City of Miami Beach Announces Finalists for 2024 Legacy Purchase Program at Art Basel Miami Beach

Miami Beach, FL — Today, the City of Miami Beach announced the finalists for its 2024 Legacy Purchase Program. Each year, the city’s Art in Public Places Committee selects three stand-out artworks from the emerging artists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Positions, Nova, and newcomers joining the main sector from Positions or Nova within the last four years with a $50,000 budget. The city then invites the public to vote for their favorite work. Once voting closes, the winning artwork will be purchased by the City of Miami Beach for permanent display in the Miami Beach Convention Center, as part of the city’s Art in Public Places Collection.

This year, the three finalists are william cordova (presented by 80M2 Livia Benavides), Ximena Garrido-Lecca (presented by 80M2 Livia Benavides), and Nina Surel (presented by Spinello Projects).

The public may cast their votes at www.mbartsandculture.org/legacy-purchase-program

starting Friday, Nov. 22 at 9 a.m. through Monday, Nov. 25 at 5 p.m.

See below for information about each of the finalists.

william cordova (sin titulo (rumi maki #46), 2023), 80M2 Livia Benavides

(Born 1971, Lima, Peru)

william cordova, sin titulo (rumi maki #46), 2023. Ink, acrylic paint on cardboard, 74.4 x 71.2 in. Courtesy the artist and 80M2 Livia Benavides.

The sculptures, installations and works on paper of william cordova are strongly influenced by a transcultural biography that took him from his birthplace of Lima, Peru, via Miami, Florida, to places across the US and Europe. His subjects are drawn from a continuum of radical movements and players in struggles for self-determination. In his series rumi maki, cordova takes on an ethnographic approach in addressing shared symbolism found in textile data encoding and architectural design. Named after the ancient Andean martial arts, rumi maki consists of multi-colored collages on paper, constructed from vivid layers of recycled paint chips. The arrangement of colors and patterns carry latent meanings, dependent on geography, culture, and the readings of celestial bodies. As cosmological maps, the collages synthesize the sacred geometries of architecture with the visual narratives of historical civilizations.

Ximena Garrido-Lecca (Modulations - sequence XVI, 2024), 80M2 Livia Benavides

(Born 1980, Lima, Peru)

Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Modulations - sequence XVI, 2024. Copper, 56.29 x 48.8 in. Courtesy the artist and 80M2 Livia Benavides.

In her Modulations series, Ximena Garrido-Lecca continues to explore the role of copper in Peru’s economy, where this natural resource is exported as a raw material for its use in tech industries. In many of her other works, the artist brings industrialized copper materials back into artisanal practices, reflecting on the erasure of traditional cultures, often triggered by extractivist policies. These new works integrate a series of abstract symbols inspired by modernist corporate logos used by diverse industries and corporate entities. By using these geometric symbols in a traditional woven form, she questions the relation between these modern images, tied to the engines of modernization and the global economy, and their links to pre-Columbian abstraction. The work also highlights the demand for accelerated growth and modernization in the context of a growing economy, under unregulated natural resource extraction, which often does not generate investment in local infrastructure and social welfare, but instead favors corporate gain.

Nina Surel (Allegory of Florida, 2023), Spinello Projects

(Born 1971, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Nina Surel, Allegory of Florida, 2023. Stoneware ceramic, 190 x 104 x 5 in. Courtesy the artist and Spinello Projects.

Nina Surel’s art explores life’s rituals, drawing from art history and her personal journey. She captures transformation, aging, resilience, and fragility in mediums like clay, plants, and raw canvas. A monumental wall relief composed of over 100 pieces of stoneware ceramic, Allegory of Florida narrates a journey through time, and imagines Florida as a goddess of feminine fertility. Complete with references to native flora and fauna such as Herons, Coonties, Florida Beauty berries, Seagrapes and Cocoplums, the work underscores the esoteric connotations and interconnectedness of our local ecosystem. Surel’s art envisions a world beyond stereotypes, exploring identity, transformation, and our profound connection to the Earth. The work celebrates women’s role in nurturing a sustainable world and embracing a diverse, non-binary reality. It reconnects with matriarchal legacies, honoring the timeless, feminine earth.

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About the Legacy Purchase Program

The Legacy Purchase Program began in 2019, acquiring world-class art pieces for the city’s public collection and growing in value as artists further their professional careers. This program seeks to strategically expand the City’s current public art collection by pursuing artwork that is reflective of our community, aligned with the curatorial direction of our existing collection, reflects artistic excellence and relevance in terms of current artistic practices, and is a valuable investment to the Art in Public Places Collection. Previous acquisitions include works from Juana Valdés, Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Ebony G. Patterson, and Farah Al Qasimi.

About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program

The Art in Public Places Committee is a seven-member city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for City projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance.

Press Contact

cityofmiamibeach@culturalcounsel.com

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