The Miami Art Blog by Heike Dempster

Add some text, Yo! Click this text box to change the text, style, color and fonts.

Every first Sunday of the month YoMiami offers an opportunity to everyone to start collecting art. Who says art is something to be acquired only by the wealthy? 

With the “Average Joe Art Sale” YoMiami owner Yuval Ofir counteracts this notion. He has come up with a way to bring a broad audience to YoMiami and connect them with upcoming, mostly  Miami-based artists. 

The “Average Joe Art Sale” started out with works ranging from $5 to $250 but due to a growing fan base and collectors who have grown their collections alongside the sale event to the next level Ofir has upped the cut off price to $500. This offers additional opportunities to artists and collectors alike without deterring first timers and everyone ready to snag amazing work at an affordable price.

Seven artist studios, exhibition space and offices offer an intimate environment where artists can flourish and interact with people who will help them take their craft to the next level, both creatively and professionally.

Says Ofir, “I get asked all the time, ‘What is it that YoMiami does exactly?’ and until recently I never really had a satisfactory answer. Finally as I was reading a magazine article, on a train in France of all places, a word jumped out and things almost audibly clicked into place: Ecosystem. An ecosystem can be as large as a desert or a lake or as small as a tree or a puddle. If you have a terrarium, that is an artificial ecosystem. The water, water temperature, plants, animals, air, light and soil all work together. If there isn’t enough light or water or if the soil doesn’t have the right nutrients, the plants will die. If the plants die, animals that depend on them will die. If the animals that depend on the plants die, any animals that depends on those animals will die. Ecosystems in nature work the same way. All the parts work together to make a balanced system.”

He continues, “It’s a little cliché to compare humans to plants, needing sunlight and water and nurturing to grow, so it’s a good thing I’m not doing that. In this case, plants are just a small part of the analogy. Maybe some people are plants, some are animals, some the climate All of these things interact and effect each other. The same way that artists need buyers to support them, the buyers need people surrounding them who reassure them that they made a good purchase, and those people in turn need the buyers to look towards for their inside scoop on the art world.

Ofir’s artistic terrarium houses some major Miami talent and even features a gaming lounge with some serious old-school games like Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog. Artists like Ivan Roque and Lorie Setton have a permanent studio at YoSpace while the shop and exhibition space features works by artists like Ruben Ubiera, Jorge Rodriquez, GG, Kazilla, Rei Ramirez, 8bit, Reinier Gamboa, Ernesto Kunde, Vince Herrera, Ulises Baine and New York graffiti legend Trap.