NSU Art Museum presents a new exhibition: Wilfredo Lam's Legacy, August 30, 2026 - February 14, 2027

Wifredo Lam's Legacy August 30, 2026 - February 14, 2027 In Memory of Pearl Goodman

NSU Art Museum presents a new exhibition, Wilfredo Lam's Legacy, August 30, 2026 - February 14, 2027. Born in 1902 in a sugar-cane harvesting region of Cuba, Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a transatlantic artist whose mixed heritage as the son of a Chinese immigrant father and Afro-Cuban mother shaped his distinct Surrealist work. Lam had a profound influence on Cuban artists. Lam’s adoption of Afro-Cuban rituals, the reclaiming of African identity, the celebration of the tropical landscape, the use of coded emblems of social and political protest, and the stylization of abstracted hybrid personages are evident in the works on view in this exhibition. Most of all, Lam’s fame as a transnational artist was a source of pride and an example of how art transcends national borders. As artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (b. 1959) stated on the occasion of Lam’s recent retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, “When I was young, we were all trying to be Lam.” Drawn exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection and the recent generous gift from Stanley and Pearl Goodman of their Latin American art collection, the exhibition includes works by Wifredo Lam, Ray Azcuy (Broward), José Bedia (Miami), María Brito, Agustín Cárdenas, Los Carpinteros, Kcho, Ana Mendieta, María Martínez-Cañas (Miami), María Magdalena Compos-Pons, and Ricardo Zulueta (Miami), among others.

The Betsy Orb: “The Egg” Connecting Miami Beach’s Architectural Past and Present

 

Walk along Miami Beach's Ocean Drive and you expect to see Art Deco façades, palm trees, ocean views, and the unmistakable architecture that has made the area one of the world's most recognizable destinations. But tucked between two historic buildings is something entirely different: a futuristic, orb-shaped structure that seems almost suspended in midair.

Known as The Betsy Orb, and affectionately referred to by many as “The Egg,” the distinctive skybridge connects The Betsy's original Ocean Drive property with the former Carlton Hotel building on Collins Avenue. What makes the structure particularly fascinating is the contrast between the historic architecture surrounding it and its contemporary sculptural form. Rather than competing with the buildings, the Orb creates a visual conversation between Miami Beach's architectural past and its evolving cultural identity. The Betsy itself describes the Orb as an “orb-shaped skybridge” and highlights it alongside the property's Poetry Rail and other art and design elements. 

The Betsy's original building, located at 1440 Ocean Drive, opened in 1942 as the Betsy Ross Hotel. Designed by architect L. Murray Dixon, it is recognized as one of Miami Beach's notable examples of Colonial Revival architecture, incorporating classical details while adapting to the city's subtropical environment.

The adjacent Carlton Hotel represents another chapter in Miami Beach's architectural history, having been designed by architect Henry Hohauser. The eventual expansion of The Betsy brought these two architecturally distinct buildings together as one unified property. 

And then there is the Orb.

Instead of hiding the architectural differences between the two buildings, the expansion embraced them—introducing an entirely new contemporary element that visually and physically connects the two.

The Betsy Orb is more than a passageway between two buildings. The hotel presents it as a piece of public art, and its role within The Betsy's larger arts and culture program has become an important part of its identity. The hotel's arts programming includes exhibitions and installations within the Orb itself, demonstrating how the unusual architectural space can become a setting for contemporary creative work.

The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA Miami) Four Rooms: Selections from ICA Miami’s Permanent Collection

 

Ming Fay, 'Money Tree Floating Vine' 1990s/2025 

Four Rooms: Selections from ICA Miami’s Permanent Collection

Special Exhibition / 2nd Floor on view April 30 – October 4, 2026

 “Four Rooms” on view at The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA Miami) assembles a suite of four exhibitions comprising works from the museum’s permanent collection, each organized by one of the museum’s curators, with a focus on recent acquisitions. The resulting presentations, which take the form of vignettes, demonstrate both the diversity and the historical depth of ICA Miami’s collection. The exhibition continues the museum’s ongoing approach to generating dialogue between newly commissioned works and works from the last fifty years and expresses the global scope of ICA Miami’s collection. 

Spirit Matter, curated by Donna Honarpisheh, Associate Curator, Art + Research, brings together diverse experimentations with material that transform matter into portals of spiritual encounter across global contexts. In an exhibition dedicated to grisaille, Gean Moreno Director, ICA Miami’s Art + Research Center, presents works that are meditations on the body and its traces, where presence, memory, and identity emerge through black-and-white photography and subtle performative gestures. Associate Curator Amanda Morgan invites viewers to reflect on intimacy and one’s relationship to the spaces of everyday life. Her exhibition brings together works that feature emotionally laden domestic objects and built environments that imply presence without depicting the human form. Finally, Alex Gartenfeld, Artistic Director, highlights a concise presentation of the museum’s wide-ranging examples of minimalism, highlighting a recent major acquisition of work by Miriam Schapiro. 

Featured artists include Larry Bell, Talia Chetrit, Anne Collier, Rose Marie Cromwell,  Kim Farkas, Ming Fay, Dan Flavin, Samuel Fosso, Paul Gardère, Ron Gorchov, Hugh Hayden, Lonnie Holley, Peter Hujar, Hudinilson Jr., Nikita Kadan, Matt Keegan, Tau Lewis, Louise Nevelson, Damián Ortega, Dalton Paula, Thomas Ruff, Miriam Schapiro, Heji Shin, Tatiana Trouvé, Kaari Upson, Sara VanDerBeek, Celia Vásquez Yui, Ai Weiwei, and Luis Fernando Zapata.