Short Rant On The D-Wade Sculpture

Miami is not known for great public sculpture. It’s not because no one in Miami knows about good art (the Rubells live here), it’s the government and corporations that don’t know what they’re doing. I’m surprised we don’t have a giant KAWS sculpture on South Beach by now, considering their taste.

Recently, Miami added a new addition to the shit sculpture public portfolio.

Omri Amrany and Oscar Leon were selected to create a new sculpture honoring Dwyane Wade, one of the greatest basketball players to play on the Miami Heat. How or why they were selected?- who knows. Lack of people with art history degrees in the offices maybe.

You can’t have people with law or business degrees, and real estate licenses run an art program without at least one person with a real knowledge of art.

Omri Amrany created a sculpture honoring Michael Jordan that is decent at best. As for Oscar Leon, who the fuck is that guy?

The fact that they defended themselves saying “The sculpture took over 800 hours to make”- okay? Who cares?

Leon also said that a ‘sealer’ needed to be set to protect the integrity of the sculpture against the elements, which changed the composition of the sculpture especially when viewed in pictures.

Lame, wack and zero creative problem solving.

I don’t care about what an artist has to do to make a sculpture stand or survive being outside, part of making art is problem solving. MIchaelangelo’s ‘David’ was supposed to be on the roof of a building. He made it to withstand wind, rain, bird shit, and sun. He made the sculpture so flawlessly strong without affecting the composition (in pictures or not), it was displayed inside the building instead. That was created in the 16th century, by the way.

Now you are telling me a bronze sculpture in 2024 needs a ‘sealer’ that is going to change the viewers perception of the composition, especially through pictures?

The best part, they used AI to help with the creation of this sculpture. Which means a couple things. First, AI in fact cannot decipher great art. Second, not everyone knows how to use AI. Lastly, they were scared to tell the corporate people “we did this ourselves”.

I get it- the “This is my house” moment was legendary, but they couldn’t represent that moment in a more creative way? This sculpture is straight out of a 1990’s college bronze casting class.

D Wade defended the sculpture, but he probably owns a KAWS sculpture too.

V.N