So you missed Art Basel? There are plenty of art exhibits you can still see in Miami

Another Art Week has come and gone. As usual, there were too many festivals, parties, openings and Kanye West operas going on for anyone to do it all. Thankfully, some of the exhibits stay with Miami for a while. Here are some of the art exhibits that you can still check out now that Art Basel has left Miami.

Rubell Museum

El Museo Rubell abre alojado en seis antiguos edificios industriales en el barrio Allapattah de Miami durante el Art Basel en diciembre del 2019.
El Museo Rubell abre alojado en seis antiguos edificios industriales en el barrio Allapattah de Miami durante el Art Basel en diciembre del 2019.

The private collection of Don and Mera Rubell and son Jason opens in its massive, newly refurbished 76,000-square-foot warehouse museum in Allapattah. With 40 galleries and almost twice the space of its original, 1993 Wynwood space, the new museum can now showcase far more of the Rubell holdings. They comprise 7,200 works by more than 1,000 of the world’s most influential contemporary artists, including Rashid Johnson, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama, working in all media. Locals may want to avoid the crowds and come in January, after the museum opens a Basque restaurant, LEKU, and a garden bar.

1100 NW 23rd St., Allapattah, a short walk from the Santa Clara Metrorail station. rfc.museum, with admission of $10 for Miami-Dade residents, $15 general admission; free for 18 and under.

El Espacio 23

“Venus de Arles,” 2018 by Yinka Shonibare and “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (LEGO),” 2015 by Ai Weiwei, are part of the inaugural show “Time for Change” at El Espacio 23, a private museum showcasing the Jorge M. Perez Collection.
“Venus de Arles,” 2018 by Yinka Shonibare and “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (LEGO),” 2015 by Ai Weiwei, are part of the inaugural show “Time for Change” at El Espacio 23, a private museum showcasing the Jorge M. Perez Collection.

Also in Allapattah, real estate developer and philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez is opening a permanent showcase for his private collection, El Espacio 23, at the intersection of Northwest 23rd Avenue and Northwest 23rd Street. The inaugural show “Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” features more than 80 artworks intended to provoke disquiet through themes of state terror, activism, migration, displacement, history and memory, exploitation, spatial politics and individualism. Works come for a pantheon of contemporary art superstars — Americans Kara Walker and Rasheed Johnson, China’s Ai Weiwei — but lean most heavily on artists from Latin America and the Caribbean. Take the time to watch the video by William Kentridge and a second by fellow South African Tracey Rose.

2270 NW 23rd St., Allapattah. Regular hours: Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

Museum of Graffiti

Alan Ket and Allison Freidin, Museum of Graffiti founders, opening in Wynwood during Art Week 2019.
Alan Ket and Allison Freidin, Museum of Graffiti founders, opening in Wynwood during Art Week 2019.

This new permanent Wynwood museum takes an educational and scholarly approach to graffiti as an art form, from the ephemeral train scrawls of 1970s writers including Riff170 and Phase2 to 1980s legends Dondi White and Sonic Bad. Miamians make the mix as well, including Abstrk and Crome. The opening exhibit features works by Dutch artist Niels Meulman, aka Shoe. Of course, there’s more than a bit of limited-edition fun to take away, including umbrellas by Miami’s Ahol Sniffs Glue, $50. The museum is the brainchild of Alan Ket, grafitti artist and historian, and Miami lawyer Allison Freidin.

99 NW 25th St., Wynwood; open daily 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Admission $23 adults, $15 students. museumofgraffiti.com. Great for teens.

Raleigh Gardens

In the Raleigh Garden: sheep and other creatures by Lalanne.
In the Raleigh Garden: sheep and other creatures by Lalanne.

Miami Beach’s past and present converge in Les Lalanne at The Raleigh Gardens, a tropical fantasy featuring more than 40 sculptures by the late Claude Lalanne, who died earlier this year, and wife François-Xavier Lalanne, who died in 2008. The gardens surrounding the 1941 Art Deco masterpiece were designed by Miami’s star landscape architect, Raymond Jungles, and artist/architect to the retail stars, Peter Marino. New York-based developer Michael Shvo bought the hotel and two adjacent properties, the South Seas and the Richmond, for $243 million earlier this year; he’ll renovate The Raleigh as a hotel and has approval to build a condo tower behind the other two properties. The Garden is a reprise of a 2013 installation, “Sheep Station,” featuring Lalanne sheep on the site of a former Getty filling station in Manhattan. “The idea behind the garden is to bring the Raleigh to the public. This is our first foray,” he said. “Historically it has been a cultural magnet for Miami Beach. The garden is our gift.” Now that the celebs who attended its November opening are out of the way, you can actually see the gorillas, sheep, monkeys and turtles, gleaned from Shvo’s own collection and borrowed from fellow collectors including Marino and Jane Holzer. “My personal belief is art is something that needs to be beautiful and not explained. Part of the idea is that everybody can understand [the Garden]. You could be a serious art collector and my 3 1/2-year-old daughter.”

Open through Feb. 29 from noon to 8 p.m. daily at The Raleigh Hotel, 1775 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Especially good for children.

