Museums, private collections welcome Art Week

Reinforcing its position as the premier art fair of the Americas, Art Basel Miami Beach has returned with a full helping of exhibits and participation of top Miami-Dade County art organizations.

Visitors to Art Basel have the opportunity to experience South Florida’s leading museums and private collections.

The Bass Museum at 2100 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach is celebrating the opening of Alex Israel “x Snapchat,” an exhibition of works that use Snap’s augmented reality (AR) technology to bring Alex Israel’s self-portraits to life.

Mr. Israel’s “x Snapchat,” is a unique collaboration between the Los Angeles-based artist and Snapchat. Invited to work with Snap’s advanced augmented reality team to expand upon his multi-disciplinary practice, he has created five augmented reality experiences, each linked to one of his self-portrait paintings. The exhibition unveils three brand new works.

“Perimeters,” an exhibition of new and site-specific work by Israeli-born, New York-based artist Naama Tsabar, is also on display. She works at the intersection of architecture and music, showing viewers how sound moves both through and beyond walls and buildings. She often makes large-scale collaborative performances, sculptures and installations that can be played by musicians and visitors alike.

For Perimeters, Ms. Tsabar fuses elements from sculpture, music, performance and architecture and transforms the museum itself into a playable instrument.

The de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space at 23 NE 41st St. is presenting “There Is Always One Direction,” bringing together the art gallery’s private collection of paintings, sculptures and site-specific installations. The title of this year’s exhibition is taken from Gabriel Orozco’s 1994’s sculpture “Four Bicycles,” which is currently exhibited on the third floor.

El Espacio 23 at 2270 NW 23rd St. is presenting a refreshed version of its show titled, “Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,” for Art Basel. Back by popular demand, the exhibit features over 100 works by African and African Diaspora artists, and addresses themes of systematic oppression, intergenerational trauma, syncretism, identity and territory.

Guest curated by Zimbabwean curator Tandazani Dhlakama of Zeitz MOCA, in collaboration with Pérez Collection curators Patricia M. Hanna and Anelys Alvarez, visitors can expect to witness a new set of newly acquired works from the Jorge M. Perez Collection, comprised of powerful pieces from influential African artists such as Takadiwa Mottat, Cinga Samso, Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, Cassi Namoda, Penny Siopis and Athi Patra Ruga.

The Frost Art Museum at 10975 SW 17th St. is exhibiting “Retrospectrum,” the most expansive and in-depth exhibition of Bob Dylan’s artwork ever staged in the US. Spanning six decades, the exhibition features over 180 paintings, drawings, ironwork, and ephemera, showcasing the development and range of Dylan’s visual practice, in tandem with that of his musical and literary canon.

Curated by Shanghai Modern Art Museum’s Shai Baitel, “Retrospectrum” positions the Nobel Prize-winning multi-faceted artist within his broader body of work and shines a light on a life-long visual practice.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) at 770 NE 125 St. is presenting a special exhibition reception Dec. 2, including the exhibition “My Name is Maryan,” which will be accompanied by a series of education and public programming in partnership with national organizations such as the Human Rights Watch, and feature additional reflections from the arts and local curator and art historian Dr. Erica Moiah James and Holocaust scholar Oren Baruch Stier.

Curated by Alison Gingeras, “My Name is Maryan” is a monographic presentation of four decades of paintings, sculptures, drawings and film by the iconoclastic, ground-breaking Polish-born artist Maryan.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami at 1103 Biscayne Blvd. is exhibiting Zhivago Duncan’s “Pretentious Crap,” an elaborate multimedia work accompanied by sprawling narratives, which was donated to PAMM by Diane and Robert Moss in 2014. Much of his production is authored under the guise of various alter egos, including “Nacnud Ogavihz” and the semi-amnesiac “Dick Flash.”

Riffing off The Wolfsonian-FIU’s focus on design history, contemporary production, and art from around the world, Dutch designer and artist Bas van Beek opens a new chapter with “Shameless.” This provocative exhibition at 1001 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach presents both recent career highlights and new work by Rotterdam-based Van Beek, who draws from archival material to playfully reinterpret form and function in historical design.

Drawing on never before seen works from the private collection and new acquisitions, Margulies Collection at the Warehouse at 591 NW 27th St. is exhibiting “Arte Povera,” the story of Italian artists who were subverting traditional methods of making art within the changing culture of postwar Italy. Participating artists include Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Merz and Gilberto Zorio.

Visitors can experience two Infinity “Rooms” by Yayoi Kusama at Rubell Museum at 1100 NW 23rd St. in Miami. These celebrated fully immersive works create a kaleidoscopic effect that transports visitors to an alternate, limitless universe. “Narcissus Garden,” is composed of 700 stainless steel spheres. The work flows 200 feet along the museum’s central hall, creating an everchanging river of reflection that beckons and visually teases visitors as they walk through and along with it.

“Kusama’s Infinity Rooms take us to new galaxies,” said Mera Rubell, co-founder of the museum. “We are honored to be the only museum in the country with three of her major interactive works on view, each of which provides a different transformative experience. Her works are accessible and enjoyable for visitors of all ages, which goes to the heart of our mission of sharing our collection.”

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami’s (ICA Miami) is showcasing the first solo museum presentation of London-based and rising artists Jadé Fadojutimi’s “Yet Another Pathetic Fallacy,” which is on display at 61 NE 41st St.

Debuting a range of newly commissioned works created in the past year, the exhibition highlights the artist’s pivotal moments in the trajectory of her practices, which represent innovative approaches to her mediums and explore pressing global themes.

“ICA Miami is excited to engage local and global audiences through our free programs. Our newly opened and upcoming exhibitions this season,” said Alex Gartenfeld, artistic director of ICA Miami, “featuring works by Hugh Hayden, Jade Fadojutimi, Betye Saar and more – represent the reach and inclusiveness of our programming using the exchange of art and ideas.”