Visual Arts

On the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami’s third floor, visitors are greeted by two nearly identical paintings by one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century. They depict the same image — an artist drawing a woman in his studio — and make use of the same vibrant color palette. A viewer can notice subtle distinctions in the lines and shapes used to build the scenes. But the style is impossible to confuse with any other artist’s: They were painted by Pablo Picasso.

Museums, institutions that preserve and produce culture, walk a tightrope of accessibility and excellence. They seek to attract a steady and wide-reaching audience while presenting compelling artwork that’s relevant to a broader conversation on art and its trends. Art Basel Miami Beach, one of the largest fine-art exhibitions in the…

Antonia Wright knows a thing or two about visceral experiences, and now she wants to put the spectator through one. The Miami-based performance artist has rolled naked in dingy, garbage-strewn alleys, walked thin ice to submerge herself in freezing water, and used her nude body as a force to burst through glass.

Haven’t stepped foot in a gallery or museum in months? That will probably change next week when the art world descends on Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach and the surrounding Miami Art Week activities. While some see Art Basel and its satellite fairs as a glorified flea market, it’s still…

In September, as Hurricane Irma barreled toward South Florida after killing nearly a dozen people across the Caribbean, Art Basel Miami Beach released its list of gallery exhibitors for December 2017. Some critics, including New Times, questioned the timing and tone of the announcement.

Any given night, a stroll through the streets of downtown Miami feels like a walk through a dystopian wasteland. Abandoned storefronts in forgotten buildings line dimly lit sidewalks; displaced bodies litter alleyways, their makeshift bedrooms haphazardly strewn under overhangs. It’s not hard to imagine the area as the scene of a futuristic nightmare despite the best intentions of city officials and developers aiming to make downtown the next epicenter of luxury in Miami.

Do you remember 2014, when Art Basel reached peak internet virility after Usher charged his phone using just the power of the female sexual organ? At the time, artist Lena Marquise gave New Times a cryptic interview about the performance piece, Body as Commodity. Three years later, she hopes to dispel some of the misconceptions about her work through her installation Vagina Chapel at Satellite Art Show.

Get ready, Miami: We’re about to get Art Basel all up in us in the coming days, and it’s going to be glorious. The main event doesn’t kick off until December 7, but art lovers in the know will be taking advantage of all of the fair’s satellite spoils as early as this Thursday.

David LaChapelle’s I Walk Out of My Prison depicts Miley Cyrus as a naked, technicolor butterfly with wings spread and arms open in a Christ-like gesture. But as with much of LaChapelle’s work, the photograph is paired with a juxtaposing image — in this case, Solitary. Cyrus is captured in the same room, still naked but in starkly real color, on her knees and reaching desperately for light pouring through a window.

There’s a new airline for art enthusiasts fortunate enough to jet-set but not financially equipped to fly private. Angelhaha Airline, the “first-ever artist airline,” is a performance project/business venture by Chinese artist Qinmin Liu, who wants to manicure the entire in-flight experience, from the safety demonstration down to the smell of its recycled air.

If you’ve always thought your yoga-toned bod would look that much hotter with an original work of art, this could be your moment. Renowned tattoo artist Thea Duskin will offer Aqua Art Miami attendees the chance to acquire a one-off, single-session tattoo at Ghostprint Gallery December 6 through 10. But you might need to queue up: Priced at $500, the sessions are first come, first served.

Thousands of off-white teeth adorn masks, shoes, and codpieces in the artist duo Fantich & Young’s installation Apex Predator | Darwinian Voodoo. Presenting itself as a luxury lifestyle boutique, the conceptual pop-up merges consumer goods and postmortem objects in a macabre comment on capitalism, inequality, and the “survival of the fittest” principle often espoused by people in power.

For the past three decades, Art Miami has established itself as an indispensable fair during Miami Art Week. While heavy-hitters such as Art Basel, Design Miami, Scope, and Untitled have monopolized Miami Beach, Art Miami and its sister fair, Context Art Miami, have commanded the streets of midtown for the past nine years.

Gary Nader plans to sell $100 million worth of art come December to build a Latin American art museum in downtown Miami.

When the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) opens its new permanent location in the Design District, you might be struck by the beautiful, geometric south façade or the sculpture garden out back. But the biggest surprise comes at the museum door: Admission is free. “We’ve made a commitment and a…

Since the Swiss art fair Art Basel launched a sister show in South Florida, the event has been held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. That won’t change anytime soon. Art Basel and the City of Miami Beach announced today they have agreed to a new, five-year lease, which will keep Art Basel Miami Beach coming back to the convention center through 2023.

This morning, Art Basel Miami Beach announced its gallery exhibitors at this December’s massive fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center. In any other year, this would be an expected move by Art Basel; the fair usually releases its exhibitor list in early September. But today’s announcement comes as Art…

In 2014, the German-born, Miami-based artist Dara Friedman’s film about a local man, Ishmael Bermudez, earned a showing at Art Basel Miami Beach. The film followed Bermudez, a character who lives on a valuable plot of land in the Brickell area, where he believes archaeological remnants of an ancient native…

Every Miamian has a story of heartbreak, and some preserve that loss in relics: maybe you’ve been hanging on to that old mix tape, t-shirt, or confessional recording on the Power Love Hour. But in holding on to these keepsakes, are you ever really letting go? Does creating a monument…

Last night, New Times editor Chuck Strouse announced this year’s winners of the paper’s annual MasterMind Awards: artists Asif Farooq and Antonia Wright and cultural collective Miami Music Club. Culled from a competitive pool of talent comprising nine creatives, the winners gathered with other finalists at Artopia, an annual arts showcase held at the Coral Gables Museum.

Oliver Sanchez deserves a lifetime achievement award for his artistic contributions. For more than 50 years, Sanchez has been a fixture in Miami’s Design District. As the founder of Swampspace — a contemporary art space he founded in 2008 that is dedicated to providing an alternative venue to commercial galleries for artists — Sanchez has done more than merely contribute his art to the art community; he’s continually done his part to keep that community healthy, self-sustaining, and afloat.

The finalists in New Times’ eighth-annual MasterMind Awards are a diverse bunch, representing the best locally created culture in South Florida. A group of editors and critics chose these nine talents from a pool of more than 80 applicants. The three winners, who will each receive a $750 grant, will…