We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful OLIVER SANCHEZ. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with OLIVER below.
OLIVER, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
Things will happen when your business is open to the public. The craziest thing that happened at Swampspace so far has to be the time when I ended up on the local news for saving a child from an attempted kidnapping. The kid lived nearby and would visit us after school to hang out with my daughter and learn about making art and running a neighborhood gallery. One such day, a disheveled stranger just walked in our big roll-up door, grabbed the kid and began to walk away forcefully. I caught up with them a block away and was able to rescue the kid. The would be kidnapper ran away. We were confused and rattled but able to report the incident to the popo. A week later the story broke on TV news when the deranged person was apprehended. I really didn’t like the attention but the feel-good new story went viral and folks from as far away as Canada wanted to give the gallery money because I was a hero. Best part is we have a fantastic painting by the kid on display.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Swampspace was founded in 2005 as the store-front of my artist studio in the Miami Design District. It’s an alternative venue celebrating the grass-roots, bohemian and avant-garde culture. It is funded primarily by my fabrication business, fine art practice and private patronage. Through the decades we’ve presented over 80 cultural events ranging from visual arts, photography, sculpture, theatrical performance, live music, literature and educational mentorships. There’s a time-line on our website. One can also learn more about the fabrication, practice and mentoring that goes on at Swampspace. We’re very proud and humbled with our most recent group show commemorating the one year anniversary of the Champlain South condo collapse in Surfside. It was a heartfelt effort to express through art the power of healing. We never imagined the response from major news outlets and critical writing would be so supportive. To think I almost didn’t do that show because of the sadness it represented. Being in the margins of the arts industry can be challenging at times. Best advice is to know your audience.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my cofounder in 1980 at an art gallery opening in NYC. I was dumbstruck by their business savvy and keen sense of social skills. Being a people person doesn’t always translate into business success but they taught me that sales is both an art and a science. I must have sounded like a duck with hiccup because soon we fell in love and became partners in every way. As for my business partner, we met at an after-hours party in Miami. I was looking for a studio and they offered a spot in the Miami Design District where I had grow up. As an artist with diverse skills I was able to parley their patronage into a sustainable business that continues today after 20 plus years. From the penthouse to the gutter art is a powerful force that sustains a dynamic industry.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
As we all should understand, Up is Down. By this I mean that everything you know is wrong… eventually. I’m old now and some folks say also quite salty. You see life made me this way. When I was young I had plenty to be upset about but I wasn’t. The world was my oyster and it opened up gladly with sumptuous opportunity and promise. A pack of gum was a nickel and cash was king. Everything changed when computers and personal devices became the commonplace source of information. Suddenly everyone was like an expert with zero understanding of real autonomy and power. Middlebrows prevailed as did potatoes with PHD’s. Soon a culture of revenge became the dominant outlook. Add to that global uncertainty, meteorological madness and mass spawning and we have today what I dishearteningly call WWMe. They say that in business failure is one step closer to success. True that.
Contact Info:
- Website: SWAMPSPACE.COM
- Instagram: OLISAN321
- Facebook: SWAMPSPACE
- Twitter: SWAMPSPACE
- Other: https://www.artburstmiami.com/visual_arts/surfside-resident-takes-champlain-anniversary-to-heart-curating-exhibition-at-design-district-gallery?fs=e&s=cl&fbclid=IwAR3jGemn1W95zTm7cRmVUIh22U-6Eg3jE8wKx_0jjiC_mPXngrunUeS3S3U
Image Credits
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SWAMPSPACE