21 Standout Shows to See during Miami Art Week
Es Devlin, installation view of Forest of Us, 2021, in “Every Wall is a Door” at Superblue Miami, 2021. Photo by Andrea Mora. Courtesy of Superblue Miami.
After last year’s edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach was canceled due to COVID-19, Miami Art Week is finally back at full capacity beginning next week, with in-person editions of the flagship fair, Art Basel in Miami Beach, as well as Untitled Art Miami Beach and various other satellite fairs. In addition to the flurry of booth-filled venues, this year’s Miami Art Week will also feature a number of equally impressive exhibitions and events. Below, we highlight 21 standout shows taking place throughout Miami during the city’s marquee art week.
“The Artsy Vanguard”
Mana Contemporary, 555 NW 24th Street
December 2–5
To coincide with the launch of the fourth edition of The Artsy Vanguard on December 1st, Artsy will be showcasing work by the emerging artists featured in this year’s list in our first-ever in-person group exhibition. The show, sponsored by MNTN and curated by New York–based art curator and consultant Erin Jenoa Gilbert, is supported by Mana Public Arts and will be held at one of their spaces in Wynwood. The selection of works included in the exhibition have come from across the globe and span painting, sculpture, film, video, and virtual reality, giving viewers insight into the future of contemporary art.
Miami Mural Festival and Pop Up Exhibition
Mana Public Arts, Wynwood and Downtown Miami
November 29–December 5
Magnus Sodamin, Natural Agency, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Mana Contemporary.
Adrian Avila, detail of mural at the Miami Mural Festival, 2021. Courtesy of the Miami Mural Festival and Mana Public Arts.
The inaugural Miami Mural Festival, presented in partnership with Mana Public Arts, will showcase murals by major street artists including Ron English, AVAF, Case Maclaim, and Elle across Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. The murals are meant to renew Wynwood’s street art community as the neighborhood continues to grapple with growing luxury residential development. Kicking off on November 29th, the festival is also partnering with the digital art online platform Nifty Gateway to mint all of the works featured as NFTs to be put up for auction.
In conjunction with the Miami Mural Festival, Mana Public Arts will host a pop-up exhibition of work from more than 35 artists participating in the festival, such as Jonathan Mannion, Xavier Manrique, Jason Naylor, and Sydney G. James. The exhibition, located at 129 East Flagler Street, will feature original artworks and limited editions all available to purchase.
Flagler Street Art Festival
Mana Public Arts, Flagler District, Downtown Miami
December 1–5
Hoxxoh, installation view of Downtown Miami Portal, 2021, at the Flagler Street Art Festival, Miami, 2021. Courtesy of the Miami Mural Festival and Mana Public Arts.
Free and open to the public, Flagler Street Art Festival will showcase a series of large-scale and immersive digital art exhibitions along with daily programming. The NFT-packed festival is presented in partnership with Urban Impact Lab and Mana Public Arts, and will open to the public on December 1st.
Jadé Fadojutimi, “Yet Another Pathetic Fallacy”
Hugh Hayden, “Boogey Men”
ICA Miami, 61 NE 41st Street, Miami
November 30, 2021–April 17, 2022
Jadé Fadojutimi, A Whisper of a Decadent Twilight, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery.
Hugh Hayden, Jazz 14, 2020. © Hugh Hayden. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
For her first solo museum presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, titled “Yet Another Pathetic Fallacy,” Jadé Fadojutimi will exhibit a series of new, large-scale paintings. These works continue the London-based artist’s practice of heavily layered, evocative abstractions that are rife with exuberant color and frenetic brushstrokes.
Also at ICA Miami, Hugh Hayden—who is acclaimed for his multidisciplinary and labor-intensive practice that examines humanity’s relationship to nature—will debut a series of new works specifically created for this exhibition. Titled “Boogey Men,” the show is divided into two sections that allude to suburban interior and exterior environments.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Kennedy Yanko, 2021 Artists in Residence
Reginald O’Neal, “AS I AM”
Rubell Museum, 1100 NW 23rd Street, Miami
November 29, 2021–October 2022
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Untitled, 2021. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum.
