After a pandemic-induced hiatus, Miami Art Week is back stronger than ever. I think Miami Beach was proud and excited to once again host this incredible gathering of top contemporary artists, galleries, brand partners and collectors. So, what stuck with us after the Miami art week?

First of all, it was the most packed event, ever. For example, Art Basel had a highly successful return to Miami Beach, with a strong NFT presence. Blockchain platform Tezos debuted "Human + Machine: NFTs and the Ever-Evolving World of Art" at Art Basel in Miami Beach. Featured artists included Mario Klingemann (known as Quasimondo), whose project invites viewers to create and mint their own self-portrait NFT, alongside names like Joanie Lemercier, Sutu, Helena Sarin, Matt Deslauriers, p1xelfool and Quibibi. Pace Gallery also said it sold an NFT by the artist duo DRIFT for $550,000, and Galerie Nagel Draxler, of Cologne, Berlin, and Munich, dedicated a portion of its booth to new NFT works by Kenny Schachter. Let’s take a quick look at the public art installations that took part in the art week.

Refik Anadol’s art sold for $850,000

Public beach exhibitions provided visitors the opportunity to see and experience a network of public art throughout Miami Beach. The unforgettable experience started with Los Angeles-based Turkish artist Refik Anadol’s "Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams."

Anadol was commissioned to create one of his signature monumental immersive experiences on Faena Beach inspired by The Reefline’s mission of co-creating with nature. Bridging the physical and digital worlds, Refik plunges viewers into his unique and captivating world. ‍

‍Anadol explores how the perception and experience of time and space are radically changing now that machines dominate our everyday lives. He is intrigued by the ways in which the digital age and machine intelligence allow for a new aesthetic technique to create enriched immersive environments that offer a dynamic perception of space and tackles this by moving beyond the integration of media into built forms and translating the logic of a new media technology into art and design. His works explore the space among digital and physical entities by creating a hybrid relationship between architecture and media arts with machine intelligence.

For his latest "Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams," Anadol and his team complied 300 million pieces of nature-focused data and 1,742,772 images of coral. By processing them with machine learning, the team created a mesmerizing sculpture, which was bought for $850,000 by a collector and will be on display in the Faena Museum.

Pilar Zeta’s surrealist ‘Hall of Visions’

Feana Beach’s outdoor installations are always among the most memorable pieces in Miami Art Week, and this year was no exception. The property enlisted Pilar Zeta for two remarkable installations: The surrealist "Hall of Visions," situated on the sand behind the property, alludes to Argentina’s madi movement while paying homage to the history of art deco. And "Hatch" presents a sculpture of an egg seemingly cracking as a way to depict rebirth and realization. The installations’ digital counterpart is a one-minute animation that will be divided into five short clips and auctioned off as NFTs on the Aorist marketplace.

Saype‘s ecofriendly painting

For Miami Art Week, Saype’s installation for Balmain designed on the Atlantic beach was amazing. Saype’s creation premiered on Dec. 1, which is also World AIDS Day, and Balmain hosted a celebratory event in support of (RED), which collaborates with the world’s most iconic brands to build stronger health systems against pandemics like AIDS and COVID-19, at the Balmain Pavilion.

Saype returned to the same palette of contrasts over and over and has created a recognizable, emotionally packed aesthetic. This is what Balmain’s Oliver Rousteing was ultimately hoping to unleash at Art Basel Miami Beach in the service of the environment and preventing climate catastrophe, and on the public but also personal front.

‘55 Sunrises’ by Sho Shibuya

Saint Laurent Rive Droite opened a gallery in Miami and inside the space, which is practically a pink-and-red cube glowing against the backdrop of ocean and sky, an exhibition of works by Japanese artist Sho Shibuya commissioned by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello was on display.

Shibuya has gained widespread attention for his series of daily paintings, "Sunrise from a Small Window," created from his Brooklyn apartment over the last 22 months. Using the front page of the New York Times as a canvas, he has ritualistically painted the hues of each morning’s sunrise directly onto the day’s paper, covering the often-downtrodden news with an ever-changing symbol of revival and hope. This series went on display for the public for the first time at the temporary gallery of Saint Laurent Rive Droite.