Jaguar Mural Miami
Completion: 2004
Location: Miami, FL
Miami Dade County
The Jaguar Hospitality Group is an organization of restaurants in Miami known for its unique, contemporary take on traditional Latin American dishes, so they commissioned a mural of a similarly contemporary vision of Latin American imagery for their famous Jaguar Ceviche Spoon Bar in Coconut Grove, Florida. The panoramic mural reinforces the relaxed tropical environment of the city with its neutral-warm color tones and sweeping, curved horizontal lines that draw the eye along the landscape. The jaguar at the focal point of the mural, separated from the environment by its bright red color outline, represents a species exclusive to Latin America, a cultural flavor that cannot be found anywhere else. All the surrounding plant life frames and curves toward the jaguar, drawing the viewer’s eye to the feline as the central focus of the work. The overlapping leaves and vines are painted in layers to create the illusion of further depth within the work, implying a thick, vast jungle that exists beyond the edges of the mural.
During the development process for the mural, the strength and power of the jaguar as a natural predator came to demand a more playful, contrasting element with which to interact, so a mobile installation of dancing butterflies was incorporated to expand the atmosphere of the mural into the three-dimensional space of the restaurant, where they hang from a ceiling already patterned with bamboo designs. The butterflies are painted on wood panels using a brighter version of the earth color palette in the mural to create separation between the pieces while remaining a singular artistic work. Golden leaf accents present in both the mural and the mobile also serve to unify the two installations.
The mural is rendered in oil paint on wood panels with the aforementioned golden leaf for accent work. It is twenty-eight feet long by seven feet tall in order to fully surround and immerse the viewer in a unique jungle environment that merges a Latin American intensity of subject with a laid back, playful Florida aesthetic. This parallels the way the Jaguar Hospitality Group brings traditional Latin American dishes and spirit into modern Florida culture, creating their own brand of flavor, design, and customer experience.