City of Miami Beach Names Nina Surel, Allegory of Florida as Winner of 2024 Legacy Purchase Program

Miami Beach, FL – The City of Miami Beach is pleased to announce that Allegory of Florida, by Nina Surel, represented by Spinello Projects, has been selected by Miami Beach residents as this year’s acquisition for the Legacy Purchase Program.

An annual initiative, the city’s Art in Public Places Committee selected artworks by william cordova, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, and Nina Surel from the Art Basel Miami Beach Positions, Nova, and newcomers joining the main sector from Nova or Positions within the last four years with a budget of up to $50,000. The public then voted among the finalists, selecting Nina Surel’s Allegory of Florida for accession into the city’s public art collection.

“This year’s Legacy Purchase not only enriches our public art collection but reaffirms Miami Beach’s status as a global leader in artistic excellence,” said Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner. “The public participation in this selection process underscores the deep connection our residents have to art’s power to inspire, tell stories, and enhance our cultural footprint.”

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.

“It’s my pleasure to represent and place the second work into the Legacy Collection by a woman artist,” said Anthony Spinello. “This acquisition and recognition hits differently considering women artists are still underrepresented, undervalued, and especially at a time when women’s rights are being challenged.”

Nina Surel is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist from Argentina. Her work investigates the relationship between earthly matter and the human body. She is inspired by rites of passage and themes related to fertility. Her practice incorporates techniques such as video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance, and installation. Surel studied Fashion Design at the University of Buenos Aires and Stage and Costume Design at the Arts Institute of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and institutions in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Some venues where her art has been displayed are the Church of San Matteo in Lucca, Italy, the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, California, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, Florida, the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida, and Miami International Airport. Her work is in permanent collections of El Espacio 23 (Miami, FL).

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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

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.

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