Installation view, José Parlá: Homecoming at Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2024.
Photo: WordRedEye. Courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami
10 Must-See Museum and Gallery Shows During Art Basel Miami Beach
From José Parla’s massive murals at Pérez Art Museum to Patrick Dean Hubbell’s paintings incorporating patterns and symbols from the Navajo Nation.
Though Art Basel Miami Beach and scores of satellite fairs are the main attractions of Miami Art Week, the local art institutions and galleries always rise to the occasion by presenting their best exhibitions of the year during the week of the fairs.
We’ve rounded up 10 not-to-be-missed museum and gallery exhibitions, ranging from a solo homecoming for Miami-born artist José Parlá at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and emerging British painter Vanessa Raw’s American debut at the Rubell Museum to Patrick Dean Hubbell’s paintings incorporating patterns and symbols from the Navajo Nation at Nina Johnson and a group show shining a light on talented artists from the Asian diaspora at David Castillo. These are our picks for the top shows to see during Miami Art Week.
José Parlá, American Mindscape, 2024. Photo: Courtesy the artist and Parlá Studios
1. José Parlá at the Pérez Art Museum Miami
A Cuban-American artist born in Miami and based in Brooklyn, José Parlá makes paintings and sculptures that are abstract in nature and realistic in the way that they represent deteriorating walls in urban environments. Exhibiting internationally since 2002 and widely collected, Parlá is equally renowned for his massive murals, which can be seen in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barclays Center, and One World Trade Center. Returning to his roots for his first solo museum show in Miami, Parlá set up a studio in the museum to paint a massive site-specific mural. His paint-covered tables, Cuban-inspired record collection, and decades of archival memorabilia are accompanied by a suite of recent canvases, including several incorporating collaged posters that were once posted on the city’s walls.
Larry Rivers, The Second Greatest Homosexual, 1965. Photo: Courtesy the Larry Rivers Foundation
2. Mirror of the Mind: Figuration in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection at El Espacio 23
Highlighting a diverse range of uses of figuration and portraiture to explore the complexities of the human condition, this lively group exhibition features 150 works in a variety of media created by more than 120 artists. Selected from the collection of philanthropist, entrepreneur, and art collector Jorge M. Pérez, the exhibition is divided into six sections: Belonging, Flesh, Introspection, Perception, Redemption, and Trauma. There are notable paintings by Alvaro Barrington, Willem de Kooning, Anselm Kiefer, A.R. Penck, Larry Rivers, David Salle, and Salman Toor; sculptures by Ivan Argote, Jenny Holzer, Zanele Muholi, Raul de Nieves, and Thomas Price; photographs by Sophie Calle, Gilbert & George, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, and Cindy Sherman; and works on paper by Marcel Dzama, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero; along with colorful works by numerous other celebrated artists.
Song Kun, Self-Portrait: Dragon Girl, 2024. Photo: Courtesy the artist, David Castillo, Miami & Hive Center, Shanghai
3. Alien at David Castillo
A group show shining a light on talented artists from the Asian diaspora, “Alien” features works by more than 40 painters, sculptors, and photographers. The first survey of artists from Asia and of Asian descent in Miami, artworks for the show have been shipped from Antwerp, Austin, Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Brooklyn, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Curated by painter and sculptor Yesiyu Zhao, who was born in China, educated in New York, and lives and works in Brooklyn, the ambitious exhibition was two years in the making. Standout artists in the show include Shuyi Cao, Yuan Fang, Zhang Huan, Yirui Jia, Ho Jae Kim, Song Kun, Sarah Lee, Catalina Ouyang, Hiba Schahbaz, Nadia Waheed, Xiyao Wang, Yuri Yuan, and Ye Qin Zhu, as well as the curator himself and many other emerging talents.
Keiichi Tanaami, Untitled (Collagebook 7_60), circa 1971. Photo: Private Collection, UK. Courtesy of Karma, International.
4. Keiichi Tanaami at Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
A pioneer of Pop Art in Japan, Keiichi Tanaami had a legendary seven-decade career as an art director, experimental filmmaker, animator, and artist. Born in 1936, he was traumatized by the American bombing of Tokyo. He later drew upon his childhood memories of World War II and the impact of the American pop culture he encountered after the war in his colorful paintings, illustrations, sculptures, and films. In 1975, he became the first art director of the Japanese edition of Playboy, which led him to New York for a second time and a visit to Andy Warhol’s Factory—later stating, “Like Warhol, I decided not to limit myself to one medium, to fine art or design only, but instead to explore many different methods.” The first U.S. museum solo exhibition of work by Tanaami, who died at age 88 in August, the exhibition “Memory Collage” tracks the artist’s use of collage to express the complex media landscape of our time through an assortment of spirited works produced between 1965 and 2024.
Mie Yim, Diving Bell, 2021. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Jupiter, Miami Beach.
