Wynwood Walls, Miami, Florida

“Blank walls are a shared canvas and we're all artists.”

Carla H. Krueger

While we were in Miami, prior to us taking our cruise in February, we toured around a little in Miami. I had read about the Wynwood Walls and thought is would be a neat thing to see. We figured we would give it a go. We put the address in our GPS and started driving towards our destination. Yikes. We got in an area that we said, we are not stopping. Then suddenly the area go nicer and we saw the gates to Wynwood Walls. We got there at about 9:45 and it was not open yet, so we parked, and got in line to get in to see it. A huge bus load of people on a tour got there right after we did. At that point, we figured it must be good since they are bringing tourist to see it.

Since we got there early, we were in the front of the line walking in before the big crowds. We heard the tour guide talk about the displays in this park and states that many of the walls were done by famous mural painters. One was a Japanese artist named Aiko who lived in Brooklyn, another was Lady Pink from Brooklyn, New York and painted in NYC subways, and another Mya Hayuk who paints a lot of outer space. There are many other talented muralist who painted the walls in this gated area and is an honor to have been asked to do so. The tour guide said to her group, “Please look carefully at all the paintings in this area and figure out if you think it is art or graffiti.” Gave me food for thought as we walked around and looked.

Wynwood Walls was founded in 2009 by Tony Goldman, who saw potential in this run down warehouse area of the city. Who is Tony Goldman you say? He was the one behind Soho and South Beach, Miami. He ended up turning this neighborhood into a cultural mecca. He put it together with the opening of Art Basel at Wynwood. This area is close to downtown Miami and is now surrounded by converted warehouses that are now craft breweries and funky art galleries. What an amazing idea of having an outside museum showing large life size works and life size murals. I love the sculpture of “Nessie” in the middle of the court yard.

There are 80,000 square feet of abandoned warehouse walls that are all covered with murals in Wynwood Walls. The art work is amazing. Yes, I call it art. Magnificent artwork. It is all well done and we were so impressed. There is so much to see in this area. We enjoyed the displays and listening to everyone loving on this work. There is also a shop that features an artist with lots of their art inside. When you walk into the shop, there is a huge chandelier that is very impressive to see. This is open on Monday through Thursday 10 to 11:30 and Friday and Saturday 10:30 to Midnight and Sunday 1030 to 8 pm. Wynwood Walls is free. Can you believe that. Www.thewynwoodwalls.com.

Then we left, we drove around the neighborhood and that is when we found out that there are warehouses all around us and lots of graffiti art everywhere. Some of the work outside is exceptional art work and others are just graffiti. There definitely is a difference. It really is a neat area to see. This was another wonderful thing to see and as an amateur artist, I really appreciated how wonderful the artwork is in this area. Great way to rejuvenate an area that was declining. It is booming now.