By Jodi Farrell, Adrienne Arsht Center

In true New World-New Miami fashion, one of South Florida’s most celebrated visual artists arrived at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts this week via the Miami-Dade Metromover – with paint splatters on the tips of his white Converse sneakers.

Hernan Bas, New World School of the Arts Class of ’96, doesn’t drive. What he does do is create evocative visual art works that teem with romance and classical imagery, drawing inspiration from such theatrical sources as Goth kids, fashion layouts and books, from the Hardy Boys to Oscar Wilde. His tapestry-like, dense paintings have appeared in solo shows from Miami to New York to Europe. Last year, he collaborated with Louis Vuitton to create the installation “A Traveler” for the brand’s Aventura store.

Bas and Arsht CEO John Richard in the Knight Concert Hall

Bas, 35, lives part-time in Detroit nowadays, but he was in town for the opening of “Time” at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, where his “cabinet of curiosities” is among the artworks and objects in the exhibit. Before he flew off, he stopped by downtown Miami’s cultural center to pencil his initials on “Downhill at Dusk (the Runaway),” the work the Arsht Center commissioned him to create as the second installment of its new Knight Masterworks Print Collection. Seeded with a three-year Knight Arts Challenge grant, the contemporary Collection intends to grow each year with new works by modern masters of our time, seeking inspiration from the Center’s community-minded mission and Miami’s emerging status as an international creative hub.

“Downhill at Dusk (the Runaway),” by Hernan Bas

The 24-by-18-inch work by Bas will hang inside the Arsht Center for everyone to enjoy. (Free tours sponsored by American Airlines are held every Monday and Saturday at noon.) But there’s a chance to own one, too. Thirty impressions – make that 28 (two were sold at the Collection’s first public viewing at the Center Thursday night) – are for sale to the general public. Check it out on the Arsht Center’s website.