[announcer] Art Loft is brought to you by... [narrator] Where there is freedom, there is expression, The Florida Keys & Key West.

[announcer] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners, and the Friends of South Florida PBS.

[anchor] Art Loft, it's the pulse of what's happening in our own backyard as well as a taste of the arts across the United States.

In this episode, a fresh look at a legendary Miami painter, a multidisciplinary artist steps into Community, and a different Miami takes on street art.

A daughter's love for her parents comes to the forefront as the Raphael Soriano Foundation takes root in Miami.

He would say, "I do not pretend to transmit a message of reality.

I am moved by the longing to travel within my paintings in a dimension of Spirit where the intimate and the cosmic converge."

My hope is to have Scholars, Art Historians, Ph.D. Student Candidates, Curators that are interested in my father's work, come and have access to the archives, and have access to sit and reflect and look at the work, be able to live with the work for short periods of time because this is a work that you don't just see.

You have to really look at.

And so, these are little reflective moments of meditation and almost transcendence.

The later period, they're almost transcendence.

So, he invites the viewer to come on this adventure with me, you know?

So, that's what I hope for this space that people can come and sit and reflect, and learn more about his work.

My name is Hortensia Soriano, and I am the daughter of Rafael Soriano, and also the Director of the Rafael Soriano Foundation.

My memory is that he would come home from work and he would usually take a little nap and we would have dinner, and then, he began the process of painting.

And I remember as a child, I only asked my mom one time, "I don't understand why my father doesn't play with me at night, or why doesn't he watch television with us?"

And my mother said to me, "Your father is in the back room, in the Florida room, doing very important work."

And I understood that what he was doing back there was pretty special.

It was just that one time, so I always was comforted knowing that he was back there doing what he loved most.

For me, they were all adventures, and he would bring us in to the Florida room, me and my mom, when they were completed and he would ask us, what do you see?

What do you feel?

Tell me about the colors, and we would talk about these paintings.

And then, they proceeded to name the paintings.

Him and my mother would give each painting a title.

It was an adventure for me growing up with his paintings and, you know, taking the paintings outdoors to dry.

And one thing with my mom and my dad, the weather became a big thing in my house because if you look in the yard, you can see the fence.

There were sometimes three or four paintings, these masterpieces hanging on the fence to dry.

I'm working right now on the Catalog Raisonn Project, and so far, we've entered about 1,400 works that began in Cuba, and they go all the way through 2000, maybe 2001.

So, it's quite an extensive body of work, considering that his main medium is oil.

And oil takes so long to dry.

If my mom was not, you know, helping him and doing the frames, and mounting the canvases and always having a fresh canvas for him, he definitely would've not been able to paint that amount of work that he did, so, yeah, thanks to her, we have this body of work today, for sure.

I'm going to show you a very beautiful geometric painting that I'm fortunate enough to have in the collection.

This is called Motivo Del Mar, it's a 1953 piece.

The Estate, maybe about 300 works we still have in the Estate, and right now, we have LnS GALLERY that is helping us and has the representation of the Estate.

One of the main things that we wanted to do was to showcase to people this tenacity of Soriano's work of how he was really painting for himself.

He was an artist who was looking at how to continue the chain of Art History, how to gravitate towards a different visual vocabulary, and really doing it not thinking of any commercial success at all, but more importantly, about a personal fulfillment.

Which is why I think it creates a really interesting energy to the viewer that Soriano isn't only an artist that you see, but it's an artist that you feel.

He's an artist who's challenging the notion of abstraction through light, through surrealism, through atmosphere, almost like if he was our Rothko, our Cuban American Rothko.

He believed in God, and he believed in the Spirit.

And he went inwards, he looked inwards for the sustenance in his life, and I think that that's what translated on these paintings that luminosity of, yes, the cosmos.

He was fascinated with the "Man on the Moon", when the man walked on the moon in 1969.

And so, these are like moments of landscapes, psychic landscapes of, in this cosmos could be under the sea in your imagination.

And the colors, he was a colorist, and the colors are very, he always said they had to do with his Bay of Matanzas which changed colors six or seven times depending on the time of day.

And so, that light always stayed in his memory, those colors, and so these pallets have to do with that Bay of Matanzas, which he loved.

Well, it's very important to me for my father's work to find its place in history because I feel that he's not just a Cuban artist or a Cuban American artist.

He is an artist that belongs to the world, and that's part of the mission of the Foundation is to place his pieces in museums and in public institutions globally for future generations to be able to enjoy.

So, yeah, I want people to know that, you know, he was a master.

He was not just a Cuban master, but he's a master period.

And I will say, my father was very, very humble, and he would never have said any of this, but I'm the daughter, I can say all this.

