Client: Goldman Global Arts

Overview

Miami-based visual artist Troy Simmons curated by Goldman Global Arts CEO Jessica Goldman Srebnick. The new development offers a façade with a compelling installation by Simmons showing off a mix of vibrant colors blended with the raw grit of concrete.
As a resident of Wynwood, Simmons set out to engage residents and visitors by capturing the areas’ diverse cultures and vibrancy while preserving the historic physicality of the remaining buildings and structures.
The raw brutalist concrete façade juxtaposed by linear shapes, sharp angles, and vibrant colors hold true to Simmons’ ongoing series of work entitled “Perception.”

Goals

With this series, I hope to spark curiosity. I want the public to take a closer look at their surroundings. My passion is telling the stories of our diverse communities by reworking conventional construction materials to share the unique cultural narrative of our neighborhoods.
The site is located in the heart of one of Miami’s most diverse communities. The area has grown to reflect Miami’s rare racial patchwork. A quilt symbolizing the stories of immigrants searching for a better life. The stories of the historic community of Overtown and its contributions to the global recognition of Miami. A beautiful melody of Spanish, Creole and English is heard seamlessly mixed in the bustling soundtrack of this changing neighborhood.
In an effort to help further the story of our aging neighborhoods, I create sculptures / monuments that pay tribute to those who helped shape and build these unique communities.

Process

After months of conceptualizing this piece, the building's North and West facing walls were demolished and replaced with 21 formed concrete columns. Each of the columns were poured around styrofoam inlays that created a 2-inch void in the structural concrete. Twenty-one aluminum sculptures were then fabricated to fill this space. Each multicolored sculptural inlay is unique and ranges in size from 11’ 6” to 4’ tall.