I love perusing the shelves of a nice independent bookstore. In a world where they’re becoming increasingly harder to find, we’re lucky to have Books & Books in Miami. With its original location founded in Coral Gables in 1982, there are also outposts in South Beach on Lincoln Road, inside Bal Harbour Shops, and at Miami International Airport, as well as locations in Fort Lauderdale, Grand Cayman, and Westhampton Beach. It’s so much more than a bookstore. It’s an intellectual gathering place for readers and writers with book readings and signings scheduled on a nightly basis in Coral Gables, along with many other events. Founder Mitchell Kaplan is also co-founder of the Miami Book Fair International, a weeklong conference featuring over 350 authors reading and discussing their work. Most locations feature The Cafe at Books & Books, an idyllic, outdoor restaurant serving up tasty, fresh fare. It’s a perfect meeting place for friends or a nice spot to curl up with a new book and pass the time.

265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL 305-442-4408 & multiple locations 

Image via akashicbooks.com

Scott Simontacchi & Friends performing at The Station Inn.

They don’t call Nashville Music City for nothing, and you’d be remiss to skip out on a chance to hear some great live music while you’re here. There are many ways to do this in Nashville, from the boisterous bars on Broadway to the more staid listening rooms around town. One of those renowned listening rooms is The Station Inn, located in the trendy neighborhood, The Gulch. While every night is different with a variety of singer/songwriters performing, The Station Inn tends to lean towards blue grass and roots. The night that I was there, Scott Simontacchi & Friends performed, along with a few special guests. Other notable acts include Allison Krause, Jimmy Martin, Bobby Osborne, and Bill Monroe. Doors open at 7 pm and music starts at 9 pm. Depending on how high profile the act is, it’s a good idea to get there early to secure a seat and entry. Inside, is a performance hall with eclectic rows of seating and a bar serving draft beer, including the locally brewed Yazoo, as well as no frills snacks, such as frozen pizza, hotdogs, popcorn, and nachos. The experience is a must for a visit to Nashville.

402 12th Ave. South, Nashville, TN 615-255-3307

My dad sent me this video in an email this morning. It’s a trailer for the 1953 western movie “Shane” starring Alan Ladd, which is what I was named after. Whenever I meet men of a certain age (my dad’s age, that is), I’m sometimes greeted with “Come back, Shane! Shane! Come back!,” which is the little boy’s refrain at the end of the movie as Shane rides off on his horse along the prairie, his figure receding into the blue, mountainous horizon. This trailer describes Shane as “a mysterious stranger [who] rode in out of nowhere.” A bit of a wanderer? I’m pretty sure my dad sent me this video because he’d like me to come home for a visit. He always said Shane was his favorite movie, especially because of that call at the end.

Checking into the Casa Magna Resort in Cancun is more like checking into a grand, old world Spanish villa than a resort in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. I stayed here last weekend with four other journalists on a press trip, dubbed “The Return of the Vacation.” We definitely found it in Cancun luxuriating by the pool, feasting on world cuisine, and exploring the Mayan culture.

Design

With the warm sun blazing across the Caribbean sea and the lagoon surrounding Cancun, Casa Magna feels like a cool retreat with dramatic stucco arches shading the open air breezeways that lead to the rooms, and plazas with bubbling fountains and tropical palms. Dangling from the lobby’s high ceilings are dramatic wrought iron chandeliers, adding a rustic feel to the Spanish Mediterranean Revival architecture.

The Room

My spacious room on the second floor had two comfortable queen size beds with ample closet and drawer space. What was really impressive, though, was my oversized oceanfront balcony with a lounge chair, framed by a stucco arch, and perched at eye level with the tops of palm trees.

Amenities

It’s not Cancun without a swim up bar, and Casa Magna’s got a great one in its enormous oceanfront pool. A giant jacuzzi is perched like a cauldron front and center connected to the pool and overlooking the neon blue ocean.

