Fairchild Garden displays Mark di Suvero’s monumental sculptures

December 24, 11:19 PMMiami Travel ExaminerGeorge Leposky

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Miami Travel Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Olompali (2006) by Mark di
Suvero © George Leposky

  Five huge techtonic steel sculptures by Mark di Suvero now stand amidst the vegetation at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, Florida.
 

A sharp contrast to their lush and verdant surroundings, these sculptures are part of Fairchild’s continuing effort to offer a complete cultural experience by blending world-class art into one of the world’s foremost living collections of tropical plants.

 Di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1933, he moved to San Francisco in 1941 and attended the University of California, Berkeley, from 1953 to 1957. He now lives in New York City.

Gnarly (2008) by Mark
di Suver0 © George Leposky

He works with cranes, acetylene torches, and electric arc welding to bend and assemble steel into complex shapes and forms.Some he paints in vivid hues; others stand naked, exposed to the elements, acquiring a fine patina of rust.

The five di Suvero pieces on display at Fairchild are:

-- Olompali (2006), a 30-foot sculpture making its international debut at Fairchild before being shipped to China for permanentinstallation at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. It is balanced on a fulcrum like a wind vane, so that its two ends spin around and tilt upand down like a seesaw.
-- Gnarly (2008), a 27-foot sculpture of twisting, turning steel.

-- Rust Angel (1995), a bright red sculpture made from a single plate of cold-bent steel.

Rust Angel (1995) by Mark
di Suvero © George Leposky

-- Neruda’s Gate (2005), 26 feet high, a tilted frame seemingly held upright by a leaning I-beam, named after Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda.

-- She (1977-78), an interactive construction of steel 52 feet wide, with a wooden bed and swing on which people can sit or lie.

Di Suvero’s sculptures need lots of elbow room, so you’ll find them in the 83-acre garden’s Lowlands, a broad area of greenery and winding paths punctuated by a series of lakes. The sculptures are quite a trek from the garden’s entrance. If you don’t want to walk that far, ride a tram on a tour (free with admission) that will take you past them.

Martin, Botero, and Chihuly 

Joining these sculptures in January, 2009, will be For Whom…, a massive, three-ton swinging bell by Belgian sculptor Kris Martin,  and a selection of works by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero.

A major exhibition of Botero sculptures from a Miami gallery, Gary Nader Fine Art,  appeared at Fairchild in the first half of 2008.

Some of those pieces will be returning in 2009.

All of these exhibitions run through May 31, 2009.

In addition, you can see three large blown-glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly  that Fairchild owns and has placed on permanent display. They are:

-- End of the Day Tower (2005), at the entrance to the Windows to the Tropics Conservatory.

-- Copper Frog Foot Ikebana Stem and Lapis Blue Split Bud (2008), a fanciful flower with elongated stems and blossoms, also inthe Windows to the Tropics Conservatory
  

End of the Day Tower
(2005) by Dale Chihuly
© George Leposky

 
-- Cobalt Herons (2005), a flock of glass wading birds in a pond in front of the Garden House auditorium.

Augmenting its regular 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM daylight hours, Fairchild will be open from 6 PM to 9 PM each Thursday night from January 1 through May 28, 2009. The sculptures will be illuminated, and food, drinks, and live music will be available.
 

The garden is located at 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables FL 33156. Phone 305-667-1651.