26 June 18–24, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES June 18–24, 2026 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES B EST º f M IA M I ® 2 02 6 throughout his career ranging from Alexan- der Wang to Vitamin Water, Shinola, Urban Outfitters and more. Locally, you may be fa- miliar with the distinctive, evocative and bold work Franco has done for Coral Gables Art Cinema. He transforms advertisements for programming into pitch-perfect, interest- piquing dollops of modern art, with themes as radically diverse as “Iranian Cinema Week” to “David Lynch: I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Ani-May” and “Pages to Noir: A Hardboiled Detective Limited Series.” Franco has an aesthetic unique to himself, sure, but he’s also able to adapt tonally and thematically to a given subject — a nimble- ness and flair that is the mark of true genius. BEST ILLUSTRATOR Brian Reedy brianreedyart.com If you’ve seen Brian Reedy’s detailed, pop cul- ture-infused illustrations on a t-shirt sold at Hot Topic or on his Instagram page @brian- reedy, you might find yourself in awe but also at a loss of what gives the black and white im- ages their distinct pop. It all comes down to technique. The Miami resident and Miami- Dade public school art teacher demonstrates his artistic process with a sped-up video on his website where he carves a stegosaurus into a block of wood, then stains it with ink and im- prints the image onto paper where it can then be transferred digitally. This unique block printing has won him contracts with conglom- erates from Warner Brothers to Disney where he’s interpreted everyone from SpongeBob Squarepants to King Kong in his one-of-a-kind stylings. While much of his artwork embodies darker, gothic locales, Reedy has also repped his hometown with a fun image of the Univer- sity of Miami mascot, Sebastian the Ibis, and another Miami tribute showing his take on the Freedom Tower, Metrorail and La Carreta. BEST MURAL “Euphonia” by Tatiana Suarez and Quake 4800 NE Second Ave. Miami, 33137 305-240-6002 cushygigs.com Drive south on NE Second Avenue from Lit- tle Haiti toward the Design District, and you can’t miss the collaboration between Tatiana Suarez and Quake. Commissioned by Da- vidSW, a high-end watch and jewelry dealer founded by a Trinidadian immigrant, Eupho- nia draws from both Caribbean heritage and the surrounding neighborhood. Suarez an- chors the piece with one of her ethereal fe- male figures; dark hair flowing, surrounded by oversized tropical blooms and a blue-and- gold Euphonia bird perched at her shoulder. Behind her, Quake, a founding member of the Miami Style Graffiti crew who has been painting the city since 1993, lays down gold- toned geometric shapes drawn from watch movements, a nod to both the client and his own roots. Together, the duo carries the com- bined confidence of artists who have taken their work across the globe, representing Mi- ami every step of the way. BEST MUSEUM Historic Hampton House 4240 NW 27th Ave. Miami, 33142 305-638-5800 historichamptonhouse.org Although Miamians sometimes like to forget we are in the South, Historic Hampton House is an important reminder that, just like any other southern city before 1964, we had Jim Crow laws segregating people based solely on the color of their skin. This hotel-turned-mu- seum served as a foothold for the Civil Rights Movement in Miami in the ‘60s, boasting iconic Black American guests from Martin Luther King Jr. to Josephine Baker and Jackie Robinson. The museum has preserved rooms where you can see accommodations exactly as they were in the hotel’s heyday, along with photos of Historic Hampton House’s most note- worthy guests. Last December, the museum also hosted two contemporary art exhibitions; a solo show of Alexandre Diops’ work, as well as “No Room. No Va- cancy,” a group exhibition featuring 25 artists. BEST PHOTOGRAPHER Lex Barberio 305-978-9654 lexbarberio.com When Wynwood’s beloved Gramps an- nounced it was shutting down, Lex Barberio felt a calling and showed up with a camera and index cards in hand. They photographed more than 40 regulars in their favorite spots inside the venue, and handed each one a card to write down a memory or message to the venue. The Gramps Yearbook became an ar- chive of a communal institution, one of sev- eral that have disappeared before our eyes in recent years. The handwritten notes were layered directly onto the portraits — image and memory fused as a perfect encapsulation of what Barberio does. The photographer and creative director, who returned to Miami in 2024 after a decade in New York, has built a practice around documenting communities that give places texture before they can be erased. “A photo is just a photo until you add that human touch,” Barberio says. In a city that moves fast and forgets faster, that in- stinct is increasingly necessary. BEST PHOTOGRAPHER (ART) Karli Evans allseeingmedia.com All photography requires some level of mu- tual respect and comfort on both sides of the lens, but that’s especially true of the work of Karli Evans who has for years been trusted by Miami’s queer, kink and