The ICA Takes Root in the Miami Design District

The Jungle Plaza in the Miami Design District looks a tad different now: a few weeks ago, the city’s Institute of Contemporary Art launched a new public sculpture initiative, opening with two monumental sculptures by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt.

Something else looks different in the Design District: having left its Moore Building location, the ICA Miami just opened the doors to its new permanent home, a 3,500-square metre location that hosts pieces by the likes of Christo and a pyramid-shaped piece by Abigail Deville in a dedicated sculpture garden. The building is the the first U.S. project by Spain-based Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos. The institute’s inaugural exhibition is The Everywhere Studio, focused on tracing the impact of the artist’s studio from post-war to the present day

For the public sculpture initiative, the ICA opened its rotating program with two outdoor concrete block structures by Sol LeWitt: there’s Tower (Frankfurt), a minimalist 1990 piece, and Tower (Lodz), a block-based sculpture from 1993. Both are six metres high, and they welcome visitors from Miami Beach at the entrance of the Design District.

Another sculpture on view is Thomas Bayrle’s Wire Madonna, a site-specific commission composed of welded steel tubing, which debuted during last year’s Art Basel. It’s Bayrle’s first large-scale steel structure —at 10 metres high, it’s colossal—, and it was donated by the artist for the institution’s permanent collection.

The ICA Miami is now open for visitors. For information on the exhibitions, head to the institute’s website.