By Sandra Schulman
Miami is being reborn — again — as a major arts and technology center. The rapid pace of development has created mini-cities downtown and in the surrounding areas.
Now the second-largest urban mixed-use development in America, just behind New York City’s Hudson Yards on the Hudson River, the 27-acre “city within a city” Miami Worldcenter is planned to be a new epicenter where the arts, lifestyle and business come together.
This massive center, with a $4 billion price tag, has residential, commercial and hospitality uses with 300,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment space expected to be completed by the end of the year.
But what is really making the development Miami-worthy is the curators and artists.
Artists Nina Chanel Abney, Woody De Othello, Viktor El-Saieh, Nick Cave, and Trenton Doyle Hancock are tapped to exhibit artworks. A large-scale mural by Abney is the first piece curated by uber-dealer Jeffrey Deitch, who will collaborate with Miami-based curatorial collective Primary.
Deitch has been a major influence on the scene in New York, Los Angeles and in Miami with modern and contemporary art for nearly 50 years as an artist, writer, curator, dealer, and adviser. Deitch was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and works in Miami advising private collectors and public art projects. Every year during Art Basel Miami Beach, Deitch curates a knockout show at the Moore Building in the Design District and at his own pop-up space.
Primary (owned by Books Bischof, Cristina Gonzalez, and Typoe Gran) is a context and research-driven curatorial collective with a focus on public art. Based in Miami, Primary has been influencing the look of urban perspective since 2007, with outdoor and gallery-based projects that upend and redefine the arts of the counterculture.
“Working with Miami Worldcenter is an honor and a homecoming, allowing us to contribute to a neighborhood we have an intimate relationship with,” Bischof said. “Advancing the curation of the public art collection at Miami Worldcenter is a unique opportunity to highlight the values and lifestyle of Miami through the prism of world-class artists.”
“Miami has become one of the leading centers of contemporary art,” Deitch said in a prepared statement, “with its prestigious art fairs, public and private museums, and its innovative public art projects. The art program at Miami Worldcenter will enhance Miami’s stature as an international art destination.”
The first group of artists slated to display their works throughout Miami Worldcenter include Abney, a contemporary Black artist who explores race, gender, pop culture, and politics in her work. Her paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture.
Her debut large-scale mural at Miami Worldcenter addresses the heritage of Miami’s historic Overtown community. It is filled with faces, symbols and numbers.
“I created pictorial language to tell an imagined narrative that investigates community renewals and removals,” Abney said in a statement. “The mural location, a tunnel formed by the dark passageway under the building, inspired me to consider the legacy of preserving sacred spaces with story. I hope to spark a dialogue around gentrification and encourage a curiosity among viewers to engage with and learn about the previous and adjacent neighborhoods.”
The other artists scheduled to create new work include De Othello, a Miami-born, California-based Haitian sculptor. De Othello’s art uses household objects, figurative elements, and the natural world with humor to perk up the work.
El-Saieh, a Miami-raised artist of Haitian and Palestinian heritage, creates art that incorporates folklore, politics and culture.
Soundsuit sensation Cave is an American sculptor, dancer, and performance artist. Cave’s Soundsuits are large-scale fabric sculptures that are bright, whimsical, and other-worldly. This will be his first outdoor figurative sculpture.
Hancock, a Texas-based artist working with multiple media, is influenced by comics, graphic novels, cartoons, music, and film. He is best-known for his visual work that focuses on the mythology and representation surrounding the eternal battle between good and evil.
To up the powerhouse ante, there is an art advisory committee, with distinguished curators and museum directors to shape the artistic landscape of the development. The committee members are Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; Alex Gartenfield, artistic director at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Nicolas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund; and Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art in New York and artistic director of the 2022 Venice Biennale.
“Miami Worldcenter is home to residents from more than 50 countries around the world, a representation of the global economic powerhouse the city has evolved into. Art is something that transcends language, borders and culture, and we are investing in something that is meaningful and will impact our community for decades to come,” says Nitin Motwani, managing partner of Miami Worldcenter Associates, in a prepared statement.
Miami Worldcenter is ideally located by Museum Park, home to Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Frost Museum of Science; FTX Arena; the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; and Miami-Dade College’s Downtown Miami campus.