Each year, Miami becomes a chaotic mix (the good kind) of art exhibitions, installations, glamorous parties and more during the highly anticipated art fair, Art Basel, and Miami Art Week. The 2023 edition of the fair featured 277 renowned galleries from 33 countries and regions, showcasing their notable artists. The Art Basel Miami Beach festival features a variety of genres and media of contemporary and modern art spread across six sectors.
This year, the event witnessed many notable moments, including the inaugural Tribeca’s Talks for Tribeca Festival at Art Basel. In addition to the traditional Art Basel exhibitions, the festival featured numerous installations from creatives, designers, and brands such as Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Nike.
If you didn’t get the chance to fly to Miami or visit any exhibitions this year, here is a roundup of our favorite highlights at Art Basel Miami 2023.
Virgil Abloh Skate Invitational
Nike collaborated with Virgil Abloh Securities and his Architecture studio for the second annual Virgil Abloh Skate Invitational. The event offered two days of community programming at Miami’s Lot 11 Skatepark, including freeriding sessions, a best trick competition, public skate sessions, workshops, training sessions, and moderated panels with global design, art, and skateboarding leaders.
PATRON’s Beach Presentations
The gallery showcased contemporary artists who adapt historical archives and historiographies to express modern issues. The artists present critical responses that draw on historical representations of national, gendered, and artistic identities through ethnographic presentation, literary techniques, iconography, and visual culture. The presentation includes new work by various artists, including Charisse Pearlina Weston, Samuel Levi Jones, Lucas Simões, Jamal Cyrus, and more.
IKEA’s Art Basel Debut
IKEA debuted its first-ever activation at Art Basel Miami. The Swedish design giant entirely transformed an old nightclub on Lincoln Road to showcase a new furniture collection, unique sound designs, and the first-ever IKEA sports collection, DAJLIEN. During the immersive experience, 19 versatile products from the limited home training collection were highlighted; the collection addresses challenges and frustrations associated with exercising at home.
SCOPE Art Show
SCOPE Art Show returned to Miami Art Week this year with 110 participants from 23 countries. A highlight of this year’s programming was a variety of large-scale exhibitions within the New Contemporary, such as Lucy Sparrow’s Feltz Bagels pop-up shop, an homage to the bagel culture of New York. Among the distinguished participants was Jeremy Pope in conversation with Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Louis Vuitton x Frank Gehry
Architect Frank Gehry collaborated with Louis Vuitton to create a collection of handbags, trunks, perfume bottles, and more. The collection featured Gehry’s signature wooden and cardboard trademark and 3-D designs, such as bold, red-crafted fish on a handbag. Gehry was the first artist ever to be allowed to tweak the original Louis Vuitton logo in his work.
Vans: Atiba Jefferson’s Skate Photography Exhibition
Atiba Jefferson, Architecture c/o Virgil Abloh, and OTW by Vans partnered for a solo exhibition that was a chronological retrospective of Jefferson’s 25-year journey to becoming one of the most recognized skateboard photographers ever. The exhibition showcased his photography techniques, including dramatic lighting and being one of the first people popularizing the fisheye lens in skate photography.
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