Every December, art lovers from around the world descend on Miami for Art Basel. The visually stimulating feast is North America’s biggest international contemporary art fair that showcases works of art from more than 4,000 artists.
While Art Basel is considered the headliner of Miami’s art scene, you haven’t missed out if you didn’t make it to the fair or the glittering parties. With a growing collection of contemporary works, Miami has solidified its reputation as a modern art hot spot year-round, complete with top-notch museums and an ever-evolving street art scene in the Wynwood District that’s gained international recognition.
Ahead, a modern art lover’s guide to Miami.
What to See
The beauty of Miami’s art scene is that you can take it in at a gallery or museum or witness it while strolling the neighborhoods, enjoying the pastel-hued Art Deco buildings accented with neon lights in South Beach or the attention-grabbing murals in Wynwood.
Here’s some must-visits while in town.
A free museum in the heart of Miami’s Design District, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is where you’ll find some of the greatest experiments in contemporary art. Catch the “Betye Saar: Serious Moonlight” exhibit (on display until April 17, 2022), which includes rarely exhibited installations from the 1980s and 1990s created by Saar, a pioneer of Black feminist art. The art is influenced by Saar’s research trips to Haiti, Mexico, and Nigeria in the 1970s and they explore concepts of ritual and community as well as cosmology and African diaspora. Among the eight installations is Oasis (1984) which includes colorful glass orbs in varying sizes and a pink wicker chair studded with candles planted in sand.
Start your street art exploration at the Wynwood Walls, an urban, open-air graffiti museum conceived in 2009 by the late Tony Goldman, an entrepreneur and placemaker with the idea of transforming Wynwood’s large stock of warehouse buildings into giant graffiti canvases. The art-splashed buildings with abstract art and portraits at the 25th-26th Street complex are carefully preserved, but the surrounding neighborhood has a more unpredictable street art scene. Book a tour with Miami’s Best Graffiti Guide and tour the Wynwood murals (on foot, bike, in a buggy) with artists who have a pulse on the neighborhood.
To continue the hip theme of your art itinerary, snag tickets to Superblue Miami, a 30,000-square-foot immersive digital art experience that’s taken over a former warehouse building. Fantastical exhibits include mirror labyrinths and color-saturated digital flower gardens. The exhibit is across from the Rubell Museum, which is one of the world’s largest private collections of contemporary art, with 7,200 works by more than 1,000 artists (and growing). Eighty percent of the 100,000 square-foot campus is publicly accessible.
Where to Stay
Continue your art-centric vacation at the Kimpton Epic Miami, a waterfront hotel that has a new bespoke Artist in Residence Program showcasing the works of local artists. Through December 2022, the hotel’s 16th floor corridor will be a rotating exhibition space featuring original works and live art activations. The current artist in residence is Sophia Wong, who draws inspiration from her cultural background of Jamaican Chinese and Bahamian British for her paintings and mixed media that explore themes of humanity, culture and the journey of finding oneself.
The recently renovated 411-room hotel is located near the Miami River and the Biscayne Bay, and has thoughtful amenities like complimentary yoga mats, European-style cruisers for touring the neighborhood on two wheels, and a pair of pools on the 16th floor with daybeds and private cabanas.
Adding to the “it” factor of the hotel is the on-site presence of Zuma Miami, a Japanese hotspot serving sushi, sashimi, and river views as well as Maison F.P. Journe, which showcases high-end wristwatches and has an outdoor cigar lounge and Bar Journe, a stylish 10-seat rare spirits bar.
Where to Eat
For a memorable brunch or lunch in the Miami Arts District, plates are a work of art at Le Jardinier, which is French for “gardener.” With a greenhouse feel, Michelin-starred Chef Alain Verzeroli's menu is vegetable-forward and rotates with the seasons. A prix-fixe lunch menu comes with choices like pumpkin vichyssoise with grilled honey crisp apples and Florida mahi mahi with roasted cauliflower puree.
One of Miami’s favorite Instagram spots is Area 31, which is located on the 16th floor of the Kimpton Epic and has sparkling city views and overlooks Biscayne Bay. Season cocktails are made with fresh herbs plucked from the restaurant’s garden and seafood dishes including jumbo shrimp, oysters, whole fish fried or grilled as well as steaks.
Or, Osteria Morini has a menu full of meats and cheeses and crave-worthy housemade pastas like cappelletti with truffled ricotta and melted butter or squid ink pasta with shrimp in the torcia nera dish.
