6 Must-See Museum Exhibitions During Miami Art Week

With Art Basel Miami Beach returning to the Miami Beach Convention Center for its 23rd edition this week, and several satellite fairs taking place across Greater Miami, local art museums are stepping up by showcasing their best exhibitions of the year.

We’ve highlighted six must-see museum exhibitions, including a 15-year survey of Hiba Schahbaz’s vibrant approach to traditional Indo-Persian miniature painting through a modern feminist lens at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Woody De Othello’s lively anthropomorphic sculptures and abstract paintings at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Yu Nishimura’s ethereal and melancholic paintings that blend everyday scenes with a dreamlike quality at the Rubell Museum. Also featured are Igshaan Adams’s new monumental tapestry installation for ICA Miami’s stairwell, a survey of Jack Pierson’s multidisciplinary practice inspired by his years in Miami at the Bass Museum of Art, and a curated selection of Pop Art paintings and sculptures collected over the years by Martin Z. Margulies at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse.

1. Hiba Schahbaz | Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami

An internationally exhibited Pakistani-American painter known for her evocative works that blend traditional Indo-Persian miniature painting with a modern feminist perspective, Hiba Schahbaz received intensive classical training in miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, before earning her MFA at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 2012. Reclaiming female identity and challenging traditional narratives through self-portraiture and symbolic imagery, the Brooklyn-based artist has expanded her practice to produce both detailed miniatures and large-scale, life-sized works that push the boundaries of the medium. Spanning over 15 years of her artwork, Schahbaz’s first major retrospective, “The Garden,” showcases recurring motifs in her visual language, such as global allegory, a direct feminist gaze, and fantastical beings moving through elemental realms of earth, fire, wind, sky, and sea, along with human architectural interventions. Seen together, these paintings create a setting that draws viewers into the artist’s vast, imaginary worlds.

Through March 16, 2026

2. Woody De Othello |  Pérez Art Museum Miami

A Miami-born artist of Haitian descent, Woody De Othello is celebrated for his ceramic and bronze sculptures of everyday objects, presented through surreal and ethnographic perspectives, where the manipulated figures and objects are believed to hold and release spiritual energies. Over the past decade, as he expanded his practice from small-scale ceramic sculptures of distorted vessels and paintings of figurative subjects to abstractions on paper, anthropomorphic bronzes, and immersive installations of trippy objects, the San Francisco Bay Area-based artist has become an international marvel. Othello’s first solo museum exhibition in his hometown, “Forth by Day,” features a completely new collection of work, including hand-crafted sculptures, mosaic wall art, and a large-scale bronze sculpture. Exploring the fundamental connection between body, earth, and spirit, the immersive installation features grounding elements such as clay-painted walls and delicate herbal scents.

Through June 28, 2026

3. Yu Nishimura | Rubell Museum

A contemporary Japanese painter known for his ethereal and melancholic paintings that blend everyday scenes with a dreamlike quality, Yu Nishimura is captivated by themes of memory and the passage of time. He creates otherworldly portraits, still lifes, and landscapes, drawing inspiration from Japanese street photography, the flattened style of anime, and his suburban surroundings. Since 2016, he has held several solo exhibitions at KAYOKOYUKI in Tokyo and, since 2020, at Crèvecoeur in Paris. In 2024, the Kanagawa-based artist joined the esteemed roster of London’s Sadie Coles and, earlier this year, David Zwirner, with a show at one of its New York locations. Among five artist presentations—including Lorenzo Amos, Joseph Geagan, Rita Letendre, and Ser Serpas, whose work has been acquired by the Rubell—this is Nishimura’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States. It features his distinctive portraits and urban scenes, characterized by semi-blurred forms, overlapping layers, and a muted palette that creates an afterimage effect, evoking fleeting memories or cinematic scenes.

Through Fall 2026

4. Igshaan Adams | ICA Miami

A South African artist working with tapestries, textile-based sculptures, installations, and performances, Igshaan Adams gained international recognition at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 with his large-scale tapestries inspired by the geometric patterns of linoleum floors found in the homes of friends and neighbors throughout Cape Town. Made from fragments of locally sourced wood, plastic, beads, shells, string, and rope, the works are closely linked to commodity trading and community footpaths used during the Apartheid era. Titled “Lulu, Zanele, Zandile, and Savannah,” Adams’s new commission for ICA Miami’s stairwell is a monumental installation that includes four tapestries and a group of the artist’s suspended “dust clouds,” made from carefully twisted wires and other repurposed everyday materials. The tapestries are hung vertically along a three-story stairwell, creating a striking cascade of perspectives depending on where the viewer stands on the stairs. Don’t miss concurrent shows by Joyce Pensato, Richard Hunt, Andreas Schulze, and Masaomi Yasunaga.

Through November 1, 2026

5. Jack Pierson | The Bass Museum of Art

A multidisciplinary American artist, Jack Pierson is widely known for his photography, sculpture, drawing, and text-based installations. His art explores emotional experiences and pop culture, evoking memories, absence, longing, and glamour. Born in Massachusetts in 1960, he rose to prominence in the late 1980s with the “Boston School,” a group of expressive photographers including Nan Goldin and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. His first trip from New York to Miami Beach in 1984 sparked frequent visits, influenced by Miami’s evolving art, fashion, and celebrity scenes. The Bass show, “The Miami Years,” is the first exhibition to highlight how Miami shaped Pierson’s life and work. It showcases his monumental word sculptures, made from found commercial signage and vintage letters; diaristic photos centered on personal stories and queer experiences; drawings and paintings inspired by human emotion; and assemblages and installations—including a new Bass commission that combines ephemeral printed materials with his own photographs and works on paper—which reframe these found elements into emotionally impactful artworks.

Through August 16, 2026

6. Pop Art | The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse

Spanning 33 years from 1959 to 1992, “Pop Art” features nine significant Pop paintings and sculptures from the Margulies Collection, a major private collection of modern and contemporary art, housed in a 50,000-square-foot converted warehouse in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. The exhibition highlights the American movement and emphasizes distinctive works from American history, including a real New York City subway car in George Segal’s Subway (1968), crushed car parts from John Chamberlain’s Dee Dee Bitch (1976), and Roy Lichtenstein’s Hot Dog (1963). Five of Andy Warhol’s 1964 silkscreened grocery packaging boxes and Tom Wesselmann’s Bathtub Collage #6 (1964) further demonstrate the use of readymade objects, while Jasper Johns’ 1959 monochromatic 0-9 painting almost transforms his thick impasto numerals into three-dimensional forms. Two works from the early 1990s also honor significant moments in American history, including James Rosenquist’s 1992 painting of a gift-wrapped doll, which reflects the 1980s AIDS crisis, and George Segal’s Depression Breadline (1991), which evokes a time of scarcity, patience, and perseverance.

Through June 28, 2026