This show is by an artist named Mindy Shrago and is called "Wish You Were Here."

She is an established arts administrator who's been working in South Florida for 40 years.

She founded the Young at Arts Museum, which is a children's art museum in Fort Lauderdale, in the late '80s and at the same time has been making work as a living working artist.

I knew her through the amount of artists that she has worked with, have all spoken to me about working with Mindy, being mentored by Mindy, supported by Mindy, and had opportunities brought to them because of Mindy Shrago.

So she is, to me, an inspirational figure in the local art community and really taking on creating a community.

I'm Amanda Baker.

I am the curator and director of Club Gallery in Miami.

The show came about because I'm friends with her son who curated this exhibition and mentioned that Mindy has been working and has a body of work, and I was so interested to see what it was.

The works start from the beginning of her professional ceramic career, which is the mid'70s, all the way up until works that she was making a few weeks before the show.

So we have from 1974 to 2024, which I... Yeah, it's 50 years of work.

I'm Mindy Shrago, and I am making art all the time.

My name is Zach Spechler.

First and foremost, I'm a proud son, a curator, and art fabricator.

So I started with the ice creams with Howard Johnson and just kept on going.

Howard Johnson wanted me to make 28 flavors of ice cream.

Now, I'm making postcards, I'm making big ones, and just keep on going.

A big part of Mindy's work is manipulating the 2D and the 3D plane and shadow as well, so the viewer can go through a full exhibition of her work and maybe not pay attention to certain details.

So it's like these hidden gems and these hidden details that are... Maybe so much more important that they are hidden, and it takes a moment, but it's a lot of illusion, a lot of color and shadow play, to have the viewer not sure about what they're looking at.

She is a funny lady.

Everything she does, she brings a bit of humor and energy.

And what's in the show now, there was a million more pieces that she made throughout her career, and I think Zach's creating a catalog, and I'm excited to see sort of everything pulled together that she's ever done 'cause this is just a taste of her long career.

Growing up, I was told thousands and thousands of times her mantra, "Tacky is beautiful."

So a lot of the work that is here today, but also a lot of the work that is in different collectors' homes are pop art, very Florida, for the lack of better words, tacky things that you're used to, like an ice cream cone display.

It's very pop and like very colorful and simple in a way.

But that idea of using Florida colors and familiar items kind of goes along with that mantra, "Tacky is beautiful."

So you'll see within the postcards, like what's more tacky than a Florida postcard?

Some of the artists that have had significant exhibitions at Young At Art have gone on to do amazing things after that point.

And I don't think it was necessarily because of Young At Art because these artists are phenomenal, and I think that all their success is due to what they've done, but at the same time, you can't help but see like how Young At Art did help them at a certain point in their career.

The first question I ask is like, "Should I get a professional installer?"

And Zach's like, "No, no.

We have we are nice'n easy coming, the Castro coming, Raul Santos coming, they're gonna help install the show."

And I'm like, "Wow, I'm pretty sure some of those artists haven't even installed their own shows.

Like, that's pretty incredible that they're gonna come out and help plan out this show."

Every single one of the artists really wanted to make sure they gave back to Mindy and thought of how to showcase her work in the best way.

And it was a pleasure to have everyone in the gallery.

I really enjoy this piece that I think was one of her first pieces in the '70s.

And it's a series that has bagels, plates, salmon, cream cheese, and at the same time in New York, like Claes Oldenburg was doing his soft sculptures of readymade objects.

And I think it's just so fitting that she was also creating something that was of interest in different parts of the country, like New York.

And even in her series with Howard Johnson, with the ice cream cones, the trick of the eye to immortalize ice cream with ceramic.

It's quite contemporary.

I just think it's very fresh and kind of ahead of her time or even very much of her time, but very, very important now to how artists work.