Miami Artwork Week is upon us, and that will help you minimize by the noise, right here’s a tidy record of artwork festivals, exhibitions, and extra, which I narrowed down from a mountain of press releases by excluding the search phrases “yacht” and “crypto.”
However first, a site visitors report.
It’s not wanting good, people. Ongoing roadwork round Biscayne Boulevard on the mainland is predicted to trigger slowdowns for vehicles leaving the seashore on the MacArthur Causeway. Add within the ordinary congestion on Collins Avenue and Alton Highway and commuters on I-195, and the vibe will likely be extra bottleneck than poppin’ bottles.
Fortuitously, there are various miles of motorcycle lanes and a good quantity of motorcycle parking. You’ll be able to cycle from Downtown Miami to South Seashore on the Venetian Causeway, as an illustration — simply please trip fastidiously and put on a helmet. There’s additionally free water taxis throughout Biscayne Bay this week, with shuttle buses between the cease and the Miami Seashore Conference Heart the place Artwork Basel is held (see a map of those companies right here). Even the Miami Seashore Trolley (sure, that’s a factor) is working time beyond regulation this week, with an expanded schedule.
Worst case state of affairs, you’ll simply be actually late to every part, not in contrast to most of Miami the remainder of the yr. (I can say that as a result of I’m from right here.) Cójelo suave — take it straightforward — and lean into the chaos.
Artwork Basel Miami Seashore
December 6–8 | artbasel.comMiami Seashore Conference Heart, 1901 Conference Heart Drive, Miami Seashore, Florida
Sonia Gomes, “Untitled” (2024), varied materials, stitching and bindings on bronze, 6 3/4 x 14 1/8 x 6 1/4 inches (17 x 36 x 16 cm) (picture by EstudioEmObra, courtesy the artist and Mendes Wooden DM)
This yr’s iteration of Artwork Basel Miami Seashore will characteristic 34 first-time exhibitors — up from final yr’s 24, and the largest cohort of newcomers in a decade. As in previous editions, this truthful is split into six completely different sectors: Galleries, Meridians, Nova, Positions, Survey, and Kabinett. My recommendation is to disregard these classes totally, hand over on making an attempt to learn the truthful map, and let your self amble with no plan or vacation spot — except you’re an artwork advisor with a shopper, by which case: godspeed. Two highlights on my record are Mendes Wooden DM’s large sales space of works by over two dozen of the gallery’s artists, together with the ingenious creations of Brazilian sculptor Sonia Gomes similar to “Untitled” pictured above, and Mexico Metropolis-based OMR gallery’s centered presentation of works by the late artist Adolfo Riestra. This yr, the truthful can even debut a brand new app that includes “AI-powered” options courtesy of Microsoft, which may very well be both fairly cool or an entire catastrophe.
Untitled Artwork
December 4–8 | untitledartfairs.comOcean Drive and twelfth Road, Miami Seashore, Florida
Plunked proper on the sands of South Seashore, Untitled Artwork is a breezy truthful that feels much less claustrophobic than others. This yr’s theme is “East Meets West,” with extra exhibitors than ever earlier than from Jap Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa, and the Asia-Pacific Area. I’m itching to see Huang Baoying’s work in particular person; the artist’s dreamlike explorations of household, nostalgia, and diasporic life will likely be proven in a solo sales space offered by the Hong Kong-based MOU Initiatives.
New Artwork Sellers Alliance (NADA)
December 3–7 | newartdealers.orgIce Palace Studios, 1400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida
Nefeli Papadimouli, “Cocoon (Sardine)” (2023), turquoise recycled leather-based, material, 49 1/5 x 23 3/5 x 39 2/5 inches (125 x 60 x 100 cm) (picture courtesy Nathalie Karg)
NADA returns for its twenty second Miami version with over 150 exhibitors from 37 nations. Nefeli Papadimouli’s paper, textile, and leather-based sculptures — such because the oddly riveting mermaid-esque quantity pictured above — are a must-see at Nathalie Karg Gallery’s sales space. For the “Curated Spotlight” part, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this yr, the truthful tapped Jasmine Wahi, founding father of the Undertaking for Empty Area nonprofit in Newark, New Jersey. Her collection of eight galleries spanning Mexico Metropolis, Cologne, Philadelphia, Seoul, and past will “revel in the reality of difference.”
Open Invitational
December 2–8 | openinvitational.com140 NE thirty ninth Road, Third Ground, Miami, Florida
Get up babe — new artwork truthful simply dropped! Co-founded by New York vendor David Fierman and humanities patron Ross McCalla, the Open Invitational in Miami’s Design District makes its debut this week with 11 US-based galleries and nonprofits centered on artists with disabilities. Its ethereal house and manageable format make it an ideal place to seek out surprising gems at affordable costs that even I, an arts journalist, can afford.
