Visual Arts

They say life imitates art. But is it the other way around? Or is it a complex back-and-forth? Get a look at this new photo series, and you’ll seriously consider those questions.

You might have been partying the past couple of nights, but today is the official kickoff of Art Basel. The RSVPs, the art overload, and, yes, the traffic are about to get real. Pop a Xanax for that road rage and get ready for today’s best events.

There’s always one work on display that defines each year’s Miami Art Week. In 2011, it was performance artist Miru Kim living in a literal pigsty at Primary Projects. In 2014, it was Spinello Projects’ woman-centric exhibit “Auto Body.” This year, the work on everyone’s mind…

What do the Beatles, Pussy Riot, and surfers have in common? The minds and hands of artists Tomas Vu and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The artist duo will premiere its grand-scale, seemingly outrageous, but politically charged and deeply personal installation, Do We Dream Under the Same Sky, at the Untitled art fair today.

Art Basel begins tomorrow, and that means traffic in this city is about to go absolutely nuts. But don’t worry — even if an extra 150,000 cars a day will try to cross the MacArthur Causeway, Austin musician Steve Parker has an art project that will let you make music out of the vehicular tumult.

Art Basel is upon us, which means all sorts of cool, interesting, weird, shocking, and downright breathtaking art will soon be splashed across town for all the world to see. If you can imagine it, it’s probably represented somewhere during Miami Art Week. And one booth at the art fair Spectrum Miami aims to set your imagination ablaze — with weed.

The New York-based sculptor/musician/performance artist Naama Tsabar is no stranger to Art Basel Miami Beach. Asked how many times she has been in the official show, she offhandedly says, “I think three.” But this year, Tsabar will take part in two Art Basel Miami Beach exhibitions, one a performance…

Basel Wednesday is a day of openings. At fairs, museums, galleries, and hotels, the art exhibits that’ll entertain Miami Art Week browsers through the rest of the week are debuting — often with swanky parties. Here are a few you won’t want to miss.

Cheech Marin, famously one-half of the iconic duo Cheech & Chong, is coming to town with his stash — of art and tequila, that is. That might not be the stash you were expecting, but it’s definitely an interesting reason to get out and meet a comedy legend.

Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) is one of the most anticipated events in the art world, but oftentimes it’s the fashion at the fair that takes center stage. Being street-style-ready is often as crucial as touring Basel’s satellite fairs and cruising the museums, and style mavens come prepared. But they also come ready to be inspired…

This year, local fashion fiends can kick off Miami Art Week with the pop of a champagne and the sparkle of a runway. At Art Loves Fashion, the opening event for Spectrum Miami, waifish models will strut down the catwalk in garments made by international designers while artist Ian Lantz displays interactive artwork and Caribbean pop superstar Tebby provides the soundtrack.

Jimena Guijarro says she was “born into the art world.” The fresh-faced 26-year-old, tall and poised beyond her years, spent her early life watching her gallerist father grow his business into one of Mexico City’s most prominent institutions for discovering emerging Latin American talent. Moving to Miami in 2009, Guijarro…

Huffer Collective’s shrine to Miami will blow the lights out this Basel. Literally. At the opening of Save Your Selves, the group’s intricately stacked pile of personal detritus, found objects, lights, and video displays keeps blowing a fuse. As the lights dim, artist David Anasagasti, better known as Ahol Sniffs…

In a year dominated by distrust, outrage, and a widening gap between American people of differing ideologies, the art on view during Miami Art Week is more important now than ever. At galleries across Miami, artists are expressing their truths, inspiring discussions, and offering new perspectives — whether their work…

Amid the frenzied art-gazing and party-hopping of Art Basel Miami Beach, local artists have often felt forgotten. High-profile art fairs and museum exhibitions often import their headliners from abroad, leaving the Miami art scene struggling to draw moneyed spectators and the art-world elite. Jorge Luis Gutierrez has vowed to change…

Every year, toward the end of November, the streets of Wynwood start crawling with dudes carrying ladders and ladies driving scissor lifts. The back alleys ring with the rattle of spray paint cans. Paint-splattered figures crouch and assess the walls, eyes squinting above kerchief-masked faces. Miami Art Week ushers in…

Glitz, gluttony, and great art: That’s Miami Art Week, where thousands of collectors, curators, critics, and fans flock to dozens of art fairs throughout the city. In the 15 years since Art Basel launched its first Miami Beach convention, satellite fairs in standalone tents, swanky hotels, and echoing warehouses have…

Oh, you thought you had a few more days before Baselmania sets in? You thought wrong. Though the main fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center doesn’t begin until Thursday, plenty of other arts events are taking advantage of the relative calm around town to host their own exhibits, parties, and more. If you want a taste of Miami Art Week with minimal traffic, today is your chance.

It’s only the beginning of Miami Art Week, and already there’s big news: after 23 years, the Rubell Family Collection is moving out of Wynwood. The RFC announced today its plans to move to a new museum in Allapattah in 2018. Director Juan Valadez said the decision to leave its…

Every year, Art Basel Miami Beach descends upon the Magic City, bringing along with it a host of satellite fairs and an invading army of well-dressed tourists. Swanky parties hosted by luxury fashion houses, overwhelmingly branded VIP events and crowded pushing among partygoers is par for the course at Miami…

Last weekend, as local Cubans celebrated the death of Fidel Castro, construction workers at Museum Park built a symbolic link between Miami and Havana. Artist Juan Garaizabal’s 69-foot stainless-steel sculpture, titled Havana’s Balcony, or Balcón de la Habana, had already been in the works for weeks. But when the piece lights up for the first time this evening, there’ll be an added layer of resonance.

Feeling a little nostalgic about the eight-year tenure President Barak Obama is about to complete? Trying to get your mind off the pumpkin-colored, foulmouthed Twitter troll that’s set to take his place in office? Beginning this week, Miami has just the thing to bring back a smile, if even temporary, to your face.