Collections

Miami Art Museum has been collecting art since 1996. The collection focuses on international art of the 20th and 21st centuries from the perspective of the Americas and reflects the cosmopolitan makeup of Miami, forging connections among diverse groups and ideas.

The goal of the collection is to exemplify patterns of intercultural exchange by presenting the work of artists who have been influential in transmitting ideas across continents, as well as that of artists who have generated new approaches by adapting these ideas to their own conditions and concerns.

The collection focuses on art from the 1930s to the present, with a historical emphasis on the cultures of the Atlantic Rim (the Americas, Western Europe, and Africa), from which most Miami residents hail. For the art of recent years, the collection reflects the globalization of the art world, becoming increasingly international in scope while still concentrating on those issues and ideas that are of particular pertinence to Miami audiences.

Essential to MAM's goal is the collecting of work by artists residing in South Florida, many of whom are paradigms of this intercultural dialogue. The result is a collection directed toward a complex interplay between local, regional and global perspectives.

Image: Jose Bedia, Abre Nkuto muchacho nuevo, 1989/2007. Mixed media. Dimensions variable. Collection Miami Art Museum, gift of José Bedia, Peter Menéndez, and Fredric Snitzer.  Photo credit: Peter Harholdt.

Selected Works