Miami Art Museum public art installations at Art Basel
Date uploaded: November 6, 2008
Miami Art Museum (MAM) will present works by Jeff Koons, Daniel Arsham, and John Henry which will be installed at three public sites throughout the city during Art Basel Miami Beach 2008. These large-scale installations are part of MAM’s ongoing initiative to move programming beyond the walls of the museum and into the community.
‘Rabbit’ by Jeff Koons, a 50-foot rabbit-shaped balloon originally commissioned for the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, will float above MAM’s plaza on December 4, 2008. The reflective silver rabbit, outsized and buoyant, was modeled after the artist’s celebrated 1986 stainless-steel sculpture ‘Rabbit’, itself a cast of a small inflatable bunny.
Organized by MAM, in association with Art in Public Places, Daniel Arsham’s pulsing light installation BEACON/MIAMI on the Bank of America tower in Miami’s urban center will literally light up the sky for the people of Miami and some 30,000 anticipated fair visitors, on the night of December 4, 2008.
MAM recently acquired a monumental new outdoor sculpture Je Souhaite (I Wish) by artist John Henry, which will be temporarily installed in downtown Miami on the future site of Museum Park and the new MAM building being designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron. The 80-foot painted steel sculpture will be on view from December until June 2009, drawing Miami residents and visitors to the surrounding waterfront site.
Terence Riley, Director of the Miami Art Museum says; “These dynamic works of art will engage audiences at three different sites in downtown Miami, drawing both the local community and visitors to the fairs. We selected examples of several different approaches to public art so that Miami audiences will get a taste of the diverse possibilities opened up by contemporary artists. These three pieces give art a new dimension in the city, and exemplify the range of experiences MAM will bring to the community in its new facility and on the Museum Park site.”
