Miami Beach, FL – November 18, 2020 – South Beach just got a lot more interesting….. Lincoln Road‘s newest experiential retail space, SHOWFIELDS, is transforming the iconic shopping street and re-defining the retail experience through a carefully curated selections of local artists and small businesses. SHOWFIELDS, the ultimate curator, searches the world to bring together the most interesting art, brands, people, events and unique experiences. Through its physical and digital platforms, SHOWFIELDS puts the customer experience at its center and inspires magic among all those seeking discovery.

The space simultaneously celebrates Miami’s culture and unequivocal nature, with the vibrancy of the architecture and color palette giving a strong nod to Miami’s natural and manmade elements. Thoughtful art installations throughout the store create visually stunning, interactive and thought provoking opportunities for an audience of both local collectors and tourists to think deeply about Magic City, and appreciate the nature they are surrounded by.

As part of the 2020 Winter Curation, SHOWFIELDS tapped into local talent to create mesmerizing and unique installations, inherently weaving in the Miami art scene’s DNA into the space. World Red Eye met up with the artists and SHOWFIELDS CEO, Tal Zvi Nathanel, to discuss the upcoming opening and what to expect from the most interesting store in Miami.

Interview by Tam Gryn

WRE: What made you choose Miami for the second SHOWFIELDS?

Tal Zvi Nathanel: Miami is an international hub at the intersection of art + retail. Miami has an innate creative DNA, it is also the second metropolis in the US after NYC that is focused on growing creativity and entrepreneurship. The creative industry here is blurring all the lines between art, architecture, design and commerce. In NYC, the market is much more saturated. In Miami, the potential is endless.

WRE: How will SHOWFIELDS add to the legacy of Lincoln Road?

TZN: SHOWFIELDS is the leader of the explosive revival of Lincoln Road. We are bringing back the discovery of small businesses and cool artists to Miami’s most high traffic street. Currently, very few small brands can afford to be on Lincoln Road. SHOWFIELDS makes it possible for audiences to discover emerging and young, mission driven businesses and artists that they see on instagram, in real life.

WRE: What will set SHOWFIELDS apart from other stores in Miami?

TZN: SHOWFIELDS Miami is all about sustainability. We listen to local creatives and entrepreneurs launching businesses that are sustainable and artists creating climate and environment related work. Our opening experience is the ultimate sustainable curation. We search the entire world wide web and find the most interesting artists and brands and bring them to brick and mortar.

WRE: What can we expect from SHOWFIELDS in Miami?

TZN: SHOWFIELDS Miami is where local and international guest creatives and entrepreneurs connect to each other. This is the place where cool mission driven brands, art, talks, events, curations and relevance is launched in Miami.

WRE: How did you get involved in this project?

Soraya Abu Naba’a: I answered the open call SHOWFIELDS had for Miami artists to provide proposals for their store. I also happen to know Tam Gryn the Head Curator since we have worked together in past shows.

WRE: What was your inspiration when creating your installation at SHOWFIELDS on Lincoln Road?

SAN: I was inspired by the sea and its beauty, from the movement to the colors and the importance it has as on the physical space of life and connection. This coupled together with the unique architecture of the SHOWFIELDS iconic slide really intrigued me.

WRE: How do you hope to impact people who experience your installation?

SAN: I hope people can transport themselves to a time they had an exciting or a memorable experience around water.

WRE: What makes art unique in Miami?

SAN: Miami is a crossroads of cultures, growing everyday and becoming a city where art is beyond the white cube, instead on its roads allowing artists to engage with their environment.

WRE: What was your inspiration when creating your installation at SHOWFIELDS on Lincoln Road?

Lauren Shapiro: Through the regional abstraction of a lush tropical environment, our collaborative, site-specific installation is meant to reflect dynamic changes occurring in the natural landscape of South Florida. A painting of the Everglades by Magnus creates the backdrop for our sensory landscape of colorful concrete fruits, ceramic crystals and leaves which form arrangements atop unfired clay textures of coral reefs, each containing a live tropical plant at its center. Juxtaposing these different materials and their implications, we wanted to create a dialogue about the organic made artificial through man-made landscapes while hinting at the declining state of Florida’s native environment.

WRE: How do you hope to impact people who experience your installation?

Magnus Sodamin: Through this work we hope to seduce our viewers with a sense of tropical decadence, but question the natural world around them. What is real and what is fake? How do we experience and consume nature? What happened to the Florida wild?

WRE: What makes art unique in Miami?

Lauren Shapiro: There is a willingness and enthusiasm by Miami-based artists to collaborate and share our unique talents with one another, and with the world.

Juxtaposing different materials and their implications, we wanted to create a dialogue about the organic made artificial through man-made landscapes.

