Across the bay from Art Basel Miami Beach, the voices of the underexposed rising artists ring out at Ice Palace Studios, where NADA Miami takes place 5–9 December.
For its 21st edition, the fair brings together 139 galleries, art spaces, and nonprofit organisations from around the globe. Exhibitors include Micki Meng, Sebastian Gladstone, and The Artist Room, one of 34 galleries participating for the first time.
On the ground in Miami, Ocula's advisors identified new talents emerging at this year's fair.
Pachi Muruchu at Micki Meng
Ecuadorian painter Pachi Muruchu weaves storytelling of indigenous family histories with contemporary experiences growing up in Spanish Harlem.
While a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Muruchu cited the New York-based painter and educator Jennifer Packer as one of his favourite teachers. Her influence is evident in the ground of reds, oranges and yellows upon which his portraits are built.
The rugged edges of Ay cariño (2022) are created through the use of Amate, a type of bark paper developed in ancient Mesoamerica, the geographical area from northern Mexico down to Central America.
What papyrus is to Egypt, and mulberry paper is to China, Amate was used by Aztecs for a number of day-to-day purposes. Following conquest by the Spanish, the production of the sacred material was forbidden.
Muruchu's use of Amate is thus a celebration of his heritage and an act of resistance against colonisation.
![James Jessiman, Tulipa Quaestio Puer [Problem Child] (2023). Patinated bronze and enamel. 45 x 45 x 30 cm. Edition of 3 + 1AP.](https://files.ocula.com/anzax/Content/Advisory%20Verticals/Perspectives/2023/December/NADA/James-Jessiman-at-The-Artist-Room_1200_0.jpg)
James Jessiman at The Artist Room
James Jessiman's new set of tulip sculptures are deceptive.
Due to the lightness with which they appear to be sculpted, you'd be forgiven for assuming they were made of glass. In fact he uses the Viennese tradition of enamel painted bronze to craft these fluid and luminous works. .
In Jessiman's conversation with Laurie Barron of The Artist Room for Plaster Magazine, he states that, 'The intention is not to trick the viewer but to bring a certain sense of magic to the sculptures.'
Why tulips? Reading Diana Everett's The Genus Tulipa: Tulips of the World (2023) prompted a trip to Uzbekistan's barren landscapes to hunt down and catalogue the budding tulips for which the country and its bordering countries are known.
Tenki Hiramatsu at Sebastian Gladstone
The beguiling characters of Tenki Hiramatsu's paintings first caught the team's eye in 2021 at Claas Reiss during his first solo show in the U.K., Good Con Man.
For the Japanese artist, figuration grows out of the abstract. With no initial sketch, his figures emerge as each layer of translucent colour is applied. Painting both on paper and wooden panels, his cartoon-like characters are awash with childlike charm helped by the intimate picture planes in which they sit.
The Los Angeles-based gallerist Sebastian Gladstone brought two of Hiramatsu's oil and acrylic on wood paintings to Miami. Wooden panels allow the artist to work upon a table instead of an easel when creating these small works.
In the new year, the German town of Ettlingen will host Hiramatsu's second institutional show, a two person show alongside the Japanese-born artist Peco Kawashima at Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe (13 January–25 February 2024).
Jacob Todd Broussard at Towards
A 2019 Yale School of Art graduate, Jacob Todd Broussard is one half of the Toronto-based gallery's two person presentation alongside painter Kareem Anthony Ferreira.
Light undergirds his series of paintings in Miami glowing from doorways, lamps, and through window frames, illuminating semi-clad men that all seem to be in a state of puzzlement.
The artist has upcoming solo exhibitions at Wolfgang Gallery, Atlanta (2024), Fragment Gallery, New York (2025), and Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart (2026).
Main image: James Jessiman sculptures. Courtesy The Artist Room. Photo: Damian Griffiths.
