There is a particular feeling when a space that once meant something to you becomes something new and still, somehow, feels like home. That is what happened to me the first time I walked into Pedrido Arte Gallery in Coral Gables.
Coral Gables Art Gallery With a Soul
I worked for two years in that very space. So when I heard a Cuban artist had opened his own gallery and studio there, I had to see it. What I found was not what I expected. It was better.
Gabriela, Alejandro's partner, was the first person I met. She welcomed me the way people welcome you when they actually mean it. Warm and genuine. The art was all around me and it was extraordinary, but that feeling of being welcomed stayed with me. I have been back four more times since, and it has never changed. The exhibits rotate. The work evolves. But that feeling of home is constant.
The Work of Alejandro Pedrido, Cuban Artist in Miami
Alejandro Pedrido was born in Villa Clara, Cuba, and his path has taken him through Chile, across continents, and eventually to Miami. His work is mixed technique, layered onto surfaces like wood, canvas, plaster, and cardboard. The pieces breathe. They have weight and texture and a quality of feeling that is hard to name but impossible to miss. I am particularly drawn to his large-format work and his black and white pieces, which carry something quietly powerful in them. Color, texture, presence. You stand in front of one and you feel them.
As a Cuban artist building my own photography business in Coral Gables, there is something that resonates deeply in what Alejandro and Gabriela have built. We are part of the same community, shaped by similar roots, and I believe we have a responsibility to lift each other. To show up for the artists, the makers, the dreamers who are doing the work right here, right next to us.
But what moves me most about this gallery is what it does for the next generation.
Why the Coral Gables Art Community Matters
My niece Ilen Maria is ten years old. I bring her with me when I visit, because I want her to grow up knowing real artists. Not just images on a screen, but people who paint and dream. Alejandro and Gabriela welcome her every single time. They speak to her, not past her. They let her be present in that space as if she belongs there, because she does. That, to me, is a real gift of the gallery.
A Miami Art Gallery That Welcomes Everyone
This April, Alejandro opened the studio to the community for a free art workshop, welcoming children and families to paint alongside him. That is not a marketing event. That is a value system made visible.
If you live in Miami, if you love art, if you have never been to Coral Gables and wondered what kind of creative life exists here, go. Pedrido Arte Gallery is located in 290 Miracle Mile, and it is the kind of place that reminds you why art matters and why community matters even more.
Currently Exhibiting: Cuban Artist Ventura Gonzalez Padrosa
There is one more reason to visit right now.
Currently exhibiting at Pedrido Arte Gallery is Ventura Gonzalez Padrosa, a Cuban-born painter whose solo exhibit Memoria Insular explores what it means to carry a place inside you long after you have left it. For those of us who know that feeling, his work speaks directly to the heart.
Memoria Insular is on view through May 15th. Go while you can, and thank me later.
