Since 2001, Art Basel Miami Beach has set the stage for a bold glittering collision of culture during the first week of December each year. And it’s still, arguably, the biggest annual art week in the U.S.
Indeed, as Art Basel lands in Miami Beach, the whole city erupts with Miami Art Week: art fairs, museum openings, fashion events, DJ sets, crypto conferences, and every brand activation imaginable.
The NFL, for instance, is setting up an art x football pop-up show in Wynwood. Meanwhile, Sukeban, the Japanese women’s wrestling league, will host a championship fight at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
Even if you’re just focused on the art (like us), you’re spoiled for choice. The beachside fairs pull you east; the museums and galleries on the mainland pull you west. And in the other direction: You can even dive out into the ocean and see REEFLINE, an underwater public sculpture park and hybrid reef.
It’s an exciting abundance, though choosing where to spend your time can be a challenge. The key is not to overdo it, so you can enjoy the art—and appreciate that you’re in a balmy beachside city in December. So here’s a focused selection of 10 key art destinations for Miami Art Week 2025.
You can also save this Google Maps list to your phone, with everything below (and more) to help you navigate on the ground.
1. Art Basel Miami Beach
South Beach | Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Ctr Dr, Miami Beach
The reason for the season, Art Basel Miami Beach brings together the full spectrum of the modern and contemporary art market with more than 280 galleries from around the world. If you haven’t been, it can feel overwhelming—it’s huge. I recommend grabbing a map and heading to a few key sections: Nova, which highlights innovative work made in the past three years; Positions, where you’ll find strong emerging artists and smaller galleries; and Meridians, home to large-scale installations.
As you move toward the center of the fair, you’ll run into the major galleries showing the big names. Give yourself a couple of hours to wander—and take a break for a bite or a beverage when you need it.
2. ICA Miami
Miami Design District | 61 NE 41st Street, Miami
ICA Miami’s Art Week exhibitions always draw a crowd, and one or more typically end up being the most talked-about show of the week. This year, the museum presents five solo exhibitions: Richard Hunt, Joyce Pensato, Andreas Schulze, Masaomi Yasunaga, and Igshaan Adams. The ICA isn’t a giant space, so the shows tend to feel intimate and thoughtful.
I’m especially excited for Igshaan Adams, whose intricate tapestries and cloudlike, suspended sculptures are mesmerizing to experience; and Masaomi Yasunaga, whose incredible ceramic forms—made through a process that combines glaze with minerals, metals, glass powder, and more—look as though they’ve arrived from outer space or prehistoric time.
3. Untitled Art, Miami Beach
South Beach | Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Miami Beach
Set right on the Miami Beach sands, art fair Untitled Art takes place within a crisp white tent where sunshine pours in—I’ve genuinely seen people wear sunglasses inside, for good reason. The fair spans a wide range of emerging and mid-career work. I’m especially excited to see the Artist Spotlight section of solo presentations curated by artist Petra Cortright, and the Nest section for innovative emerging artists curated by London gallerist Jonny Tanna.
Untitled always has a full slate of live events, so you might walk in on dancers around Nicole Cherubini’s site-specific ceramic benches, or artist Kite’s performance inspired by Lakota cosmology and dreams. And after your visit, step out onto the beach and dip your toes in the ocean—it feels wrong to come to Miami and not at least touch the water.
4. The Rubell Museum
Allapattah | 1100 NW 23rd Street, Miami
The Rubells, a major collecting family, have made their museum a must-see during Miami Art Week. Each year they unveil highlights from their renowned collection alongside brand-new works from the annual artist-in-residence—this year, it’s painter Joanna van Son. The museum also presents a survey of American sculptor Thomas Houseago, a commission by Seung Ah Paik, and solo presentations by contemporary names Lorenzo Amos, Joseph Geagan, Rita Letendre, Yu Nishimura, and Ser Serpas.
It’s always a fascinating window into what these influential collectors are paying attention to now—and the scale and range of the presentations never fail to impress. It also happens to be a great place to experience a Yayoi Kusama “Infinity Room” without waiting in a massive line.
If you’re keen to see more private collection spaces, check out the Margulies Collection and El Espacio 23.
