By Carolina Ana Drake, Dec. 4, 2023
There continues to be an outsider narrative about Miami’s art history beginning when Art Basel first arrived in 2002. Part exhibition, permanent digital archive, and book, “Making Miami,” curated by Katerina Llanes and produced by Vivek Jayaram, aims to challenge this narrative. Some of Miami’s longest-running nonprofit spaces date back to the 1980s and ’90s: Locust Projects, Dimensions Variable, Bass Fisher Invitational, and Diaspora Vibe have long showcased the artists who made Miami’s arts community and helped shaped the city. Focusing on the period between 1996 and 2012, and featuring some 50 Miami-based artists, the exhibition, has five distinct parts in a 20,000-square-foot lot in the heart of the Design District.
Artists have re-created and rebuilt 4 of these artist-run or nonprofit gallery spaces that are still standing strong. Each gallery will curate their own shows of Miami artists from a specific era. An outdoor sculpture garden will feature large works by artists such as Jen Stark, Friends With You, and Daniel Arsham’s Snarkitecture. The accompanying book contains about 90 conversations with artists, curators, gallery owners, collectors, and others who were active during that period.
