When Rachel Feinstein thinks of her old life, she thinks of a “dark fairy tale.” There’s the heavy sway of the banyan trees on Old Cutler Road. Alligator-infested swimming holes.
A towering king cobra statue advertising a tragic tourist attraction. Bridesmaids in frilly dresses at her Parrot Jungle wedding. And her parents’ house in Coral Gables, now slated to be demolished.
Feinstein, 53, made a name for herself as an artist by creating whimsical works in many ways inspired by a South Floridian childhood. The New York-based artist has , exhibited her , been featured in major publications like and marked the last 30 years of her career with Her parents used to ask her when she’ll have a solo show in her beloved hometown of Miami, but for one reason or another, she never did. Until now.
This week, The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach opened “Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years,” a solo exhibition of works spanning nearly three decades that thematically focus on Feinstein’s childhood in the fabulous yet seedy world of Miami in the ‘70s and ‘80s. “It was a really amazing, lawless, fantastic time,” she said. “I could not have made any of this if I grew up anywhere else.
I’m 100% certain of it.” As an artist who grew up in the Magic City, where nothing seems to last forever, let alone a few years, Feinstein examines architecture, luxury, gender, memory, nature, nostalgia and facade with theatrical sculptures and eccentric paintings. The show’s crown .