9 January 2-8, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | Culture | Cafe | MusiC | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | On the Wall The 10 best art exhibitions of 2024. BY DOUGLAS MARKOWITZ M iami’s art scene has reached a tipping point. This year, as po- litical turbulence rocked the world and conservatives dominated at the polls, the city’s art patrons showed artists and institu- tions that their support was conditional. Cen- sorship scandals rocked two major local institutions, with artists censored over per- ceived connection to Palestine or its people. At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, curatorial staff complied with demands to re- move a portrait by Charles Gaines depicting Palestinian-American statesman and scholar Edward Said. At Oolite Arts, the board moved similarly to remove an artist’s installation supporting Palestinian liberation, leading to a boycott from its own resident artists and the cancellation of grants. Artists have said that such censorship will have a chilling effect, forcing creative people to flee the state. But another factor may be even more influential: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ devastating budget cuts, which he foisted upon the arts sector as part of his “war on woke” crackdown against LGBTQ culture. Hundreds of organizations have lost funding as a result of these cuts. This repressive climate is part of the rea- son compiling this list of the year’s best art shows was so difficult, especially given the strong year in art. Personal feelings had to be left to the side as we considered the best the city had to offer. I could not leave out certain offending institutions if their shows were im- pressive enough — to do so would make me hypocritical. Read on to discover the best art exhibi- tions in Miami in 2024, and reflect on the fact that, the way things are going, we may not see art of this caliber here again — regardless of whether we even deserve it. “Akira: Architecture of Neo-Tokyo” at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: Akira is one of the greatest films ever made, ani- mated or otherwise, and this incredible exhi- bition at the Morikami Museum allowed us to get closer than ever to the film’s magnifi- cently detailed cyberpunk dystopia. Far more than a mere movie tie-in, “Architecture of Neo-Tokyo” showed how remarkable the craft of traditional animation is, giving view- ers a window into processes that have been sadly left behind in the shift to digital produc- tion in anime. Far from mere commercial il- lustrations, these images are staggering works of art in their own right, and together, they form a monument to the art form of ani- mation itself. It’s a feat of curation that the Morikami was able to put them all in the same room. “Belkis Ayón” at David Castillo: Underseen for decades, the late Afro-Cuban artist Belkis Ayón’s work has entered major museums and influential collections worldwide in recent years. A show of her work at David Castillo earlier this year provided a wonderfully com- prehensive look at her practice. In a series of mysterious, beguiling black-and-white prints, Ayón delves into the mythologies and sym- bols of the Abakuá secret societies on the is- land. One look at these images, and you’ll feel their mystical power. “Constructive Arguments: Aesthetic Dia- logues with the Work of Lynne Golob Gelfman” at Lincoln Road Mall: Don’t be fooled by its lo- cation in a vacant Lincoln Road storefront — “Constructive Arguments” is a ma- jor, museum-level show for the late Gel- fman, one of Miami’s most beloved abstract artists. Organized by the painter’s family, the show puts her marvelous gridded paintings in conversa- tion with those of her friends and acolytes. There’s a piece by Loriel Beltran that directly mirrors the rows of little triangles she used as her primary motif, as well as collabs between Gelfman and Frances Trombly. It’s Gelfman’s work that shines brightest, with her use of color highlighted in particular in several re- markable, almost psychedelic canvases. “Invisible Luggage” at the Historic Hampton House: One year after its first Miami Art Week show, the Historic Hampton House furthered the case for itself as a destination for contem- porary art with this impressively curated group show. Riffing on the museum’s former Green Book hotel status to discuss the travels we make and the things we carry along the way, “Invisible Luggage” felt like a journey in and of itself. Its curation impressed as well, with major artists such as Ed Clark, Sam Gil- liam, Frank Bowling, and Marina Abramović shown next to work by prominent locals (Tomm El-Saieh, Joel Gaitan) and important emerging voices (Jaume Quick-to-See Smith, Vanessa German). The show’s culminating in a room full of paintings by the Highwaymen, whose art drew from their itinerant travels throughout Florida, felt particularly pro- found. “Joel Meyerowitz: Temporal Aspects” at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale: It was pretty dif- ficult to single out just one show from NSU Art Museum’s excellent fall slate, which in- cluded impressive shows of paintings from emerging local Cici McMonigle and the late Dutch modernist Jacqueline de Jong. Ulti- mately, however, it was this career-spanning retrospective of octogenarian photography master Joel Meyerowitz that impressed me the most. The sheer volume of people, places, and scenes captured by the influential Bronx native’s camera, including plenty of beauti- fully nostalgic shots of his travels in Florida, simply astonished. “José Parlá: Homecoming” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami: Both a tribute to Miami and a statement of survival, “Homecoming” would be one of the best shows of the year, even without being anchored by the powerful story of Miami-raised Parlá’s life-threatening struggle with COVID-19. The painter’s calligraphy-influenced abstractions and use of collage look acrobatic and fluid on his canvases, but they proved even more impressive after Parlá took his studio into the museum in a series of performative painting sessions for the general public — a rare treat from an artist who grew up making art exclusively in public spaces. “Keiichi Tanaami: Memory Collage” at the In- stitute of Contemporary Art, Miami: A show as wild and ecstatically overstuffed as the work of its subject, “Memory Collage,” compiles decades of work by the famed Japanese artist and designer Keiichi Tanaami, who sadly died earlier this year before he could see the show. With films, prints, paintings, and col- lages, the curators brilliantly organized Ta- naami’s influences and major themes, from Warhol’s pop art revolution to the bombs of World War II that fell on his home country. The result is a deep look into the mind and life of an iconoclastic artist, famed in Japan but little known in the U.S. until now. “Lee Pivnik: Chimeras” at Dale Zine: Dade County native Lee Pivnik’s eco-futurist mixed-media show at Dale Zine was nothing short of extraordinary. The artist visualized his speculative future flooded Miami, where queer rebels disguise themselves as native fauna and hide in the Everglades to avoid a dystopian surveillance state, with seashell glass photo prints of costumed performers in the swamp and bejeweled animal skulls. As fantastic as Drexciya and radical as LeGuin, “Chimeras” is a fantastically creative re- sponse to the current issues. “Lucia Maman: Temples of Otherness” in the Design District: This show of thoughtfully haunting paintings by Miami-based Argentine Lucia Maman, curated by her countrywoman and fellow artist Luna Palazzolo-Daboul, was probably the biggest surprise of the year. Imagine, set amid the luxury boutiques of the Design District, a gallery full of somber por- traits depicting the disabled and deformed, calling into question our shallow preconcep- tions of biological perfection. Such a show feels downright dangerous in a city as superfi- cial and conservative as Miami. “Nikita Kadan: The Radial Bone” at Voloshyn Gallery: This thought-provoking show from Ukrainian artist Kadan, who once represented his country at the Venice Biennale, examines the concept of ecocide as it relates to war — as in, what happens to all animals when a coun- try suffers devastation at the hands of hu- mans? With silhouettes of livestock heads buried in craters and sculptural pieces show- ing farm tools turned into sharp objects hang- ing above, Kadan’s show is a somber, menacing memento mori thrown into an apa- thetic environment like a grenade. As wars wage around the world, the artist reminds us that everything is connected and that we ig- nore violence abroad at our own peril. [email protected] ▼ Culture Joel Meyerowitz, Florida, 1978 Photo by Joel Meyerowitz/Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery PERSONAL FEELINGS HAD TO BE LEFT TO THE SIDE AS WE CONSIDERED THE BEST THE CITY HAD TO OFFER.
