MIAMI – Purvis Young, America’s most prolific contemporary artist has opened a new art studio in the Wynwood Art District in Miami, Florida.

Now that my health issues are under control, I plan to paint masterpieces every day that I can,” said Young, the “Director’s Choice” at Art Miami 2007 and a member of The Florida Art Hall of Fame.

Young underwent a kidney transplant in January of this year but has painted 300 new works since his release from the hospital.

Born is Liberty City in 1943, Purvis Young now lives in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, shunning South Beach, Fisher Island, Star Island and other glitzy communities.

“I want to be where my tribe is,” said Purvis, talking about his affinity and affection for Miami’s Black communities.

The once prosperous black community in which Purvis was born and grew up was at the time billed as the “Harlem of the South”. It was destroyed by the building of Highway I-95 and is now largely populated by crack-heads, their dealers, prostitutes and pimps. Adjoining the compound where Young lives with his common law wife is an alley called “ Bucket of Blood“ with the highest incidence of murder in the greater Miami area.Young learned to paint while serving a three-year sentence in prison, after being arrested as a teenager for breaking and entering.“When I was in my cell one night, “ Purvis remembers,” I woke up and the angels came to me and I told ‘em, you know, hey man this is not my life – and they said they were gonna make a way for me, you know…”

That way was Art.

Purvis Young’s art is on display at the Smithsonian Institute and the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., in New York’s Skot

Foreman Fine Art Gallery, Daniel Aubry Gallery and the Museum of American Folk Art. His paintings can also be seen at the New Orleans Museum of Art in New Orleans, LA and in at least 72 other famous art
museums around the world.

“The Purvis Young Art Studio will be open seven days a week from 10am until 7pm,” said Purvis Young’s Busines Agent Leon Rolle. “After themonth of December, the studio will only be open by appointment only.”

The address for the studio is, Purvis Young Art Studio, Wynwood Art District, 255 NW 23rd Street, Miami, Florida 33127. The studio phone Number is 305-576-1327. The Purvis Young business number is 786-285-
0034.