Mural Of Tiger King's Joe Exotic Painted In Wynwood
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The Tiger King is in Miami, sort of. There is now a mural of controversial big cat wrangler Joe Exotic in Wynwood. Seems a fitting place since the exotic animal park he used to own is located in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
Artist Kyle Holbrook created the 16-foot mural of Exotic (a k a Joseph Maldonado-Passage) on the corner of NW 36th Street and 5th Avenue.
Holbrook says he created the mural "so people can have something to take their minds off of everything going on as they ride or walk by. Hopefully people will smile," he said in an emailed statement. "With everything we as a city, as humans on Earth are going through, some serious times, this mural is a little fun distraction."
The mural was hand painted with acrylic paints and took him about two days to complete.
Holbrook says he usually paints more serious subject matters. This mural was added to an existing one by Moving Lives of Kids Mural Project in partnership with Pinnacle Housing Group's Art in Public Places Initiative.
He says it'll remain on the wall until Art Basel 2020 later in the year.
Joe Exotic would probably love to see a giant mural painted in his honor, but he is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against rival keeper Carole Baskin, of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, who criticized the treatment of his tigers, as chronicled in the smash hit Netflix docuseries "Tiger King."
Baskin tried to shut him down, accusing the Oklahoma zoo of abusing animals and selling big cat cubs. Exotic accused Baskin of killing her missing husband and feeding him to her tigers.