Where Art & Design Insiders Go to Unwind During Art Basel Miami Beach

Forty Five Ten Boutique in Miami. Photo: Courtesy of Forty Five Ten

1. Peggy Leboeuf, partner at Perrotin

“I enjoy exploring the new Faena Bazaar, Miami Beach’s design destination that showcases a range of great designers as well as public programming. I love stopping in the many beautiful stores and galleries in Wynwood, in particular Cathy Vedovi’s The M Building, designed by Chad Oppenheim, which houses five gallery spaces including a permanent formal living room and garden terrace design by Chahan Minassian.

For cool emerging designers, I adore Kristen Cole’s store Forty Five Ten. Some of my favorite restaurants right now are Pharrell Williams & David Grutman’s utterly chic Swan, as well as Vista, which has a stylish rooftop bar and frequent live music.”

The pool at the Standard hotel. Photo: Courtesy of the Standard

2. Valentine Uhovski, CEO of Paddle8

“I never do a trip to Miami without a visit to Ola. They simply make the best ceviche in the country—you can’t go wrong with the one called Fire and Ice!—and other splendid dishes like fufu and their ungodly delicious meatballs.

Joe’s Stone Crab is fantastic, but Joe’s Take Away is how you play the game. Fried chicken and lobster reuben in ten minutes beats any four-hour art dinner.

The hammam spa at The Standard is the reason I’ve stayed at the hotel for over a decade. Twenty minutes restores you to the core. But my most vivid memory was Solange judging a 2am fashion walk-off contest there while the tubs overflowed with champagne!”

Recommended: The Top Fairs, Exhibitions, and Pop-Ups to See in Miami

“Babitonga” settee in pequi wood by Hugo França at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Photo: Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

3. Zesty Meyers, director of R&Company  

“My favorite place to escape in Miami is Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which has the most amazing collection of tropical plants and rare trees. We organized an exhibition of Brazilian designer Hugo França there in 2013, and it was the perfect setting to showcase his organic works.”

Tierra Santa Healing House at the Faena. Photo: Courtesy of the Faena

4. Zoe Lukov, Chief Curator of Faena Art

“My recommendations for surviving Miami Art Week would be a visit to the Tierra Santa Healing House spa at the Faena Hotel. The hammam is so rejuvenating, just 30 minutes there will restore you after a week of overdoing it!

During the day, I try to take meetings on the beach whenever possible, and at night the Blind Barber is the chicest place to meet over a drink.”

Elmgreen & Dragset, Bent Pool (2019), commissioned by the City of Miami Beach’s Art in Public Places Program.  Photo: Mike Butler

5. Artists Elmgreen & Dragset

“The amazing thing with Miami is that you can see high quality outdoor sculptures for free all over the city before you’ve even entered the fairs or museums. There’s Ugo Rondinone’s Miami Mountain (2016) outside the Bass Museum, Isamu Noguchi’s Slide Mantra (1986) by downtown in Bayfront Park, and Roy Lichtenstein’s Mermaid (1979) outside the Fillmore Theater, to name a few!

Our own Bent Pool is now up in Pride Park, and there are other new commissions by the likes of Franz Ackermann, Ellen Harvey, and Sarah Morris to see. Afterwards, grab an empanada or donburi at one of the many inexpensive street food places and use your pocket money on a fun night out at The Twist where the queer part of the art world go to let their hair down.”

The Living Room at the Faena.

6. Franklin Sirmans, director of PAMM 

“My new favorite bar and hangout is Tomorrowland Miami on our side of the Bay. It has excellent food and cocktails with the great music. Old school hip hop is in heavy rotation with Afrobeats.

There is nothing like tucking into some at oysters at Migonette on NE 2nd Avenue, located in a former 1930s gas station. You can go back and forth and not miss a beat.

On the beach, the Living Room at Faena never disappoints, and don’t miss coffee at Panther in Wynwood with a host of new murals. And if you really need to get away, grab a bike or a kayak at Oleta River State Park!”

The newly designed Raleigh Garden is filled with surreal sculptures by Les Lalannes.

7. Nahema Mehta, CEO of Absolut Art Platform 

I love escaping Miami’s convention center crowds to enjoy the city’s lush greenery. This year I plan on wandering the newly designed Raleigh Garden, which I’ve heard is filled with surreal sculptures by Les Lalannes in a tropical, beach-side setting  designed by Peter Marino, with Miami landscape designer, Raymond Jungles. I’ll also head to Little River on Tuesday afternoon for a collaging workshop Absolut Art is hosting with Forty Five Ten and James Thomas. After being inspired by all the fairs, it’ll be nice to actually make a piece of art!”

An installation view of Ernesto Neto’s work at the Margulies Collection Photo: Margulies Collection

8. Ralph Pucci

“No trip to Miami is complete without a visit to the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, an expansive arts warehouse filled with Martin Margulies’s personal art collection, and I love going to the Rubell Family Collection, which is moving to a new museum space in Allapattah.

I recharge by sitting in the courtyard for a delicious Italian meal at Dōma, a restaurant that focuses on Southern Italian cuisine in the Wynwood area.”

Mickalene Thomas’s “Better Days” installation, was on view during Art Basel in Switzerland. Photo: Courtesy of Mickalene Thomas and Roberto Chamorro

9. Adam Lindemann, collector and founder of Venus Over Manhattan 

“This year, you will find me hanging out at the special pop-up bar devised by Mickalene Thomas at the Bass Museum entitled “Better Nights.” Mickalene did a great one in Basel, Switzerland a few years back where Maurizio Cattelan and I ended up hanging out until 2am… I can’t wait to see this new installation. See you there!”