The Best of Art Basel Miami Beach Week 2023

Art Basel Miami Beach Fair

Art Basel returned to Miami Beach for its 21st edition.  If week-long day-to-night, bumper-to-bumper traffic jams up and down South Beach and across the causeways could serve as an indicator of success, well, the success was off the charts this year.

Art Basel Miami Beach’s influence on the city at large was more evident than ever, with more art week fairs, installations, institutions, art collaboration-driven brand activations and other happenings across the city’s ever-expanding cultural landscape.

Here we bring you a comprehensive round-up of the best that the week had to offer.

Art Basel fair itself brought together 277 leading international galleries - including 25 new participating galleries - across its five sectors, with an overall attendance of 79,000 throughout its VIP and public days.  Taking advantage of its geographical location, the Miami Beach fair served as a gateway to showcasing and championing the best in Latin American and Caribbean art throughout the exhibition spaces.  Art Basel’s Conversations program featured prominent speakers including leading Cuban-born artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons; collector, curator, and philanthropist Estrellita Brodsky; and singer-songwriter, producer, and activist Chance the Rapper.

The 21st edition of the Miami fair saw several seven-digit sales and countless six-figure sales (too many to list here).  Topping the chart of disclosed sales, Hauser & Wirth sold Philip Guston’s “Painter at Night” (1979) for $20 million, David Zwirner reported a Marlene Dumas oil painting titled “The Schoolboys” (1986–87) sold for $9-million, while Miami-based Spinello Projects sold out its solo presentation of Esau Alfredo paintings within the opening hours of VIP preview day, including an acquisition by ICA Miami.  The fair also saw significant museum acquisitions including another acquisition by ICA Miami, an Alicia Adamerovich painting via Michael Kohn Gallery, as well as a Jordan Ann Craig work at Hales Gallery acquired by a prominent U.S. museum.

Notable installations included the first sculptural installation of Miami-based artist, Reginald O’Neal titled “The Cellist” (2023); “Private Collection” (2023), a new sculptural installation by Bay Area-artist Saif Azzuz in the form of a painted fence yard, probing questions of access, the privatization of land, settler colonialism, and Indigenous resilience, presented by Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (New York). “1968: El fuego de las Ideas” (‘1968: The Fire of Ideas’) (2014-2018) by Argentinean artist and human rights activist Marcelo Brodsky; Four sculptures in the form of trophies by Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke reflecting on the exercise and representation of power, in a suite titled Gilt (2022) created for The Met’s historic façade niches and referencing works of art in the museum’s collection, presented by Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, Shanghai, London, New York).

Compatriots (2023), an installation comprised of several large-scale figurative paintings by Julie Buffalohead, Minnesota-based artist and member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, drawing from a symbolic lexicon inspired by the artist’s heritage, was presented by Jessica Silverman (San Francisco); A new installation by American artist Ja’Tovia Gary, featuring a 26-minute film composed of vintage Hollywood imagery, direct animation, original super8 footage, and documentary elements, as well as a recreated domestic environment, responding to Toni Morrison’s seminal 1970 novel The Bluest Eye, presented by Paula Cooper Gallery (New York). 89,911 – An. / 86,054 – Ob. (2021) from Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora’s ‘Ígnea’ series, featuring monochromatic works comprised of hand-carved andesite and obsidian fragments on wood, manipulating materials appreciated by the Mesoamerican peoples for their symbolism and usefulness, presented by Proyectos Monclova (Mexico City).

UBS Art Studio + The UBS Lounge Curated Works 

In its commitment to enriching the art experience for all, UBS, the Global Lead Partner of Art Basel Miami Beach for 21 years since inception, presented both a public exhibition in its namesake “UBS Art Studio” and per usual a curated set of works tucked away within the adjacent VIP’s-only UBS Lounge.  Also for the first time, UBS presented an outdoor installation in SoundScape Park.  