underground com- munities to document their sacred spaces. In 2026, her photographs adorned the walls of the Museum of Sex, a newer addition to the city’s art scene but one that exists precisely to showcase work by creatives like Evans. “F*ck Art: Nature & Artifice” exhibits pieces by Mi- ami-based artists “whose practices examine the city’s distinctive convergence of subtropi- cal ecology, technology and sexual undercur- rent.” Her contributions depicting bound, leather-clad women bathed in red motel lighting or posing in bikinis on mangrove roots recall the imagery of another Miami photographer who flirted with the boundar- ies of propriety in her day: Bunny Yeager. BEST PUBLIC ART “Reflection” in Ocean Terrace Park 73rd Street and Collins Avenue Miami Beach, 33141 Taking the form of the giant head of a woman half-suspended in a reflecting pool, “Reflec- tion” by French artist Prune Nourry is a more stately and striking artwork than one would expect to en- counter on Miami Beach. The centerpiece of a long-planned rejuvenation of Ocean Terrace — a strip of dilapidated motels turned into a public park — the sculpture resembles an Olmec monument lost to time. Nourry also tapped into local history in making the piece, using the likeness of Nellie Locust, a Cherokee Coast Guard officer stationed in Mi- ami Beach during World War II, to craft the statue in tribute to female servicemembers. BEST PARTY/RAVE FLYERS Liquid J instagram.com/liquid___j Before your feet touch the dance floor, a flyer must entice you to attend the party. Before reading the show bill, your eye is drawn to its aesthetic. Competition is stiff for visual lan- guages because everyone wants your atten- tion. That’s why Miami’s underground relies on Juan Antonio Mejia to stand out. Some know him as Liquid J, the young padawan with a decade of experience under his belt (DJ’ing by age 13, throwing his own parties by 2019). His party needed a visual identity, so he taught himself graphic design. Alongside a group of friends, he launched a new party se- ries called Jezebel in 2021. His design lan- guage matured, becoming distinct and coherent. With Jezebel as a testing ground, Mejia leaned into abstraction and color maxi- mization. If you threw a party, Liquid J’s un- mistakable aesthetic was now on your radar, and the commissions haven’t stopped since. These days, Mejia draws inspiration from de- signs found in the wild, channeling things he sees on a walk, like the strong typography on a small business sign. Mejia’s approach reminds us that rave flyers tell important stories and belong in our shared archive. BEST VISUAL ARTIST Morel Doucet moreldoucet.com Morel Doucet moves between worlds that don’t naturally overlap — museum walls, courthouse lobbies, cruise ships, classrooms and commercial campaigns just to name a handful — carrying the same conversation into them all. The Miami-based Haitian artist cen- ters his work on the Black and Afro-Caribbean communities across Miami, tracing how de- velopment, climate change and displacement reshape daily life. He explores these ideas through various mediums including ceramics, printmaking, painting and mixed media instal- lations, and his work has been seen through public commissions, exhibitions and brand collaborations. Doucet uses each platform to keep the core themes intact. His recent collab- oration with Stephen Arboite, “After the Rain Comes Light: Portraits of Resilience,” filled MOCA North Miami with collaged portraits built using local flora, reinforcing both place and people. His work is often aesthetically pleasing but goes deeper than that, exploring themes that encourage viewers to consider the harder ideas beneath them. BEST ZINE "Currrent" instagram.com/currrent Separately, Miami native, mom and architectural designer Delia Rivera and photographer, real estate agent and mom Michelle Tetreault do incredible, fun, gorgeous work. Just look at the respective solo zines “#GLASSBLOCKSY’ALL” and “The Real Chickens of Miami” for confirmation. However, the pair’s collaborative project “CURRRENT” is, even by those lofty standards, a transcendent and next-level effort. With issues that offer in-depth explorations of particular neighborhoods (Overtown, Little Haiti, Coconut Grove) and spots (Crandon Park), Rivera and Tetreault tease elegance from grittiness, revelation from routine and the overlooked extraordinary from that which is dismissed or passed over as mundane. “CURRRENT” is both a love letter to the city and a reminder to appreciate the details and foundations that make it special before they’re all swallowed up and forgotten in the maelstrom of progress. BEST ACTOR IN A FEMALE ROLE Sheena O. Murray instagram.com/sheenaonstage Sheena O. Murray has the kind of stage pres- ence that makes audiences want to spend more time with her characters long after the curtain comes down. In AHCAC’s “Detroit half-suspended in a reflecting pool, “Reflec- tion” by French artist Prune Nourry is a more stately and striking artwork than one would expect to en- counter on Miami Beach. The centerpiece of a long-planned rejuvenation of Ocean Terrace Arts & EntertAinment