5. NADA Miami
Downtown Miami | Ice Palace Studios, 1400 N Miami Avenue, Miami
At the Miami fair of the New Art Dealers Association, you’ll find strong emerging work—especially painting—and galleries that specialize in championing early-career artists. Younger spaces with momentum show in the cozy NADA Projects section, while the main aisles are anchored by veterans with sharp eyes for future art stars. All this makes NADA Miami a go-to for exciting discoveries—and for work at price points that appeal to both new and seasoned collectors.
There’s also a nice, grassy patio with picnic tables outside (and for some reason, there are often chickens running around), a good spot to sit for lunch or meet up with friends.
6. Design Miami
South Beach | Pride Park, 1809 Meridian Ave, Miami Beach
Just beyond the Miami Beach Convention Center, Design Miami pitches its tent each year—yet it’s hardly overshadowed by Art Basel next door. The Miami-born design fair (now a hit in Paris, too) always delivers a visual feast of contemporary and historical designs from top international dealers.
This year is especially exciting as Design Miami celebrates its 20th anniversary. While the 2025 theme, “Make. Believe.,” promises plenty of whimsy and wonder, the fair also debuts Design Miami 2.0—a special project led by the influential curator Glenn Adamson featuring work by eight leading contemporary designers.
For design lovers: I also recommend a stop at The Future Perfect’s dazzling new Miami outpost, Villa Paula, located in Little Haiti.
7. Es Devlin’s Library of Us at Faena Beach
Mid-Beach | Faena Hotel Miami Beach, 3201 Collins Ave, Miami Beach
Acclaimed artist and designer Es Devlin and the Faena Hotel bring a thoughtful public installation-slash-open-air reading room to Miami Beach with Library of Us (2025). This 50-foot-tall revolving library resembles a giant sundial planted directly in the sands of Faena Beach. Devlin has filled the structure with 2,500 books that have inspired her. Passersby can pull a book from the shelves and sit and read along a circular ring of seats that rotates with the piece. Once the week is up, the books will be donated to local schools and libraries.
8. Pérez Art Museum Miami
Downtown Miami | 1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is always a rewarding stop during Art Week. The Herzog & de Meuron building—draped in hanging gardens and perched on Biscayne Bay—is one of the city’s most striking museum settings. And there’s always a show worth visiting there.
This year, I’m eager to see Miami-born artist Woody De Othello’s first solo museum show in his hometown, “coming forth by day.” The exhibition brings together new mosaics and ceramic-and-bronze sculptures that continue his signature approach of channeling human qualities and emotions into everyday objects. Here, he expands his interests into spiritual themes, particularly in the way the show is installed, with walls washed in bright red-orange clay and soft hints of herbal fragrance that fill the air.
9. Spinello Projects
Little River | 2930 NW 7th Avenue, Miami
Lovers under the Blue Cypress, 2025
Marlon Portales
Spinello Projects
Spinello Projects has been a fixture of Miami’s art scene for two decades, known for championing emerging voices and local talent with a program that’s consistently bold and forward looking.
To mark the gallery’s 20th anniversary, founder Anthony Spinello is presenting a special exhibition with works from his personal collection. The show features 15 artists who have been central to the gallery’s trajectory—many Miami-based, including Farley Aguilar, Esaí Alfredo, Reginald O’Neal, Marlon Portales, and Agustina Woodgate—pairing early works with more recent examples. Beyond reflecting on the gallery and the artists it has supported, the exhibition offers a view into Miami’s art community. It’s a meaningful look at the esteemed gallerist’s vision and taste, as well as the broader creative landscape he’s helped shape.
10. Marquez Art Projects
Allapattah | 2395 NW 21st Terrace, Miami, FL 33142
The nonprofit foundation Marquez Art Projects (MAP) is known for giving emerging artists space to debut ambitious solo exhibitions. This year, MAP presents Kat Lyons’s solo debut at a U.S. institution. In her show of paintings, titled “Full Earth,” Lyons turns to Florida’s landscape—especially the Everglades—creating vivid scenes populated by crocodiles, volcanic terrain, and Florida’s wild macaques. The works explore how the natural environment can be a record of memory and change. Drawing on lived experience and wide-ranging research (from scientific to art historical), Lyons brings animals, plants, and the land into scenes that feel both grounded in natural history and deeply uncanny.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/Q3XnEOt
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