Miami arts patroness Myra Wexler, known as ‘the Queen of Wynwood’
“The Queen of Wynwood” is gone.
Arts lover, supporter and gadfly Myra Wexler, beloved by an arts community she promoted and celebrated, died Thursday at
72. Her friends posted the news on her Facebook page, often using the hashtag #queenofwynwood.”
For many who sought her guidance, that’s a title Wexler earned. She was also known in her adopted neighborhood as “Yo Momma.”
Details are few, but members of the South Florida arts community who are mourning her noted she had been ill for a while and hadn’t been posting to her Facebook page as regularly as she once had.
As the COVID-19 pandemic basically shuttered galleries and museums and street fairs, Wexler’s silence on social media was especially felt. Wexler had lived in Hollywood to care for her mother, who passed a few years ago, but she ventured across the county line regularly.
‘SHE WAS EVERYWHERE’
“She was incredibly giving, engaged and supportive of the creative community. Her sense of flair, her love of life, she was everywhere,” said Cathy Leff, director of the Bakehouse Art Complex, a Miami cultural institution Wexler championed. “She loved putting on a good outfit, was really creative and a generous, joyous spirit. A moving work of art.”
For years, the whitehaired Wexler, always sartorially elegant and delightfully out-there, was a fixture at practically every art walk and gallery opening in Wynwood. She promoted and befriended local artists and was known for hosting a monthly networker for artists at Wynwood Kitchen & Bar called Musings with Myra.
REMEMBERING MYRA
On Friday, many of these Miami artists, and those who love local art, celebrated her life on social media.
“Myra was every artist’s friend, a true enthusiast, and patroness of the arts,” posted artist Mano Nogueira of Mano Fine Art, who noted that Musings with Myra gatherings often drew more than 100 people.
“But Myra made it feel like an intimate affair,’ Nogueira wrote. “I marveled at her ability to go around the room and introduce everyone by name and talk briefly about their work. She knew the importance of networking and encouraged artists to support each other.”
Writer and MiamiArtZine photographer Charlotte Libov would often see Wexler at her events or at exhibits around Miami and marveled at her energy and devotion.
”I have never met anyone as full of life as Myra,” Libov said. “She was always on the arts scene and always thinking of ways to help artists and promote our cultural life here in Florida. She will be terribly missed.”
YO MOMMA
IN THE HOUSE
By 2012, the #QueenofWynwood had become such a visual, iconic South Florida presence Wexler found herself the subject of a show. “Yo Momma in the House,” at the 12345 West Dixie Studio and Gallery, featured 25 Miami artists in collaboration with photographer David Siqueiros who rendered her image via