The UBS Lounge featured a triptych painting by Jeffrey Gibson titled “JUST WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT,” which was commissioned by UBS for UBS Arena, the home of the New York Islanders; the triptych was titled after the lyrics of Love Comes Quickly (1986) by the Pet Shop Boys and reflects Gibson’s engagement with music as well as his unique visual language that combines Native American traditions and materials with geometric abstraction. On display alongside Gibson’s work were recent acquisitions by Nick Cave, Awol Erizku, Deana Lawson, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others. 

The UBS Art Studio in partnership with ARTNOIR presented “The Poetics of Dimensions,” a group presentation curated by Larry Ossetian-Mensah, ARTNOIR’s Co-Founder and Curator.  The presentation features works by Anthony Akinbola, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, and Nari Ward, artists who engage in practices that utilize dynamic and accessible materials like durags, felt, shoelaces, and other textiles to create visually arresting art that invites inquiry and discourse and instigates dialogues about history, memory, myth, ritual, and identity.  Taking the presentation beyond the walls of the convention center, a video projection by Julianknxx titled “…encounter?flee (untitled)" was shown on the façade of SoundScape Park WALLCAST alongside the New World Symphony.

UBS and Art Basel together provide nearly 700 students from registered Miami public schools with complimentary tickets to the show.

In celebration of this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, as Global Associate Partner to the Art Basel organization, Louis Vuitton partnered up with Gehry once again to launch a limited-edition range of the maison’s Capucines bags, each of which were designed with an infusion of the architect’s creative twist. 

First introduced in the Fall/Winter 2013 Collection, and originally inspired by Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, the street upon which Louis Vuitton’s first store stood, the Capucines bag has been a mainstay item over the years.

Showcased front and centre at the entrance hall of the Miami Beach Convention Center, the Louis Vuitton booth featured the joint limited-edition Capucines handbags, each of which combines Gehry’s eccentric designs with Louis Vuitton’s savoir-faire, such as the Capucines Mini Blossom with its glass-like resin petals inspired by perfume bottles; the Capucines MM Concrete Pockets with its screen-printed 3D cement effect, and a Capucines MM Floating Fish with leather marquetry inspired by the fish lamps at the Fondation.

The capsule features not only Capucines bags, but also the skewed Twisted Box trunk, and an artful Bear With Us clutch from Gehry’s 2014 Bear with Us sculpture. Another highlight is the “A Tea Party for Louis” trunk, the architect’s distinctive creation for the “200 Trunks, 200 Visionaries” exhibition in 2022, celebrating Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday. Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the trunk is a collection of eight inventive figurines, each one a character from the book and the basis of an imaginary Frank Gehry building.  The booth itself is infused with Frank Gehry architectural details, and light boxes of enlarged versions of the sketches Gehry made in the preliminary exploration and development process of the making of the Capucines bags.

Showcased front and centre at the entrance hall of the Miami Beach Convention Center, the Louis Vuitton booth featured the joint limited-edition Capucines handbags, each of which combines Gehry’s eccentric designs with Louis Vuitton’s savoir-faire, such as the Capucines Mini Blossom with its glass-like resin petals inspired by perfume bottles; the Capucines MM Concrete Pockets with its screen-printed 3D cement effect, and a Capucines MM Floating Fish with leather marquetry inspired by the fish lamps at the Fondation.

The capsule features not only Capucines bags, but also the skewed Twisted Box trunk, and an artful Bear With Us clutch from Gehry’s 2014 Bear with Us sculpture. Another highlight is the “A Tea Party for Louis” trunk, the architect’s distinctive creation for the “200 Trunks, 200 Visionaries” exhibition in 2022, celebrating Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday. Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the trunk is a collection of eight inventive figurines, each one a character from the book and the basis of an imaginary Frank Gehry building.  The booth itself is infused with Frank Gehry architectural details, and light boxes of enlarged versions of the sketches Gehry made in the preliminary exploration and development process of the making of the Capucines bags.

