Bo Droga

Coral Gables Artist

May 2019

Australia-born Bo Droga had been creating art for decades on three continents before he moved to Coral Gables three years ago. He grew up surrounded by art and earned a visual arts degree with a major in sculpture. He’s been creating while traveling and also living in diverse places: first Fiji, then London for six years and then Paris for nine. He moved his French- and English-speaking family to the Gables for a new cultural experience and for its international schools. From home, Droga, now 52, makes modern and often playful works he sells on commission or through galleries in New York, London and Australia. Dominoes is his first big public art piece.

Latest Achievement

After winning a $2,500 award from Oolite Arts (formerly ArtCenter/South Florida), to help fund the project, Droga and his volunteer team began in April to paint at least 46 pylons under the Metrorail from the University of Miami to South Alhambra Circle. They’re transforming each of the 14- to 18-feet slabs into dominoes; each pylon takes a team of five all day to paint.

What He Says

Driving through my neighborhood, “I could not believe the pylons hadn’t been used for an artistic form, so it was my dream to do a piece. The process has taken me a year to get off the ground. I’m working for free, with volunteers, mainly mothers who drop their kids off in the morning, work all day and then, go pick up their kids. The core group are French. I met most of them in yoga.” Droga says the response from the public has been inspiring. “They’re either honking their horns, waving thumbs up or coming over and commenting… That’s what’s quite incredible about dominoes. They cross all boundaries from a young child to an elderly adult. It’s a game that’s been taken out of the cupboard into the public arena. It may be the largest public art piece in Miami. That’s pretty awesome.”