Botero on Lincoln Road

Fernando Botero’s “Donna Sdriata with fruit” is one of 13 monumental Botero bronzes installed on Lincoln Road, courtesy of the Nader Museum.
Fernando Botero’s “Donna Sdriata with fruit” is one of 13 monumental Botero bronzes installed on Lincoln Road, courtesy of the Nader Museum.

On one of the most popular pedestrian promenades in the country, visitors will be able to stroll by 13 monumental bronze sculptures from one of the most popular — and recognized — living sculptors, the Colombian Fernando Botero, during the winter months, courtesy of the Nader Art Museum. Entering, for instance, at Washington Avenue, people will run into one of Botero’s most illustrious sculptures “Male Torso” and also “Rape of Europa;” farther on, visitors will come across “Adam” and “Eve,” “Leda and the Swan,” and “Bird,” among others. In addition to the monumental sculptures, the Gary Nader Centre will present “Espacio Botero,” to further showcase the prolific artist’s paintings and sculptures. Writes Gary Nader, director of Nader Art Museum, about this temporary outdoor public exhibition, “Being around his artwork is pleasing to the eye and brings a smile to the face. ... This exhibition on Lincoln Road will allow visitors and locals to get a closer look at Botero’s most celebrated masterpieces.”

Botero on Lincoln Road, through March 31.

Locust Projects: Trenton Doyle Hancock

Artist Trenton Hancock Doyle comes out of his piece ‘mound #1 the legend’ at his exhibit “I Made a Mound City in Miami Dade County.”
Artist Trenton Hancock Doyle comes out of his piece ‘mound #1 the legend’ at his exhibit “I Made a Mound City in Miami Dade County.”

For Oklahoma-born, Texas-reared Trenton Doyle Hancock, art offered an escape from racism, bullies and a restrictive religious upbringing. His hero, then and now, is his flawed but lovable alter ego, Torpedo Boy. In the 20 years since his work was first featured in the Whitney Biennial, Hancock has developed a complex mythology pitting the Mounds — loving and progressive creatures — against the Vegans, the tofu-consuming embodiment of evil. That evolving narrative plays out in color-filled sculptures and performances seemingly torn from graphic novels where good eternally battles the evils of authoritarianism, racism and inequity. At Locust Projects, his exhibition, “I Made a Mound City in Miami Dade County,” spills onto floors and walls as it explores the infant characters and epic story of the Moundverse.

Open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., at 3852 North Miami Ave., Design District. Exhibition runs through Feb. 8. locustprojects.org. Especially good for children.

XavierCortada/Thomas Dambo at Pinecrest Gardens

Thomas Dambo makes trolls out of reclaimed wood.
Thomas Dambo makes trolls out of reclaimed wood.

A little off the beaten path, south in Pinecrest Gardens, two fun and fascinating eco-art projects are sprouting, one from local artist and environmental activist Xavier Cortada and another from Danish artist Thomas Dambo. To start, Cortada is working with Miami-Dade Parks & Recreation to collect thousands of mangrove seeds and plant the city’s first urban mangrove forest at Pinecrest Gardens — mangrove forests are critical barriers against floods and storm surges and play a crucial role in protecting coastal areas from sea-level rise. This “Plan(T)” art exhibition, featuring a wall of mangrove seedlings in water-filled cups, will be shown in the Hibiscus Gallery at Pinecrest Gardens, along with a giant mural Cortada is painting. “Plan(T)” will also be part of the Untitled Art Fair (on the beach at Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Dec. 4-8, untitledartfairs.com/miami-beach), where Cortada will create a daily vertical wall of 210 mangroves sprouts, anchored by two shipping containers and ask participants to write their current property elevation on an index card (he will also host a North Pole Dinner Party at the fair, serving ice from the Arctic).

The Danish rapper-turned-artist Dambo will also unveil two gigantic trolls, Berta & Terje, using locally sourced wooden trash, broken branches and fallen trees he finds in the area, on Dec. 4. Dambo created a fictional story about these trolls, who are ready to combat the ills of the world and help a wise, beautiful banyan tree — visitors can also sign up to be volunteers and work alongside the artist and his crew.

11000 Red Road; pinecrestgardens.org.

CASACOR Miami



The architecture, design and landscaping fair returns for its third year, featuring an international mix of 20 established and emerging interior designers, all inspired by sustainability and the urban infrastructure of Miami. It has a reputation for highlighting eclectic and innovative living spaces and landscaping, introducing the latest in interior furnishings, art, color trends, textiles, lighting, home accessories and global culture. New to the mix this year will be Ukraine’s rising design firm YODEZEEN, plus Michelle Haim from award-winning design firm Fanny Haim & Associates, Cristiana Mascarenhas and Mr. Alex Tate Design, among others. Landscape architecture firm L&ND and curatorial collective Ground Control will curate art and create spaces inspired in nature and urban living; and panel discussions will also be held for the first time, in order to foster an interactive experience to what can be a passive browse of booths and showrooms.

Dec. 2-21, at Brickell City Centre. 700 Brickell Ave., www.casacormiami.com/tickets/.