It’s that time of year again in Miami and Miami Beach. After celebrating Thanksgiving and are now anticipating the next set of winter holiday celebrations with family and friends, many of us join the annual Art Week madness. Other writing activities and wonderful travel experiences have taken my time these past few weeks of silence. Now, I hope to return to this blog, and keep it rolling along.

Late yesterday morning, Constant Companion and I embarked on 2025 Art Week.  Actually, to conserve our energy, we split the day into two outings. In the morning, we trekked south to five of the twelve hotels hosting the sixth edition of No Vacancy, the juried art competition sponsored by the City of Miami Beach with the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA) and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB).

A note: thanks to the hotels, including the Avalon and the Catalina, which actually acquire some of the works and make them part of their collections.

Andrea Myers’, A Soft Pixelation, are installed at the Avalon Hotel Miami on South Beach. This is a textile-based installation composed of hundreds of repurposed T-shirts sewn into a pixelated patchwork field. I always like to admire the rest of the artwork in this hotel’s lobby/restaurant.

Last year, this piece caught my eye. Deep down in my visual memory, I knew I recognized the repetitive figures captured by this artist from my time(s) in Greece. Thanks to the concierge and his handy IPhone who identified the artist as Greek revolutionary artist, Yannis Gaitis (1923-1984).

Next stop was The Catalina Hotel & Beach Club to admire Edison Peñafiel’s, Florida Florarium, a suspended garden of elongated textile banners forming a monumental floating landscape.

Patty Suau’s, Unexpected Encounters, an interactive installation merging mirrors and life-size figure drawings to evoke fleeting moments of human connection, are featured in different locations of the lobby at the Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel. After some difficulty in understanding the concept, Constant Companion was able to interact with at least one of the works and get a hug.

Lee Pivnik’s, Wellspring, at The Shelborne by Proper is a multimedia sculptural installation tracing the movement of water through Florida’s ecosystems and its role as a carrier of memory. Pivnik has assembled hand-built ceramic pieces with video and audio components; Constant Companion reported that the audio portion brought the work together.

Our last stop of the morning outing was the Nautilus Sonesta Miami Beach, where a remarkable collection of stark black and white photographs by Evelyn Sosa, titled  No Place is Far Away, make up the participatory archive of migration inspired by the question: What object did you take with you when you emigrated?

After a brief r & r break, we continued our first day, Prelude #1 to Art Week trek with two stops.

Before I had to report to work in the late afternoon, our goal was the exhibition of Marice Cohn Band‘s photos. Marice, now retired after many, many years as a staff photographer for the Miami Herald has earned at least one Pulitzer Prize. More importantly she has been recognized by Miami Dade County and Miami Beach for her tireless work as a mentor and energetic Girl Scout leader. Several generations of young women, including Daughter, passed through her loving hands as Scouts.

Band’s exhibition at IPC Art Space Gallery, “Children of the Cuban Revolution,” brings together photos that span from the late Soviet era to 2019 and documents the everyday lives of Havana’s youth, capturing both the optimism and disillusionment of generations growing up amid scarcity and ideological legacy. To quote the exhibit text, “Echoing the words of José Martí, “children are the hope of the world,” the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the lasting power of youth and the enduring spirit of the Cuban people.”

There is no Elevate Espanola this year. The gallery at which her photos were displayed is next to Edouard Duval-Carrié’s studio where several of the playful trapeze acrobats from the 2022 Elevate were installed.

On the way to your next destination, Constant Companion and I made a quick dinner stop. In Miami, there are located in gas station “restaurants.” I don’t know this phenomenon exists where you live. Here, there’s a Chinese place and this Haitian chicken (and more) shop, Cecibon, that we pop into every once in a while.

Next stop was the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and Cornelius Tulloch’s mixed media installation, “Poetics of Place, Creole Collage.” Tulloch is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and architect whose immersive installations explore the fusion of cultural identity, memory, and nature and the built environment. He layers photography, painting, and architectural design to transform spaces into powerful narratives of migration, resilience, and belonging.

“Poetics of Place” is an architectural installation loosely recreates the ruins of a porch space of a Miami home. It calls on participants to think about what is preserved in the face of development, what happens to the people, what memories to do have, and more.

In addition, the project integrated summer youth workshops at AHCAC led by Cornelius Tulloch and Arsimmer McCoy. The students explored the power of art and architecture through poetry and collage, creating 10×10-inch works that were digitally transformed into breeze-block–inspired panels.

Complementing the indoor installation, the outdoor activation Porch Passages: Liberty is also on display.

And with that, we are off and running for Art Week 2025.