The Rubell Museum will present new work completed by its two 2021 artists in residence: the Ghanaian-born figurative painter Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and the Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor Kennedy Yanko. Both artists created their largest works to date in the time of the museum’s prestigious residency program. Quaicoe will be exhibiting a large-scale triptych completed during the end of his residency that explores the forgotten history of the Black cowboy. Meanwhile, Yanko’s residency culminated in three works: I am flower, I am water, and I am that. The small series was created from found materials scoured from metal junkyards in South Florida woven together with thick, velvety skins of paint.
In addition to the artist-in-residence exhibition, the Rubell Museum will host an array of solo shows, including Reginald O’Neal, who is also featured in The Artsy Vanguard and in a solo show at Spinello Projects. O’Neal’s “AS I AM” features recent works commissioned by the institution that reflect on the painter’s lived experiences.
Maryan, “My Name is Maryan”
MOCA North Miami, 770 NE 125th Street, Miami
November 17, 2021–March 20, 2022
Maryan, installation view of “My Name Is Maryan” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2021. © Oriol Tarridas Photography. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami.
Aptly titled “My Name is Maryan,” this solo presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami presents four decades of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and films by the late and oft-overlooked artist Maryan. In the later years of his prolific life, Maryan—who is considered to be the first “artist eyewitness” to directly depict his experiences during the Holocaust—used his work to grapple with the psychic traumas he endured during World War II. This exhibition features new scholarship on the Polish-born artist, along with never-before-shown works from the artist’s estate.
Jamilah Sabur, “DADA Holdings”
November 27, 2021–January 8, 2022
Judy Chicago, “Judy Chicago in Glass”
November 30, 2021–January 15, 2022
Nina Johnson, 6315 NW 2nd Ave, Miami
Jamilah Sabur, installation view of In This Act, n.d. Courtesy of the artist and Nina Johnson.
Judy Chicago, Weeping Fist, 2008. © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the artist and Nina Johnson.
For her second solo show at Nina Johnson, “DADA Holdings,” Jamaican artist Jamilah Sabur will present a new suite of paintings, which feature arch-like forms that open to repeated archival images, video stills, and geometric shapes. These surreal works are meant to challenge our understanding of geography and warfare. The exhibition exists in tandem with Sabur’s Bulk Pangaea, a video work tracing the sites of aluminum ore extraction currently on view at Prospect.5 in New Orleans.
Nina Johnson will also present new work by the acclaimed feminist artist Judy Chicago. Titled “Judy Chicago in Glass,” the exhibition will debut Chicago’s largest glass work to date, Mortality in Glass. The 2021 piece will be shown alongside drawings and additional work from the artist’s ongoing glass series. Chicago will also premiere Zig Zag (2021), a powder-coated steel rendition of an original minimalist sculpture executed in 1965.
Bernadette Despujols, “I Love You, Man”
Reginald O’Neal, “They Dreamt of Us”
Spinello Projects, 2930 NW 7th Ave, Miami
November 20, 2021–January 15, 2022
“I Love You, Man” at Spinello Projects features a series of male portraits by Bernadette Despujols. The solo show is a notable departure from the artist’s typical practice of painting female nudes. By pivoting her gaze to depict the cis-het men in her life—lovers, friends, and family—in perspective-skewing portraits, Despujols reconciles with male vulnerability and reflects on her own experiences with intimacy.
Alongside Bernadette Despujols, Spinello Projects will also feature a solo show of works by Reginald O’Neal. Building upon O’Neal’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery in 2020, “They Dreamt of Us” continues the artist’s pursuit of rendering his experiences into realistic paintings. Inspired by the Impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, O’Neal captures members of his family and community, as well as the objects they own, in intimate portraits and still lifes that underscore the deep respect and admiration the artist has for his subjects.
Caroline Larsen, “The Gilded Lily”
Super Future Kid and Yvette Mayorga, “A Walk in the Park”
Mindy Solomon Gallery, 848 NW 22nd St, Miami
November 28, 2021–January 1, 2022
At Mindy Solomon Gallery, Caroline Larsen draws on her childhood memories of Sarasota, Florida, for her solo exhibition “The Gilded Lily.” The show will feature psychedelic paintings and kitschy beaded and ceramic objects that toe a fine line between abstraction and representation.