Prizm
December 3–7 | prizm.artIce Palace West Studio, 71 NW 14th Road, Miami, Florida
This annual present devoted to artists from Africa and its diaspora is again with a thematic give attention to the “architecture of liberation,” plumbing the manifold methods by which artwork, design, and the constructed setting have influenced social justice actions. Prizm additionally has one of many extra fascinating program line-ups of this week’s festivals — much less predictable art-market panels and extra thoughtfully curated occasions, like a free screening of Rosalynde LeBlanc’s documentary Can You Deliver It: Invoice T.Jones and D-Man within the Waters (2020) on Saturday, December 7 (RSVP right here).
Artwork Miami + CONTEXT Artwork Miami
December 3–8 | artmiami.comOne Herald Plaza (NE 14th Road and Biscayne Bay), Miami, Florida
Kenny Nguyen, “Eruption Series No. 45” (2024), hand-cut silk material, acrylic paint, canvas, 83 x 113 inches (210.8 x 287 cm) (picture courtesy Sundaram Tagore Gallery)
Right here’s a enjoyable Miami artwork historical past truth you need to use to interrupt the ice at a stuffy cocktail occasion this week: Opposite to well-liked perception, Artwork Miami — and never Artwork Basel — is the town’s longest-running modern artwork truthful, courting again all the way in which to 1989. Together with its sister present, CONTEXT Artwork Miami, it presents a gargantuan collection of artwork from around the globe, similar to Kenny Nguyen’s “deconstructed paintings” manufactured from lots of of silk strips, pictured above.
Ink Miami
December 3–8 | inkartfair.comSuites of Dorchester, 1850 Collins Avenue, Miami Seashore, Florida
To not be confused with the well-known tattoo store, this truthful showcasing works on paper takes place in an open-air courtyard, a pleasing break from Artwork Basel’s mammoth Conference Heart — and it’s utterly free. You can even reserve complimentary tickets for the playfully named “Pulp Party” on Thursday, December 5 from 7pm to 9pm.
Extra Festivals:
Jeff Martin’s “Sarcophagus 11 Console Table” offered by Goal Gallery at Design Miami (picture courtesy Jeff Martin Joinery)
Design Miami
December 3–8 | designmiami.comConvention Heart Drive and nineteenth Road, Miami Seashore
SCOPE Miami Seashore
December 3–8 | scope-art.com801 Ocean Drive, Miami Seashore
Aqua Artwork Miami
December 4–8 | aquaartmiami.comAqua Lodge, 1530 Collins Avenue, Miami Seashore
Fridge Artwork Truthful
December 3–8 | fridgeartfair.comVarious areas in Miami Seashore, see web site for particulars
Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years
The Bass Museum of Artwork, 2100 Collins Avenue, Miami Seashore, FloridaThrough August 17, 2025
Set up view of Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years on the Bass Museum (picture by Zaire Aranguren, courtesy the Bass Museum)
South Florida native Rachel Feinstein explores the area’s perpetual contradictions — pure magnificence and local weather catastrophe, refuge and overdevelopment — on this exhibition spanning practically 30 years of her work. The present is anchored by the newly commissioned 30-foot set up “Panorama of Miami” (2024), a quasi-apocalyptic imaginative and prescient of architectural glory and smash that includes Miami “landmarks” such because the Lodge Breakwater on South Seashore and the ill-fated Miami Seaquarium.
Elyla: Tierra Retumbante
KDR305 Gallery, 790 NW twenty second Road, Miami, FloridaThrough January 11, 2025
Of their shifting exploration of mestizaje in Nicaragua, artist Elyla deconstructs the assorted methods by which this classification each encompasses and flattens the complexity of identification. The video set up “Tierra Retumbante” (2024) channels the ardor and symbolism of the Masaya Volcano, a caldera south of Managua that represents a fusion of previous and current, mixing parts of the post-colonial Nicaraguan satirical drama El Güegüense and the historical past of LGBTQ+ rights within the nation.
Natalia Chavarria: Cuando Caigo del Cielo
Baker—Corridor, 101 NW 79 Road, Unit A, Miami, FloridaThrough December 21
Natalia Chavarria, “Fade” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 14 x 18 inches (~35.6 x 45.72 cm) (picture by Zachary Balber, courtesy Baker—Corridor)
Mexico-born, Miami-based artist Natalia Chavarria finds inspiration within the fleeting wonders of nature, from the ripples of a feather gently touchdown on a stream to a handful of autumn leaves dancing within the air. The tender, hazy surfaces of her work are the results of an airbrush method that enables her to seize these quietly charming vignettes.
