Written by: TFVstaff • December 8, 2020• Art Scene

Shelborne Art Week + Museum of Graffiti

The Shelborne South Beach partnered with Wynwood’s Museum of Graffiti to bring the show, Gustavo Oviedo: Symbiosis, to the beachfront hotel during Miami Art Week. Over the past 15 years, Oviedo has developed a highly personal, self-taught style of art that explores the relationship between the bustle of Miami’s vibrant metropolitan streets and the tranquility of the Biscayne Bay. His thought-provoking exhibit will be displayed throughout the common areas of the hotel’s iconic Art Deco lobby, with pieces for sale starting at $1,000. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will run through the end of December.

Over the past 15 years, Oviedo has developed a highly personal, self-taught style of art that explores the relationship between the bustle of Miami’s vibrant metropolitan streets and the tranquility of the Biscayne Bay. His thought-provoking exhibit will be displayed throughout the common areas of the hotel’s iconic Art Deco lobby, with pieces for sale starting at $1,000. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will run through the end of December.

Gustavo Oviedo, now 39, was born in Paris but was raised in France, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico before finally relocating to Miami. In Miami, painting graffiti was a means to learn the city, connect with other teenagers and was a common language that helped him adapt to a new, foreign culture. With Miami’s art scene booming and adulthood calling, Oviedo broke away from the clandestine world of graffiti and decided to explore a part of Miami that didn’t include abandoned buildings and construction sites—the Biscayne Bay.

Symbiosis includes large paintings of loose sea-like forms, mixed media collages, and visual representations of otherworldliness devoid of human language or graffiti letters. His palette is as colorful as the brightest coral reefs dipped in fluorescent pigments. His ocean discoveries of shipwrecks, corals, and found pieces of pollution give power to his creative output and to a body of work that is rooted in marine life and the impact of the streets of Miami he once painted.

Oviedo’s work conveys the beauty of our waters but screams out that he is not naïve to the recurring problem of mankind’s disrespect for this natural resource. According to Oviedo, “By highlighting the beauty and mystique of South Florida’s waters, this exhibit is an opportunity to use my artwork to call attention to a serious issue—the health and preservation of the Biscayne Bay.”

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