Audemars Piguet Presented "Topography Of Memory" by Sallisa Rosa

Since 2013 when Audemars Piguet joined Art Basel as Global Associate Partner, the luxury house has time and time again led the pack when it comes to exceptional curation and exhibitions with every fair week that has come and gone. With every year that has passed, Audemars Piguet has introduced and showcased some of the most impressive, carefully thought-through and awe inspiring artist presentations, immersive experiences and larger-than-life installations that leave a mark on the memory and universally resonate anyone that have the opportunity to experience them.  Audemars Piguet are best in class in blending the sense of groundedness and heritage with innovation and forward-thinking outlook.

Past Art Basel editions have seen the commissioned works including Theo Jansen, Kurt Hentschläger, Kolkoz, Dan Holdsworth, Robin Meier, Lars Jan, Cheng Ran, Sun Xun, Robin Meier, Quayola, Tomás Saraceno for Aerocene, Jana Winderen, Arin Rungjang, Ryoji Ikeda, Ciao Fei, Alessandra Domanović, Phoebe Hui, Yu ji, Andreas Angelidakis, Alexandra Pirici, Meriden Bennani.

For this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, tucked away inside the Collins Park Rotunda, Audemars Piguet presented “Topography of Memory” by Brazilian artist Sallisa Rosa, and curated by Thiago Paula Rosa.  This is Rosa’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., which will later be presented at the Pinacoteca, the first exhibition in Brazil by Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Rosa, a multidisciplinary artist working across photography, video, performance and installations opted for clay as the primary material for her presentation given its unique connection to the earth, land and territory.  Clay is also a universally relatable material as it is a fundamental material that virtually everyone makes us of or encounters in their everyday life, and it gives an energy of groundedness.  

The “Topography of Memory” immersive installation comprised of over 100 hand-made ceramic forms including totems rising from the ground and hand-made spheres suspended in the air, explores themes of memory, in particular, how memory can be reprogrammed. The environment in which the viewer enters invites ponderance, reflection, meditation and exploration. With this commission, Rosa’s aim is to explore our collective ways of remembering, drawing a parallels between the erosion of the earth and the erosion of memory. She believes ceramics have a symbolic capacity to store memory which can help us to remember, give us cues to recall moments from the past, bringing them to the present.  On a personal level, her presentation is an outward expression of her grappling with piecing together her ancestry, the fading memory of her grandmother who served as the connecting force within her fragmented family history.

For this edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, as one of the fair’s longtime Host Partners, Ruinart has commissioned Eva Jospin for its Carte Blanche program for its onsite lounge.  Guests were invited to sip on glasses of Ruinart’s emblematic cuvées, while immersing themselves in Jospin’s imagined environment come to life: a mineral and vegetal landscape, combining meticulousness and monumental dimension. Through her collection of cardboard sculptures, India ink drawings and embroideries, the French artist created a wandering experience that evokes the Maison’s terroir and savoir-faire, without relying on a traditional narrative structure.  As part of the partnership, Eva Jospin designed a wooden box collection case around a Jeroboam of Blanc de Blancs. Custom-made as for a real work of art, fastened by leather straps, it opens onto the scene of a crayère in miniature, sculpted out of layers of cardboard, with the bottle is inscribed inside this recessed landscape, serving as a metaphor for the making of champagne and its fermentation sheltered from light.

BMW and Alex Israel Had Photographic Memory Recall

BMW has been championing art and artists since 1975 when the car company started commissioning artists to add their creative flair to racing cars.  French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain commissioned Alexander Calder to paint the car in which Poulain would then race.  The Art Car Project was born.  Since then, a slew of the world’s most celebrated artists have collaborated with BMW including John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, Olafur Eliasson, Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella.

