Art Advisory in Miami: What Has Changed, and What to Know
I moved from New York to Miami in 2022, in the middle of the wave of people doing the same thing, and I have spent the years since working with collectors on both ends of that move. Miami has become one of the most interesting places in the country to collect. It has also become one of the easiest places to collect badly, for reasons that are specific to the city. Here is what has changed, and what I tell clients who are building a collection here.
What changed
The relocation wave. From 2020 on, a large number of people arrived from New York, Chicago, California and abroad, many of them with money, a new home, and nothing on the walls. I was one of them. That created a kind of client that barely existed here before: someone furnishing an entire home from scratch, quickly, who wants to buy well and does not yet know the local market.
A younger market, and new categories. The collectors arriving were younger than the old Miami collecting establishment and were starting in different places: editions, art toys, books, sneakers, collectible design. Categories the traditional art world used to wave away are a serious part of the market here, and the people buying them are serious about it.
Design taken as seriously as art. Miami has long had a major design fair alongside its art fairs, and the effect has spread: collectible furniture and lighting are now bought with the same research and the same budgets as paintings. In a city of new interiors, that was always going to happen.
The December problem. For one week every year, the fairs bring the entire art world to town, and a lot of local collecting gets compressed into that week. More on that below.
What to know if you collect here
Protect the work from the climate. Miami is hard on art. Humidity warps paper and canvas and invites mold; sun through floor-to-ceiling glass fades anything it reaches; salt air corrodes metal and hardware. Works on paper and photographs need UV-filtering glazing, full stop. Keep work off walls that get direct sun and away from air-conditioning vents, which cause the swings in humidity that do the real damage. Have a plan for hurricane season: which pieces come down, where they go, and who moves them. A collection here needs more care than the same collection in New York, and most new residents learn that the expensive way.
Do not buy everything in December. Fair week is extraordinary and it is also the worst time to make decisions. The pressure is real, the prices reflect the moment, and the thing you fall for on a Thursday is often gone or regretted by Sunday. Galleries here are open all year. The best purchases I have made for clients in Miami happened in March and September, with time to think, from dealers who were glad to see someone in the quiet months.
Furnish slowly, and put art before decor. New condos get filled in a month, because the move is stressful and empty rooms are uncomfortable. A year later the sofa is fine and the art bought to match it is a problem. The better order is the reverse: find the few pieces that matter, give them the right walls, and let the rest of the room follow. It takes longer and it is the difference between a home that looks furnished and one that looks collected.
Working here
Basher Fine Art is based between Miami and New York, which is where most of my clients are, often both at once. The work in Miami is as much about the practical side as the buying: knowing which framers glaze properly for this climate, which installers can handle a concrete wall on the fortieth floor, which shippers get work across the causeway without incident. If you are collecting here, or about to start, get in touch. The first conversation is complimentary.