My name is Carlos Enrique Rincon, and I am a senior GFA student. In the summer of 2017, I interned at the Miami location of Opera Gallery. I’ve always been interested in Opera Gallery and have visited multiple times. One day while visiting, I started a conversation with an employee (who then became my coworker) about the possibility of an internship. After that, it was a lot of emailing back and forth of information such as resume, cover letter, etc. until the date of the interview. Opera Gallery is a series of family-run galleries with a total of 12 locations all over the world, featuring some of the most historically popular artists, such as Picasso, Dali, Magritte, Yves Klein, and many more. The Miami work site is very personal and welcoming. Interacting with people was a big part of this internship, since the pieces didn’t have tags and we would engage in conversation and inform the visitor on pieces to create a one-on-one experience.
My supervisor was Dan Benchetrit, the very successful and passionate art director at Opera Gallery Miami. Working with him was a pleasure and I was able to build a good relationship with him. The assignments would vary daily; some days I would be working on creating a catalog for an exhibition or curating a floor plan (which is something I felt very proud of), and some days I would just be assisting visitors and informing them about our galleries or artists. While working, there were a few pieces on display right across from the desk by artists Joe Black, NOART, and Marc Sijan, which would always catch people’s eyes. Seeing people’s reaction to these pieces was an incredible experience that made me think, “This is what I want to do, I want to make work that will touch and impact people and leave them thinking about a certain subject.”
Interacting with my coworkers and getting to know them has taught me a lot this summer, and they each gave me valuable advice, both personal and professional. What I learned from the most, however, was interacting with visitors and buyers. Being someone who is very shy, this was my biggest challenge and it turned out to be what I enjoyed the most about the experience.