Enter Alex Israel for the 2023 BMW Art Car Project in celebration of Art Basel Miami Beach.  Israel is one of the most recognized artists of today, known for his innovative and thought-provoking work that explores the intersection of pop culture, art and technology.  As a longstanding official partner of Art Basel for 19 years, BMW and Alex Israel unveiled their interactive AI-Powered Installation “REMEMBR” at in the fair’s Collectors Lounge.  The first-ever 100% elective BMW i5 sedan was presented, with AI-powered participatory video installation that guides visitors on a journey through time and memory in a captivating fusion of art and technology.

Tribeca Festival Kicked Off Partnership With Art Basel Miami Beach

It only seems an organic fit for Art Basel’s parent group MCH Group’s anchor shareholder since 2021 James Murdoch, to make business babies with his other companies, and that he did:  a few years back in 2019 Murdoch’s company Lupa Systems partnered with investor Joe Marchese’s Attention Capital to acquire a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, which puts on the annual Tribeca Film Festival co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff.  Fast-forward to 2020 when Murdoch’s Lupa Systems acquired around one-third of MCH Group.  Next natural strategic step?  Make an MCH Group / Art Basel X Tribeca Festival baby to cross-market the respective fair and festival platforms and audiences. Bravo, Mr. Murdoch, hat tip to you.

The 21st edition of Art Basel Miami Beach kicked off Tribeca Festival’s first foray into art week in the Miami Botanical Gardens across from the convention center.  Featuring a series of panel discussions and the Music Lounge, the festival consisted of bringing together emerging and established voices, artists and diverse audiences to celebrate storytelling in all forms including art, film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games and XR, and of course, the intermixing of the various forms. Tribeca discovers and curates award-winning talent, innovative experiences, and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances.  

The main buzz around the inaugural edition involved the highly anticipated conversation between Robert De Niro and internationally celebrated French artist JR (Leornardo Di Caprio somehow managed to sit in on the talk to support his longtime collaborator, Mr De Niro, going completely unnoticed), as well as John Stamos who discussed his new memoir and the creative process to bring it to life.  The festival also included a talk with the festival’s Co-Founder Jane Rosenthal and Whalar’s Neil Waller on the future of the creator economy, and a discussion betweeen Directors Nardeep Khurmi and David Fortune on diversifying the narrative through inclusive storytelling.

Faena Art Brought Together Sebastian Errazuriz, Beeple and Kelly Breez To Present “Spaces Of Influence: Shaping Community In The Modern World”

When people fly into town for Miami Art Week, at the top of the list of go-to destinations for art installations is Faena Miami Beach hotel for the large-scale art commissions that Alan Faena’s non-profit organization, Faena Art, brings to life.  In many cases, the artists commissioned have already established their presence have made significant impact in the world through leveraging their art as a medium for communication.  In other cases, Alan Faena and his team often spot these artists just before they explode onto the global stage, and often, Faena Art has served as a platform and catalyst that amplifies their international status to an entirely new level of notoriety.  Whichever artists are presented, Faena Art guarantees a transformative, buzz-worthy presentation seen and heard by the global community at large. 

Since the Miami hotel’s opening after its original Buenos Aires boutique hotel received years of accolades, Faena Art, which commissions, produces and houses cross-disciplinary, site-specific artistic experiences; has always been ahead of the curve, spotting, embracing and showcasing artistic talent that are exemplary of the zeitgeist of the present moment and the near present future: artists that are making strides in the contemporary art world and pushing the boundaries of creativity through innovation and forward-thinking perspective. 

Past Art Basel Miami Beach weeks have featured collaborations with Aorist including Refik Anadol, Random International’s Living Room, and Pilar Zeta; as well as Studio Drift, Andrés, Unique Design X Group, Carlos Betancourt, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jim Denevan, Almudena Lobera, Phillip K Smith III, Alfredo Jaar, George Sánchez-Calderón, and Alexandre Arrechea.

The 2023 commissions by Sebastian Errazuriz, Beeple and Kelly Breez proved to be a record-breaking event for Faena Art and the partnering artists with respect to attendance.

