Miami Beach voters elected to buy locally for this year’s Legacy Purchase programme, an initiative through which the city acquires a work from Art Basel Miami Beach for its Art in Public Places collection. Of the three finalists, Allegory of Florida (2023) by the Buenos Aires-born, Miami-based artist Nina Surel received the most votes.
The all-white ceramic wall relief features “an allegory of Florida, represented as a young, fertile goddess”, Surel tells The Art Newspaper. A related group of new works—incorporating elements in earth tones and bold glazes—are featured in her solo stand with the Miami gallery Spinello Projects in the fair’s Nova section.
“I always start by making sketches, which are actually collages—scissors are my pens,” the artist says. “Then when I’m building these pieces, my only limit is my kiln.”
Surel adds: “For the longest time, the conversation in the ceramics world has been about feeling excluded, but there are ceramics all over the fair this year.”
The two other finalists this year were works by william cordova and Ximena Garrido-Lecca. Previous Legacy Purchases, which are installed around the Miami Beach Convention Center (where the fair is held), have included works by Juana Valdés, Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Ebony G. Patterson, Farah Al Qasimi and Anneke Eussen.