece, I was inspired by the lifestyle and atmosphere of Miami. This city is colorful, diverse, strong and magical,” she said. “The sunsets here are an explosion of colors.”
After several rounds of edits, the design is set, Disney-style lettering perfected, and it’s time to begin painting. I asked the artist if her palette was influenced by the surrounding graffiti of Wynwood, which can often be darker. “I did not consider the surrounding graffiti because most of the murals in the area where I painted were done simultaneously,” she said. “I only knew the colors they were using when I was there.”
But she’s pleased with how her work is in dialogue with the others nearby. The end result is a neighborhood rife with accessible graffiti art that costs nothing to enjoy and lets the local residents participate in the hullabaloo that is Miami Art Week.
“It was a beautiful surprise to see how everything came together,” Stefanini added. “Moreover, each artist has their own style, and each one can work with the theme they choose. I believe the beauty of art lies in this, each person expressing themselves the way they want, with the colors that resonate with them.”
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