Miami Art Week is upon us, and to help you cut through the noise, here’s a tidy list of art fairs, exhibitions, and more, which I narrowed down from a mountain of press releases by excluding the search terms “yacht” and “crypto.”
But first, a traffic report.
It’s not looking good, folks. Ongoing roadwork around Biscayne Boulevard on the mainland is expected to cause slowdowns for cars leaving the beach on the MacArthur Causeway. Add in the usual congestion on Collins Avenue and Alton Road and commuters on I-195, and the vibe will be more bottleneck than poppin’ bottles.
Fortunately, there are many miles of bike lanes and a fair amount of bike parking. You can cycle from Downtown Miami to South Beach on the Venetian Causeway, for instance — just please ride carefully and wear a helmet. There’s also free water taxis across Biscayne Bay this week, with shuttle buses between the stop and the Miami Beach Convention Center where Art Basel is held (see a map of these services here). Even the Miami Beach Trolley (yes, that’s a thing) is working overtime this week, with an expanded schedule.
Worst case scenario, you’ll just be really late to everything, not unlike most of Miami the rest of the year. (I can say that because I’m from here.) Cójelo suave — take it easy — and lean into the chaos.
Art Basel Miami Beach
December 6–8 | artbasel.com
Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, Florida
This year’s iteration of Art Basel Miami Beach will feature 34 first-time exhibitors — up from last year’s 24, and the biggest cohort of newcomers in a decade. As in past editions, this fair is divided into six different sectors: Galleries, Meridians, Nova, Positions, Survey, and Kabinett. My advice is to ignore these categories entirely, give up on trying to read the fair map, and let yourself amble with no plan or destination — unless you’re an art advisor with a client, in which case: godspeed. Two highlights on my list are Mendes Wood DM’s massive booth of works by over two dozen of the gallery’s artists, including the ingenious creations of Brazilian sculptor Sonia Gomes such as “Untitled” pictured above, and Mexico City-based OMR gallery’s focused presentation of works by the late artist Adolfo Riestra. This year, the fair will also debut a new app featuring “AI-powered” features courtesy of Microsoft, which could be either pretty cool or a complete disaster.
Untitled Art
December 4–8 | untitledartfairs.com
Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Miami Beach, Florida
Plunked right on the sands of South Beach, Untitled Art is a breezy fair that feels less claustrophobic than others. This year’s theme is “East Meets West,” with more exhibitors than ever before from Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa, and the Asia-Pacific Region. I’m itching to see Huang Baoying’s paintings in person; the artist’s dreamlike explorations of family, nostalgia, and diasporic life will be shown in a solo booth presented by the Hong Kong-based MOU Projects.
New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA)
December 3–7 | newartdealers.org
Ice Palace Studios, 1400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida
NADA returns for its 22nd Miami edition with over 150 exhibitors from 37 countries. Nefeli Papadimouli’s paper, textile, and leather sculptures — such as the oddly riveting mermaid-esque number pictured above — are a must-see at Nathalie Karg Gallery’s booth. For the “Curated Spotlight” section, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, the fair tapped Jasmine Wahi, founder of the Project for Empty Space nonprofit in Newark, New Jersey. Her selection of eight galleries spanning Mexico City, Cologne, Philadelphia, Seoul, and beyond will “revel in the reality of difference.”
Open Invitational
December 2–8 | openinvitational.com
140 NE 39th Street, Third Floor, Miami, Florida
Wake up babe — new art fair just dropped! Co-founded by New York dealer David Fierman and arts patron Ross McCalla, the Open Invitational in Miami’s Design District makes its debut this week with 11 US-based galleries and nonprofits focused on artists with disabilities. Its airy space and manageable layout make it a perfect place to find unexpected gems at reasonable prices that even I, an arts journalist, can afford.
Prizm
December 3–7 | prizm.art
Ice Palace West Studio, 71 NW 14th Street, Miami, Florida
This annual show dedicated to artists from Africa and its diaspora is back with a thematic focus on the “architecture of liberation,” plumbing the manifold ways in which art, design, and the built environment have influenced social justice movements. Prizm also has one of the more interesting program line-ups of this week’s fairs — less predictable art-market panels and more thoughtfully curated events, like a free screening of Rosalynde LeBlanc’s documentary Can You Bring It: Bill T.Jones and D-Man in the Waters (2020) on Saturday, December 7 (RSVP here).
Art Miami + CONTEXT Art Miami
December 3–8 | artmiami.com
One Herald Plaza (NE 14th Street and Biscayne Bay), Miami, Florida
Here’s a fun Miami art history fact you can use to break the ice at a stuffy cocktail party this week: Contrary to popular belief, Art Miami — and not Art Basel — is the city’s longest-running contemporary art fair, dating back all the way to 1989. Along with its sister show, CONTEXT Art Miami, it presents a gargantuan selection of art from around the world, such as Kenny Nguyen’s “deconstructed paintings” made of hundreds of silk strips, pictured above.
Ink Miami
December 3–8 | inkartfair.com
Suites of Dorchester, 1850 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
Not to be confused with the famous tattoo shop, this fair showcasing works on paper takes place in an open-air courtyard, a pleasant break from Art Basel’s mammoth Convention Center — and it’s completely free. You can also reserve complimentary tickets for the playfully named “Pulp Party” on Thursday, December 5 from 7pm to 9pm.