Also on view at Mindy Solomon will be “A Walk in the Park,” a two-person exhibition featuring works by Super Future Kid and the Chicago-based Yvette Mayorga. Coming from disparate backgrounds, the two artists play off each other’s works as they explore the cultural effects of borders and the need to belong. Super Future Kid’s colorful paintings reflect on her childhood in East Germany; meanwhile, Mayorga works to understand the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Naama Tsabar, “Pertimeters”
The Bass, 2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach
November 28, 2021–April 17, 2022
Naama Tsabar, Rotem Frimer, Nina Loeterman, Maya Perry, Moran Victoria Sabbag, and Sarah Strauss, installation view of Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 3) at CCA Tel Aviv, 2018. Photo by Eyal Agivayev. Courtesy of CCA Tel Aviv and The Bass.
In “Pertimeters,” Naama Tsabar will transform The Bass into a playable instrument. The work promises to fuse elements from architecture, performance, and music to shift the passive viewing experience into one of active participation. The Israeli-born, New York–based artist is renowned for her interactive practice that reexamines gender narratives and uncovers hidden spaces and systems by collaborating with local communities of female-identifying and gender non-conforming performers.
“Arte Povera”
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, 591 NW 27th St, Miami
October 20, 2021–April 30, 2022
Luciano Fabro, installation view of Il giorno mi pesa sulla notte I, 1994. Courtesy of Collection Martin Z. Margulies.
Currently featured at the Margulies Collection are a selection of never-before-seen works by prominent Arte Povera artists. The exhibition, which features artists such as Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, and Jannis Kounellis, offers insights into how the group disrupted traditional methods of artmaking in Italy, heralding a shift in culture after the fall of the country’s Fascist regime and the end of World War II.
Yanira Collado, “Alchemic Chants/Reliquías Fragmentadas”
Emerson Dorsch, 5900 NW 2nd Ave, Miami
November 28, 2021–February 5, 2022
In her first solo exhibition, “Alchemic Chants/Reliquías Fragmentadas,” the Dominican artist Yanira Collado will transform the space by constructing a platform over the entire floor of the gallery. This structure recalls the blueprint of a house and refers to the building’s past as a bustling neighborhood bodega. Meanwhile, the exhibition’s walls feature Collado’s intimate works composed of layers of cardboard, paint, and fabric that reflect on stories of migration and subcultures.
Es Devlin, teamLab, and James Turrell, “Every Wall is a Door”
DRIFT, “Meadow”
Superblue, 1101 NW 23rd St, Miami
From May 20, 2021
DRIFT, installation view of Meadow, 2017, at Superblue Miami, 2021. Photo by Oriol Tarridas Photography. Courtesy of Superblue Miami.
At the recently opened experiential art center Superblue Miami, viewers have the opportunity to experience “Every Wall is a Door.” The immersive exhibition consists of three installations by three leading experiential artists—an entrancing network of mirrors by Es Devlin, a transcendental floral environment by the art collective teamLab, and an enveloping light-based work by James Turrell.
Also on view in Superblue Miami’s 30,000-square-foot exhibition space is Meadow (2017), an upside-down landscape of mechanical flowers that delicately open and close by the Amsterdam-based artist studio, DRIFT. The kinetic installation is part of Superblue Miami’s “Suspension” program, a rotating series of site-specific artworks intended to evoke disbelief and wonder.
“Shattered Glass”
Moore Building, 191 NE 40th Street, Miami
November 29–December 5
Kezia Harrell, Bliss: Americana Hot Mamma, 2021. Photo by Joshua White. Courtesy of the artist and Jeffrey Deitch.
Curated by Melahn Frierson and AJ Girard, “Shattered Glass,” presented by Jeffrey Deitch, features new works by 15 emerging artists of color from Miami, Baltimore, Dallas, New Jersey, and Fresno, California. Presented in partnership with Miami Design District, the exhibition is an expanded iteration of a well-received show held at Deitch’s Los Angeles outpost last spring. The works included are all figurative—often featuring the artists’ friends and family—and span painting, sculpture, and photography. The works on view showcase the diverse bonds shared between artists and their communities, giving viewers a chance to explore these intimate connections.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Superblue as a “performance and exhibition hall” as opposed to an experiential art center. The article also incorrectly stated that the installation space was 50,000 square feet—this is the square footage of the entire venue.
