5 Local Artists to Watch Out for During Miami Art Week

Miami Art Week is here, which is great news for the ghosts of Willem de Kooning, Phillip Guston, Andy Warhol, and all the jet-setting collectors who pay top dollar for blue-chip paintings by dead masters.

Oh, I'm not hating — but it does beg the question: What does Art Week do for the undiscovered, emerging, or underrepresented artists who live and work here?

That's entirely up to us to decide as a community. Let's start by recognizing that Miami has a vibrant yearlong art scene in its own right. Then, as we embark on another dizzying visual excursion through Art Basel Miami Beach and its countless satellite art fairs and exhibitions, let's make time for the local talent bringing the heat.

Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares

Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares are both Miami-born artists with multidisciplinary practices that probe heavy philosophical subject matter. While Wright's work examines the extremes of emotion, control, and violence as they relate to systems of power in society, Millares seeks to materially substantiate lofty, abstract concepts like balance and time. The two artists are joining forces during Art Week to present Banned Pending Investigation, an elaborate new performance piece addressing the alarming rise of book bans in the U.S., particularly in Florida, where more than 4,500 titles were banned in 2024. 7 p.m. Wednesday, December 4, at Zilberman Gallery, 25 NE 39th St., Miami; zilbermangallery.com.

Jonlouis Gonzalez

It's only a matter of time before Miami-based Jonlouis Gonzalez's merry astronauts reach iconic status along the lines of Keith Haring's stick figures or Shepard Fairy's Andre the Giant. This might be the year thanks to the New York native's debut at Scope at Stella Gallerie's booth, where several of Gonzalez's pieces will be on display. If you swing by and check out his stuff, you'll get to tell your grandchildren that you saw a great artist emerge before your eyes. Tuesday, December 3, through Sunday, December 8, at Scope Art Show, 801 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach; scope-art.com. Tickets cost $30 to $350.

Magnus Sodamin

Though he was born in New York, the artist Magnus Sodamin is a longtime Miami resident, and one could safely argue that he's the most South Floridian artist on this list. Sodamin paints vividly colorful "sacred altars" to our local flora and fauna inspired by his frequent visits to the Everglades and other remote locations across the Florida landscape. Reflections of Florida Wild sees the artist pivoting from painting to found-object and sculptural works for a site-specific installation commissioned by the City of Miami Beach and the Miami Beach Convention and Visitors Authority. On view through Sunday, December 7, at Casa Faena, 3500 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; faenaart.org.

Purvis Young

If Jean-Michel Basquiat's work can continue commanding some of the highest bids at auction nearly four decades after his death, there's no reason why the late, great Purvis Young (1943-2010) should remain obscure in his own city during Art Week. Young was a celebrated artist of Bahamian descent born in Liberty City and raised in Overtown. And like Basquiat in New York, he gleaned his aesthetics from street art in the late 1970s to shed light on the struggles of Miami's marginalized communities with a bold, neo-expressionist fervor. On Sunday, December 8, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center will be holding a preview of its upcoming exhibition, "Brushes With the Street: The Art of Purvis Young." 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, December 8, through March 30, 2025, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, 6767 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne; biscaynenaturecenter.org.

Zoe Schweiger

This list wouldn't be complete without at least one local artist opening their studio to the public during Art Week. Born and raised in Miami, Zoe Schweiger is a recent recipient of the Miami Individual Artists (MIA) grants program, whose wonderfully fluid figurative paintings highlight queer relationships within the context of the Anthropocene. Her warm color palette, she says, is reminiscent of algae blooms, sunsets, and wildfires, serving as an alarm for the plight of global warming. 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday, December 5, at Bakehouse Art Complex, 561 NW 32nd St., Miami; bacfl.org.