A COLLECTOR'S VIEW

 

From the Art Collection of David Wallack 

"Ukraine War Art" by artist Ukraine Artist Arsen Savadov

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When Art Hears the Sirens

by Brigitte Andrade

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What happens when a painting seems to hear history before history arrives? At The Sagamore Art Hotel in Miami Beach, that question comes into focus through two works by Arsen Savadov, from Art collector David Wallack’s  collection, presented by BitBasel and curated by Brigitte Andrade at the Sagamore Hotel. Art collector David Wallack’s collaboration with BitBasel, brings ‘Touch by Angels with Drones’ and ‘Citizen’ into a charged present-tense encounter with Ukraine and its fight for freedom. The works were created several years before the war, a distinction that gives their renewed visibility its particular force. Wallack’s vision is not simply to place important art before an audience. It is to recognize how an artwork can carry cultural memory, emotional resonance, artistic risk, playfulness, spiritual significance, cultural justice, and diversity—and how those qualities can deepen as history changes around it.

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Curated by Brigitte Andrade, the presentation places two culturally significant, Ukraine-related works in direct relation to the terrible events unfolding in Ukraine and its fight for freedom. Their power now lies in a tension between what they are and what the present asks of them. These are not simple predictions, nor are they illustrations of current events. They belong to a period several years before the war, when the sound of sirens could already be heard in the subconscious without yet belonging to the headlines. The encounter is therefore less about declaring that the paintings foretold history than about recognizing how history can return to an artwork and alter its emotional register. Images and atmospheres that once occupied an uncertain distance now meet a reality that gives them fresh urgency. For Wallack, the paintings’ renewed meaning comes through recognition: art does not need to predict an event to become newly resonant when the world changes around it.

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‘Touch by Angels with Drones’ and ‘Citizen’ occupy an unsettled horizon. Their cultural significance resonates directly with Ukraine and its fight for freedom, while their prewar origins complicate any easy reading of them as records of the war. That distance in time matters. The works were made before the conflict, yet their imagery and atmosphere now encounter a historical reality that gives them a new emotional charge. What was once sensed in the background seems to move closer, carrying questions about citizenship, vulnerability, memory, and the human imagination.

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The Art Collection

​Collecting as Conviction

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David Wallack, known through his work with the famed Mango’s Tropical Cafe in Miami Beach, pairs a forward-looking eye with an intuitive and deeply personal response to art. He is less interested in chasing trends than in recognizing lasting resonance, whether it appears in an established name or an emerging voice poised to become widely collectible. His collection reflects a belief that compelling art balances craft with curiosity. He is drawn to work that is powerfully cultural, celebrates life, and carries a sense of play, while rewarding closer attention with meaning, nuance, emotional clarity, and spiritual significance in a politically radical world. Rather than assembling a fixed aesthetic, Wallack cultivates a conversation among works that surprise, linger, and feel unmistakably alive to him as a viewer. He has been collecting art for decades, with holdings that include works by Salvador Dali and Peter Max, as well as full collections and artists such as Edouard Duval-Carrie, Jude Papaloko Thegenuo, Hector Prado, Humberto Benitez, The Scull Sisters, Noel Suarez and others.

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Supporting Artists

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​At the center of Wallack’s vision is the conviction that collecting can be a form of support. He seeks out and champions artists by acquiring work with intention, helping validate creative risk and sustain long-term practice. Alongside established artists, he collects emerging talent—work he believes may grow in cultural and market significance. His decisions are guided by personal taste, curiosity, and confidence in an artist’s trajectory, together with a commitment to cultural justice and diversity. This is the same sensibility that connects his collection to the Savadov presentation: a willingness to look closely, trust an informed intuition, and support work whose significance may continue unfolding over time.

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From South Beach to Eatonville

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Wallack’s life has moved through personal care, hospitality, philanthropy, and the development and renaissance of South Beach and now Orlando. For 35 years, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Ocean Drive Association, helping initiate and continue the revitalization of Ocean Drive and South Beach from the late 1980s and early 1990s. From 1978 to 1990, he innovated the first redevelopment of an existing property in Miami Beach by creating “The Eastern Sun” Adult Congregate Living Facilities (ACLF). In doing so, David was the first artist in Miami Beach to bring pastel colors back to a building since the 1940s. He introduced those colors on Ocean Drive three years before the noted “Deco” artist Leonard Horowitz began his brilliant art on South Beach Deco buildings. The detail is emblematic of Wallack’s wider practice: shaping an environment through color, conviction, and a belief in renewal.

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A Record of Service

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As CEO of Mango’s Tropical Cafe, Wallack received the 44th President Barack Obama Lifetime Achievement Award, created by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, during the Celebration of Leaders in the historic town of Eatonville, Florida. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from CICA International University and Seminary, New York, for outstanding academic, social, and spiritual achievement. The Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed upon a select few citizens who have reached a threshold of community outreach hours and philanthropic giving. Wallack’s service record clarifies the connective tissue between his collecting and his public life. Both are grounded in sustained attention: to people, to place, to possibility, and to the cultural meaning that gathers around acts of care.

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Exhibition Information

The Ukraine War artworks along with a video preview of David's Art catalog, are on exhibit at The Sagamore Hotel, 1671 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139, through December 2026 and are available for sale. Serious inquiries only.

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Media Contact

Brigitte Andrade, bibiartmedia@gmail.com