Errazuriz’s second commission through the support of Faena Art was a commanding sculpture in the center of the hotel’s lobby titled “Battle Of Corporate Nations,” which at a first quick glance one would probably mistake it for an ancient Roman sculpture.  Upon further observation, one observes universally familiar figures, that being Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk fighting it out in a near future after achieving Artificial General Intelligence.  A visionary ahead of his time, Errazuriz’s decade-long obsession with AI has become all too relevant this year with the technology advancing fast and furiously as of late - the pros and the cons, the excitement and fears - being at the forefront of everyone’s mind. For years, Errazuriz has leveraged art to make commentary on AI.   “'I expect that AI-driven corporations will amass wealth, power, and influence to the extent of surpassing countries in significance. These corporations will initially create their own currencies, then seek sovereign territory, and ultimately establish their own militias,” says Errazuriz.  

(Side note: Rumor has it that Jeff Bezos even swung by to witness the sculpture in the flesh)

Kelly Breez Presented "Dirt's Dive" In The Project Room

Taking over Faena’s Project Room, multidisciplinary Miami-based artist Kelly Breez’s assemblage transformed the space into an immersive, interactive scene titled “Dirt’s Dive” that pays homage to the long-lost bar scene of old South Florida.  By building out elements that make up a scene and staging cutout figures, Breez created a diorama of sorts, featuring both new works and using found objects, ultimately luring people in with a narrative that can be appreciated both from the outside and inside of the space. The artist creates a temporary alternate universe for visitors to step into, a dream-like scene that ties back to the balance between familiar/unfamiliar. The project brings to light the disappearance of special places - old haunts - that carry history and memories and encounters with characters that hold the stories of that place and time from the past to the present.  With Miami and the historical buildings of South Beach quickly transforming, the project is quite a relevant and sobering topic.  The project addresses the theme of authenticity and subtly points out how Miami can often lack this in certain realms, particularly as special old haunts continue to vanish. The immersive experience juxtaposed against the fancy-schmancy happenings of Art Basel Miami Beach week make the experience that much more impactful.

Superblue Miami Debuted JR’s New Mural And Immersive Installation
“The Chronicles of Miami”

Known for his gargantuan photography installations and murals worldwide to make powerful social statements, JR is one of the most recognized and impactful artists of the present day.  Winner of the 2011 TED Prize, his mission and wish is to change the world one step and one artwork at a time. The artist has a non-profit titled “CAN ART CHANGE THE WORLD ? INC” dedicated to using the power of art, culture and education to bring social awareness and social change around the world and in specific communications.

JR presented three projects across Miami for art week.

As a love letter to Miami, JR created and debuted “The Chronicles of Miami,” covering the exterior façade of Superblue Miami, an exhibition space and initiative designed to champion artists whose ideas are best expressed through large-scale immersive installations that are audacious, evocative and impactful.  The project on view through at least 2024 features 1,048 portraits of the residents and visitors - and familiar faces including the Mayor and celebrities - that define Miami, combined into a singular large-scale collage tableau, an expressive snapshot imagining how an entire city can be represented through art, inspired by the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.  The participation aspect of the making of the piece reflects Superblue’s values to celebrate art that encourages and requires interaction to complete it.  

Stepping inside the walls of Superblue Miami, visitors were invited to view JR’s most significant immersive work to date, The Machine Behind the Art: Inside JR’s Printing Press, created for Superblue Miami and inspired by the participatory principles of JR’s “Inside Out Project,” a global platform which empowers communities to create their own public art made of large-scale black and white portraits. Visitors enter the mechanical world vital to JR’s process, have their portraits taken in one of four photo booths, have their portraits individually printed out and visually linked together to build up a unified community. 

Secondly, the mural extends into Miami Design District’s Jungle Plaza for the same duration of time.

