To visit Miami during art week and ignore the city’s own museum, galleries, and local pop-up programming is as misguided as attending Miami Art Week to skip the fairs and only show up at the parties. Miami’s innate art and design ecosystem—led by organizations like The Bass Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and, of course, the Design District—warrants annual consideration for world-class curation and pioneering discourse. 

The public art pieces of “No Vacancy, Miami Beach,” the fifth edition of the juried art competition awarding local artists, adorn 12 hotels across the City of Miami Beach. And this year sees architect and urban designer Nicole Nomsa Moyo as the recipient of the tenth edition of the Annual Design Commission. Her installation Pearl Jam, which draws inspiration from South Africa’s Ndebele tribe, greets guests to the Miami Design District. For the duration of Miami Art Week (and even beyond), these activations deserve in-person reflection and recognition.

Faena Art

Seletega—a large-scale, site-specific commission by multidisciplinary artist Nicholas Galanin, of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska—anchors this year’s astonishing Faena Art presentation, all of which is bound by the theme of “Dismantling Empires: Reflections on Power, Belief, and Responsibility.” The sails of Galanin’s towering piece, positioned on Faena Beach, call to viewers in the distance with their messages. The sculptural work is coupled with an artistic intervention by Marina Abramovic, presented by Massimo Dutti at Faena Art Project Room. Further, this year’s Faena Art roster incorporates artist Lyra Drake’s public debut, Infinite Faith in a Finite World, at Faena Cathedreal—and a No Vacancy commission of Magnus Sodamin entitled Reflections of a Florida Wild.

ICA Miami

During Miami Art Week, ICA Miami will support their enthralling permanent collection with “Keiichi Tanaami: Memory Collage,” the first U.S. solo museum exhibition of the pioneering Japanese Pop Art artist. It’s a riveting survey of his works produced between 1965 and 2024. Additionally, ICA Miami will again host an immersive sculpture commissioned by Lexus—this time by sustainability oriented, Bratislava and Berlin-based artist and research duo Crafting Plastics, founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král. Their installation, Liminal Cycles, utilizes compostable and sensory reactive bioplastics and engages with guests through touch, sight, and sound.

PAMM

The centerpiece of the acclaimed contemporary art museum PAMM during Miami Art Week, Kate Capshaw’s latest exhibition, “Exclusive Tonsorial Services,” uses her deft portraiture to explore another unique personality—this time Sergei (Sirj) Grant, a Miami native and entrepreneurial barber. Capshaw’s works mark the latest installment in her Unaccompanied series, wherein she’s already honed in on subjects across L.A., San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York, to lend a platform to underrepresented voices. PAMM will support the exhibition with talks featuring Capshaw and Grant. And, beyond that, will debut “Casual Safe,” a collaboration between Buffalo Prescott and the Detroit Recovery Project.

Nina Johnson

Opened Dec. 2 at renowned Miami gallery Nina Johnson, “Patrick Dean Hubbell: You Guide Me Through” presents a thoughtful exploration of the works of the Diné painter and cattle rancher. Through color, form and materials—which include textile, tarp, acrylic, charcoal and more—Hubbell probes his relationship to the foundations of Indigenous cultural knowledge. This is the artist’s second solo show with the gallery, and one driven by a sense of exploration, transformation and resilience.

The Bass Museum of Art

A conjunction of inspiring exhibitions traverse medium and style at The Bass Museum of Art.  With the colorful, kaleidoscopic and collaborative “XI,” from São Paulo–based multidisciplinary art collective assume vivid astro focus (asaf), works stretch from floor to ceiling and span from large-scale projection to a modular stage. Featuring contributions by General Idea, Honeygun Labs, Natalja Kent, Michael Lazarus, Los Super Elegantes, Carla Machado, Justin Samson, Marco Boggio Sella, and Pete Woods, it’s engulfing, and delightfully so. This runs concurrent to the three-decade traversing “Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years,” the artist’s first major show in her home city. On Dec. 7, The Bass will also host “Nocturne Immersion,” an event organized in conjunction with Villa Albertine and the Miami’s FilmGate Interactive Media Festival.

The Rubell Museum

Joining the integration of recent acquisitions and a thought provoking presentation of pieces from its permanent collection, The Rubell Museum opened the exhibition “Vanessa Raw: This is How the Light Gets In” on Dec. 2. It’s not only the first solo show for the Margate, England-based fine artist in the U.S., it’s also her first-ever institutional show and features newly commissioned large-scale paintings. Each marries wondrous natural scenes populated only with women figures in repose. It’s a sublime balance to the mesmerizing permanent pieces by Yayoi Kusama, Sonia Gômes, Kennedy Yanko and more.  

Miami Design District

New York-based artist and filmmaker Alteronce Gumby brings his first outdoor public commission to the Design District’s Jade Alley. Living the Dream, a permanent, site-specific installation, sees Gumby draw inspiration from the striking hues of Fauvism to continue his oeuvre’s well-established exploration of color, this time with the addition of gemstones from a South Floridian collector. Shark teeth, locally-stained glass, and mosaic tiles round out the multi-media installation.