DEPART FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES
NEW PERMANENT PROJECT SPACE IN MIAMI BEACH
OPENING DECEMBER 2015 WITH WONDERWHEEL
CURATED BY CURA.
FIRST INSTALLATION IN A SERIES OF ANNUAL CURATED PROJECTS
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NAUTILUS, A SIXTY HOTEL
Los Angeles – Depart Foundation announced today the launch of a new, permanent project space in Miami Beach. The new space will open in December 2015 with the presentation of WONDERWHEEL, curated by Italian curatorial and editorial platform CURA., as the first in a series of annual guest-curated exhibitions. The project space located within Nautilus, the newlyopened 250-room South Beach oceanfront property, has been established in partnership with Depart Foundation advisory board member and owner and co-founder of SIXTY Hotels, Jason Pomeranc to further the ongoing efforts of the Foundation to foster an active, international dialogue and engagement with contemporary art, and adds to the Foundation’s itinerant program and existing presence in Rome and Los Angeles.
Conceived by the Italian curatorial and editorial platform CURA. and its founders Andrea Baccin and Ilaria Marotta, WONDERWHEEL will be a site-specific exhibition featuring videos, paintings, sculptures and installation works by international artists, some of whom have been presented recently by the Depart Foundation including Petra Cortright, Marc Horowitz, Grear Patterson and Gabriele De Santis, as well as Zachary Armstrong, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Oliver Laric, Helen Marten, Takeshi Murata, Oliver Osborne, Marco Palmieri, Eddie Peake, Cameron Platter, Jon Rafman, Slavs and Tartars, and special projects by Ryan Gander, Francesco Simeti and Martin Soto Climent.
Depart Foundation’s Founder Pierpaolo Barzan says of the project, “The Depart Foundation strives to connect artists with new opportunities and places, and to create opportunities for critical dialogue and reciprocity. The new Miami project space at Nautilus will further this goal, providing the Foundation and its artists with an exciting and dynamic new context to explore. We are very grateful to Jason Pomeranc for his vision and enthusiasm in furthering our footprint internationally.”
Jason Pomeranc, owner and co-founder of SIXTY Hotels, says of the collaboration: “Contemporary visual culture is a vital part of today’s travel experience. We have always embraced art as an integral element of our hospitality offering, and we’re delighted to partner with the Depart Foundation to house their permanent project space in Miami.”
WONDERWHEEL will occupy the length of Nautilus’s lobby perimeter wall, punctuating the space with unexpected visual interjections of neo-pop, graphic imagery, playful visual texts, popcultural impressions and fantasy frameworks. The installation will explore the aesthetic, symbolic and expressive territory of a new generation of young contemporary artists who are revisiting childhood imagery in their work. These artists, in varying and individual ways, channel intentionally naive impressions to convey the complexity and ambivalence of adult experience.
EXHIBITION DATES AND LOCATION
Depart Foundation’s WONDERWHEEL curated by CURA. will be on view from December 3, 2015–September 30, 2016 at Nautilus, 1825 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139.
Image credits: (top to bottom) Jon Rafman, BU-200 Hontangas, Castille and Leon, Spain, 2012,
C-print on Dibond; Helen Marten, Dust and Piranahas, 2011, digital animation; Eddie Peake,
Holding her Hand in the Air in the Shape of a Gun 8, 2012, paint on canvas; Takeshi Murata, I,
Popeye, 2010, single channel video, 6′ sound by Devin Flynn and Ross Goldstein.
ABOUT DEPART FOUNDATION
DEPART Foundation is an emerging arts organization predicated on the discussion, exhibition and production of art, and is dedicated to the development and support of contemporary artists whose work and careers represent a departure from their previous endeavors or predecessors.
Since its founding in 2008, DEPART Foundation has served as a catalyst for the Italian art and cultural community, strengthening the dialogue between Italy and the international art world. Like multiple outposts in Europe and the US, DEPART Foundation has actively encouraged artistic production through sponsorship of young and established artists and through the provision of spaces and resources conducive to the research, production and exhibition of new work, and to the presentation of educational and public programs.