5. Mie Yim at Jupiter
An abstract painter making figurative references to animals, toys, and manga characters, Mie Yim beautifully blurs the line between abstraction and representation by creating mutant imagery that appears to be in a constant state of flux. Working with oils and pastels, the New York-based artist constructs soft, fuzzy forms that surreally combine cartoons, body parts, and plants. Her first solo show with the gallery—held in collaboration with Villa Magdalena, a young gallery in the Basque coastal city of San Sebastian, and co-curated by its founder, Cy Schnabel—presents 10 large-scale canvases painted between 2021 and 2024. Referencing myths, music, dancing, poetry, and drugs through their titles and expressive visuals, the paintings offer a mashup of the artist’s colorful memories and the animated rhythms that keep her moving forward today.
Installation view, assume vivid astro focus: XI (2024), The Bass Museum of Art.
6. assume vivid astro focus at the Bass Museum of Art
The artist collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) burst onto the art scene in 2001, spreading their love of free expression through provocative, colorful conceptual installations and videos. Led by the São Paulo-based multidisciplinary artist Eli Sudbrack, the collective fuses painting, drawing, photography, film, performance, music, and digital technology into carnivalesque installations, where gender, politics, and cultural codes float freely. Twenty years after producing a socially engaging, groundbreaking installation in the home of Miami-based art collectors Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, XI, as it was dubbed, has been re-installed at The Bass with some new elements, including a mural that pays tribute to local drag performers. Key to the installation—and an added plus from the original 2004 presentation—is a seven-hour video program, Butch Queen Realness with a Twist in Pastel Color, which features 93 short videos by artists, pop culture figures, and anonymous contributors who have influenced the collective.
Patrick Dean Hubbell, Your Spirit Always Embraces Me and Cleanses All Of My Human Failures, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Nina Johnson
7. Patrick Dean Hubbell at Nina Johnson
A member of the Navajo Nation, Patrick Dean Hubbell received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021, but he had been exhibiting his work long before returning to school. Best known for his abstract paintings, which combine natural earth pigments from the Navajo Nation—where he continues to live and work—with synthetic oil and acrylic paint, he makes works that investigate Indigenous identity. His second solo exhibition at the gallery, “You Guide Me Through,” presents nearly 20 new paintings that incorporate tribal patterns and symbols while pushing the concept of what a painting can be. Taking the canvas off the traditional stretcher bars, hanging it from staples, and cutting it into reusable strips, Hubbell mixes expressive mark-making with intuitive experimentation to create raw yet commanding results.
Jaime Hayon, Black Vase Sculpture, 2024. Photo: Courtesy Mindy Solomon Gallery.
8. Jaime Hayon at Mindy Solomon Gallery
Exploring animals, fauna, and flora for their pictorial possibilities, Jaime Hayon mines myths, folklore, and art history to create a new series of paintings and sculptures with playful nature motifs. An award-winning Spanish artist and designer celebrated for his designs, interiors, urban installations, sculptures, and paintings, Hayon has been called the “Almodovar of design” for his avant-garde work. First making a splash with his Mediterranean Digital Baroque exhibit, full of fake and plastic characters cavorting in a ceramic forest at David Gill Galleries in London in 2003, the Valencia-based artist has continued to show at galleries and museums while creating products for major commercial brands. His “Bestial” exhibition at the gallery presents seven new paintings of colorful beasts with human traits, eleven vibrant canvases of animated vessels overflowing with flowers, and three handblown Murano glass totem figures, along with a few sculptures in other materials, that come together to form a delightful garden of earthly delights.
Marlon Portales, The Magician Apprentice, 2024. Photo: Courtesy Spinello Projects
9. Marlon Portales at Spinello Projects
A Cuban-born artist living and working in Miami, Marlon Portales creates poetic paintings inspired by his migrations, dreams, nightmares, and intimate relationships. He paints portraits and landscapes and captures his subjects from multiple angles, sometimes combining canvases with different points of view. Making his exhibition debut at the gallery, Portales presents a series of new paintings exploring masculinity, identity, relationships, and eroticism. He makes art historical references to modern masters and classical subject matter and creates dreamlike scenarios with a softly brushed, colorful palette. With mirrored imagery and reflective surfaces, his allegorical pictures capture tales from the past that seem equally symbolic today.
Vanessa Raw, When I talk to the night, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Rubell Museum
10. Vanessa Raw at the Rubell Museum
Fresh off an artist residency at the museum, Vanessa Raw makes her American exhibition review in the Miami Basel spotlight. Raw’s breakthrough moment began in 2022 when she started painting her “escape landscapes,” featuring young female nudes frolicking in lush nature settings. The following year, she was granted a residency at Tracey Emins’ celebrated TKE Studios in Margate, and Emins curated her Artist-to-Artist solo show at Frieze London to popular and critical acclaim. In her Frieze proposal, Emins wrote, “Vanessa’s paintings shock me. I’ve never seen anything like them before…They are beautiful and she can really paint.” A former triathlete, Raw took photographs of the landscapes she uses in her paintings on her practice runs. Filling them with sensual figures in her sumptuous paintings, she now takes spectators on her more personal journey of self-discovery.
Cover: Installation view, José Parlá: Homecoming at Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2024.
Photo: WordRedEye. Courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami
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