The Best of Art Basel Miami 2023
Whether you’re a fan of Philip Guston's $20 million painting or coming in town to see Futura paint, there was something for everyone at Art Basel Miami 2023. Here's the best.
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Art Basel Miami has finally come to a close, and surprisingly there’s no viral art like that banana being taped to a wall or a MSCHF ATM machine telling you how rich Diplo is. Regardless, there was still some great art inside and outside the Miami Beach Convention Center this weekend. Aside from traditional Miami Art Basel exhibitions, there were so many great brands, creatives, and designers who held their own unique events in Miami this week.
Whether you’re a fan of artists like Philip Guston or streetwear-adjacent OGs like Futura, there was something for everyone to take away from Art Basel Miami this year. While many of us weren’t likely spending millions of dollars on paintings, we certainly had a good time in Miami this year. Nike had its own exhibit featuring art inspired by Nike Air Force 1s. Dozens of graffiti artists spotted an empty building in Miami and covered it with unsanctioned graffiti from top to bottom. There were events that tapped into Miami’s local skateboarding community such as a standout exhibition on Atiba Jefferson’s photography. And of course, there were huge clothing reveals from brands like HUGO and Gallery Dept.
Check out our best of Art Basel Miami 2023 roundup below.
Jeffrey Deitch’s Booth
While there were many great booths to visit inside the Miami Beach Convention Center, Jeffrey Deitch’s curation at Art Basel was a major highlight worth checking out. Just weeks after Jeffrey Deitch unveiled an expansive exhibition in New York City centered on the 40th anniversary of Wild Style, Deitch brought over artwork by both graffiti masters like Futura and emerging painters such as Los Angeles’ own Nehemiah Cisneros. There was something for everyone at Deitch’s booth. Street-art fans would have likely gravitated toward works by Banksy, Swoon, and Shepard Fairey. Old-school graffiti fans would have resonated with paintings by Lee Quiñones or Rammellzee. Our personal favorites were an eerie oil-painted television set featuring Tinker Bell by Jessie Edwards, screen-printed T-shirts and long sleeves by Sonya Sombreuil of Come Tees, and a sculpture by Overton Loyd and George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic.
A Graffiti Takeover on an Abandoned Building in Downtown Miami
Miami has always had a rich graffiti scene of its own. The city is home to notorious graffiti crews like MSG. Miami’s art district in Wynwood has become well recognized in recent years for embracing graffiti and street-art muralists by providing walls where they could paint legally. There’s even a Museum of Graffiti in Miami that's been open for the past four years. While there were plenty of graffiti-themed events at Art Basel this year, the best graffiti found this year was not inside the convention center. Instead, it was on an abandoned building in Downtown Miami. A little over a month after the demolition of One Bayfront Plaza was announced by city officials, graffiti artists from all over the world who visited Art Basel this week covered the building from top to bottom. HAEL, DR. DAKS, REVOK, HAEL, VAYNE, MERCH and others from the Los Angeles–founded crews MSK and OTR were some of the first to hit it. Europe’s 1UP crew also threw their name up on the building, and a slew of other graffiti writers followed suit. SAUTE and ENERI rappelled off one side of the building to spray paint some insanely large vertical tags. If that wasn’t enough, RAMS and ZWON rappelled off the other side to paint filled-in vertical pieces. The bombing of One Bayfront Plaza will truly stand as an ephemeral testament to the many pieces of unsanctioned graffiti that gets painted during Miami Art Basel every year.
The Second Annual Abloh Skate Invitational
This year, Nike collaborated with Virgil Abloh Securities and his Architecture creative studio to host the second annual Virgil Abloh Skate Invitational. Like last year’s, the event brought two days of skateboard-themed community programming to Miami’s Lot 11 Skatepark. There were freeriding sessions, a best trick competition, public skate sessions, and more. Additionally, the invitational also hosted workshops, clinics, tutorials, training sessions, and moderated panels with leaders from the world of global design, art, and skateboarding. “It’s a light that he shined for culture all the way across the board and brings a bunch of people from different worlds together,” said Ishod Wair, a Nike SB athlete, in a press statement. “The skateboarding community in full circle bringing it all together is just a beautiful thing.”
Atiba Jefferson’s Incredible Skate Photography Exhibition
If any skate photographer was worthy of a solo exhibition, it is Atiba Jefferson. Outside the main booths at Art Basel, Vans OTW, Architecture, and Virgil Abloh Securities organized an expansive retrospective that covered 25 years of Jefferson’s work within skating. The exhibit was organized chronologically and traced Jefferson’s path to becoming one of the most recognized skateboard photographers of all time. It starts with 35 mm film photos he took in the mid-‘90s of SoCal skate competitions featuring Tony Hawk and Kareem Campbell. It eventually goes up to digital photos he’s captured as Thrasher Magazine’s staff photographer—like that iconic “Skater of the Year'' cover photo of Tyshawn Jones doing a kickflip over the 145th Street subway tracks. The exhibit highlights photography techniques that Jefferson pioneered, such as the use of dramatic lighting in skate photography or being one of the first to popularize the use of a fisheye lens. “The moments that Atiba captures are all part of the larger movement of skateboarding, which we at OTW by Vans love,” said Ian Ginoza, the vice president of creative direction for Pinnacle at Vans in a statement to Complex. “We are happy to celebrate, support and partner with the one and only Atiba Jefferson on this milestone exhibition.”