Some of the most interesting and dynamic artists of our time, from around the world, have been presented for the first time in Rome by DEPART Foundation. They include, among others, Cory Arcangel, Joe Bradley, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Tauba Auerbach, Darren Bader, Louis Eisner, Roe Ethridge, Sam Falls, Mark Flood, Elias Hansen, Brendan Lynch, Oscar Murillo, Sarah Braman, Seth Price, Jon Rafman, Stephen G. Rhodes, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sterling Ruby, Lucien Smith, Valerie Snobeck and Frances Stark.
Depart Foundation is currently exhibiting works by Los Angeles artist Marc Horowitz in Interior, Day (A Door Opens), on view October 8 to December 19; its fifth exhibition in Los Angeles, since September 2015, following presentations by artists Gabriele de Santis, Kour Pour, Grear Patterson and Petra Cortright.
ABOUT CURA.
CURA. is a curatorial/editorial platform, founded by Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin in 2009, and consists of a magazine, a publishing house, and an exhibition program that works internationally in collaboration with museums, foundations, galleries, institutions and independents. Curatorial research and critical activity developed by CURA. is focused on both the investigation of new contemporary languages and on the development and implementation of new exhibition formats. BASEMENT ROMA, conceived and powered by CURA., is envisioned as a self-sustainable project space, devoted to experimentation, discussion and the promotion of artists’ practices.
Recent collaborations include: American Academy in Rome, Rome; Fondazione Giuliani, Rome; #kunsthallelissabon, Lisbon; Valentin, Paris; MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; FIAC/YCI program, Paris; d.c.a / PIANO, France; Frieze Reading Room, London; Frutta, Rome; Printed Matter, New York; Motto, Berlin; DRAF, London; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; London Metropolitan University, London.
ABOUT NAUTILUS, A SIXTY HOTEL
Originally built as the Nautilus Hotel, our luxury boutique hotel on Collins Ave is located in the heart of Miami’s Art Deco district. Designed by famed architect Morris Lapidus in the 1950s, Nautilus, a SIXTY Hotel, has been renovated with homage to its original spirit. Revealing an extensive evolution of what the property once was and stood for, Nautilus will feature a comfortable design that emulates a luxury beach house with public spaces, rooms and suites that will have an international and residential feel.
Located at 1825 Collins Ave, Nautilus, a SIXTY Hotel, is a 250-room oceanfront property featuring 51 suites – two signature SIXTY Suites, and one two-bedroom Penthouse. The property, originally named the Nautilus Hotel, was designed in the 1950’s by famed architect Morris Lapidus. The hotel stretches from Collins Avenue to the Beach, and stands eight stories high with an entrance that leads guests from the arrival area to the lobby lounge with the sunken bar area, featuring the restored “stairway to nowhere”. The Signature restaurant by China Grill features a Celebrity Chef and offers both indoor and outdoor seating. The salt-water pool and bar is surrounded by cabanas; and a playful lawn setting with Bohemian hammocks overlooks the beach, with beach chairs and private beach service.
ABOUT SIXTY HOTELS
SIXTY Hotels is part of SIXTY Collective, a new company established by Brothers Jason Pomeranc, Michael Pomeranc, Lawrence Pomeranc, and long-time collaborator Stephen Brandman, committed to creating a 360-degree cultural experience in hospitality environments.
SIXTY Hotels is a collective of singularly iconoclastic luxury lodgings based in New York City and Los Angeles with Nautilus – a SIXTY Hotel opening in Miami in 2015. Opting to draw inspiration from our unique urban backdrops, to establish distinct rhythms in service and experience, SIXTY Hotels’ directive is quite simply to inspire and comfort our guests. No longer is a hotel just a bed, a bath, and a mini-bar. It is a way of life, emblematic of guests’ personal tastes. Our guests are true “artists-in-residence,” at home to make their experience their own canvas. In our carefully curated inns, lodgers-in-residence can expect a distinguished palette, artful service and comfort in every way. The result is a hospitality group that assures a stay in a SIXTY Hotel will remain with guests long after they’ve checked out.
CONTACT
DEPART FOUNDATION PRESS OFFICE FOR THE EXHIBITION
Lyn Winter, +1 213 446 0788, lyn@lynwinter.com
Jessica McCormack, +1 323 497 9308, jessica@lynwinter.com
DEPART FOUNDATION
Natalie Perrault, np@departfoundation.org
Damiana Leoni and Lorena Stamo, roma@departfoundation.org
Photo credit: Zach Hilty/BFA.com
