By Coral Gables Gazette staff
Already known as a center of artistic activity with numerous galleries and workshops throughout the city, the Coral Gables Commission signaled its intention to further elevate its artistic bona fides by commissioning a $1 million piece from renowned artist Hernan Bas for the city’s soon-to-be-constructed Mobility Hub parking garage.
The commission unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Mayor Vince Lago on March 10 that sets the process in motion for the project, which the mayor described as a bronze cast installation to be mounted on a publicly accessible wall on the first floor of the garage.
The resolution asks Bas to submit a proposal for the artwork with an all-inclusive budget of $1 million. Once submitted, the concept will be reviewed through the city’s standard Art in Public Places process, beginning with the Arts Advisory Panel and the Cultural Development Board before returning to the City Commission for final approval.
Lago said he has known Bas for years and praised both his international reputation and his ties to South Florida.
“He is a premier artist,” Lago said. “He’s also a gentleman and one of the nicest people I’ve probably met in the art world.”
Bas, born to Cuban immigrant parents and raised in South Florida, is widely regarded as one of the most prominent contemporary artists to emerge from Miami. A graduate of the New World School of the Arts, he is known for richly detailed figurative and landscape paintings that often draw on American subculture, the Symbolist movement of the 19th century and the artistic group Les Nabis.
Lago described his work as often infused with nautical imagery, Everglades landscapes and South Florida motifs such as flamingos. Several bios of Bas also point to repeated themes of eroticism, the paranormal, decadence and social issues.
Lago said he hopes the piece created for Coral Gables will reflect the artist’s signature themes while taking on a new form.
“We’re not looking for a painting,” Lago said. “Maybe it starts as a painting, but then it’s transferred into a wall piece — a bronze cast, almost like a three-dimensional work.”
He suggested the work could potentially draw inspiration from South Florida landscapes such as the Everglades but emphasized that the artist would ultimately shape the concept.
“I don’t want to tell the artist what to do,” Lago said. “But this is the perfect artist to represent the city.”
Arts and Culture Coordinator Catherine Cathers said Bas had previously been discussed by the city’s Arts Advisory Panel as a possible candidate for a major public project.
“Hernan Bas is a very prominent artist who is experiencing tremendous renown right now,” Cathers told commissioners. “Acquiring a work from him at this point in his career would be very meaningful for the city.”
She added that the Mobility Hub had long been viewed as a significant opportunity for a major public art installation.
“The Arts Advisory Panel discussed this previously and recognized that the Mobility Hub represents a significant opportunity for artwork,” Cathers said. “They wanted to do something special there.”
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson supported moving the project forward, describing Bas as a “fantastic artist” and the garage as an ideal canvas for a major installation.
“Our parking garage will be a wonderful tapestry to change from a plain façade,” Anderson said. “I’m very much in favor of having the Arts Advisory Panel take a look at this.”
The project would be funded through the city’s Art in Public Places program, which dedicates a percentage of major capital projects to public art.
During the meeting, resident activist Maria Cruz raised concerns about the potential long-term maintenance costs associated with the installation.
“We always get caught on that,” Cruz said. “Most of the things we’ve done, we get caught on the maintenance of the item.”
City officials said maintenance requirements would be addressed once the final concept is developed. City Attorney Cristina Suarez noted that the Art in Public Places fund can be used for extraordinary maintenance when necessary.
Lago added that the city already uses a formula to set aside funding for maintenance related to public art projects.
Officials also said bronze works typically require periodic waxing — sometimes once or twice a year — and that all public art projects must include a maintenance plan.
Under the resolution approved March 10, the city will allocate $5,000 from the Art Fund for Bas to develop a formal proposal. If the concept is recommended by the Arts Advisory Panel and Cultural Development Board and ultimately approved by the commission, the city would then negotiate a separate agreement with the artist for the design, fabrication and installation of the work.
For Lago, the project represents both an investment in public art and an opportunity to showcase a homegrown artist on an international stage.
“We should invest in local artists — homegrown artists,” he said. “It’s about time we have something of this caliber here in the city.”
This Post Has 8 Comments
I cannot believe we are here yet again??!!!
$1Million!!! We have ZERO representation in City Hall!!!! Is there anyone that thinks this is beyond nuts?!!!
Yes I agree it is beyond nuts.
These politician’s “pet projects” with the taxpayer’s money is outrageous. Especially when our property taxes have INCREASED annually for many years (actual property taxes, not mileage). These elected representatives have forgotten the purpose of government — to keep our citizens safe. Could this one million dollars improve CG public safety? We are not the safest city in Florida yet — a much higher priority.
Some of these politicians are going down the same road as some California municipalities did — who think “government knows best”. . If they could — some individuals would also raise your property taxes and impose special tax assessments on your family’s backs — to go into a M-D county badly mismanaged, leaking public sewer, under consent decree by the federal government. But they cannot increase your property taxes $70K-$110K in that case… But, they’ll tax you a million dollars in this case for a parking garage artist, self described as standing for “eroticism, the paranormal and his social issues”. Unbelievable.
It’s time to eliminate most property taxes in Florida.
This is a prime example of wasteful spending. Please lower my property taxes on my personal residence so I can make repairs to my own home rather than throw my tax dollars at this wasteful spending for unnecessarily expensive art in an unnecessary mobility hub. If this is coming from a developers’ art fund, transfer that money into lowering residential property taxes for those of us who more recently acquired homestead! The high residential property is disproportionately affecting those of us who acquired homestead at older ages. We don’t need to attract any more people and increase the already bad traffic into a city that should stick to being primarily residential. The city was great years ago without creating extra stuff like this. Please consider my thoughts and think about the individual hard-working individual people who are trying to make a living to pay for their ever-increasing expenses and taxes without proportionate increases in salaries. I’d like to see a quarterly report on what the city is doing to reduce the budget. Not what it is doing to increase people and traffic to the city. Thank you for your attention to my concern which I am sure is the concern of others as well.
It is odd to spend $1M on art placed on a parking garage when Mayor Lago and his loyal majority (Anderson and Lara) tell us the reason that they broke their campaign promise to reduce the property tax rate was because property value is going up less than in the past and the State is considering letting citizens vote to eliminate property taxes that go to the City and the County. We heard about how frugal Lago is at the town hall meeting when he was promoting his proposed constitutional amendment to require a 25% cash-funded reserve and how he was against the City issuing bonds to borrow money (which it is doing to build the $70M parking garage). Nestor Menendez asked Lago if the City had a plan if property taxes are reduced by the State – there was no plan! This $1M costs lots more than a $30K salary increase for an elected official. And when is Lago going to provide evidence to support his claim that he contributed his salary increase to charity?
As I say, we are sick of these 3 clowns. Spend that money and you will have legal action. This is our money, not your play money, and we want it used towards the residents of our city. Lower garbage fees a little, or give us a small credit on taxes. Sell the million dollar art work your disliked city manager spent for the city hall decor. Enough is enough. You are incompetent leaders who do not listen to us.
Why this expense for needless cause? What should be done is go to art magnet programs high schools serving Dade county, colleges, universities, and ask for proposals. The wining school gets the funds. And the artists fame to launch their career along with all materials and time paid. I am sure local mentor artists would help.
I really don’t understand the state of affairs in the gables. Nobody is happy about the fast pace of development, yet the commission keeps approving more and more projects.