From Miami New Times, a local Miami artist makes his objections known to not being known.
Yesterday, art lovers around the world were shocked when someone strolled into the Pérez Art Museum Miami and destroyed a $1 million vase by Ai Weiwei.
Well, the story gets even more shocking. That’s because the vandal wasn’t a political objector or a random crazy person. He was a fellow artist.
The vandal is actually Maximo Caminero, a well-known local painter who has shown works at the Fountain Art Fair. He tells New Times that he destroyed the vase to make a point.
“I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here,” he says. “They have spent so many millions now on international artists. It’s the same political situation over and over again. I’ve been here for 30 years and it’s always the same.”
According to a police report, a PAMM security guard saw Caminero pick up the vase yesterday afternoon. When she told him to put down the piece of art, he “threw and broke the vase on the floor in protest.”
Caminero then “spontaneously told [police] that he broke the vase in protest of local artists and that the museum only displayed international artists,” according to the report.
His chances of getting a one-man show at PAMM are officially shot to hell.
I would hope so. Indeed I hope he gets the full five years in prison. But then I always wished that the guy who took a hammer and chisel to Michelangelo’s Pieta had been executed.
“All violence is an attempt to achieve justice”. This is a perfect example. I hope he does some major prison time for this.
Wonder if it occurred to him that the reason his stuff isn’t in museums is that it hasn’t been considered worthy? He should send a note to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas owned by Alice Walton. She’s sending her curators all over the country looking for American art to display. If he’s made something she likes maybe she’ll even bail him out. Money talks in the USA.
I wonder if this will raise the market value of this guy’s work.