5 Shows to See During Miami Art Week 2023
Hernan Bas, Conceptual Artist #5 (A budding gilder, his dying houseplants get the Midas touch) (2022) (detail). Acrylic and genuine gold leaf on linen. 183.5 x 152.7 cm. © Hernan Bas. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro.
Miami Art Week returns from 4 to 10 December, promising sunshine, good vibes, and a non-stop rotation of parties and events that includes over 20 art fairs, among them Art Basel Miami Beach. We share five must-see shows in the city, from portraits by Hernan Bas and Giorgio Celin to major retrospectives of Gary Simmons and Juan Francisco Elso.
Gary Simmons: Public Enemy
Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd
5 December 2023–28 April 2024
Expect: a timely reflection on race, class, and social stereotypes in the U.S., seen across some 70 works from the past three decades.
New York-born artist Gary Simmons' first comprehensive survey highlights his contribution to opening spaces for dialogue on race in contemporary art—one that many artists today continue to expand upon.
Since the late 1980s Simmons has drawn from cultural touchstones including hip-hop, science fiction, and horror to create analytical installations that speak to stereotypes of Black Americans.
His installation Lineup (1993), for example, which was first shown at the 1993 Whitney Biennale, comprises eight pairs of gold-plated basketball sneakers lined up below a police height chart. Audiences may imagine the people wearing or willing to steal these shoes, recalling a witness' socially trained instinct to racial profiling.
'Some of the really direct, politically charged work was from the late 80s and very early 90s,' Simmons said earlier this year. 'In some ways, it's a testament to the work, standing up and having this longevity... But on the same note, it's disconcerting to know that we haven't moved past some of those issues. It's very unfortunate that [they] are just as relevant today.'
Juan Francisco Elso: Por América
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, 770 NE 125th St
1 November 2023–17 March 2024
Expect: the largest retrospective to date of the late Cuban artist, shown alongside a multigenerational group including Papo Colo, Jimmie Durham, and Ana Mendieta.
Juan Francisco Elso's delicate yet impactful sculptures relay the spirit of Cuba following the revolution of 1953 to 1959. Frequently made with organic materials such as wood and earth, they borrow from religious and national iconography that emphasise the artist's socialist values and Christian faith.
Elso's life-sized carved wooden effigy Por América (José Martí) (1986) represents the stern-faced Cuban poet and nationalist José Martí in torn clothing made with caked earth. Martí advances with a sword in hand; his body punctured with numerous darts in the shape of fleur-de-lys. The same darts lie scattered at his feet.
The retrospective traces his practice—cut short by his death from leukaemia at age 32—from early material experimentations to the influence of Indigenous traditions, postcolonial perspectives, and Afro-Caribbean beliefs, contextualised alongside work by over 30 artists from Cuba, the Caribbean, and North, South, and Central America.
Hernan Bas: The Conceptualists
The Bass, 2100 Collins Ave
4 December 2023–5 May 2024
Expect: perceptive portraits that address the peculiar nature of cultural identities within an institutional context for the first time.
In the idiosyncratic universe of his paintings, Hernan Bas invites viewers to consider queerness as an open, permissive space for creativity and liberation, countering social pressures and conformity.
Bas' latest portraits show fictional artist characters engaged in idyllic pursuits such as Polaroid photography or gardening. Their romantic appearances are inspired by the decadence and queer eroticism of 19th-century literature by writers such as Oscar Wilde and Joris-Karl Huysman.
Each character's story is expanded on in long, narrativised titles: one young artist makes gravestone rubbings to materialise 'lives that never existed', the Land art practitioner who 'elevates rural puddles' with drips of food colouring, and the performance artist whose practice 'centres on discomfort' stacking peas from under a mattress.
Giorgio Celin: Do You Remember? — Feeling, Queerness, Exile
Spinello Projects, 2930 NW 7th Ave
4 December 2023–13 January 2024
Expect: an intimate exploration of queer culture through the lens of migration and its losses.
Emerging figurative painter Giorgio Celin portrays subjects that seldom appear entirely present, despite engaging in intimate acts and at times looking directly towards the viewer. They straddle past and present, reality and fiction; their eyes deep in recollection or sharing a knowing glance.
The couple in Rainy Night in BK (That Old Sweet Song) (2023) are among Celin's contemporary subjects, languidly lying in a pastel-pink interior. Rendered in bold lines and a bright palette, their faces retain an emotional charge, inspired by the expressive figures of Austrian painter Egon Schiele.
Celin was born in Colombia and grew up in Naples and Barcelona. 'As a son of immigrants, I always felt a little sense of guilt about wanting to have a career as an artist,' he has said. This constant negotiation of identity and belonging is central to his work.
Forms
Gagosian, 35 NE 40th St
5–10 December 2023
Expect: a one-week-only presentation with 28 modern and contemporary heavyweights including Ai Weiwei, Judy Chicago, and Urs Fischer.
Conceived with American art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch, the group exhibition Forms considers what might exist beyond stylistic oppositions of abstraction and figuration in modern art.
Expanding these dichotomies are works from artists including Ashley Bickerton, Peter Nagy, Alexandria Smith, and Giuseppe Penone, who explore how objects may operate as surrogates for reality or representation.
Other notable works on show include Ömega Man 2 (2021), Albert Oehlen's sci-fi-inspired painting of an abstracted humanoid form, and Theaster Gates' figurative ceramic Vessel #24 (2020), which nods to the ritualistic significance of objects. —[O]