So, yeah, he was a true master.

[anchor] In the Keys, when you think of music, it's most often flip-flops and Pop Tops.

But the Florida Keys Concert Association brings a splash of classical music to the Islands with its Annual Performance Calendar and focus on rising talents.

[pat] We started in 1969, a group of volunteers got together and decided we needed to bring something unique to the Keys.

And now, 50 years later, we're still doing that.

We enjoy bringing in these young people that are on their way up.

We try once a year to find a true major prodigy who is potentially going to have a huge breakout career.

And we call this the Rising Star Concert.

And his name is Tengku Irfan.

And Irfan is probably one of the great musical geniuses of his generation.

At The Juilliard School, where he attends, not only a spectacular pianist, but he is also a composer and a conductor.

And the audience is stunned by what these young people can do.

You can even come up, shake their hands, talk to them after the performance, and you would never get that anywhere else unless, of course, you had special backstage passes or something like that.

[norman] Classical music is almost always played just with a pure acoustic instrument.

No electric, no amplification.

And we just follow that tradition in this space here because it is so intimate and so live, you can be in the very back row, and it's almost like you're sitting in the front row with the quality of the sound.

[pat] A 100% of our ticket sales, donations, sponsorships, ads goes back into bringing great music to the Keys.

Pop music, rock music, all that can sustain itself in the commercial market, and it thrives.

But for those of us that really appreciate classical music, opera, series of Jazz that really requires a nonprofit organization, driven economically by significant donations from the people who really want to see it happen and use their resources to help it happen.

So, that is our mission, to bring truly wonderful artists, national artists, international artists of the highest caliber here to the Florida Keys to perform serious, mostly classical music.

And we'd like to try to teach other people to enjoy, they don't presently.

And as you see, we have seating on the sides of our venue here for students.

We do have them come in for free because we're trying to encourage young people.

Marathon was hurt, as you know, so badly in Hurricane Irma.

So, we're struggling a little here in Marathon, but so many people had to move after the hurricane.

They lost their homes.

So, we plan on Marathon coming back as they are.

We saw a dip, mm-hmm, we did see a dip.

It hurt our ticket sales.

[norman] We just do hope that people, perhaps, watching this might realize what we have here.

Now, we know where we can go with the Marathon to see some great music.

And maybe we won't just be known as a little fishing and drinking village, we do have culture here.

[norman] I just absolutely love classical music.

It's beautiful, it's powerful, that's why I'm here.

[anchor] Multimedia artist V is pushing their practice in new directions, working in ceramics and incorporating other artists into their installations.

Here for Commissioner, we join them and perform at the Deering Estate, focusing on the freedom of movement.

I believe artists need a sense of like, radical hope and faith, and have some kind of strong-like intention or purpose behind why you do what you do, to know why.

I love that Art can bring folks together, you know, bring my loved ones together to share a space.

Bring my friends together to share a space, different folks in different circles meet each other.

Thank you, thank you for coming to the beautiful Deering Estate today.

Commissioner is all about collecting art and supporting artists.

Our Third Commissioned artists of the season is V .

The way that V moves space and brings people together is so incredibly inspiring and moving.

And I would say that even without this, the work of creativity, imagination, collaboration, and support has already begun.

Earliest memory of, like creating anything was back when I was still a kid in Vietnam.

I remember drawing this Barbie doll, and then running to my relatives and like the older, the adults in the family like, "Look, look," and then everyone just like seeing what I made and like affirming that creation that felt like a proper spark, you know, for me to like then move to America, go through the public school system and eventually end up pursuing Art School as like a thing.

V 's journey in New World School of the Arts is, for me, as a person, as an artist is the ideal journey because they were doing very traditional work.

They went to a very traditional kind of foundational school but then, as soon as they graduated, they flourish and they start to push outside the manners of a medium.

Me When I was in College, I studied painting.

So, having put painting down for a minute and delving into ceramics this past year, I was very excited to see how painting would translate on these vessels.

And I got to play with the painterly aspect when I glazed and colored each vessel.

Me Each vessel has now, like its own unique entity, unique soul, like all us humans.

Me The intention was for the audience to find space somehow to be vulnerable during the performance, whatever that looks like to them.

Whether it was just like being caught, like off guard, not knowing and then trusting in the flow of the performance.

The ways in which we should be supporting artists like V is by making sure that early on, we are investing in them as individuals, investing in their work.

Will all the Commissioner Collectors your way on up and get a box?

And so that means funding early on and upfront, that means collaborating with multiple institutions.

Like with Commissioner and New World School of the Arts.

It means telling our friends and colleagues about individuals who are on the rise and making sure that they get the attention that they deserve.

