Your day-by-day guide
to the world's best display
of contemporary art
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Special exhibits are scattered throughout the city during Miami Art Week. This photo is from a past exhibit by Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch.
Miami Art Week is your best opportunity to see the most contemporary art - and this guide will help you maximize your trip.
If your time is tight, you will want to focus on just two of the many art fairs in town. Art Basel Miami Beach will bring more than 200 galleries from around the world to the Miami Beach Convention Center. Plan on spending more than four hours walking through this immense display. Equally impressive and not to be missed is Art Miami / Context at One Herald Plaza. Again you'll find more than 200 galleries represented and need at least four hours to see them all.
If you have more time, there are many other worthwhile art fairs scattered around the city. But make Art Miami / Context as high a priority as Art Basel Miami Beach.
This year's guide will help you navigate traffic, hotels, and find your best oportunities each day.
Like last year, many fairs are requiring tickets to be purchased in advance. I recommend you get all your tickets in advance, in case some venues reach capacity limits. A couple venues will require you to choose both a day and a time. Miami traffic will make arriving at a particular time very difficult. But if you don't buy a ticket in advance, Art Basel Miami Beach will make you wait at least an hour for the "next available" time slot.
Oscar Murillo painting at the Rubell Family Collection, 2012.
Traffic. For the most part, traffic is bad on Wednesday and gets worse every day until Sunday. If you take your own car, you'll have trouble with parking as well. Take Lyft, a limo, a shuttle, a city bus - anything so you can read or talk while you're traveling from one area to another. Plan on spending an hour to get from Miami Beach to downtown Miami, with most of that time spent in gridlock close to the art venues. (See our transportation guide below.)
Planning ahead. Get your walking shoes ready! In three full days (from noon to 10 p.m.) you can see most of the art fairs and the private collections you don't want to miss (Marguilles, Rubell, de la Rosa and Espacio 23). In four or five days you can add most of the Miami art museums and Wynwood art galleries.
If you don't have that long, don't let the size of the event put you off. Start somewhere (ideally with Art Miami/Context and Art Basel Miami Beach) and see as much as you can.
David Rodriguez, Pausa (Hiatus), at Art Miami
Plan to spend $20 to $70 for admission to most venues. Many have discounts for students and seniors.
IMPORTANT: Pick one location and see as much as you can before moving to another neighborhood. If you don't, you'll be stuck in traffic, wondering why you rejected this advice.
Along the way, expect a few things to not work out. In past years a smaller art fair was cancelled the day it was scheduled to open. Another fair closed early. A third - one of the biggest - had no electricity for hours at a time. (No lights for the paintings, no air conditioning for the guests.) This year you're bound to encounter some unexpected problems as well. The payoff is that you'll also discover some great art.
This year I plan to bring a sweater along. You won't need it outside, but in 2022 some of the air conditioning was so cold I wished I'd had a parka.
You can jump to the information you're interested in by clicking the links - or just keep scrolling through all our great tips. I'll be updating the information each week until the event begins, so feel free to check back for changes.
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Banksy artwork at Art Miami in 2015.
MONDAY HIGHLIGHTS, Dec. 4 , 2023, Art Basel and Miami Art Week
If you’re in town Monday, you’re early! But you'll probably be able to visit some great local art collections. Check back in November for an update of what's available in 2023.
TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS, Dec 5, 2023, Art Basel and Miami Art Week
If you're in town Tuesday without a VIP pass, you're still early. But this will be a great day to see local exhibits.Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
WEDNESDAY HIGHLIGHTS, Dec 6, 2023, Art Basel and Miami Art Week
Wednesday is a great day to be in Miami. Art Miami / CONTEXT opens downtown and Scope opens in South Beach.
The downside of Wednesday? Traffic will be gridlocked around all the major art venues. Pick one area and see all you can before moving on.
Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
Joanne Heyler, Elizabeth Diller, Eli Broad, and Paul Goldberger discussed The Broad Museum (then under construction) at Art Basel Miami Beach 2013.
THURSDAY HIGHLIGHTS, Dec. 7, 2023, Art Basel and Miami Art Week
On Thursday, traffic will be gridlocked around all the major art venues. As a result, it will be best to pick one section of Miami and see all you can before moving on.
Art Basel opens in South Beach at 11 a.m. Timed reservations are required.
Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
A few art fairs (like Ink) are staged in hotel rooms. These photos are from Aqua Art Fair.
FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS, December 8, 2023
On Friday, traffic will be gridlocked around the major art venues. Your best plan will be to pick one neighborhood and see all you can before moving on. Expect to spend at least an hour to get to another part of town.
All the main fairs are open to the general public on Friday. Many require tickets to be purchased in advance.
Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
In 1993, Morley Safer (right) did a story for 60 Minutes called "Yes...But is it art?" In 2013 he was at Art Basel Miami Beach to do a follow-up. The answer to his original question according to CBS? "Whatever it is, it's worth a 1,000 times more than when you first mocked it."
SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS, December 9, 2023
On Saturday, traffic will be gridlocked around the major art venues. Your best plan will be to pick one area and see all you can before moving on. Expect to take at least an hour to get from one part of town to another.
All the main fairs are open to the general public on Saturday. For some, this is their last day. Many fairs require tickets to be purchased in advance.
Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
Street art on a building in Wynwood. Note the car roof in the lower left for a perspective of scale.
SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS, December 10, 2023
This is the last day of Miami Art Week. Many of the art fairs will close at 5 or 6 p.m. but Scope is usually open until 8 and Wynwood Walls are open until 9:30 with a timed ticket.
Check back in November for a complete list of what's available in 2023.
TRANSPORTATION AND HOTELS. Still to come in this report: tips on transportation, hotels, and an unforgettable trip to Everglades National Park if you have an extra day.
Julia and Liz Nolan from Big Brother 17 at the 2015 VIP opening of Spectrum Art Fair, Miami
Hotels and rentals. The sooner you book a room, the more choice you'll have. I recommend you choose a location in South Beach, north downtown Miami or Wynwood to cut down on commute time. But watch the reviews and ratings before you book. Prices during Art Basel weekend will not necessarily reflect quality.
If you need a cheap option, there aren't many during Art Week. South Beach has a growing number of hostels where you share a room with up to eight other guests. It can be as rugged as it sounds. Mid Beach sometimes has rooms with better rates (but noticably worse furnishings). And sometimes downtown Miami lets you get a room at a discount through Priceline or a similar website. But don't stray from South Beach, Wynwood or downtown Miami or you'll pay for it in transportation time.
Transportation. The main tip on transportation is to go to a location (like South Beach, Wynwood or downtown Miami) and stay there for as long as you can. The traffic jams will affect any transportation you try, whether your own car, limo, shuttle, cab, or bus.
Car
After making it through the traffic jams, you'll have to find parking if you bring your own car. I prefer Lyft or Uber.
Cabs
Traffic will be clogged around the art fairs, so you may be tempted to walk a couple blocks so you can hail a cab somewhere else. It won't work. Empty cabs are difficult to find outside the main art areas during Miami Art Week.
Lyft, Uber and limos
If you schedule a ride to pick you up a block or two away from the areas where traffic is clogged you will save quite a bit of time.
Lime, Bird and other scooter and bike companies
If you have their aps already loaded on your phone and you are adventurous, you might find a bike or scooter to help you make short hops around Wynwood and north of downtown. Clogged traffic won't matter, and scooters are much faster than walking. Rent the vehicle for a day if you plan to make more than three short trips. But don't count on this option; few scooters were available in 2022.
Bus
If you arrive by air and plan to take a city bus some or all of the time, stop at the bus shelter in the airport terminal area and get a multi-day pass. Passes are very hard to find once you leave the airport. Look for the purple signs to direct you to the MIA Mover and the bus shelter.
One thing you need to know if you use the Miami bus system: you have to flag the bus like you would hail a cab. Otherwise they will drive right by, even if you are at the bus stop.
Use maps.google.com and click the public transit icon to find the best option for how to get to where you want to go. But don't expect the busses to arrive on time during Miami Art Week. They won't. They'll be caught in traffic like everyone else.
Street art in Wynwood.
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Other pages on art that you might be interested in:
Art Basel Switzerland ArtPrize New York Art Galleries Venice Biennale
If you have an extra day: If you have an extra day or if you just need a break from seeing so much art, there's nothing like Everglades National Park. But forget the bus tours.
You can see ten times more if you rent a car and drive to the park. You can be at the entrance in an hour and a half. Just inside the entrance, turn left at Royal Palm. The Anhinga Trail is a short, flat boardwalk. Within two minutes you'll be looking at birds so big you won't be able to miss them.
You won't see as many gators as you would in warmer months. But if you hear the reeds cracking, it's because something big is moving through them. Listen carefully and you may be able to spot a gator.
(When you rent your car, be sure to get insurance for the vehicle. There are vultures in the parking lot who like to eat the rubber around car doors.)
To make your trip really worthwhile, drive another 45 minutes to the Flamingo Visitor Center and rent a kayak for a couple hours. You'll be able to see more wonderful birds up close. If you're already in Miami, there's no reason to miss this great adventure.
If you need a break either before or after the event, Everglades National Park is only an hour and a half away. Rent a car and skip the bus tours, which don't go to the park itself. But get car insurance. The vultures like rubber on cars.
