Everyday Miami

The Market at Opa-Locka

ARTIST NOTES:

The marketplace in the city of Opa-Locka in Miami-Dade County, Florida is very colorful and flavorful. Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss founded the city during the 1920s craze for Florida real estate and had the entire original town designed in the Moorish Revival style, the largest such example of that architecture in the West. The city today is home to many Cubans, Haitians, Dominicans, Jamaicans and Nicaraguans. The government has a reputation of being quite corrupt.

BACKGROUND:

Maria spent quite a lot of time in Opa-Locka researching Native American ruins for a proposed public art project. The name Opa-locka is an abbreviation of a Seminole place name, Opa-tisha-wocka-locka which is believed to signify a dry place in the swamp with trees.

MATERIAL NOTES:

The painting continues onto and around the frame.

Dimensions: 45in x 52in

Media: Acrylic on masonite.

Year: 2005