INTERDIMENSIONAL PORTAL | Miami Design District | JULY 2022
Acclaimed muralist, Criola, has significant mural paintings in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Paris, and now right here in the Miami Design District. The artist’s display in Jungle Plaza will be her largest mural to date, and her second public work in the US, following “Black Girl Magic” done in Las Vegas last year. Her mural, Interdimensional Portal, portrays Afro-Brazilian ancestors in ritualistic performance, accessing ancient forest wisdom for medicinal purposes, and transcending thresholds of knowledge.
ABOUT CRIOLA
Criola, born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1990, is an Afro-Brazilian creative whose work addresses issues of social justice through her characteristic Black female protagonists. Her large format paintings and murals refer to ancestral archetypes in order to question contemporary issues, and the role of women in society, actively confronting racism and state repression. Criola’s figurative style combines dense patterns and color-block surfaces, in which Brazilian fauna and flora mix with African matrixes. The artist has monumental mural paintings in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Paris and in Minsk, Belarus, and has recently been developing collaborations with adjacent brands in fashion and beyond.
ABOUT MIAMI DESIGN DISTRICT
The Miami Design District is a neighborhood dedicated to innovative fashion, design, art, architecture and dining experiences. The Miami Design District is owned by Miami Design District Associates, a partnership between Dacra, founded and owned by visionary entrepreneur Craig Robins, and L Catterton Real Estate, a global real estate development and investment fund specializing in creating luxury shopping destinations. Together, Dacra and L Catterton Real Estate have actively transformed the once-overlooked area of Miami into a vibrant destination for residents and visitors by presenting the best shopping, cultural and culinary experiences within an architecturally significant context. The vision for a rejuvenated Design District–responsive to its historic, urban, and tropical context–was codified into an urban masterplan developed by award-winning masterplanners Duany Plater-Zyberk, with the additional participation of architects including Sou Fujimoto, Aranda/Lasch, Aranguren & Gallegos, K/R, Johnston Marklee, Neriand Hu, and Studio Gang. The Miami Design District embodies a singular dedication to the unity of design, fashion, art, and architecture and a commitment to encourage a neighborhood comprised of creative experiences including public art installations by Buckminster Fuller, Zaha Hadid, John Baldessari, Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Xavier Veilhan, 2×4 and others. The Miami Design District’s landscape master plan by Island Planning Corporation comprises lush green spaces, rooftop gardens, an impressive Palm collection, and streets lined with indigenous canopy trees, offering shade and a lowered ambient climate as a relief from the South Florida sun. In 2021, the Miami Design District earned prestigious LEED Certification for neighborhood development, making it the first in the world to achieve Gold Status and the third to be Level 4 Certified.
