Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt
Oil on Canvas
Fairchild Tropical Garden Visitor Center, The Fairchild Ballroom

Paradise Room features a series of twenty large-scale oil paintings that are permanently installed in The Fairchild Ballroom of the new Fairchild Tropical Garden Visitor Center. Inspired by the Garden’s lush landscape, the images create a vibrant mural installation that wraps around the room. Stylized renderings of hibiscus, bromeliads and palm leaves form a visual montage of vivid greens punctuated by tropical blossoms. In Paradise Room, Behar and Marquardt have captured the essence of the Garden’s luxuriant atmosphere, and brought the tropical environment indoors.

Behar and Marquardt worked closely with the designers of the Visitor Center to create an artwork that would blend seamlessly with the architecture. For this large second floor meeting room, the spaces between windows and other openings are filled with their paintings. The effect is that of walking into a painted jungle. Stated Marquardt, “This room recalls and invents our geography, it is an homage to our landscape, and a refuge for the soul.”

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