Perrotin exhibited small-scale JR works alongside other artists at the gallery’s pop up at the “M Building” in the Wynwood Art District:

Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch's Eighth Joint Exhibition: "Forms"

Everyone loves tradition, and for the eight year in a row, Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch joined forces again to present a joint thematic exhibition titled “Forms” in Miami’s Design District. The dominant narrative of modern art has focused largely on a swing between the stylistic oppositions of figuration and abstraction. “Forms” explores alternatives to these paired categories through works that investigate how objects might function as surrogates for human reality, or that refer to objects indirectly through abstracted visual language. “Forms” exists somewhere between a nonrepresentational formalism and a realism of forms, proposing different models for communicating the physical and symbolic complexities of the body. Featured artists included Ai Weiwei, Tauba Auerbach, Ashley Bickerton, Carol Bove, Sascha Braunig, John Chamberlain, Judy Chicago, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Bita Fayyazi, Urs Fischer, Theaster Gates, Piero Golia, Peter Halley, Lauren Halsey, Madeline Hollander, Devin Johnson, Josh Kline, Li Shurui, Adam McEwen, Peter Nagy, Albert Oehlen, Ariana Papademetropoulos, Steven Parrino, Giuseppe Penone, Brian Rochefort, Alexandria Smith, Philip Taaffe, Nari Ward, and Stanley Whitney.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Presents Gary Simmons: Public Enemy

PAMM presented “Gary Simmons: Public Enemy,” the first comprehensive career survey of the multidisciplinary artist’s work, encompassing thirty years of Simmons’ career with  approximately seventy works including sculptures, paintings, works on paper, installations, and large-scale wall drawings that the artist will create on-site. Since the late 1980s, Simmons has played a key role in situating questions of race, class, and identity as reflected in multiple aspects of American culture such as cinema, music, literature, sports and urbanism. 

ICA Miami

Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami Trustees Maky and Kris Hinson kicked off art week with an intimate dinner with W Magazine to celebrate the launch of four main presentations including a survey exhibition of acclaimed artist and conceptual master Charles Gaines including a kinetic sculpture which features a granite boulder that dropped into a plate of glass at random intervals; a first solo museum presentation of works by Sasha Gordon featuring a series of surrealist self-portraits; as well as ground floor presentations featuring the works of Egyptian modernis Ahmed Morsi, a photographic work by Anne Collier, and a site-specific installation by Tau Lewis.

The Bass Exhibits Herman Bas and Anne Duk Hee Jordan

The Bass debuted a handful of Fall and Winter season exhibitions during Miami Art Week encompassing multiple topics ranging from climate and conceptualism to technology and social networks. The main focus of the week were two solo exhibitions for Miami-based artist Hernan Bas and Korean-German artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan, as well as featured works from the collections of Nam June Paik and Ethel Adnan.  Hernan Bas “The Conceptualists” presents Bas’ cohort of fictional artist peers - all of whom are fixated on idiosyncratic creative pursuits - which he has spent the last few years painting and bringing to life from a running list of concepts. Showing them all together for the first time.  Anne Duk Hee Jordan’s presentation titled “I will always weather with you” is a new large-scale multisensory exhibition that uses technology to examine the perseverance of life on Earth against the increasing challenges of climate change.

An avid car aficionado, the release includes a micro model version of Arsham’s life-sized Porsche 365 Speedster that he had spent two years meticulously restoring to its barest, time-worn glory.  Dubbed the “Bonsai Speedster,” the micro model is a replica down to the welding lines and weather aesthetics and the Wabi-Sabi inspired indigo-dyed Japanese textile design interior of the full-scale version, and it includes the “BONSA1” license plate.  

Dior’s Lady Art

To keep a class I’ve heritage luxury brand ahead of the curve and contemporary, adapting to the times, creative infusion, and reinvention while keeping a stronghold on a House’s design codes is essential.

