The Rubell Family Collection & Contemporary Arts Foundation

The Rubell Family Collection (RFC) was established in 1964 in New York City by Donald and Mera Rubell. It is now one of the world’s largest, privately owned contemporary art collections located in Miami since 1993. The Rubell Family Collection is exhibited in Miami within a 45,000-square-foot repurposed Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated goods facility in the Wynwood Arts District, located at 95 NW 29th Street in Miami, Florida 33127. The Contemporary Arts Foundation (CAF) was created in 1994 to expand the RFC’s public mission inside the paradigm of a contemporary art museum.

The collection is constantly expanding and features well-known artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. In addition to displaying internationally established artists, the RFC actively acquires, exhibits and champions emerging artists working at the forefront of contemporary art.

Each year the Foundation presents thematic exhibitions drawn from the collection with accompanying catalogs. These exhibitions often travel to museums around the world. Recent exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Palm Springs Art Museum in California and the North Carolina Museum of Art. Sponsors for recent exhibitions have included Bank of America, Puma, Audi, Lanvin and Dedon.

The current exhibition in Miami, 28 Chinese, runs through August 1, 2014. 28 Chinese is the culmination of the Rubells’ six research trips to China between 2001 and 2012 where they visited one hundred artists’ studios in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Xi’an and acquired artwork from twenty-eight artists.

These artists will be represented by paintings, photographs, sculptures and video installations. 28 Chinese is the first exhibition in North America for many of these artists. The oldest artist was born in 1954 and the youngest was born in 1986. A fully illustrated, 262 page catalog in Chinese and English with text from all of the artists accompanies the exhibition, as well as a complementary audio tour. 28 Chinese occupies the Foundation’s 28 galleries, 40,000 sq. foot museum.

The Foundation has been recognized as a pioneer in what has been referred to as the “Miami model”, whereby private collectors create a new, independent form of public institution. The Foundation also maintains an internship program, an ongoing lecture series and an extensive artwork loan program to facilitate exhibitions at museums around the world.  Its ongoing partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools enables thousands of schoolchildren to visit and engage with the Foundation every year.  In addition, the Foundation has a public research library containing over 40,000 volumes and a comprehensive contemporary art bookstore.