Miami Art Week is in full effect: catch a glimpse of what to see.
Art Basel may be mostly virtual this year and many fairs were cancelled due to the global pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped the Magic City from creating a hybrid Miami Art Week with a killer line-up.
Miami Beach
While no longer the epicentre of Miami Art Week, Miami Beach will still be booming this week.
The Bass museum has partnered with Miami Beach to create Art Outside, strategically placing works of art around the city. With works ranging from large sculptures and participatory artworks to sound and wall installations, Art Outside is a public art exhibition offering residents and visitors the opportunity to see and experience a network of public artworks throughout the City of Miami Beach. See varied works in Collins Park, around The Bass and explore nearby installations along the boardwalk, plus artworks from the collections of the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places, Miami Beach Urban Studios FIU, The Wolfsonian Florida International University and the W South Beach.
The Greater Miami Convention and Visitor’s Bureau created a program to promote the arts and tourism, pairing together hotels and art programming to offer safe ways to enjoy art, as well as special deals and offers. While the program, Miami Arts, Culture & Heritage Months (through December and January) is city-wide, we recommend you head to the beach and check out the arts programming.
The Betsy, The Confidante, W South Beach, Faena and others will present custom installations, temporary exhibitions and programming this week and beyond.
For comic book nerds out there, the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU (in SoFi), is virtually presenting Will Eisner: Comic Creator, Illustrator, and Innovator. Will Eisner, born in the Bronx in 1917 to Jewish immigrants, was the creator of the comic book The Spirit and the father of the graphic novel. His work spanned a career of seven decades and the spirited exhibition will feature original illustrations, first-edition comic books from The Spirit series, works from his army days, graphic novels and self-portraits.
The Design District
This luxury fashion Mecca has always been a place to sip and mingle during the first week of December in Miami. This year is no different and yet it’s entirely different. Fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and Maison Martin Margiela will offer utterly grand art projects (think a new Men’s Fashion Residency and a colossal film and video installation) in addition to small-scale events. The area will also house pop-up galleries with Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Lévy Gorvy x Salon 94 Design, Ramiken, and R & Company, to name a few. The stylish to-dos are endless, so make sure to visit The Design District’s website for an expansive list.
The area will also serve as the central location for Miami Art Week this year, as the Design Miami returns to its original home in the Design District, where they’re offering an impressive smattering of virtual and in-person (scaled-down) events all week long. Founded by real estate developer, art collector and entrepreneur Craig Robins, this year’s fair returns as Design Miami Podium: America(s) back in its original home at the historic Moore Building, where it began in 2005. While in the past, this fair has focused on objets d’art and furniture, this year, you’ll see various works from a variety of artists—including more of a local focus.
Wynwood
The Museum of Graffiti in Wynwood is launching a new exhibition on behalf of legendary local artist Ahol Sniffs Glue in conjunction with Miami Art Week. Entitled Biscayne World, the exhibition pays homage to the local personalities who have kept Biscayne Boulevard diverse and interesting through the years.
All over South Florida
The brainchild of William Cordova (Cultural Practitioner, NY/Miami), Marie Vickles (Education Director, Perez Art Museum / Curator, Little Haiti Cultural Center), Gean Moreno (Director, Knight Foundation Art + Research Center at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami), and Mikhaile Solomon (Curator / Director of Prizm Art Fair), The AIM Biennial (AIM is short for “Art in Movement”) is a massive project which features brand new, site-specific installations throughout South Florida.
Created by locals, this grand collaboration will also feature works by locals (69 multigenerational artists to be precise) in the forms of visual art and performance art. The installations have an emphasis on ritual, monuments and shrines and can be found in Miami-Dade County as well as Homestead, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties, and a Seminole Indian Reservation, with satellite locations in Georgia, Tallahassee and Texas.
The options – both IRL and virtually – are truly endless and this is just a small sampling. A local group of volunteer arts marketers (including myself) started the hashtag and organisation #miamiartstrong to better connect arts institutions. A complete list can be found here, for you to review many more organisations that make Miami vibrant – year-round.
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