Dior introduced their latest project, “Lady Art #8” during Art Basel Miami Beach week, a new edition of a continual reinvention of the Lady Dior bag, which made its first appearance of the arm of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales backin 1995.  For the “Lady Art #8” initiative on display Dior’s Design District flagship store, the iconic handbag was reinterpreted by several women artists who added their own signature creative flair to the design.  Collaborating creatives included Zadie Xa, Marino Mori, Mircea Cantor, Jeffrey Gibson, Ha Chong-Hyun, Lee Kun-Yong, Ludovic Nkoth, Hilary Pecis, Xu Zhen, Zadie Xa, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, and Gilbert & George. 

For their collaboration, to match the holiday season and The House of Creed’s corresponding  festive Christmas palette, Kolodny opted to apply colors of gold and silver to his sculptures.  Leveraging innovation, The House of Creed used CGI technology to bring the collaboration to life via social media and website platforms.  Beyond art week, Kolodny’s sculptural works can be seen at CREED Boutiques worldwide in the window installations he has designed to enhance and flatter the beautiful bottles to an entirely new aesthetically delectable level. 

Kolodny’s sculptures bring deep, subconscious meaning: “This universally resonant shape, found in the planets we orbit to the cells composing our very being, has surrounded us throughout our lives,” he states. “It's embedded in our memories as the soccer ball we kicked, the baseball we caught, or the balloons we celebrated with. Yet, its ubiquitous nature often causes us to overlook its profound significance.” 

Cartier’s Time Unlimited Exhibition

YouTube content creator and Fashion influencer Emma Chamberlain, NBA legend Dwayne Wade, musician James Blake, music producer Diplo, Alix Earle, and a host of influencers and celebrities turned out to kick off and celebrate Cartier’s “Time Unlimited” pop-up exhibition in the Miami Design District.  Conceptualized and brought to life in a three-story space by Los Angeles design studio Perron-Roettinger, the traveling exhibition (which debuted in Hong Kong a year ago) was custom built to house displays of Cartier’s legacy as a watchmaker.  Although Cartier was born in 1847 out of the artistry of jewellery making, Louis Cartier, the son of the Maison’s founder Louis-François Cartier introduced the company’s first watch in 1905, and Cartier has been equally a watchmaker ever since. The roving exhibition serves the purpose of educating Cartier lovers worldwide about this fact, and emphasizes the brand’s excellence in blending heritage, craftsmanship and innovation to achieve well-balance beauty.  Reputed for being “the watchmaker of shapes” out of designing watches in daring forms, the Museum-style vitrines showcase an archive of designs from the brand’s 170-year history, telling a comprehensive story of its creativity and experimentation over time to the present day.  “The whole concept for the exhibition is about celebrating the iconic shapes that Cartier has created,”Said Willo Perron, founding partner of Perron-Roettinger.  

Public Art Installations In Miami’s Design District And Elsewhere

There were some exceptional public art installations erected around the city, most of which could be found in the Miami Design District.  Here are a few of the most prominent crowd favourites from the week.

Re:wild’s “Art Of Nature” Benefit At Superblue Miami Raised $9-Million

The event held at Superblue Miami was led by Re:wild Chair and CEO Wes Sechrest, Founding Board Member Leonardo DiCaprio, Ernesto Bertarelli, and FIAT CEO Oliver Francois, and raised a total of $9-million, much of which was raised through another phenomenally successful auction conducted by legendary auctioneer, Simon De Pury, coined as“The Mick Jagger of art auctions.”  The highlight of the auction was three, one-of-a-kind electric cars designed by Armani, Kartell and Bvlgari respectively that went for a total of $600,000.  

Other notable names in attendance included Edward Enninful, Sean Penn and Indigenous leader Nina Gualinga.  The night included an immersive art experience, live auction and special “Heaven After Dark” curation by Jane’s Addiction frontman and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell, his wife and creative partner Etty Lau Farrell and manager Michael James, as well as a special performances by Cat Power and DJ Maceo Plex.  

Re:wild works with more than 500 partners worldwide on a collective mission to tackle head on the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and the decline of human wellbeing. The benefit’s proceeds will go toward supporting local partners and communities in more than 80 countries to protect and restore biodiversity.