Solo Exhibition at the Tropical Audubon Society

My solo exhibition at the Tropical Audubon Society was a hugh success! I had so much fun! The Doc Thomas Historic house was a bit challenging, but well work the effort. We could not put any nails in the walls and due to the flammable vintage varnish on the walls we had to use low lighting.

Live music by Joanne Meagher on the front screen porch added so much to the opening. I love partnering with artists of all genres. I even invited student artists to participate.  

The concept behind my collection is to introduce the idea of growing food all around us in public spaces. Each sculpture uses grocery bag paper to represent our current relationship with food. Read more on my website at nancymartini.com

"The Messengers" Encaustic Birds

A flock of encaustic birds where installed flying out of a chandelier.

"Food Forest Tiers"
Lorraine studies the concept of growing vertical gardens in public spaces.

"Glorious Imperfection"
Finigan types the answers to the question, "What would you do if you were not afraid to make a mistake?"

Joanne Meagher - Deco Tones
Songs of nature were song beautifully by Joanne Meagher.

Dylan Terry - Ready to Grow
Featured next to Dylan are the works by Coral Reef High School Art students who took on the eco art challenge of creating art from a simple grocery bag.

Vegan Creations from Relish
All of the delicious appetizers where eco and animal friendly with only food from the garden thanks to
Elizabeth Guerra at relishmiami.com

Celeste De Palma

The Bird Bar was in good hands with Celeste!

Thank you to everyone who participated including Terry Long who took all of the event photographs for me!

International Biennale Artist Exhibition 2013

The International Biennale Artist Exhibition (IBAE) was a hugh success and will continue this week with an auction June 13 to benefit The Art & Entertainment Council. 

Even with tropical storm Andrea and the Miami Heat Game happening last night a hugh crowd of art enthusiasts including Mayor Tomas Regalado came out to see the art. In Miami, there is always so many things going on. You can go to multiple major events on any day of the week.

'Erasing Barriers' - Nancy Martini

70" x 40" x 22"

Upcycled mixed media

Miami Iron Side Main gallery was a fabulous venue for an art event! For the next event, come early. The valet parking and street parking fills up fast! Thank you to everyone who came out to support all the artists from all over the world!

Eco Art Fashion show by designer Luis Valenzuela inspired by Marie Antonette

Mayor Tomas Regalado (center) Jose Garcia (center right) Chibarro invited artist from Chile and IBAE organizer Tata Fernandez (far right)

Thursday, June 6th from 7pm to 10pm I will be exhibiting at Ironside in the Little River Business District for the International Biennale Artist Exhibit.
The exhibit will be on display until Friday June 14th concluding with an auction to benefit the Arts & Entertainment Council. Ironside is located at 7600 NW 4th Court, Miami which is near the Haitian Cultural Center. Ironside is a campus like facility that for the past few years has been cultivating a creative community of artists, designers, architects and interior designers.

The piece that I will be exhibiting is called "Erasing Barrier." The 70" x 40" x 22" sculpture uses an upcycled garden fence and papier mâché to represent dividing lines that separate starting with our own backyards. The concept of eliminating barriers is also reflective in societal barriers as it relates to economics, ethnicity, gender and race. With this sculpture, I hope to open nonjudgmental dialogues for peaceful coexistence on land and in relationships unencumbered by barriers.

"Erasing Barriers" is part of my collection of sculptures titled ‘The Food Forest.' The collection explores growing healthy food all around us as part of Whole Systems Living and Permaculture. The sculptures contemplate how and where food is currently grown, our relationship with how we purchase food, and nature’s ability to adapt to our changing environment. Each sculpture examines the connection between nature and urban life as a way to inspire the concept of growing food wherever a pocket of nutrient rich soil can be found in our overbuilt and stressed communities.

The sculptures all have two key components. First, each sculpture uses an upcycled object to symbolize everyday urban life and human impact on the environment. Second, the sculptures are covered in brown paper to mimic brown grocery bags. The brown bags represent our relationship with store purchased food as well as to unite man, objects and nature.

"The Food Forest"
8' x 7' x 5'

My sculpture for the ARTcycle exhibited during Art Basel is called "The Food Forest." It will be exhibited during Art Basel at GAB Studios, 105 NW 23 Street, Wynwood.

Although ARTcycle is bringing awareness to bicycle safety, I wanted to take one step further and bring awareness to the need to plant food in public spaces as well.

Food forests are vertical garden ecosystems planted in layers starting with edible fruit  trees as the top layer down to smaller berry shrubs and herbs in the lower layers. Food Forests are important because they help restore the health and abundance of land by saving energy, soil, water and resources. It is a sustainable approach to the long-term needs of land while providing food and food education to the local community.

Bring your bike or rent one from Deco Bike!

In Wynwood, we will have bicycle tours departing daily at noon from Fountain Art Fair, 2505 N. Miami Ave. that will take touring bicyclists gallery to gallery without having to look for a single parking space! 