There are five restaurants, and we enjoyed a delicious meal at the open air Sasi Thai where you feel like you’re floating on the lagoon in your own thatched hut. We enjoyed a sampling of spring rolls, dumplings, and satays, as well as an abundance of curries, noodle dishes, and fresh seafood. La Capilla Argentine Steakhouse was a destination for both breakfast and dinner. The breakfast includes an expansive buffet with Mexican entrees, like chilaquiles, quesadillas, chorizo omelettes, and churros, along with more traditional breakfast fare. I loved drinking a glass of fresh watermelon juice to start the day. The salad bar at dinner accompanying your meal might have been my favorite salad bar of all time. I created quite the impressive dish! We enjoyed steak, lamb, empanadas, and a lobster and brie crepe that was to die for.

The lobby bar was lovely, serving a great selection of margaritas, including spicy habanero and fresh frozen raspberry, that were quite popular. If you feel like getting rowdy, Champions Sports Bar is right on the property and features nightly karaoke. Other amenities include a spa and fitness center, ample conference space, and activities for children.

Hospitality

Service was friendly and seamless. My bellman Hugo happily offered advice on how to enjoy Cancun while he showed me the features of my room, and even offered to fill up my bucket of ice. It was easy to feel at home at Casa Magna.

Overall

I would recommend Casa Magna for families on vacation or a large group of friends excited to explore Cancun. The beautiful Spanish architecture of the resort makes for a lovely, relaxed retreat and you can feast like a king without leaving the property.

Boulevard Kukulcan, Retorno Chac L-41, Cancun, Mexico +52 998 881 2000

Anthony Lister with Rock & Roll Girl

Inside Robert Fontaine Gallery’s pristine white showroom in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, ballerinas are twirling and leaping around the walls. Their diaphanous tutus are saturated with color splashing like splattered paint and dripping from their bodies. They’re dressed in red, yellow, purple, blue, black, and pink. Their skeletons are sometimes exposed, like an x-ray, offering a peek at the fine-tuning and muscular mechanics behind their fluid motion. These are the works of Australian street artist Anthony Lister, a man who claims to have “multiple creative personality disorder” and the inventor of adventure painting.

I spoke with Lister shortly before he arrived in Miami for his solo show “Never Odd Or Even” at the Robert Fontaine Gallery, opening this Saturday May 11 and running through May 25. A conversation with him is something like an epic lyrical poem filled with riddles and surprises. Read on to see what I mean.

WC: Tell me about what we can expect at your upcoming show at the Robert Fontaine Gallery?
AL: Since my last visit to Miami in December during Basel, I’ve been working on ballerina theme works. You can expect to see ballerina paintings. I see ballerinas kind of like strippers, only they don’t take their clothes off. I do motion paintings of ballerinas in a fluid style. And I’ve been working on a few large murals, some of which can be found around Miami.

Ballerina mural at NW 2nd Ave & NW 24th St

Tell me more about the relationship you see between strippers and ballerinas.
From working on the street and associating with a number of graffiti artists, I’m constantly having to kind of redefine, or at least give analogies, of my practice to my peers and my collectors, and somehow I find myself caught on the fence between highbrow and lowbrow, and the classification of fine art, so I guess it’s just more of me trying to extinguish the idea of perceived value and trying to put the work at the forefront rather than the context of how it’s been perceived in the past.

Tell me what it’s like to work in different mediums, specifically street art versus work that hangs in a gallery.
I suffer from the graffiti disease and I have what I call “multiple creative personality disorder.” I’m always in my practice talking about social conditions. I’m constantly talking about the lack of guidance within males today. I’m constantly talking about the condition of guided missiles, misguided men. I say one man’s mess is another man’s message. I’m constantly finding myself around misguiding role models. Coming from Australia, it has a history of prisoner culture and big crime culture. I guess I’m just constantly trying to find a role model. Not to say that I’m it. Even though I roll with a lot of models.