Holding this; I'm so glad that I found a great group of people to work with for this project.

I'm hoping members can take away and have a reminder that vulnerability is truly valuable especially, when we are vulnerable with ourselves.

[anchor] Up next, another Miami turns to the arts, Street Art that is, to help its Downtown make a comeback.

Hello, everyone, local broadcaster Michael Woodruff.

Here's your forecast calling for today, sunny with a high-near 75 perfect weather for Mural Fest coming up at 10 o'clock in beautiful Downtown Miami.

It's a free event for the entire family, so come on down.

They're gonna be here 'til about five o'clock tonight.

While you're doing that, well, continue to listen to some great music here on KGLC, 100.9 FM Radio On The Route.

[jessica] We're in our fourth year trying this.

2017 was our first try, this year, we will have 11 new murals put up by 10 artists from around the State and myself.

And then one mural painted by local artists.

So, 12 new paintings, that's quite a big thing really for a small town.

We're three local artists.

Jeanette, how long have you lived here?

2015, so about 45 years.

Yeah, and I've lived here for about 45 years as well.

Jessica got ahold of us and said, "Hey, we have a wall, would you be interested?"

And we said, "Yeah."

The Oklahoma Mural Syndicate is a nonprofit that advocates and creates public art throughout the State of Oklahoma.

They were one of the first communities that reached out to us after seeing what we've done with Plaza Walls in Oklahoma City, and they were like, "Hey, will you come to our community and paint it all up as well?"

And we said, "Yeah, of course."

You know, in 2017 when we first started this, we had people from the community walk up and say, "Wow, this is so cool what you guys are doing.

We've never seen anything like this."

[jessica] Our first year, we tried Mural Fest out here.

This building was vacant at the time and since then, it got renovated, was sold, and now it's this Daycare Center.

The Praying mantis that was mine; bugs are cool.

It's really great to introduce modern art to, you know, a community that might be used to some more traditional murals.

I like to describe my style as colorful abstract work.

I do a lot of work that references typography and calligraphy, I think it's like a nice little moment of joy, you know, like, not even just today, but like, just seeing the murals every day.

It's like just a little moment of happiness or joy, or, you know, excitement at having a little bit of art brighten your life.

That's called a Doodle Grid, and it's just another form to put up a big image on a wall.

In this instance, yeah, I mean you just fill up the whole wall with a bunch of different reference points to just to in order to get the image up on the wall.

And then, once I have that, then I can kind of just play jazz and improvise a little bit with the color, and...

I have painted my whole life.

Six years ago, I finally, after years of wanting to try it, started spray painting.

It takes a lot of practice to really kind of get it down.

Really it comes down to, they say it's called Can Control, is the term.

It's your ability to control the can.

There are options with, you can trade out the caps.

So, you've got skinny caps, you've got fat caps for fills.

You've got, there's stencil caps, which I've never used, but you can get super fine lines with those.

Oh, honey, won't you give me a call, I need to know Please, paint a mural All right, here we go.

I love the idea of coming to a smaller town.

The lady and her family that just bought stickers from me, her son said that he liked the robots the best and that it inspired him to do some art.

So, I think that that's awesome, right, that's kind of the goal.

I don't know exactly where the robots came from.

I don't have, like some big purpose about why I started painting them, but I think they're cool, you know.

I've always been kind of attracted to, like painting things that I would've thought were awesome as a kid, you know?

[michael] Listen KGLC on 100.9 FL, Radio On The Route, local broadcaster Michael Woodruff, hanging out with you this afternoon.

Hey, come on down to Mural Fest.

[jessica] When we moved here, there were a lot of buildings on Main Street that were boarded up.

The windows were boarded up, and yet it survives and it's building up now.

Downtown's looking good, it keeps getting improved.

We have events like Mural Fest.

It's a small town just trying to make their Downtown prettier.

It's a very encouraging, just a great sign to see, you know, a relatively small town that's embracing the arts in such a way.

I wish that more small towns in Oklahoma would do the same because I do think that it revitalizes the community a little bit, and it gives people something to look at every day, you know?

When we first moved here, we had BF Goodrich and it was really happening in a little place on the go.

And then Goodrich shut down, and it was like Miami just lost its will to live almost.

People talk about it.

They see the murals, and they just talk about how happy it makes 'em feel.

[anchor] Art Loft is on Instagram @artloftsfl.

Tag us in your art adventures.

Find full episode segments and more at artloftsfl.org, and on YouTube at South Florida PBS.

[announcer] Art Loft is brought to you by... [narrator] Where there is freedom, there is expression, The Florida Keys & Key West [announcer] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners, and the Friends of South Florida PBS.