01/15/2026
🌊 sits right on the water next to the of Science. 🔭 Let’s see if it lives up to the view. 🫠
✔️ The Crowd: For a Thursday, it was a lively mix of kids on school field trips mixed with locals.
✔️ The Artists: A strong mix of South American and American artists, plus a few museum regulars like Cy Twombly, we see you. Refreshingly, a solid representation of female artists like Gisela Colón.
✔️ The Art: Mixed media is having a moment. Plexiglass, wood, plastic, lead, and broken glass. Miami artist T. Elliott Manza clearly understood the assignment, creating a dark satirical artworkby incorporating toys, stuffed animals, plastic flowers, foliage, railroad tracks, an alligator head, acrylic, and wood into something that somehow works for a creepy yet fabulous sculptural wall piece.
✔️ So how does work end up in the Pérez Art Museum Miami permanent collection?
Most works were gifted to the museum, from collectors, artists, or both. Others are acquired directly by the museum using funds from its in-house Collectors Council, sometimes with additional contributors. Museums are curated ecosystems. Nothing is accidental and most works endure multiple review rounds, layers of consideration, and years before earning wall space.
This is exactly why collectors and artists sometimes walk museums with an independent art advisor (no institutional agenda involved). believes in understanding context, tracking trajectories, and seeing what institutions are willing to invest wall space in, and why. Without the pressure of a sales floor, it becomes much easier to identify what actually resonates and how that might inform future decisions.
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