What’s a day in the life of Anthony Lister like?
I’ll sleep for three days and then I’ll wake up and I’ll stay awake for two months and during that time I’ll just basically hibernate in my laboratory, which overlooks Central Station in Sydney, Australia, and I basically sit here and try to break out what painting is and what beauty is. Basically, I’m just trying to break art.

Tell me a little about your career path.
I was raised in Brisbane and as soon as I finished some schooling for a few years in university I went to New York City to do a mentorship. Then I moved there and got arrested a number of times, and then moved back to Australia. But I’m constantly finding myself back in New York City, as well as Los Angeles, Berlin, or Italy. This craft that I do, these multiple creative personalities just have a way of finding themselves around the world. I really don’t know how to explain it as a timeline because I’ve been too busy. I have a website and we actually just saw 10 years of posts on my new section. That’s kind of the best timeline. If you can imagine a spider drinking coffee and then trying to weave a web, there’s a lot of back and forth. What does a spider do if a spider doesn’t need to eat? How does a skeleton smile?

Your upcoming show at the Robert Fontaine Gallery is called “Never Odd Or Even.” What does that mean?
It’s a palindrome, so if you spell it backwards it spells the same thing, just like “party trap” or “race car.” But what does it mean? That’s a very good question. I think I’m more interested in raising questions than giving answers about a lot of things in life. But the most common answer to what is never odd or even, is zero. I think the justice system is never odd or even, as well.

Tell me about the process of creating one of your large scale murals.
I try to work from front to back. I try to see the future and I get caught up along the way, and then I realize what I’m painting actually is. It’s basically solving problems. Even Chuck Close said he’s far more interested in problem creation than problem solution, and I have to agree. Sometimes in paintings—actually, always in painting, the problem needs to be solved. In Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, there’s a big red wall with ballerinas on it. That took me six hours and that was done all from the ground.

You describe some of your work as adventure painting. Tell me what that is.
Adventure painting is owning chance and accident. Francis Bacon and Robert Rauschenberg were adventure painters, but they didn’t say that they were, and I’m not sure that they truly embraced it. It’s another word for chance and accident. I came to light with it a few years ago when I developed diptych paintings where I painted mirror images of the same image side by as a diptych. I don’t use any tools or projectors or anything.

The best analogy is through skateboarding. When you land a trick, it may have been a fluke, it may have been lucky, but to do it again is to own it. It’s to own it as your trick. In diptych painting is when I truly embrace chance and accident. I’d make a mistake on one side, the left or the right, and then in order to find the same solution aesthetically, I would need to make the same mistake on the opposite side and then resolve it in the same fashion, so it’s kind of like rubbing your hands through a bunch of wet paint and then discovering that that’s beautiful, and well I need to do it again. That’s how I invented adventure painting. All I can say is it’s never odd or even—until you build it.

How does the wall you paint on affect the work?
Different walls evoke different characters. This craft that I’m involved in, I’m pretty much built to take everything, but it’s not always me. I suffer from multiple creative personality disorder, so I have many aliases, and many creative beings inside of me that thrash to get out and it’s just about timing, really. Everything depends on how much time I have with something, with just how much I will love it as Anthony Lister. Otherwise, the other guys just take it.

I feel like graffiti is the final frontier in true artistic integrity and I guess I’m disguising myself as a fine artist until the revolution is fully here, and then I can actually tell people who I’ve been the whole time. But until then, I’m happy being a fine art painter. And I’m happy talking about the distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow in order to educate the public.

New mural at 175 NW 23rd St

Tell me more about this high/low distinction.
There is no class in art. I’m very much interested in following on the path of other revolutionaries, like Ned Kelly, John Lennon, and Aleister Crowley, and I’m interested in breaking everything so it can be rebuilt again.

Will you be spending much time in Miami during your show?
Yes, I’ll be there secretly and then I’ll be there publicly and I’ll be there secretly again.

How do you like Miami?
I love Miami. I think it’s wonderful. It reminds me of a splash of home and a splash of away. You know, I could be specific, but for me things that are familiar just feel right and I feel like Miami feels very familiar. And I’m very fond of the gallery that I’m showing at. I like to have a good time when I travel and I travel for a long time, and having a good time makes the difference between wishing you had and wishing you hadn’t and Miami’s a place that I’m always glad that I did.

What do you like to do while you’re here?
I like to roam the streets as a homeless man. I like to tag the bars as a street urchin. I like to buy incense off of people on the street. I like to go to fancy parties and meet people that are influential. I seek out imagination rather than knowledge, so I’m just that dude on the street that isn’t expecting anything.

Any final thoughts?
Recently, I just discovered that wow mom written above itself can be switched upside down and be spelled again. Vision is noisier. Build a suit, make a stand. I guess I’m just building a suit right now to make a stand because the message has always been the same, and it’s just, do as thou wilt. Graffiti and public space intervention can change the world. You know that there’s something wrong with the world when disaster is dressed as entertainment. Hey, here we are, so let’s dress entertainment like disaster. It’s the beauty of failure, right? Never odd or even. Imagination is far more powerful than knowledge. Albert Einstein said that. I could go on all day like this. It’s a beautiful day in Sydney. I’m peeping through my eyehole looking at the people being busy.

A view of the pool & the sea from a 12th floor balcony at the JW Marriott Cancun

It was the color of the water in Cancun that left a group of travel writers on a press trip last weekend at a loss for descriptive words. Electric blue, fluorescent, neon, the color of Kool Aid. We checked into the JW Marriott in the heart of the Hotel Zone and marveled at the Caribbean Sea–from our balconies, with our toes dug into the powder soft sand, suspended 300 feet in the air while parasailing–for five days.

Design

There’s something about walking into a grand, luxurious resort lobby with large picture windows showcasing glittering views of the sea that signals relaxation. This is the experience at the JW Marriott Cancun. With marble interiors, gilt statuettes, and a lobby bar warmly lit with red and black Oriental decor, the resort is all space and expanse.

The Room

This feeling of roominess extends to the guest rooms. With a plush king size bed, ample closet and drawer space, a desk, couch, and oversized marble bathroom with separate shower and bath, the first feature you rush to is the private oceanfront balcony for more views of that electric blue sea. Each of the resort’s 450 rooms on 14 floors boasts an oceanfront balcony.

Amenities

Where to begin? There are three restaurants, including the elegant Gustino, a fine dining option serving delectable Mediterranean and Italian fare, like pan-seared sea scallops and greenstone squash risotto, spiny lobster cooked with saffron, baked mushrooms, and a chickpea puree, along with wine from the Valle de San Vicente region of Mexico. A center table arranged with dozens of white pillar candles adds to the romantic ambiance. With an army of waiters repeating that “it’s a pleasure to serve you,” we were all swooning–and this was long before our Baileys and Frangelico coffees arrived (to accompany dessert) with a heart shape drawn with chocolate syrup onto the milk foam.

That feeling of relaxation? We really took advantage of it. From luxuriating at the 35,000 square-foot spa, featuring a whirlpool, cold plunge, steam room, dry sauna, and lap pool, to spending a morning drinking mimosas–followed by margaritas, of course–atop the brand new daybeds overlooking the ocean, we were six happy gals.

Other amenities include, a state of the art gym with gorgeous views of the ocean and the lagoon, ample conference space, and a sprawling pool deck with infinity pools galore!

Hospitality

You caught the “it’s a pleasure to serve you” line at Gustino, right? From the bellman to the concierge to housekeeping to the pool attendants, that felt like the overall attitude. Above that, everyone was genuinely happy to work in paradise, call Cancun home, and share it with those visiting.

Overall

Overall, the JW Marriott was the bomb! I’d highly recommend a stay here for anyone Cancun-bound. The only drawback I can think of is that it’s so nice and relaxing, you might not want to leave the resort, which might not be a drawback at all. I have to say, a four night stay was ample time to relax resort-side and do some exploring off property.