Rose B. Simpson and vanessa german: IT INCLUDES EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS
Nova Southeastern College Artwork Museum, One East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FloridaThrough April 13, 2025
This exhibition explores the cross-pollinations and mutual influences of two distinct artists who share a deep instinct and social consciousness. Simpson articulates her connections to Fatherland and ancestral historical past primarily by the fabric of clay from New Mexico, whereas german harnesses discovered objects to craft monumental sculptures impressed by the Nkisi N’kondi figures of the Kongo peoples from whom she descended. Embedded in each of those practices is a priority for the dynamics of marginalization and artwork’s potential to empower.
José Parlá: Homecoming
Pérez Artwork Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FloridaThrough July 6, 2025
José Parlá, “American Mindscape” (2024), acrylic, oil, enamel spray paint, paper collage, and plaster on canvas, 96 x 168 x 3 inches (~243.8 x 426.7 x 7.6 cm) (picture courtesy the artist and Parlá Studios)
José Parlá builds up his monumental abstractions in a dynamic course of that entails gestural mark-making, layering, erasing, and repeating. The outcomes are mighty, textured canvases that includes collage parts that pay energetic homages to the artist’s passions for music, dance, and graffiti. This present, the primary solo museum presentation in Parlá’s hometown, features a site-specific mural painted in real-time in October and a recreation of the artist’s Brooklyn studio, full with a Cuban-inspired document assortment and private objects.
Billie Zangewa: Discipline of Desires
Patricia & Phillip Frost Artwork Museum at Florida Worldwide College, 10975 SW seventeenth Road, Miami, FloridaThrough April 13, 2025
Billie Zangewa’s collage tapestries are hand-stitched utilizing fragments of uncooked silk in an evocation of themes of reuse and reclaiming. This exhibition of current works, first offered as a part of SITE Santa Fe, indicators a shift away from the artist’s earlier home scenes and towards extra common, existential, and sociopolitical sensibilities. By way of the addition of antiqued beveled mirrors, Zangewa constructs a harmonious setting of dialogue and reflection.
Girls Photographers—Shared Documentary Narratives
HistoryMiami Museum, 101 West Flagler Road, Miami, FloridaThrough Could 4, 2025
Sofia Valiente, “Untitled (Rooming House)” (2016) (© Sofia Valiente; picture ccourtesy the artist)
The works of three eminent ladies photographers from South Florida — Maggie Steber, Silvia Lizama, and Peggy Nolan — are paired with these of three younger artists who contemplate them their mentors — Elisa Benedetti, RemiJin Tenting, and Sofia Valiente, respectively — on this intergenerational present. Centering quintessential Miami themes, moments, and locations, the exhibition celebrates the town’s wealthy visible and photographic historical past.
Extra Exhibitions:
Ross Caliendo: Twin Behavior
Ross + Kramer Miami Seashore, 1910 Alton Highway, Miami Seashore, FloridaDecember 3–January 18, 2025
Glenda León: Solely Lovers
Galería La Cometa, 1015 NW twenty third Road, Unit 2, Miami, FloridaThrough February 8, 2025
Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, “Banned Pending Investigation”
Zilberman Gallery, 25 NE thirty ninth Road, Miami, FloridaDecember 4, 7pm
Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, “Banned Pending Investigation” (2024) (photographs courtesy the artists)
On this public efficiency, Miami natives Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares study the alarming rise of ebook bans in Florida, which had over 4,500 titles prohibited within the 2023–2024 faculty yr alone. Native highschool college students will collaborate with the artists to construct a wall of traditionally and presently banned books that they’ll then run by as a manner of symbolically and bodily dismantling this barrier. The efficiency is in dialogue with the gallery’s ongoing group exhibition Reality, Previous Previous, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud.
Nicholas Galanin, “Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente)”
Faena Artwork, 3201 Collins Avenue, Miami Seashore, FloridaThrough December 8
Tlingit/Unangax̂ artist Nicholas Galanin’s colossal set up “Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente)” emerges from the sands of Faena Seashore this week. The 45-foot-tall recreation of a Spanish galleon’s masts and sails options spray-painted questions meant to stir reflections concerning the occupation of Indigenous land and useful resource extraction.
“Elements of Being”
The Carter Undertaking, 3333 NW sixth Avenue, Miami, FloridaDecember 7 and eight, 12pm–5pm
Parts of Being with Gentry George (picture by Cornelius Tulloch, courtesy ARIE)
Produced in partnership with activist artist Diana Wege’s WOVEN nonprofit and Artists In Residence In Everglades (AIRIE), this video set up is described as a “multisensory experience” that addresses ecological crises and the probabilities of environmental justice. The general public is invited to view the work at artist Christopher Carter’s dwelling, studio, and exhibition house in Miami’s North Wynwood neighborhood.
