Opens March 24
Jorko “George” Voronovsky (American, born Ukraine, 1903–1982), Untitled, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of the Monroe Family Collection.
This exhibition introduces the work of Jorko “George” Voronovksy (1903–1982), who turned his room in Miami’s Colony Hotel into an art refuge. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Voronovsky immigrated to the United States after World War II and began working in the rail industry in Philadelphia. He continued to work primarily as a train car upholsterer and followed his occupation south, ultimately settling in Miami, where he made his home as a long-term guest of the oceanfront Colony Hotel. His room became a paradisiacal art installation comprising painted Styrofoam sculpture, cut tin cans, and glorious paintings on cardboard and canvas, which melded his old-world memories with his neon present in Miami Beach.
The exhibition will showcase Voronovsky’s acrylic and watercolor paintings alongside his three-dimensional sculpture, including painted Styrofoam animals created from discarded materials he found along local beaches. His work has been preserved by a Florida-based collector—who also took photographic portraits of the self-taught artist and his vibrant art environment—and the exhibition will mark the first public presentation of the artist’s work.