Blvd. Kukulcan, Km 14.5, Lote 40-A, Cancun, Mexico 1-888-813-2776

Notice the room service cart in Dylan’s hotel room hallway while he argues with Brandon.

I’ve been fascinated with the idea of living in a hotel ever since learning that Dylan McKay did on Beverly Hills 90210 back in the early ’90s. I was at an impressionable age and nothing seemed more glamourous than living in a fancy room by yourself that somebody else cleaned for you every day. If you got hungry, you ordered room service. You didn’t even have a kitchen to be troubled with the idea of cooking. Laundry? You sent out for that. Living in a hotel was just one of the many attractive qualities that Dylan, that brooding, troubled bad boy with a heart possessed. He skipped school to go surfing, drove a porsche and a motorcycle, and no one could tell him what to do. Heartthrob! I have to admit, 90210 played a big role in shaping my pre-teen outlook on life and it stuck with me for years to come.

I’ve lived in a series of studio apartments, and perhaps none is more hotel-like than the South Beach condo I live in today whose property is shared with a fancy hotel. There’s no maid (yet!) and take out is a good substitute for room service, but I do have some pretty sweet Miami Beach hotel perks, like pool and beach service.

When it comes to traveling, checking into a hotel is one of my greatest pleasures. There’s nothing like setting foot inside your own pristine room, and, well… jumping on the bed! Of course, for a long time, accommodations were the first place I’d save on my budget. You have hostels and pensiones in Europe or a friend’s couch when visiting different cities in the US. In recent years, though, when I can swing it, I enjoy checking into a nice hotel. To me, staying at the right place can make all the difference in your impression of a destination, and offer unexpected treats.

Stay tuned for Wanderlust Chameleon Hotel Reviews! First up, the JW Marriott in Cancun, where I spent last weekend indulging in fun in the sun, delicious food and drink, and Mayan culture.

Image via elanormcinerney.tumblr.com

Today is the last day of April and National Poetry Month. I meant to blog about my love for poetry and I meant to tweet the poem in my pocket on April 18. I forgot to do both.

Earlier this month, I thought I lost something very dear to me. Turns out, I found it. Nevertheless, this is one of my very favorite poems. It’s by Elizabeth Bishop, a woman who traveled the world, charted her own course, and happened to live and write in Key West for a few years.

Do you have a very favorite poem? Please share it in the comments below!

Thanks to an invitation from Robert Fontaine of the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, I spent last weekend in Key West. Along with a group of about 20 people, we were there to celebrate the opening of Nick Gentry’s solo show XCHANGE–running now through May 4. Having lived in Key West for about four years before moving to Miami, it was sort of like two worlds colliding. We spent much of the long, leisurely weekend relaxing around the pool at our guest house, and we also made time for the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square, dancing it up at The Green Parrot, and  snorkeling at the third largest reef in the world. It got me thinking about which places I’d recommend to my friends in Miami if they were to take a spring or summer road trip to Key West. Here’s how some of my favorite Key West spots stack up to popular Miami hangouts.

If you like Barceloneta or The Bazaar by José Andrés, then you’ll love Santiago’s Bodega

The dining room at Santiago’s Bodega

The first thing you need to know about Santiago’s Bodega is that it’s my favorite restaurant on the island. The second thing you need to know is that you’d have to try very hard for your bill to even come close to a meal out at The Bazaar by José Andrés, and don’t expect any high-flying molecular gastronomy, like “lime air foam” incorporated in your dishes. The ambiance is comparable to Barceloneta with an intimate, warmly lit, wooden-paneled dining room and an eclectic bistro vibe. The thing that these three restaurants share is their unique spin on traditional Spanish tapas. Santiago’s incorporates a Pan American twist into its dishes, with not-to-be-missed items including seared beef tenderloin topped with blue cheese butter, grouper filet encrusted with fennel seed and coriander, saganaki–haloumi cheese flambéed in brandy table side–and croquettas, pan-fried potato patties made with ground prosciutto and provolone.

