Cuban \ American artist Benito Esquenazi, a Miami Beach native returns home after four decades in New York to paint the facade of the historic Aqua Hotel during Art Week Miami 2023.
The mural is based on drawings created during Esquenazi's “long duration
” public art performance titled the "Lincoln Road 500".
In his attempt to step out of the Covid quarantine, and embrace life once again. The artist conceived a public performance to break-out from his studio-walls and bring his art to the public.
In so doing the artist made himself vulnerable to a challenging act of creation while demystify his art making practice.
This performance spanned 32 continuous hours over three days. Starting at 9:00pm on the Saturday night of October 16th, and completing at 5:00am on Monday morning of October 18, 2021.
Each drawing is signed, and dated. A commemorative stamp and number was applied to the drawing as they were completed. Celebrating the project and defining the number in sequence the work was created.
Esquenazi’s "Lincoln Road 500" tour-de-force performance comes to life again breaking-out onto the walls of the historic façade of the Aqua Art Miami 2023 Art Fair.
Through this project the artist seeks to share that what connects us is stronger than our differences. As experienced via the artist's celebration-of-life, which is a foundational idea behind the "Lincoln Road 500" performance.
Photos taken during the "Lincoln Road 500" performance between Oct. 16, 17 & 18, 2021.