Magnus Sodamin & Lauren Shapiro

WRE: How did you get involved with SHOWFIELDS?

Natasha Tomchin: I debuted my dichroic flora series for Art Basel 2019 with two outdoor installations; one for the Broken Shaker/Freehand Hotel in the outdoor fountain and one for the Nautilus Hotel pool in collaboration with neon artist Olivia Steele. Tanner from the Tax Collection, who I’d been in touch with before, saw my installations and reached out because he was helping the March 2020 curation for SHOWFIELDS. So I started working with SHOWFIELDS back in January of 2020 to do an installation in NYC but obviously the pandemic hit and everything was paused. It actually worked out really well logistically and conceptually for me to then work with them on the opening of the Miami location instead. This has been 10 months in the making, so its incredible to finally see it actualized.

WRE: What was your inspiration when creating your installation at SHOWFIELDS on Lincoln Road?

NT: This dichroic flora series is directly inspired by the surrounding nature I experience on a day to day in Miami. I think the natural world is the most beautiful art of all. The colors, patterns and shapes, from fractals in succulents to shape shifting clouds, are so fantastic, it’s easy to become lost in the awe. Watching the seasons change and how the sunlight affects the shadows from all the different palm trees and flora, it’s ever changing in this incredibly delicate way and this installation felt like the most obvious way to pay homage to this magical city i call home.

I think the natural world is the most beautiful art of all… it’s easy to become lost in the awe.

Natasha Tomchin

WRE: How do you hope to impact people who experience your installation?

NT: There’s something so beautiful to me when I’m able to catch a glimpse of the clouds passing by or the light hitting a flower at just the right angle. Those moments of stillness and appreciation keep me going as a reminder of the temporary nature of our existence and I feel that same peacefulness when bathed in dichroic light. I often remind folks ‘don’t forget to look up’ but in this case, I suppose I’m encouraging you to stop and smell the dichroic roses.

WRE: What makes art unique in Miami?

NT: I think it’s easy to see the influence Miami has on art and artists that live/are from here.  There’s a vibrancy in the colors and a unique blend of textures that I don’t recognize in other places. We have such a blend of cultures in this city I think that seeps into the unique creativity here as well.

WRE: How did you get involved with SHOWFIELDS? 

Laura Marsh: I’ve worked with SHOWFIELDS’ own Head Curator, Tam Gryn, from over the years and we both share a passion for immersive installation, art in a new context and the relationship between art and labor.

WRE: What was your inspiration when creating your installation at SHOWFIELDS on Lincoln Road?

LM: I am inspired by the surrealist and fluxus influences in SHOWFIELDS’ branding and my historical knowledge of Picasso’s costume and set designs for the Ballets Russes.

WRE: How do you hope to impact people who experience your installation?

LM: I encourage people to bring the tactile into their everyday lives and bounce on the spheres and inquire about fiber process As for the inclusive culture curtain, I love safe spaces for all and feel that openness is the answer to many social tensions.

WRE: What makes art unique in Miami?

LM: Art is very versatile in Miami, and you can often find a collaborator, venue, or artist supporter for a captivating idea.

WRE: How did you get involved in SHOWFIELDS?

Alissa Alfonso: I have had the pleasure of working with Head Curator Tam Gryn. We keep up with each other on social media and I saw the SHOWFIELDS call for art. I enjoy working with Tam, the art usually flows organically

WRE: What was your inspiration when creating your installation at SHOWFIELDS on Lincoln Road?

AA: My inspiration for the SHOWFIELDS installation is to celebrate the freedom inherent in nature, recognize lost and disappearing landscapes, and warn of a future in which nature can no longer heal itself. This work is memory-keeping for me. I want to capture a landscape that matters in the moment and create beautiful objects that repurpose the past in order to speak to the future.

WRE: How do you hope to impact people who experience your installation?

AA: My wish is that attendees will discover the beauty of nature through my artistic representations. I want the beauty of my installation to inspire awareness about widespread environmental destruction all over the world. My installation creates a unique experience through its diverse spectrum of colors and its effect on perspective. Both serving as a reminder to appreciate and honor the beauty of our natural world.

WRE: What makes art unique in Miami?

AA: Born and raised in Miami I bring a different perspective to how Miami art has its own uniqueness. It’s almost impossible not to be inspired by the beauty and unique melting pot of South Florida. Artists that have immigrated here have each brought their own little piece of culture while absorbing the incredible kinetic expressive energy that flows here in Miami.

This work is memory-keeping for me. I want to capture a landscape that matters in the moment and create beautiful objects that repurpose the past in order to speak to the future.

Alissa Alfonso