If you like The Stage, then you’ll love The Green Parrot

Girls at The Green Parrot

The Green Parrot is easily the most loved bar in Key West. One block off Duval Street, it’s just far enough off the beaten path to make a difference. The Stage reminds me of it, with its airy indoor/outdoor setting and its focus on live music. On the weekends at The Parrot, expect an eclectic local crowd on the dance floor, seated at the back bar, and spilling onto the sidewalks to hear acts like Suenalo or the Spam Allstars. If you get hungry, forget about the latest trendy food truck parked in the backyard. The Parrot pops complimentary popcorn all night, and Mr. Z’s is just up Southard Street serving late night slices of pizza and cheesesteaks. Want to drink like a local? Order a round of root beer barrel shots for your party.

If you like A La Folie or La Sandwicherie, then you’ll love La Crêperie

La Crêperie was one of my first loves on the island. I was once addicted to their chicken paninis made with goat cheese and fresh black olive pesto, not to mention conversations with the loquacious and oh-so-French owners Yo and Sylvie. What was once a sandwich counter on Duval Street is now a sit down restaurant in the heart of Bahama Village on Petronia Street. Their sweet crêpes and savory buckwheat galettes range from the simple and traditional to the decadent and original. Try the Red Velvet crêpe, made with homemade raspberry chocolate ganache, fresh strawberries, almonds, and English custard ice cream topped with raspberry coulis. It’s a sweet stomach ache waiting to happen. On the savory side, La Mexicaine is an unusual and tasty option, made with refried beans, onions, avocado, tomato, sour cream, and swiss cheese.

If you like Lime or My Ceviche, then you’ll love Bad Boy Burrito

Taco Salad at Bad Boy Burrito

Of all the restaurants in Key West, I think I miss Bad Boy Burrito the most. This hole in the wall on Simonton Street serves the most delicious, nutritious burritos on the island. Using all natural and local ingredients whenever possible, the homemade sauces and authentic Mexican fillings hit the spot. Choose from Kobe beef, Key West shrimp, fresh caught fish, chicken, or tofu as your main filler, and then build your own personal burrito from their list of ingredients and sauces. Rice and beans come standard, of course. My go to is a tofu burrito with pico de gallo and verde sauce, avocado, queso fresco, cabbage, and jalepenos. Their menu also includes a selection of tacos, quesadillas, salads, and fresh pressed juices.

If you like O Cinema or Miami Beach Cinematheque, then you’ll love Tropic Cinema

Alright, I have to admit, I’ve still never been to O Cinema or Miami Beach Cinematheque. If a future hot date would like to impress me, feel free to take the reigns and plan a date to either theater. Considering they’re both independent, art house cinemas, chances are I’ll love them. However, they may not compare to my beloved Tropic Cinema. With four small theaters inside this Eaton Street gem of Art Deco splendor, the Tropic plays a variety of independent, foreign, documentary, and critically acclaimed blockbuster films. The beauty is, you can ride your bike there and order from the reasonably priced snack bar that includes beer and wine. Some of my happiest afternoons in Key West were spent at the Tropic watching a matinee solo.

If you like sunbathing on South Beach or kayaking Oleta River State Park, then you’ll love Fury Water Adventures

Captain Westy & Wanderlust Chameleon sailing home from the reef.

Finally, we are talking about South Florida and The Keys, and you can’t exist very long in either place without stripping down to your bathing suit and jumping in the water. In Key West, the best place to do this is offshore, and if you’re taking advice from me, I’m going to direct you to Fury Water Adventures (they don’t call me Fury Girl for nothing). Take your pick from snorkeling, parasailing, sunset sailing, jet skiing, dolphin watching, and so much more. If you don’t go snorkeling while you’re in Key West, you’re missing out. For a full day on the water, depending on your idea of fun, opt for either the Ultimate Adventure or the Island Adventure.

