Save Time in Your Art Week Schedule for the Best Miami Exhibitions
If you’re in town for Art Basel, Design Miami/, and the other Art Week happenings, be sure to pay a visit to some of the best Miami exhibitions, on view at spaces like Artechouse, El Espacio 23, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Faena Art, and Locust Projects.
Installation view of “Gary Simmons: Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark” (2014-15) at Prospect 3, New Orleans, Louisiana (October 25, 2014–January 25, 2015), photo by Scott McCrossen/FIVE65 Design, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, © Gary Simmons.
What to See at Pérez Art Museum Miami
Gary Simmons: “Public Enemy”
December 5, 2023–April 28, 2024
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) presents a large-scale career survey of work by the multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons. Curated by René Morales, James W. Alsdorf chief curator, Jadine Collingwood, assistant curator, and Jack Schneider, curatorial associate, of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and with major support by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the riveting show, titled “Public Enemy,” illuminates 30 years of the artist’s deft practice. Roughly 70 works—including paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, and site-specific wall drawings—investigate the complex intersection of race and class in American history with sensitivity and nuance. Thoughtfully arranged in sections from Miseducation to Erasure to Recurrence, the exhibition unearths the problematic legacies hidden throughout American pop culture. Step into the Arena (The Essentialist Trap) (1994) is an immersive boxing ring embellished with chalk footwork drawings of the Cakewalk dance, while shining onyx tap shoes are suspended from the ropes, illustrating the ominous exploitation of African American men as entertainment.
Courtesy of Faena Art and Sebastian Errazuriz Studio.
Two of the Best Miami Exhibitions from Faena Art
Sebastian Errazuriz
December 5–10, 2023
Faena Art unveils the latest triumphs of the artist, designer, and activist Sebastian Errazuriz as part of the comprehensive exhibition “Spaces of Influence: Shaping Community in the Modern World.” A focal point of Miami Art Week, “MAZE: Journey Through the Algorithmic Self” is a labyrinth of sand on Faena Beach, designed using leading AI technology. With the goal of inspiring human connection while navigating the realities of our digitized society, the installation leads to a vast communal center. A new book by the artist, titled AI MAZE, will become accessible to visitors by way of QR codes; in a collaborative vein, the book will both enlighten readers to the potential impacts of AI, as well as request crowd-sourced sentiments on the subject. Within the Faena Hotel Cathedral, a marble sculpture, Battle of the Corporate Nations, will place tech giants Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk in a fantastical struggle reminiscent of Italian Renaissance artworks.
Kelly Breez, Faena Art Project Room, photo by Vanessa Díaz.
Kelly Breez: “Dirt’s Dive”
November 7, 2023–February 2024
In the Faena Art Project Room, the Miami-based artist Kelly Breez introduces “Dirt’s Dive,” a wondrous exhibition that simulates South Florida’s faded bar scene with both heartfelt storytelling and close examination of our swiftly evolving communities. Drawings evoking playful bar decor, enchanting sculptures, and life-size cutout figures unite in creating a vivacious and nostalgic experience. Drawing from memory, local anecdotes, and a whimsical aesthetic, Breez pays respect to the beloved dive bar, once a welcoming space of community and sharing, while questioning the diminishing landscape of charming, neighborhood spaces, and the rise of media-centric interactions.
Johanna Unzueta, “June NY, September Berlin”, 2018, pastel pencils, charcoal, watercolor gold, needle holes on indigo and fustic hand-dyed, watercolor paper, 44 x 21 x 7.5 inches, courtesy of El Espacio 23.
El Espacio 23: Best Miami Exhibitions
“To Weave the Sky”
November 2, 2023–August 2024
The fourth exhibition of El Espacio 23, “To Weave the Sky: Textile Abstractions from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” celebrates its founder’s acquisition and showcasing of pivotal textile works. Curated by Tobias Ostrander, the Estrellita B. Brodsky curator at large, Latin America at Tate Modern, alongside Pérez Collection curators Anelys Alvarez and Patricia M. Hanna, the show pays tribute to a centuries-old tradition while debuting forceful new works. The ethereal title takes its cue from weaving’s ancient connection to the cosmos. More than 100 intergenerational artists are highlighted throughout the show, which is arranged in five distinct parts: “Chromatic Structures,” featuring artists from Frank Stella to Candida Alvarez; “Landscape Gestures,” including works by Joan Mitchell and Kapwani Kiwanga; “Spiritual Constellations,” spotlighting pieces by Olga de Amaral and Eamon Ore-Giron; “Political Fabric,” revealing the meaningful artistry of Reynier Leyva Novo and Ana Gallardo; and “Threadbare,” offering emotional artworks by Faith Ringgold and Bisa Butler.
Tania Candiani, “Waterbirds. Migratory Sound Flow,” at the 23rd Sydney Biennale, photo courtesy of the artist.
What’s on During Miami Art Week at Locust Projects
Tania Candiani: “Waterbirds: Migratory Sound Flow”
December 5, 2023–February 10, 2024
The Mexican artist Tania Candiani is presenting an installation of the work Waterbirds: Migratory Sound Flow, which was originally commissioned for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney in 2022. Reimagined especially for the Miami space’s main gallery, the work materializes as a giant organic “river” that hangs in the air, made from tree branches collected by the artist, who has considered the local birds and waterways during its construction. The installation will be activated for the occasion of Miami Art Week on December 5, with the help of a group of local performers, vocalists, and sound artists.
“Future Sketches” by Zach Lieberman at ARTECHOUSE, photo by Clarissa Villondo 2020.
One of the Best Miami Exhibitions at ARTECHOUSE
Zach Lieberman: “Future Sketches / Code Poems”
December 5, 2023–May 2024
A new collaboration between ARTECHOUSE and artist, researcher, and educator Zach Lieberman will explore the artist’s singular use of creative coding as an expressive medium. In a bold extension of Lieberman’s inaugural solo exhibition at ARTECHOUSE in 2020, in “Future Sketches / Code Poems,” the pioneer and his MIT Media lab students will reveal the poetry in computation, encouraging visitors to let their boundless imaginations take the lead when it comes to modern technology. Lieberman’s signature installations take human expression to the next level, creating colorful and dreamlike worlds in which the voice is made visible, the body can be used as an expressive instrument, and code is made tangible. This exhibition is a love letter to the fields of animation, interaction, and computation.
