A Light in the Tunnel?

A New Art Gallery Opens in the Gables

November 2019

For anyone who has followed the art scene in Coral Gables over the years, it’s no surprise that the number of galleries has slowly diminished. If you go on the city’s website, and check out the Gables Gallery Night, at least a half dozen of the galleries listed there are no longer around. Thankfully, the stalwarts like ArtSpace (Virginia Miller), Cernuda Arte (Ramon Cernuda), Conde Contemporary (Stacy Conde), and The Americas Collection (Silvia Ortiz) soldier on, with a little help from H. Benitez and Kara Chavarria.

But, are things starting to look up? In the last year, while we have lost Jorge Sori Fine Arts on Ponce, we’ve gained Art Labbe, also on Ponce. And now comes the Tranter-Sinni Gallery, newly opened this past month at 2600 S. Douglas Road, with a show by Chinese artist Canal Cheong Jagerroos. The show, entitled “Floating Islands – Realm of Wonder” was an explosion of large canvases hanging from the ceiling, with lights and mirrors creating different spaces in what amounted to an installation. “My pieces are not just paintings, but the abstraction of my thoughts and emotions,” says the artist. “‘Floating Islands’ transcends my body and soul, always forward and moving.”

A little more down to earth, we asked gallery proprietor Monica Tranter-Sinni why she relocated her gallery to the Gables after being in Miami for five years. “Many of our clients live in Coral Gables and coming to Miami was an outing for them,” says Tranter-Sinni. “We wanted to make it easier and more enjoyable [for them]. Coral Gables, in our time here, feels like a very supportive, tight knit community where the art scene all began and is slowing moving back to.” From your mouth to God’s ear, as they say.