Much like the Ishmael of old, Dimensions Variable is once again on the move. By the end of next month, after the closing of its last show — Elizabeth Withstandley’s aptly named You Can Not Be Replaced — one of Miami’s most noted alternative art spaces will permanently close at its current downtown site.
Artists Frances Trombly and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova founded Dimensions Variable in 2009. Since then, they have moved three times. Their pending move comes at a time when public officials, artists and others making a living in the art world are exploring ways to keep artists in neighborhoods that benefit from their presence. Not only do artists serve as the vanguards who fearlessly settle in geographically undesirable areas, they tend to improve property values by adding a certain frisson that gritty neighborhoods often exude prior to gentrification.