ARTcycle was curated by Tachi Llamas and Giselle Delagdo to raise awareness for riders as well as drivers to education the community to make the healthy alternative of cycling safer for everyone. The money raised from the sale of all fifteen of the sculptures will go to Green Mobility Network's Safe Streets Miami educational programs to reduce the number of bike-related accidents and fatalities that occur in our city every year.

Please go to www.facebook.com/artcyclemiami to see the route and map of sculpture locations. 

Thank you to All4Cycling for sponsoring my work and bringing health and bicycle safety to our community.

Save the date!

Thursday, October 25^th from 12noon to 1:00pm at The Artisan Lounge (500 NE 1^st Ave).

For a Brown Bag Break Away... Break away from STRESS!!!

Viewing art dramatically reduces stress! In 2006, Professor Angela Clow from the University of Westminster in the UK studied saliva cortisol levels in participants who viewed art for 40 minutes during lunch and discover a reduction of 32% which would normally take stress levels five hours after work to fall to that extent.

Pack your lunch and hop on the Metro Mover to The Artisan Lounge (College North Station). Enjoy your lunch surrounded by art and studio artists then return to work rejuvenated, relaxed and more productive.

More benefits… It’s free, green and healthy.

Questions? Call Artist, Nancy Martini at 305.401.7726.

Please RSVP to hello@theartisanlounge.com by Tuesday Oct 22 

Go to http://www.nancymartini.com/where-to-find-me/ to view a map and get directions.

New Studio Space at The Artisan Lounge

The only thing we can really count on is change. Although I  love my home studio, I began to feel that I needed to be in a more urban setting.

Because I am so influenced by my surroundings, the first criteria in finding a space was that it had to be architecturally beautiful or at least with the potential to make the space beautiful. Then I need the space to have VENTILATION where I could open the windows. The next thing on my list was that it had to have public transportation (so I wouldn't be waisting a lot of gas getting there) where I could commute using the Metrorail.

Not a lot of options in Miami fit this criteria. With an open mind, I posted notes to everyone I knew asking for any type of space, but I was not finding what I wanted.  I finally found the perfect space in the out building of a 1890's church that just refurbished 9000 square fee of old classrooms into 26 contemporary artist studios, 3 galleries, and 2 artist lounges. Where the Metro Mover drops off directly across the street and it has gated parking with a security guard.

Last week we had our grand opening and it was a hugh success! Here are a few photos of my studio and the gallery and lounge spaces.

Thank you to everyone who donated their old chests to me! Everything in my studio 

was either given to me or found in the trash. The only thing that I had to purchase for 

my studio was one chair and four table legs! 

One of the two artist lounges

Two of the three gallery spaces

Hope to see you at the next exhibit in April. 

The 26 studios are filled, but they do have a waiting list and they are accepting applications to exhibit.

Wynwood Green: A Day of Firsts

Wynwood known for Saturday night art walks now has a new bold green happening taking place the last Sunday of every month to bring people to Wynwood in the daytime by hosting a family friendly monthly outdoor green festival from 12pm to 7pm.

Mary Keel of 305 Green invited me to display my eco art and talk about upcycling and art as eco activism. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it was a wonderful idea, so off I went.

Yesterday, after I unloaded and set up all of my art, my daughter and I were hungry. As vegetarians, it is usually hard to find food that we can eat. We met Ryan and Mike from Bocaditos who noticed us struggling with their menu and asked if they could help. When we told them that we were vegetarians they announced that anything on the menu could be made vegetarian without our food touching any pans that were touched by the meat that they were preparing. Wow! I was so impressed. They were happy to accommodate us. Not only that, when we ordered one order of fries they paid attention to the argument my daughter and I were having. I wanted spicy fries and she wanted plain. Because I was only going to have a few, I ordered the plain. When I went to pick up my order they split my single order in half, one spicy and one plain without even asking me!

To my delight, my whole day continued on the same happy path. Everyone I met was kind, gracious and willing to share their love of environment. Wynwood Green is definitely a place to check out next month.

I wish Wynwood Green continued success. Taking charge of our neighborhoods and making them healthy, green and safe takes a community of caring people. I hope you join Wynwood Green next month to be part of the solution. It starts with one voice and one single action.

Nancy Martini

Here are a few of the amazing people I met yesterday...

Ryan and Mike from Bocaditos Food Truck

Meadow and her daughter

Daniel Wills from The Armory Miami who shared
his fabulous studio and space for the event. Thanks Daniel!

Jeff Lillie (center) with his team from Marathon Bio-Diesel

Me with Mary Keel on the right

Art Friedrich (center) of Urban Oasis Project

Contenti Cupcakes

Cooking Classes for kids

Dean on the Right (one of the organizers)

Rafael Calvo of Calvo Design

Saira Jacobs from Vintaj Mahal

Onsite installation of a skateboard ramp

Cool balloon artist. 

Demonstration on how to correctly position
 your body while gardening yoga style.