The Americas Collection

The Americas Collection has occupied its spot on Ponce de Leon Boulevard since 1991, when Silvia Ortiz and her family opened a gallery built around a simple but ambitious idea, representing the full artistic range of the Americas, from established Latin American masters to emerging contemporary voices, rather than narrowing the focus to a single country or movement. More than three decades later, the gallery has grown into one of the anchor businesses of Coral Gables’ art district, known as much for its custom framing operation, run under the TAC Art Gallery and Frame Shop name, as for the art on its walls.

That combination of gallery and working frame shop is part of what makes The Americas Collection distinct from its Ponce de Leon Boulevard neighbors. Many collectors come in to browse paintings, sculpture, and photography spanning a wide range of styles, while others arrive with artwork of their own that needs framing, and the same family run business handles both. The gallery also offers a complimentary art advisory service, pairing new collectors with pieces that suit their space, which has made it a comfortable starting point for people who are curious about buying art but do not necessarily come from a collecting background.

The gallery keeps regular weekday and Saturday hours, another point of difference from the appointment only model several nearby galleries use, and that accessibility has helped it build a broad local following beyond serious collectors. Families dropping off a child’s artwork for framing might walk out having also noticed a painting worth a second look, and that kind of everyday foot traffic keeps the space feeling active rather than hushed.

Location has helped too. Sitting on Ponce de Leon Boulevard near the University of Miami end of Coral Gables, The Americas Collection draws both the university community and the broader Coral Gables gallery crowd, giving it a slightly different customer base than the galleries clustered closer to Giralda Avenue and Miracle Mile.

More than thirty years after Silvia Ortiz first opened the doors, The Americas Collection remains a family business in an era when many longstanding Miami galleries have been absorbed by larger operations or priced out of Coral Gables altogether. Its staying power says something about how well a genuinely local, independently owned gallery and frame shop can serve a neighborhood when it commits for the long term, offering both the art and the practical craft of framing under one trusted roof.