One of the oft-touted strategies of real estate is to buy the least expensive property in the best neighborhood. The opposite approach is true for art, where savvy collectors know to buy the best work they can afford from both emerging and established artists.
The latest exhibit at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, “On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” indicates that the museum’s namesake knows as much about art as he does real estate. As the principal of The Related Group of Florida, Pérez has topped the Hispanic Business 500 and helped remake the Miami skyline. As an art collector, he has donated more than 170 works of art to the museum — most of it good, some of it great.
Pérez, who was born in Argentina of Cuban parents, identifies with the Cuban diaspora and collects work by Cuban artists, among many others. The Horizon show was borne of an artistic response to the thawing of relations between the two countries initiated by the Obama administration in 2014. While some members of the Cuban community may criticize the museum for showing work by Cuban artists while the country remains under communist rule, Pérez points out that all of the artists on display have been featured in other shows in the United States, many of them locally. The works in this show were purchased by him; none involved public money.
Full article at Miami Herald
