Denim on Denim | 181x122cm
Denim on Denim | 80 x 30 cm
depth detail shot
Denim on Denim | 80 x 30 cm
depth shot
details
Ian Berry with the work at Scope Miami
Ian Berry showed in Scope Miami - Art Basel a body of work based on the ‘Deuce Bar’ Miami’s famed Dive Bar.
‘I have been to Miami several times during Art Basel and this time I wanted to do something specific to Miami. I’d thought about what to do and other than going around the fairs I saw little of Miami on previous trips - other than the Deuce. I had already done my bars and pubs, especially in London. It’s a perfect place to do in my body of works as it a bastion of a time past while much changes around, not always for the better!’ Ian said.
The oldest Bar in Miami opened in 1926 and was owned-run by Mac Klein –since 1964. Its laid-back ambiance, rustic decor, pool table & cigarette haze (yeh you can smoke inside) and jukebox making this South Beach institution a great local hangout, and during Art Basel week, a place for artists, dealers and collectors to take a break - often well into the early hours.
The changing fabric of our urban environment
In a city that changes like an indecisive chameleon, an island always for sale to the highest bidder, Mac’s joint has remained a pristine, neon-lit paradise untouched by outside forces and this continues Ian’s interest in documenting places that are at the heart of communities while all else changes.
Miami Vice threw its cast party here. Playboy named it one of the “best dive bars” (2010) in America. And Anthony Bourdain said it was one of his favorite spots in the world.
I wanted to portray the bar but there is so much to it, and I wanted to do both the inside and out, the outside with the Neon Lights scream Miami and well, I like the challenge of showing how lights hit things on the inside and a sucker for punishment with all the details in the mirror’
In an aptly titled 1989 Miami Herald article, the headline read All Kinds Make a Merry Mix At Mac’s Club Deuce which demonstrated the complete eclectic clientele the bar gets, where literally all kinds go in. Mac himself called it the Shangri-La of South Beach and these are just two of the titles of Ian’s work.
Mac died aged 101 in 2016 but his legacy lives on, almost unchanged.
Mac’s Club Deuce
222 14th Street, Miami Beach, FL 33139