Miami Gets DC Lab: Colombian Collectors Open Free Art Space

Colombian collectors Cristina Chacón and Diego Uribe will open DC Lab, a free 9,000-sq-ft contemporary art space on Miami's Bird Road, on 29 November — just in time for Miami Art Week. Its first show is the first major Miami survey of Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa, the couple's current artist in residence.

The venue expands the couple's nonprofit DC Art Foundation, which they founded in 2021 to support artists and connect Miami's art scene with the international community beyond the December fair frenzy. Since 2022, the foundation has run a residency programme for mid-career and established artists; past residents include Spanish textile artist Sonia Navarro and Colombian artist Miler Lagos.

Chacón and Uribe, who are based in Miami, Bogotá and Madrid, hold more than 500 Modern and contemporary works. They sit on the chairman's council and the American and Latin American acquisitions boards at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, on the Museo Reina Sofía's international patronage board, and on the boards of Bogotá's Museo de Arte Moderno and Miami's Coral Gables Museum.

What does DC Lab actually change for Miami?

The core idea is giving international galleries without a permanent Miami presence a place to mount full projects — not just fair booths. The space will host gallery presentations alongside research and public programming, and it includes exhibition and education spaces plus a library.

"This is a laboratory where experimental ideas and projects can happen in the city," Uribe says. "We created a novel residency model that provides international galleries with space to present mid-career and established artists new to Miami, potentially inspiring them to settle here."

The model works like an extension of the foundation's existing residency, which Uribe describes as "a vehicle for the residency programme we fund at a private residence." The intention, he says, is "to bring to Miami artists that activate the community, promoting local and international exchange."

Chacón frames the advantage over Art Basel Miami Beach and its satellite fairs as depth. "In our residency programme, artists commit to an educational activity, and we often organise talks," she says. "But this new venue allows for deeper community engagement."

Who is Carlos Garaicoa?

The opening exhibition, co-presented with Italy's Galleria Continua and Mor Charpentier (based in Paris and Bogotá), ties the new venue back to the residency. "While the residency programme runs independently from DC Lab, Garaicoa's residency was especially fitting for the opening," Chacón says.

Garaicoa is known for addressing cultural and political issues through architecture, urbanism and history. He will show works from his November residency alongside other recent projects. "My residency work relates to Miami, its architecture and growth," he says, "reflecting how politics and language coexist in architecture."

The couple insist the space is not a museum in the making. "We are not trying to be a museum," Uribe says. "We continue being a private foundation supporting the local community." Chacón adds: "For us, art is an incurable disease that lifts the soul."

Their collecting, Uribe says, "has always been more than acquiring works and has focused on a commitment to contributing to the cultural ecosystem." DC Lab is the structural version of that claim: free admission, education space, a library and gallery partnerships — a test of whether a private foundation can seed a year-round international gallery scene in a city long organised around a single week in December.