No Miami For Me This Year

But have fun if you're going!

At Art Basel Paris, October 2025. photo credit: Bridgett M. Davis

Yep, that’s right: I won’t be joining the throngs of folks attending Miami Art Week next week. I attended Art Basel Miami for the first time last year. That trip enabled me to help clients acquire a beautiful Mickalene Thomas photograph, so being there was worth it.

While it’s always lovely to be in the mix and see what’s on exhibit at the key fairs (Art Basel Miami, Untitled, SCOPE, and Prizm, NADA. Skip Context because it’s trash), it has to make business sense. Thanks to the opportunity for Bridgett to curate a selection of films including Naked Acts at a festival in Lausanne, Switzerland, Davis and I had the opportunity to spend time in Paris and attend that edition of Art Basel. And I got to see some friends and colleagues:

Clockwise from top left: With artist business manager Marques Hardin; fellow Carnegie Mellon classmate and experiential designer Mona Kim; art dealer Flavien Louh; with Bridgett M. Davis and VOLTA Art Fair’s Lee Cavaliere

So I’m good. You all know that traveling to fairs involves a not insignificant outlay of resources (flight, hotel, food, Lyfts). Without any specific client work, I’d just be hanging out. Yes, there’s always some value to that, but it’s not critical.

Add to that, I have a some important projects I’m working on here in NYC and New Orleans, and I need to stay focused on them.

While I’m not going, I’ll share the Miami advice that I got upon arriving. First, traffic is turrible, so avoid going back and forth between Miami and Miami Beach, if you can. Choose which side of the causeways you’re focusing on and stay there. In reality, that means dealing with Art Basel, Untitled, and SCOPE while you’re on Miami Beach. NADA and Prizm are in Miami proper, so save them for a day when you’re over there.

At Untitled 2024.

I ended up with quite a full schedule.

Last year, I got in on Wednesday, had a few meetings and spent the afternoon at an offsite event sponsored by The Robb Report. Thursday was my day at Art Basel. I then attended a dinner thrown by Dr. Darla Migan (she’d go on to sell out her gallery’s first NADA booth featuring the work of artist Kevin Sparkowich). I also got a last minute invite to the the Perez Museum’s Miami Art Week party (shout-out to museum director Franklin Sirmans!). It’s a must-attend event and, in that case, I broke my the rule of not crossing the causeway. Friday was for both Untitled and SCOPE, which are right next to each other on Miami Beach. On Saturday, I made my way over to Miami for a wonderful Jupiter Magazine brunch (shout-out Camille Bacon!) and then I made my way over to NADA, Prizm, and Context (again, forget about this one).

And, thanks to a friend, I got invited to an event celebrating James Baldwin at IPC Artspace in Little Haiti. This was an incredible event that drew a multi-generational, multiracial audience to this community space, and it provided a refreshing contrast to all the other events that were connected to the fair.

Sunday was my return trip and, on the way to the airport, I swung by MoCA North Miami to check out a show I’d heard a lot about: Andrea Chung exhibition and, in the process, discovered the work of Smita Sen.

The point of all this is, above all, enjoy Miami Art Week. It’s a great time to visit the city if you’re connected to the art and design worlds. Don’t stress about getting into all the “right” events. Some you’ll attend, some you’ll miss. Then there will be experiences you can’t plan for that are wonderful.

If you’re heading, I wish you safe and productive travels!

Recommended NYC Exhibitions

Adrienne Elise Tarver at McBride/Dillman through January 11, 2026

Adrienne continues her ever-richer, cross-disciplinary world-building around her fictional muse, Vera Otis.

Kandy G. Lopez at ACA Galleries through January 17, 2026

What I’m enjoying most is seeing the ongoing evolution of Kandy’s practice: She’s building layers, depth, and subtlety, and doing it all in thread.

Sarah K. Khan at BRIC through December 23, 2025

Sarah is a multimedia maker, who works across paper, books, prints, photography, porcelain and films — and makes art about about food, culture, women and migrants. This current exhibition uses drawings, ceramics and film to excavate stories and histories that prevailed in the African, Arab and Asian worlds long before the West became dominant.

New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging at MoMA through January 17, 2026

Photo: L. Kasimu Harris. “King” Joe Lindsey and his Royal Setup (Robertson’s Vieux Carre Lounge), New Orleans from the series Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges. 2022. Inkjet print

This is a show (sadly, like Rashid Johnson’s at the Guggenheim) that I haven’t seen yet. As someone who dabbles in photography, I became aware of this series during its 2023 edition, when the focus was on photographers from Lagos, Nigeria who “explore[d] the image as a social medium.” This year’s edition “brings together 13 artists and collectives who explore sites of belonging and forms of interconnectedness. Some of the artists weave personal stories within broader political histories to explore intergenerational memory. Others reimagine the idea of the archive to disrupt narratives of the past and imagine future communities.”

From MoMA’s site:

Presenting their work at MoMA for the first time, the artists and collectives include Sandra Blow, Tania Franco Klein, and Lake Verea (Francisca Rivero-Lake and Carla Verea), who live and work in Mexico City; Gabrielle Goliath, Lebohang Kganye, Sabelo Mlangeni, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa, who live and work in Johannesburg; Nepal Picture Library, Sheelasha Rajbhandari, and Prasiit Sthapit, who live and work in Kathmandu; and L. Kasimu Harris, Renee Royale, and Gabrielle Garcia Steib, who live and work in New Orleans.

That’s all for now!

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