inside the perez art museum miami by herzog & de meuron

inside the perez art museum miami by herzog & de meuron
image © designboom

opening in december 2013, the perez art museum miami (PAMM) is the new home to a growing collection of international artwork by some of the world’s foremost artists. the newly inaugurated herzog & de meuron site, which designboom has previously featured here, has been acclaimed for its relationship between architecture and environment, punctuating south beach’s tropical landscape with its expansive cantilevered canopy. nesting beneath are the museum’s internal volumes, where unrestricted gallery spaces are configured to exhibit the developing projects as well as to provide ample space for temporary shows. a specific use of concrete and wood materials are used to craft individual units, contrasting the commonplace whitewashed cubes typical of exhibition halls. from an interior vantage point, generous views to the outside are revealed by carefully placed windows, bringing the lush, sun-filled environment within.

internal volumes offer views across the waterfront
photo © iwan baan

PAMM is organized around four different types of gallery rooms — overview, focus, project and special exhibitions — which occupy a portion of the first and the entirety of the second floor. displaying the museum’s primary collection, the overview galleries connect the museum’s programs. aligned in a non-linear arrangement, the spaces are defined by vast openings, which offer external views over the park, towards downtown miami and the neighboring bay. the focus and project galleries — which highlight an individual artist, theme or specific collection — are situated along the flowing sequence of rooms, and comprise a series of singular enclosed volumes. lastly, the special exhibitions galleries are designed to accommodate contemporary art exhibitions. juxtaposing the previous gallery typologies, these flexible spaces contain fewer apertures, and can be divided by temporary walls.

exhibition room view
image © designboom

‘he xie’ installation view at the perez art museum miami
image © designboom

ai weiwei‘s ‘according to what?’ commences the artistic oeuvre of the new museum. the exhibition surveys the world-renowned chinese artist’s opus, demonstrating his broad artistic practice. the works on view at PAMM comprise the last 20 years of his creative breadth, highlighting provocative photography series and large-scale installations for which he is best known. many pieces employ simple forms and methodology that evoke conceptual, ready-made art; others manipulate traditional furniture, ancient pottery, and daily objects in ways that question cultural values and political authority; all intend to emphasize the place of the individual within society. to see more about the exhibition, see designboom’s coverage here.

wake and wonder, 2013
serape and nails
image © designboom

texas-based artist adrian esparza addresses his experience as a mexican-american raised on the border of the neighboring lands. his exhibited piece ‘wake and wonder’ is formed from a serape blanket — a traditional craft object from mexico — pulled apart at its threads and rewoven around nails hammered into the walls of the gallery it occupies. the engaging linear structure creates multi-dimensional, vibrantly colored layers within the space. esparza considers this installation as an evolving self-portrait; the long shawls represent a tradition, and a cultural identity, which has been displaced or lost from its site of origin. see more about the artwork, and the exhibition ‘americana: formalizing craft’ it is a part of from now until may 2015 in designboom’s coverage, here.

exhibition view of ‘mojo jojo’
image © designboom

throughout her work, new york based artist polly apfelbaum examines postwar abstraction in relationship to popular culture. the work occupying the gallery floor refers to the sinister monkey character from the popular cartoon series, ‘the power puff girls’.‘mojo jojo’ is made from hundreds of shaped pieces of dyed velvet – using all 104 colors produced by the french fabric dye company sennelier — placed directly onto the ground. spanning 18 feet in diameter, the massive spiral is rich in varying colors and hues, changing their value depending on both the angle of the viewer and the light that enters the space. see more on designboom, here.

gallery spaces can be filled with natural light
photo © iwan baan