The new public art adorning the Miami Beach Convention Center was recently unveiled, including a series of murals and a public park lining Collins Canal adorned with large aluminum sculptures. The art, as curated by the City of Miami Beach's Art in Public Places initiative, includes site-specific permanent works by Joseph Kosuth, Joep van Lieshout, Ellen Harvey, and Franz Ackerman, with a tile installation by artist Sarah Morris set to debut by the end of the month. The Joep van Lieshout pieces, specifically, enhance the gorgeous new park along Collins Canal.
The Miami Beach Convention Center renovation, designed by Fentress Architects (lead architect), Arquitectonica (facade and associate architect), and West 8 (landscape architect) is finally nearing completion, in time for Art Basel Miami Beach this year. The architects released photographs of the completed portions of the transformed convention center, giving an inside and outside hint at what to expect. Elements like the rooftop ballroom, the West 8-designed park, and the grand west lobby are still in the works.
If you were lucky enough to enter Art Basel Miami Beach this year through the VIP entrance you got a little treat: a mini construction tour through the future grand lobby of the Miami Beach Convention Center. The whole thing, although not a very long tour, was pretty cool. It began in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, crossed Meridian Avenue, which is closed to traffic and the public during construction, and then shot through one side of the lobby, down a back hallway, and into the convention center. Check out photos of the entire route here.
So far maybe not so good for those looking for a little grace-and-favor nepotism for the international art world in the Donald J. Trump administration. The unpronounceably-named Mnuchin Gallery, which is exhibiting at this year's Art Basel Miami Beach, is publicly disavowing any connection to Steven Mnuchin, the Donald's pick for Treasury Secretary and son of the gallery's head honcho.
