Debuting in November, in time for this year's incarnation of Art Basel Miami Beach, the Design District is getting a set of "larger-than-life seating capsules with colorful, shaggy surfaces," a floating dome that looks like a disco ball, and "brightly hued wind chimes, hundreds of which will be hung like melody making ornaments," all by Miami-based architect Germane Barnes.
How many cities have giant icons of their names, spelled out in huge, towering letters? The one that pops instantly to mind is the Hollywood Sign, above the neighborhood of Hollywood in Los Angeles, which is close enough, and, well, that's it really. Now, Jacksonville, up in the northeastern corner of Florida, is getting a giant name tag too.
Omega, the luxury watch brand, is celebrating the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, which began today, by dressing up their store in the Miami Design District and scattering big Olympic-themed kchotchkies around the neighborhood. One of those is a diorama-like display near the shape of a giant fake pool meant to be an ode to Olympic swimming. Out in the sweltering Miami heat, without water, is it just a big blue tease?
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.
Three or four years ago Bruce Berkowitz, the head of Miami-based Fairholme Capital, an investment fund, undertook the creation of a new contemporary art space much like many of Miami's other privately-owned art museums. The art within would be particularly spectacular though. Located on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami's Edgewater neighborhood, it would house two particularly important, incredible, and gigantic works of art: James Turrell’s Aten Reign and Richard Serra’s Passage of Time, along with many other works in his collection.
A retrospective exhibit of perhaps the single greatest piece of public art to be created in Miami, by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, is opening this week at PAMM.
The Miami Foundation's Public Space Challenge, the annual competition to create innovative, grass-roots public spaces in and around Miami, has announced this year's crop of finalists: fifty six fantastic ideas to make Miami a better place. Check out a few that caught the Big Bubble's eye here:
