This past week, CULTURED and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA) treated select guests to an artist panel and brunch at Soho Beach House. Listeners gathered under a beachside linen tent to hear Andrea Marie Breiling discuss her sweeping art career with the ICA Miami Trustee and collector Alex Witkoff. Charlie Jarvis, co-founder of Fairchain, a tool that affords artists the long sought-after opportunity to track the ownership of their work and share in secondary market proceeds, moderated the panel. “Art is really ageless,” Breiling said. “You can be 80 as an artist, and rediscover yourself." The panel—which touched on Breiling's artistic evolution, the challenges and rewards of working with institutions, and the experience of maturing in the art world—was introduced by CULTURED founder Sarah Harrelson and Alex Gartenfeld, ICA Miami's artistic director, both of whom expressed their personal admiration for what Harrelson refers to as Breiling's "mesmerizing abstractions."
"Great collections are built over long periods of time," said Witkoff as Breiling reflected on the sleepless nights she spent in the studio as a young artist. "It's the same with great art. It's built over long periods of hard work. Andrea is having this great period of popularity now, but she put in years and years to get where she is." With help from conscientious collectors and companies like Fairchain—which harnesses blockchain technology to address issues of authentication and compensation within the secondary art market—artists like Breiling who experience a surge in recognition will have the opportunity to benefit from the rising value of their work. Additional support for the panel event came from AIG, a leading global insurance organization.
Densely-packed fields exploding with blasts of color, Breiling's paintings can currently be seen at the newly-renovated Villa Paula in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood with Night Gallery. The show, titled “Ribbons,” is on view through Dec. 4, 2022, and highlights the artist’s signature "ribboning" technique, an innovative manipulation of spray paint that casts colors across the canvas in ephemeral, wispy strands. "I think it’s really special to know that we have our whole lives to continue to discover, to experiment, to create new things," Breiling told Witkoff during the discussion. "And the world will just be there for you.”
