MAM’s 1996 Carlos Alfonzo exhibition traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., where more than 260,000 people saw the exhibition. According to the London-based Art Newspaper, it was the fourth most highly attended art exhibit worldwide in 1998.

The New York Times hailed UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History’s Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, shown at MAM in 1996, as one of the top ten exhibitions of that year.

In 1998, Ann Hamilton: the body and the object, organized by the Wexner Art Center in Columbus, Ohio, and supplemented by the MAM-commissioned installation mantle, was shown to international acclaim at MAM, just before Hamilton was chosen to represent the USA at the 1999 Venice Biennale. MAM’s installation of mantle has since been reproduced in numerous arts publications and textbooks as a major example of Hamilton’s work.

In 1998, MAM presented works by the renowned artist George Segal in
George Segal, a Retrospective: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings organized
by the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal.

Brice Marden: Paintings of the 90s, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, showcased the art of the foremost American painter of his generation. MAM was one of only four venues for this critically acclaimed exhibition that toured the U.S. in 1999.

In 2000, Miami Art Museum was the only other venue for About Face: Andy Warhol Portraits, organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum. The exhibition brought record audiences to MAM.

As part of its commitment to fostering connections between the museum and the community it serves, MAM regularly features local talent. In 2000, MAM spotlighted eight Miami-based artists in the yearlong series New Work Miami.

Martin Puryear is one of the greatest sculptors of his generation and one of our nation’s most prominent African Americans. His 2001 show at MAM, organized by the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, was seen in only two other
cities in the US.

In 2001, MAM dazzled audiences with the multi-media tour de force, Let’s Entertain, organized by the Walker Art Center.

In 2002, Matta in America: Paintings and Drawings of the 1940s highlighted the most important decade of this Chilean Surrealist artist, who had a profound influence on American Abstract Expressionism. The exhibition was shown only by the co-organizers MCA, Chicago and MoCA, Los Angeles, and by MAM.

Also in 2002, Miami Currents: Linking Community and Collection, showcased the museum’s permanent collection just six years after its inception. The exhibition received glowing reviews from art professionals and the press alike. “A step to greatness…," claimed The Miami Herald. Arte al Dia hailed it "…a momentous exhibition…daring aesthetic diversity, eloquent, dynamic and rigorously organized." ArtNews proclaimed it "…a benchmark exhibition."

Opening night attendance records at MAM were broken in March 2003 for Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat’s exhibition. Her first major museum show in North America, this exhibition, organized by the Museé d’art contemporain de Montréal, presented six of Neshat’s internationally acclaimed video-and-sound installations together for the first time.

MAM’s 2003 presentation of Museums for a New Millennium Concepts Projects Buildings was recognized with an award for design excellence sponsored by DACRA and Florida professional design organizations. According to Miami Herald architecture critic Beth Dunlop, “Museums for a New Millennium Concepts Projects Buildings is a daunting show, big and densely filled with remarkable images of architecture of enormous artistry and consequence."