10 Best Miami Art Exhibitions of 2024

Miami's art scene has reached a tipping point. This year, as political turbulence rocked the world and conservatives dominated at the polls, the city's art patrons showed artists and institutions that their support was conditional. Censorship scandals rocked two major local institutions, with artists censored over perceived connection to Palestine or its people. At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, curatorial staff complied with demands to remove a portrait by Charles Gaines depicting Palestinian-American statesman and scholar Edward Said. At Oolite Arts, the board moved similarly to remove an artist's installation supporting Palestinian liberation, leading to a boycott from its own resident artists and the cancellation of grants.

Artists have said that such censorship will have a chilling effect, forcing creative people to flee the state. But another factor may be even more influential: Gov. Ron DeSantis' devastating budget cuts, which he foisted upon the arts sector as part of his "war on woke" crackdown against LGBTQ culture. Hundreds of organizations have lost funding as a result of these cuts.

This repressive climate is part of the reason compiling this list of the year's best art shows was so difficult, especially given the strong year in art. Personal feelings had to be left to the side as we considered the best the city had to offer. I could not leave out certain offending institutions if their shows were impressive enough — to do so would make me hypocritical.

Read on to discover the best art exhibitions in Miami in 2024, and reflect on the fact that, the way things are going, we may not see art of this caliber here again — whether or not we even deserve it.

"Akira: Architecture of Neo-Tokyo" at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

Akira is one of the greatest films ever made, animated or otherwise, and this incredible exhibition at the Morikami Museum allowed us to get closer than ever to the film's magnificently detailed cyberpunk dystopia. Far more than a mere movie tie-in, "Architecture of Neo-Tokyo" showed how remarkable the craft of traditional animation is, giving viewers a window into processes that have been sadly left behind in the shift to digital production in anime. Far from mere commercial illustrations, these images are staggering works of art in their own right, and together, they form a monument to the art form of animation itself. It's a feat of curation that the Morikami was able to put them all in the same room.

"Belkis Ayón" at David Castillo

Underseen for decades, the late Afro-Cuban artist Belkis Ayón's work has entered major museums and influential collections worldwide in recent years. A show of her work at David Castillo earlier this year provided a wonderfully comprehensive look at her practice. In a series of mysterious, beguiling black-and-white prints, Ayón delves into the mythologies and symbols of the Abakuá secret societies on the island. One look at these images, and you'll feel their mystical power.

"Constructive Arguments: Aesthetic Dialogues with the Work of Lynne Golob Gelfman" at Lincoln Road Mall

Don't be fooled by its location in a vacant Lincoln Road storefront – "Constructive Arguments" is a major, museum-level show for the late Gelfman, one of Miami's most beloved abstract artists. Organized by the painter's family, the show puts her marvelous gridded paintings in conversation with those of her friends and acolytes. There's a piece by Loriel Beltran that directly mirrors the rows of little triangles she used as her primary motif, as well as collabs between Gelfman and Frances Trombly. It's Gelfman's work that shines brightest, with her use of color highlighted in particular in several remarkable, almost psychedelic canvases.

"Invisible Luggage" at the Historic Hampton House

One year after its first Miami Art Week show, the Historic Hampton House furthered the case for itself as a destination for contemporary art with this impressively curated group show. Riffing on the museum's former Green Book hotel status to discuss the travels we make and the things we carry along the way, "Invisible Luggage" felt like a journey in and of itself. Its curation impressed as well, with major artists such as Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, Frank Bowling, and Marina Abramović shown next to work by prominent locals (Tomm El-Saieh, Joel Gaitan) and important emerging voices (Jaume Quick-to-See Smith, Vanessa German). The show's culminating in a room full of paintings by the Highwaymen, whose art drew from their itinerant travels throughout Florida, felt particularly profound.

"Joel Meyerowitz: Temporal Aspects" at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

It was pretty difficult to single out just one show from NSU Art Museum's excellent fall slate, which included impressive shows of paintings from emerging local Cici McMonigle and the late Dutch modernist Jacqueline de Jong. Ultimately, however, it was this career-spanning retrospective of octogenarian photography master Joel Meyerowitz that impressed me the most. The sheer volume of people, places, and scenes captured by the influential Bronx native's camera, including plenty of beautifully nostalgic shots of his travels in Florida, simply astonished.

"José Parlá: Homecoming" at the Pérez Art Museum Miami

Both a tribute to Miami and a statement of survival, "Homecoming" would be one of the best shows of the year, even without being anchored by the powerful story of Miami-raised Parlá's life-threatening struggle with COVID-19. The painter's calligraphy-influenced abstractions and use of collage look acrobatic and fluid on his canvases, but they proved even more impressive after Parlá took his studio into the museum in a series of performative painting sessions for the general public – a rare treat from an artist who grew up making art exclusively in public spaces.

"Keiichi Tanaami: Memory Collage" at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami

A show as wild and ecstatically overstuffed as the work of its subject, "Memory Collage," compiles decades of work by the famed Japanese artist and designer Keiichi Tanaami, who sadly died earlier this year before he could see the show. With films, prints, paintings, and collages, the curators brilliantly organized Tanaami's influences and major themes, from Warhol's pop art revolution to the bombs of World War II that fell on his home country. The result is a deep look into the mind and life of an iconoclastic artist, famed in Japan but little known in the U.S. until now.

"Lee Pivnik: Chimeras" at Dale Zine

Dade County native Lee Pivnik's eco-futurist mixed-media show at Dale Zine was nothing short of extraordinary. The artist visualized his speculative future flooded Miami, where queer rebels disguise themselves as native fauna and hide in the Everglades to avoid a dystopian surveillance state, with seashell glass photo prints of costumed performers in the swamp and bejeweled animal skulls. As fantastic as Drexciya and radical as LeGuin, "Chimeras" is a fantastically creative response to the current issues.

"Lucia Maman: Temples of Otherness" in the Design District

This show of thoughtfully haunting paintings by Miami-based Argentine Lucia Maman, curated by her countrywoman and fellow artist Luna Palazzolo-Daboul, was probably the biggest surprise of the year. Imagine, set amid the luxury boutiques of the Design District, a gallery full of somber portraits depicting the disabled and deformed, calling into question our shallow preconceptions of biological perfection. Such a show feels downright dangerous in a city as superficial and conservative as Miami.

"Nikita Kadan: The Radial Bone" at Voloshyn Gallery

This thought-provoking show from Ukrainian artist Kadan, who once represented his country at the Venice Biennale, examines the concept of ecocide as it relates to war — as in, what happens to all animals when a country suffers devastation at the hands of humans? With silhouettes of livestock heads buried in craters and sculptural pieces showing farm tools turned into sharp objects hanging above, Kadan's show is a somber, menacing memento mori thrown into an apathetic environment like a grenade. As wars wage around the world, the artist reminds us that everything is connected and that we ignore violence abroad at our own peril.

Honorable Mentions

• "Carlos Alfonso: Legacy" at LnS Gallery: A retrospective of important works from one of Miami's most seminal painters.
• "Hajime Sorayama: Desire Machines" at the Museum of Sex: These robots are a lot more interesting than ChatGPT.
• Manuel Mathieu at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami: A double exhibition from a rising Haitian-born talent.
• Sergio Suarez at KDR: Cosmic visions from the Atlanta-based Mexican artist.
• "Young, Fresh, Different" at Zilberman Gallery: A great showcase of talented local emerging artists.
• "Mirror of the Mind" at El Espacio 23: Fascinating figuration in enormous quant.