2021-Legacy-Purchase-Announcement-FINAL
City of Miami Beach, 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139, www.miamibeachfl.gov
OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS, Tel: 305.673.7575 PRESS RELEASE
Melissa Berthier, E-mail: melissaberthier@miamibeachfl.gov
Matt Kenny, E-mail: mattkenny@miamibeachfl.gov
City Purchases World-Class Piece by Farah Al Qasimi
at Art Basel Miami Beach for their Legacy Purchase Program
— Based Upon a Public Vote —
Miami Beach, FL - December 2, 2021 — Today, the City of Miami Beach purchased
visual artist Farah Al Qasimi’s Plant Market/Stray Flowers in Swimming Pool/Still Life
with Sample Text and Pina Coladas at Art Basel Miami Beach. The piece garnered the
greatest number of public votes as part of the city’s annual Legacy Purchase Program.
The piece was presented by Helena Anrather at the 2021 edition of Art Basel Miami
Beach.
“Miami Beach is proud of our robust Art in Public Places program, and we are excited to
add Farah’s incredible piece to our collection as this year’s Legacy Purchase,” said
Mayor Dan Gelber. “We look forward to displaying it for visitors from around the world to
enjoy as they explore our amazing community.”
Al Qasimi’s latest project explores the earthly fabrication of Paradise. Her photographs
often explore the language of adornment and its relationship to identity, probing the
ways in which we construct self-image through our surroundings, and in this new body of
work she turns a sharp, caustic eye on commercial fantasies of paradise, examining how
they lure us into stores and showrooms and proliferate through commodities, advertising
images, and pre-packaged experiences. Above all, Al Qasimi asks how these powerful
myths and alluring visions shape our ideas about how we should behave and even who
we are. These days, the artist suggests, paradise is no longer just a thing you can buy,
but a backdrop for the life you’re supposed to have.
The Legacy Purchase Program began at Art Basel 2019 and is funded through the
Miami Beach Art in Public Places program. This fund is dedicated to the purchase of
public art, that includes the purchase and future maintenance of the artwork. Previous
purchases have included “Cobalt Blue Earring” by Amoako Boafo, “…as the garden
secrets a swarm of monarchs feast. ..a john crow awaits a carcass’ fall while scavengers
gather to feast below, as we dig between the cuts…below the leaves…beneath the soil”,
by Ebony G. Patterson and “Somethin’ Close to Nothin’” by Sanford Biggers. All three
pieces of work are on display in the Miami Beach Convention Center East Lobby. All
acquisitions fall under the city’s AiPP ordinance and guidelines.
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About the Artist
Farah Al Qasimi (b.1991, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; lives and works in Brooklyn
and Dubai) works in photography, video, and performance. Her work has been featured
in exhibitions at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; the San Francisco Arts Commission, San
Francisco; the CCS Bard Galleries at the Hessel Museum of Art, New York; Helena
Anrather, New York; The Third Line, Dubai; The List Visual Arts Center at MIT,
Cambridge; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; and the Houston Center for
Photography, Houston. Al Qasimi received her MFA from the Yale School of Art. She
has participated in residencies at the Delfina Foundation, London; the Skowhegan
School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine; and is a recipient of the New York NADA
Artadia Prize and the Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship. Her work is in
the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; and NYU’s Grey Art
Gallery, New York.
To request this material in accessible format, sign language interpreters, information on access for persons with
disabilities, and/or any accommodation to review any document or participate in any city-sponsored proceeding, please
contact 305-604-2489 (voice) or 305.673.7218 (TTY) five days in advance to initiate your request.