Miguel Jorge

Following González's pivotal move to New York City where he would go on to achieve international success, González's former apartment in 1901 Le Jeune Road would be converted into the Permuy Gallery, among the first Cuban fine art galleries in the United States.

The gallery would become a significant cultural nexus that contributed to the establishment of Miami's modern art market.

Due to Jorge's close proximity to the gallery as its neighboring unit, as well as his architecture background, Jorge became close to the gallery's owners, architect and community leader Jesús Permuy, and his first wife, Coral Gables art dealer and patron Marta Permuy.

This led to Jorge, Gomez Franca, and Perkins quickly becoming frequent fixtures of the Permuys' popular “Fridays” event series of weekly exhibition openings followed by evening salon gatherings.

Miguel Jorge (1928–1984), also known as “Micky” Jorge, was a Cuban artist who was influential in the establishment of South Florida's early Latin American art market in the Greater Miami area from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Miguel Jorge was born in Havana, Cuba in 1928.

He displayed a high degree of intellect and an interest in art and design early in life, leading Jorge to pursue extensive academic studies in fine art and architecture.

He studied architecture in the University of Havana, where he also took courses in color dynamics under Josef Albers of Yale, a mentor of his.

During his upbringing and studies in Cuba he became strongly influenced by the art of Amelia Peláez, one of the leaders of Cuba's Vanguardia movement.

He gained early recognition in the arts for his exhibitions in Havana's prestigious Lyceum in the 1950s and had become close to the prominent Gómez-Mena family of Spaniard nobility and Cuban aristocracy by way of the Cuban sugar industry.

They would become early supporters and patrons of his work and financed many of his trips to Europe and particularly Spain where they had property and strong ties.

Among them were the Countess of Revilla de Camargo María Luisa Gómez-Mena the elder and her niece the leading Cuban art patron María Luisa Gómez-Mena the younger.

The family was also tied by the marriage of José Gómez-Mena to other Cuban sugar barons such as the Fanjul family.

Through the Gómez-Mena family Jorge was connected to other prominent collectors such as the Duchess of Alba.

With the support of the Gómez-Mena family Jorge furthered his own personal studies in the arts with frequent visits to Paris, Madrid, Rome, and New York City.

In 1953 he enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he studied under famed Bauhaus modernist architect Walter Gropius.

Throughout much of the 1960s he lived in New York where he studied at the Parsons School of Design.

A major challenge to Cuban exile artists in the 1960s and 1970s was the lack of institutional support for Latin American artists.

During this early period, two groups of established artists would come to shape the emerging Latin American Art market of South Florida.

The first was the Grupo GALA (Grupo de Artistas Latinoamericanos), the first professional association of Latin artists in South Florida, whose membership was made up of the artists Baruj Salinas, Enrique Riverón, Rosana McAllister, Rafael Soriano, José Mijares, and Osvaldo Gutiérrez.

GALA was noted for its prominent members and highly disciplined approach with regular meetings, scheduled group exhibitions, and official catalogs.

The second group was the trio of Miguel Jorge, Lourdes Gomez Franca, and Dionisio (“Denis”) Perkins.

Their group was considered more informal and eccentric though also a significant force in Miami's early art scene with each going on to win awards and critical recognition.

The three formed a close friendship that extended back to Cuba and would influenced each of their careers as well as those of younger generations of artists that followed this period in establishing the modern Miami art market, now dominated by Cuban and Latin American art.

The three would influence their respective styles, assist each other professionally, and often attend social events as a group.

Extended members of this group included the artists Gabriel Sorzano and Margarita Cano.

Jorge was a neighbor of famed Cuban artist Juan González while they resided within the main business and cultural hub of Coral Gables, Florida during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1963 he returned to the United States.

In 1968 he joined his mother in Miami, Florida and became part of the Cuban diaspora community in exile there.

Jorge would subsequently work as a senior draftsman in architecture firms based in South Florida.

Architecture would be an important influence on his art and connected him to several key figures of Miami’s early Latin art community, including Jesús Permuy, Baruj Salinas, and Rafael Consuegra, each of whom shared architecture backgrounds.

Jorge continued to paint avidly while in his architecture career in Miami, though he sought to transition into a greater focus on his art.

Despite this early success in the arts, architecture would be Jorge's main career until achieving broader artistic recognition in the United States during the 1970s.

Following Fidel Castro’s rise to power in the Cuban Revolution, Jorge emigrated to first to Spain where he studied art in the Madrid School of Bellas Artes.

The three would also be represented by Marta Permuy, the gallery's general manager, and exhibited there regularly in the 1970s.

As their visibility increased, Jorge further immersed himself in the gallery's growing network and social orbit, which included business, cultural, and political figures in the greater South Florida area.

One prominent member of this network that became a major collector of Jorge's work was Cuban and Latin American art collector Marcos F. Pinedo and his wife Josefina Camacho Pinedo.

To reflect Jorge's close association with this early Latin art network, he created an original artwork to serve as a uniquely recognizable sign to be displayed whenever the gallery was closed.

Jorge would go on to have a pivotal solo exhibition there in 1973 titled Miguel Jorge: One Man Show that led to a subsequent solo exhibition the following year at the Bacardi Gallery, owned by the multinational Bacardi Corporation, which exposed Jorge to a national audience.

Over the ensuing decade Jorge would build on this exposure with increased media interviews, public engagements, and exhibitions in numerous locations throughout South Florida (Coral Gables, Miami, Coconut Grove), Detroit, and Spain (Madrid, Malaga) and remained close with Gomez Franca and Perkins, maintaining weekly meetings.