More Fairs:
Design Miami
December 3–8 | designmiami.com
Convention Center Drive and 19th Street, Miami Beach
SCOPE Miami Beach
December 3–8 | scope-art.com
801 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach
Aqua Art Miami
December 4–8 | aquaartmiami.com
Aqua Hotel, 1530 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
Fridge Art Fair
December 3–8 | fridgeartfair.com
Various locations in Miami Beach, see website for details
Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years
The Bass Museum of Art, 2100 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
Through August 17, 2025
South Florida native Rachel Feinstein explores the region’s perpetual contradictions — natural beauty and climate disaster, refuge and overdevelopment — in this exhibition spanning nearly 30 years of her work. The show is anchored by the newly commissioned 30-foot installation “Panorama of Miami” (2024), a quasi-apocalyptic vision of architectural glory and ruin featuring Miami “landmarks” such as the Hotel Breakwater on South Beach and the ill-fated Miami Seaquarium.
Elyla: Tierra Retumbante
KDR305 Gallery, 790 NW 22nd Street, Miami, Florida
Through January 11, 2025
In their moving exploration of mestizaje in Nicaragua, artist Elyla deconstructs the various ways in which this classification both encompasses and flattens the complexity of identity. The video installation “Tierra Retumbante” (2024) channels the ardor and symbolism of the Masaya Volcano, a caldera south of Managua that represents a fusion of past and present, blending elements of the post-colonial Nicaraguan satirical drama El Güegüense and the history of LGBTQ+ rights in the nation.
Natalia Chavarria: Cuando Caigo del Cielo
Baker—Hall, 101 NW 79 Street, Unit A, Miami, Florida
Through December 21
Mexico-born, Miami-based artist Natalia Chavarria finds inspiration in the fleeting wonders of nature, from the ripples of a feather gently landing on a stream to a handful of autumn leaves dancing in the air. The soft, hazy surfaces of her paintings are the result of an airbrush technique that allows her to capture these quietly captivating vignettes.
Rose B. Simpson and vanessa german: IT INCLUDES EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS
Nova Southeastern University Art Museum, One East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Through April 13, 2025
This exhibition explores the cross-pollinations and mutual influences of two distinct artists who share a deep intuition and social awareness. Simpson articulates her connections to Native land and ancestral history primarily through the material of clay from New Mexico, while german harnesses found objects to craft monumental sculptures inspired by the Nkisi N’kondi figures of the Kongo peoples from whom she descended. Embedded in both of these practices is a concern for the dynamics of marginalization and art’s potential to empower.
José Parlá: Homecoming
Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida
Through July 6, 2025
José Parlá builds up his monumental abstractions in a dynamic process that involves gestural mark-making, layering, erasing, and repeating. The results are mighty, textured canvases featuring collage elements that pay energetic homages to the artist’s passions for music, dance, and graffiti. This show, the first solo museum presentation in Parlá’s hometown, includes a site-specific mural painted in real-time in October and a recreation of the artist’s Brooklyn studio, complete with a Cuban-inspired record collection and personal objects.
Billie Zangewa: Field of Dreams
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, 10975 SW 17th Street, Miami, Florida
Through April 13, 2025
Billie Zangewa’s collage tapestries are hand-stitched using fragments of raw silk in an evocation of themes of reuse and reclaiming. This exhibition of recent works, first presented as part of SITE Santa Fe, signals a shift away from the artist’s earlier domestic scenes and toward more universal, existential, and sociopolitical sensibilities. Through the addition of antiqued beveled mirrors, Zangewa constructs a harmonious environment of dialogue and reflection.
Women Photographers—Shared Documentary Narratives
HistoryMiami Museum, 101 West Flagler Street, Miami, Florida
Through May 4, 2025
The works of three eminent women photographers from South Florida — Maggie Steber, Silvia Lizama, and Peggy Nolan — are paired with those of three young artists who consider them their mentors — Elisa Benedetti, RemiJin Camping, and Sofia Valiente, respectively — in this intergenerational show. Centering quintessential Miami themes, moments, and places, the exhibition celebrates the city’s rich visual and photographic history.
More Exhibitions:
Ross Caliendo: Twin Habit
Ross + Kramer Miami Beach, 1910 Alton Road, Miami Beach, Florida
December 3–January 18, 2025
Glenda León: Only Lovers
Galería La Cometa, 1015 NW 23rd Street, Unit 2, Miami, Florida
Through February 8, 2025
Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, “Banned Pending Investigation”
Zilberman Gallery, 25 NE 39th Street, Miami, Florida
December 4, 7pm
In this public performance, Miami natives Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares examine the alarming rise of book bans in Florida, which had over 4,500 titles prohibited in the 2023–2024 school year alone. Local high school students will collaborate with the artists to build a wall of historically and presently banned books that they will then run through as a way of symbolically and physically dismantling this barrier. The performance is in dialogue with the gallery’s ongoing group exhibition Truth, Old Past, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud.
Nicholas Galanin, “Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente)”
Faena Art, 3201 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
Through December 8
Tlingit/Unangax̂ artist Nicholas Galanin’s colossal installation “Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente)” emerges from the sands of Faena Beach this week. The 45-foot-tall recreation of a Spanish galleon’s masts and sails features spray-painted questions meant to stir reflections about the occupation of Indigenous land and resource extraction.
“Elements of Being”
The Carter Project, 3333 NW 6th Avenue, Miami, Florida
December 7 and 8, 12pm–5pm
Produced in partnership with activist artist Diana Wege’s WOVEN nonprofit and Artists In Residence In Everglades (AIRIE), this video installation is described as a “multisensory experience” that addresses ecological crises and the possibilities of environmental justice. The public is invited to view the work at artist Christopher Carter’s home, studio, and exhibition space in Miami’s North Wynwood neighborhood.