OPUS, 2013

Studying one of Nick Gentry’s portraits, a pair of steely eyes look back at you with a stoic, unsmiling, sometimes stunned, expression. The face is decidedly beautiful–almost too beautiful–with perfect proportions and symmetry, hair smooth and sleek, often slicked away from the face to further show off large, luscious lips, an attractive jawline, a delicate collarbone. The London-based artist paints these large scale portraits onto a canvas of used floppy disks. His newest works are light box portraits composed of x-rays and film negatives layered in collage. So what exactly are we looking at? And is it human?

I sat down with Nick while he was preparing for his solo exhibition XCHANGE at the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, on display now through May 4. Here’s what he had to say about his artistic process, technology, and the rise of social media in relation to identity, privacy, and security.

WC: How do you gather the materials and how do they manifest in your work?
NG: People contact me and contribute the materials. That’s the starting point, and, to me, it’s the most important part. It’s a social art project. It’s quite inspiring to get into my studio and find a box of disks or x-rays or film negatives from people from different countries. It’s the starting point, but it’s also the end point because people come to the shows and they see their things in the artwork. It’s like a circle.

I began working in this medium about four years ago. I wanted to build substance into the actual canvas. I thought, why not create something with the canvas? Now, I’ve actually made the canvas the subject. It’s like a reversal of traditional portraiture in that the canvas is the subject and the actual image on top is just a gateway to it, an access point. It’s a flip. People ask me, “Who is this person?” Really, it’s the other way around. You can look at the face and say that’s the subject, but it’s the materials. It’s an imagined identity. I wouldn’t even say it’s necessarily a human. It’s just an imagined identity that’s created from the assemblage of those parts.

When you think back, you have all these memories and all of these things that make up you, as a person—your identity. It’s a history of the things that happened in a life collected into one portrait. With my new pieces, I’m using things like x-rays, which is an emotional history, as well as a biological history, so it’s a whole cross-section of an identity.

PROTOLIFE, 2013

Your portraits are composed of used technology from a number of different people. Are they meant to create a composite identity?
It’s communal and I love that part of it because I think we’re all connected—it seems that we all are. To me, what I’m doing is creating a person that’s a composite of a lot of different people’s histories. It’s kind of like a family tree where you can merge lots of things together.

Gentry at work on AMERICAN HERITAGE, 2013

How do you work with the materials in the construction of the art?
With the floppy disk portraits, the process starts with getting the disks down onto a piece of wood. You have to get the disks in the right positions according to tone. There are all of these different tones, highlights, and shadows in the face, and obviously the eyes, so you plot those out and position everything. Then, it’s masking off the edges to create negative space surrounding the person, so you’ve got a silhouette shape. Really, I try to let the disks show through as much as possible. One of the most interesting things with the disks is all the labels and the things that are written on them. I try and preserve that by doing the least amount of painting that I can. I’m just painting the features around the eyes, the nose, and the mouth.

At work on a light box collage in his studio at Wynwood Lofts.

I’m also working on a new series now with film negatives and x-rays, and that’s a slightly different process. I’m using old crates from the 1930s that I’ve turned into light boxes using LED strips inside. It’s a really old box, but it’s glowing, so it’s an old and new thing. I create a lid made from acrylic sheets, like Plexiglas, and I work with about five layers. In between each sheet, there’s a selection of film negatives and x-rays, and it’s like a collage. When the light is on, you get the image through the x-rays and the negatives. It’s like painting with light. I’m using it as a tonal device, creating light and shadow.

METAMORPH, 2013

What can we look forward to seeing at XCHANGE?
There’s a new series of floppy disk paintings and the new x-ray and film negative pieces. It’s about how we’re regarding ourselves in terms of privacy and how we’re living now. I’m really interested in the idea of identity, and that extends itself into the online world now because we’ve cultivated these digital identities. I think these identities we’re creating online will actually outlive us as records of our lives. It’s as simple as Facebook, but as we move forward, I think it’s going to get more sophisticated and kind of freaky. We have these actual lives and then we have records of our lives as digital identities. I wanted to make a comment on that, and the idea of privacy, protection, and security. It takes so much time to cultivate this second identity and it’s an important place. If you don’t take part, then everyone else is going to leave you behind. It’s an interesting direction that I wanted to highlight in my work. There’s a few different things I’ll install in the gallery, as well, little surprise elements based around that.