Easy Otabor’s ‘Sole Perspectives’ Exhibition by Nike
Art Basel is known for having so many brand activations that it’s hard to find the diamonds in the rough. But it’s undeniable that one of the best ones that occurred this weekend was an art show curated by Chicago’s own Easy Otabor and Nike. Since launching Chicago’s Anthony Gallery in 2019, Otabor has developed a reputation for bringing some of the best young art talent to the Midwest. He brought that same tasteful curation to Miami this weekend with “Sole Perspectives,” an exhibition that featured work by artists like Shaun Crawford, Aya Brown, Gunner Stahl, Eri Wakiyama, and others connected by the common thread of Air Force 1s. The exhibition emphasized how one of Nike’s most iconic silhouettes naturally transcends different cultures and artistic mediums.
Polaroid’s Collaboration With 1UP
The internationally recognized European graffiti crew, 1UP, collaborated with Polaroid for Art Basel this year. 1UP tapped Martha Cooper (a legendary graffiti photographer whose images of New York City graffiti in the 1970s and 1980s helped spread graffiti across the world) and Nika Kramer to use the brand’s iconic instant film cameras to take portraits of artists they selected. The portraits included images of Futura, Revok, skateboarder Mark Gonzales, members of the 1UP graffiti crew, and more. The Polaroids were then blown up into the size of large canvases, and then artists were invited to embellish their own portraits. The result didn’t just highlight the quality of Polaroid’s I-2 instant camera but also the eye of two iconic photographers and some legendary artists. The portraits will continue to live in the Museum of Graffiti for the next six months so visitors can continue to visit.
Kid Cudi Receiving an Honorary Master’s Degree
One big surprise to come out of Miami Art Basel this year was Kid Cudi receiving an honorary master’s degree in fashion and luxury brand management from the Istituto Marangoni Miami, a fashion art and design school in Miami. Cudi received the degree after being a part of a panel discussion with the school and opening a Members of the Rage pop-up on campus where proceeds would be donated to the school’s scholarship fund. “Today was a really special day. Man, words can't really express how I felt/feel now in this moment," Cudi captioned in an Instagram post where he’s photographed kissing his mother, Elsie Mescudi. "Im happy, I feel complete, accomplished, validated, all the things that bring immense joy. My mom sharing this moment with me was everything. She got emotional, and it was such a special memory we’ll have together forever."
“RETOUCHÉ” Exhibition by Gallery Dept.
Josué Thomas’ label Gallery Dept. has been fresh on everyone’s minds ever since it dropped a pair of extremely limited Asics at ComplexCon earlier this year. This weekend, Thomas came down to Miami to unveil “RETOUCHÉ,” a new exhibition that follows his creative vein of unpacking and challenging the definition of what’s considered to be fine art and modern luxury. The exhibition was almost like a showroom for what could likely be considered Gallery Dept.’s most elevated cut and sew offerings yet. Standout garments included embossed leather vests and upcycled dresses. The most notable piece within the exhibition was a Gallery Dept. piece made in collaboration with Ugg, hinting at yet another hyped Gallery Dept. footwear drop on the horizon.
A George Condo Painting Selling For Over $2 Million
Although there’s plenty of art to look at during Art Basel, there’s also a lot of money to be made. One of the most expensive pieces to be sold this weekend was a new painting by George Condo—a painter many recognize as the album cover artist behind Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Condo’s painting, Smiling Aristocrat, sold for $2.35 million. The gallery who sold his painting, Hauser & Wirth, also sold the most expensive painting at Miami Art Basel this year, Philip Guston’s 1979 piece Painter at Night, for $20 million.
Bloody Osiris Unveiling HUGO’s New GO-2 Sneaker
Those who were lucky enough to be in town on Friday got a rare opportunity to preview HUGO’s new GO-2 sneaker, thanks to Bloody Osiris. The HUGO GO-2 is inspired by sleek running silhouettes, boasts deconstructed details, and bears a hiking-inspired tread on the sole. The stylish influencer known for his Instagram fit pics designed a special version of the shoes for the event that was gifted to friends and family. Bloody’s take on the shoe boasted red accents and came with a collectable hang tag and box.
Clarks Original’s First-Ever Clarks Creates Workshop
Clarks surprisingly released one of the coolest footwear collaborations to drop at Miami Art Basel. For the first time ever, Clarks invited guests to collaborate with artists to customize their own unique pairs of Clarks Wallabees. Lucky guests had the opportunity to tap into Vandy the Pink, Jacopo De Carli, and Shaun Crawford’s talents to make a pair of Wallabees that would even make Ghostface Killah jealous.
