Permuy Architecture honors local legacies during Miami Art Week
By Catherine Kouretsos
Originally published January 15, 2024 on Coral Gables News and Miami’s Community Newspapers
Pictured at the event are (l-r) Jesús Permuy, Ignacio Permuy, Carolina Permuy, Rhonda Anderson, Don Slesnick, John Fullerton, and Antonio Permuy.
While thousands descended on Miami Beach for Art Basel, Coral Gables-based architecture firm Permuy Architecture celebrated its 2023 Art + Architecture exhibition on Friday, Dec. 8.
The exhibition series is an annual company tradition conducted on the Friday of Miami Art Week as a nod to the original “Friday Gallery Nights” held in Permuy Gallery more than 50 years ago. This history was honored in November when the former site of Permuy Gallery was declared a Coral Gables landmark for its Cultural and Historical significance as one of the first Cuban American art galleries in the United States.
The exhibition also celebrates the firm’s achievements throughout the year. Through 2023 the firm signed new projects across South Florida including in Pinecrest, Miami Beach, Key West, Delray Beach, and Sweetwater. The firm also was counted among Miami’s best commercial architects by GC Magazine and among the best architecture firms in Miami by Miami Architects Magazine. Additionally, firm president Ignacio Permuy was recognized in the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora’s exhibition Arquitectura by Cuban Americans in Exile, on display from September to November. Permuy also was re-elected Chair of the Urban Development Review Board (UDRB) of Miami for 2023.
Among the artworks on display in the “Art + Architecture” exhibit, the firm also unveiled a rendering of their latest premiere ZenLux design property, Villa Al-Walid. The project is poised to become the most expensive residence ever sold in Pinecrest history when completed between in late 2024 or early 2025.
The estate had a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 24 with several community and industry leaders present. Among them were former Pinecrest Council members and several luxury Realtors representing prospective realty firms for the property, including ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Berkshire Hathaway.
Once completed, the over 15,000-square foot estate will follow-up the celebrated first ZenLux project, the Aqua Azure Residence, which sold in 2022 for nearly $9 million. As a much larger corner lot property located on prime Pinecrest real estate adjacent to the record-breaking Tyler Herro residence, Villa Al-Walid is expected to far surpass Aqua Azure’s price and exceed $12 million.
To contrast the national and international emphasis of Art Basel Miami and many of Miami Art Week’s flagship events, Permuy Architecture’s Art + Architecture exhibition series is designed and curated to be a celebration of local culture. The theme for 2023’s installment was “Cuban Expressionism” in recognition of the ongoing contributions of Cuban artists to the local art community during the past six decades.
The exhibition featured 30 works by four leading Miami-based Cuban artists: two “Legacy Artists” and two contemporary artists. The featured Legacy Artists, Lourdes Gómez Franca (1933-2017) and Dionisio Perkins (1929-2016), were both participants of Permuy Gallery’s pioneering run in the early 1970s and key contributors to the broader efforts of establishing Cuban art in South Florida and the U.S.
They were joined by leading Cuban contemporary artists Adriano Nicot and Miguel A. Fleitas. Each artist brought impact to the exhibition. With 11 works, Nicot had the most featured works in the exhibition while Fleitas had the largest piece on display, titled Nocturno en el Patio (2017), reaching more than five feet in width and over seven feet in length.
Amid the festive fine arts ambiance, servers treated guests to wine, cheese, and hors d’oeuvres as holiday music played.
Among those in attendance were all three firm principals — Ignacio J. Permuy, Jesús A. Permuy, and John P. Fullerton — as well as community leaders including former Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick, current Coral Gables Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, and Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jason Emilios Dimitris. They were joined by several clients, executives, and attorneys, as well as artists, collectors, and family of the featured artists.
In all, the opening was attended by just under 200 over the course of the four-hour event.
Within days of the event’s success, the Permuys reaffirmed their commitment to cultural legacy and patronage when the firm’s communications director, Antonio Permuy, donated artwork to FIU’s Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum by prominent international Cuban artist Ramón Unzueta (1962-2012) on Dec. 12.
Unzueta, who was close to the Permuy family during his Miami career, also is included in the permanent collection of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, where he was the subject of a career-spanning retrospective that opened in May of 2023.
Beyond the annual art exhibition tradition, Permuy Architecture also frequently integrates the arts into their projects. The firm has previously collaborated with other internationally renowned artists, such as Rafael Consuegra, Jan Hendrix, and Carsten Höller, and looks to continue to support the arts and culture through their projects and events in the future.