Wanderlust Chameleon studying CONTACT, 2013 on XCHANGE’s Opening Night.

Do you think privacy was more highly regarded in the age of floppy disks and film negatives?
That was the tipping point of those changes. I think of myself, and I comment on my life and where I am. It’s the artist’s job to make a comment on the present day and the moment. The floppy disk is something that really stands for that change when we started to record our lives digitally. You look at some of these disks, and the labels written on there, it’s like the first status updates. They’re the first documents out there that people were sharing. It’s private stuff, but they’re still sharing it, so it’s kind of like we were just delving into that digital life. It wasn’t so long ago, but it’s brought massive change in our lives now.

Technology seems to only be moving faster. Do you see yourself using CDs, memory chips, or other media in the future?
That’s the other interesting thing. It’s speeding up and getting faster and faster. How do we keep up? It’s crazy. I’ve used CDs in my work a few times. I find they work quite well for the eyes on a bigger scale. I do these portraits really big now. They function like an iris with the spectrum of colors. They work aesthetically, but also with the concept.

Tell us more about the eyes in your work.
The eyes, to me, are fascinating and they have been for a lot of artists through history. It’s always been the focus of portraiture. What I wanted to do was flip that and say, what if they’re made of metal? It creates a new emotion. It flips everything. The human part—all the painting and the curves and everything to make that face look so human—is juxtaposed against those cold, hard, metal eyes. When you look at them, they really change in the light because the light reflects off the surface. It changes the emotion of the face so much. It depends on where you place the portrait because of that.

I like the idea of creating this thing that’s human, but maybe it isn’t. I think of things like the film Blade Runner and androids, where we create these forms in our own image. What’s human? What’s not human? I think it’s really interesting looking into the future like that.

STARDUST, 2013

You tend to work with cool colors and unsmiling faces. Is there a mood you’re trying to evoke?
I want the maximum focus on the disks. I can’t create anything that’s overly posed. I can’t do too much with characteristics of the face. I like those restrictions, so by placing such a sterile look on the face, you just get that flicker from the eyes. The absolute focus is on the eyes and the discs.

I don’t think I could do it if I had a celebrity subject because it would be too distracting from the actual concept. I have actually painted portraiture like that before. In that case, I have to make it factually correct, so I have to choose disks and things that actually relate to that person’s life. It can be a challenge because I have to sort through a hell of a lot of disks to find something related to that person’s life and what they’re known for. I recently did a portrait for Sir Ian McKellen. I just paint for the love of it and whatever else happens is a fun surprise.

Do you work with a model or image? Or does the portrait come from your imagination and the discs?
I paint from imagination, but I tend to use references and images and combine them to find the right kind of look as a guide. I like to think of them all as just created.

ANALOGUE DAYDREAM, 2013

You’ve been in Miami for a couple of months during the show. How do you like Miami?
I love it. To me, it’s really refreshing because in London we’ve got history, and you can get bogged down in it sometimes, especially with art. In Miami, it just feels fresh. There’s an excitement about contemporary art because the focus is on it. It’s a really nice place to be. Art is definitely happening in Miami. It’s been over 10 years since Art Basel, and it’s built up into something that’s really international and well respected. I think it’s just the start, too. Miami’s got a way to go. It’s great. It’s exciting and people are really enthusiastic about art.

What do you like to do while you’re here? Will the change of scenery impact your work?
I really like the outdoorsy thing. I like being active, so it’s just a case of getting out and enjoying the weather. I like Wynwood. It’s really nice. I think a change of setting always inspires different things. I don’t know exactly how it will affect the work, but it relates to mood and how you feel. It might change the color in the work because, well, the blue sky.