Miami Art Week 2025: Where Hollywood is Showing Up at the Art World’s Biggest Outing (Updating)

Every December, the art world — and the brands and celebrities devotees who encircle it — gather in Miami for a nonstop week of 20-plus fairs, more than 1,200 gallery showings, product launches, collaboration celebrations and wild parties.

This year's Miami Art Week (through Dec. 7) came out of the gate with a bang during Art Basel Miami Beach's preview day (Dec. 3, open to the public Dec. 5–7) — the week's most high-profile fair, celebrating its 23rd year — with its top galleries reporting robust sales. According to The Art Newspaper, within the first three hours, Hauser & Wirth reported sales 40 percent higher than its total from day one of last year's fair.

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The attention-grabbing moment to kick it all off came with the de but of the Zero 10 digital art section featuring digital artist Beeple's "Regular Animals," a series of robotic canine creatures with heads resembling Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Pablo Picasso. Each beast is constantly taking pictures of its surroundings and interpreting the scene through the AI lens of its character. The content is then "expelled" as keepsake certificates—each robo-billionaire, valued at $100,000, sold instantly.

What Hollywood is Buying Now

Art advisor to Hollywood's A-list, Ralph DeLuca, who is also Sotheby's vice chairman of popular culture, is optimistic about the Miami fairs due to the incredible sales at New York's recent auctions, which brought in over $2 billion.

"I have buyers coming. I did business for the fair before [it started]. I have stuff in private viewing rooms. I have stuff on hold. [At the November art auction s in New York, there was a] strong result in historical material with good pedigree—even young and emerging had a bump," DeLuca says. "A lot of work is sold on arrival. Super young and blue-chip are selling. It's the middle that is a little more of a slog."

DeLuca's clients are gravitating toward emerging or established artists with "great paintings in the primary market where we get access without agita or fresh to market, blue chip material by major artists with the correct pedigree."

In terms of content, he says, pretty paintings are back and size matters. "Connoisseurship is starting to wake up and people are realizing they should buy great art that they actually want to live with. Treating it purely as an asset and keeping it in storage, especially with living artists, may not be the best path. Giant art is struggling unless it's an artistic masterpiece. I definitely see a trend towards smaller gems."

Miami Models Hollywood

Leading Art Week's out of fair experiences, Capital One and The Cultivist, a membership club which curates art experiences for brands and consumers, recreates the Golden Age of Hollywood at the "Mirage Factory" by L.A. filmmaker, photographer and sculptor, Alex Prager, set inside an old theater on Lincoln Road.

The surreal, cinematic installation reenvisions L.A. in both full scale and miniature with an artificial orange grove, a tiny Hollywood Boulevard complete with the now-decommissioned Arby's sign and a garden party in the hills under the glow of Griffith Park. Prager collaborated with Hollywood blockbuster miniature maker Christopher Warren from Blind Beagle VFX to create the sets.

"I was coming out of the fires where I was affected and many p eople I know were affected. Joey from The Cultivist called me asking if I wanted to do a project with Capital One," Prager says. "I was reflecting on how Los Angeles started, how we've always had these disasters and there is this idea that the city is totally corrupt—there's a madness—but there's still an underlying feeling of what if and this possibility of magic. It permeates the city in such a way—like no other city. It was never supposed to be a city because there is no water."

Throughout Art Week, the Mirage Factory's events include a Capital One cardholder dinner with L.A. chef Dave Beran from the Michelin-starred Dialogue and Pasjoli, a VIP dinner (Shay Mitchell, Cait Bailey, Casper Jopling, Franklin Sirmans, Evan Ross, Es Devlin, Yvonne Force Villareal, Marlies Verhoeven, Stefano Tonchi, David Maupin, Sam Falls and Tavares Strachan attended) with a performance by Diana Ross and a Martinis at the Mirage p rivate event, with a performance from Ellie Goulding. The surreal vibes extend to The Mirage Swim Club, located at the new Shelborne by Proper hotel, where Prager, a native of Los Feliz, adds a touch of Technicolor with a massive orange sculpture. Proceeds from the exhibit's gift shop benefit Heal the Bay, an L.A. environmental nonprofit.

Kid Cudi the Painter

On Friday, Dec. 5, at The Miami Beach Edition, rapper Kid Cudi debuts "Echoes of the Past," a short documentary directed by Joshua Charow that reveals his hidden life as a painter. Through intimate moments in his studio, the film retraces the roots of his painting journey, captures his artistic process, and investigates what inspired his transition from music to visual art.

Around Town

Cartier is always a significant force at Miami Art Week, and this year is no different, as they reveal the Into the Wild immersive encount er in the Design District, celebrating more than 100 years of their panther collection. Selections from the Cartier archive are shown alongside contemporary creations, cinematic storytelling, and a bespoke art installation at Into the Wild. The installation pays homage to Cartier Creative Director Jeanne Toussaint's artistic vision, which introduced the jewelry maker's signature panther and flora designs. Pieces on display include a cabochon-cut emerald bird brooch from 1944 and a yellow diamond tiger bracelet from 1967. In the Wild opens to the public at 23 NE 41st St, Miami, FL, from 11:00 am–9:00 pm beginning Friday, December 5, through Sunday, December 7.

Tag Heuer and trend-setting Japanese designer fragment (Hiroshi Fujiwara) collab for the third time on 500 limited-edition cult timepieces unveiled during an invite-only dinner party at Wynwood's Shiso restaurant hosted by Fujiwara and TAG Heuer CMO George Ciz with bra nd ambassador and actress Alexandra Daddario. This chapter introduces Fujiwara's design code, including the signature lightning bolt and black and white palette, into the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x fragment Limited Edition timepiece.

CORE Steps Back

Notably missing in 2025 is one of Miami Art Week's key philanthropic events hosted by CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), the emergency response nonprofit co-founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee. The organization, which has held a gala and concert at Soho Beach House the past several years, will instead produce a 15th Anniversary Livestream Benefit Concert on December 9 in L.A.

A Fair for Entertainment Memorabilia?

DeLuca, who joined Sotheby's in March 2025 in a specialized role as vice chairman of popular culture, thinks there could be a space at Miami Art Week for the booming entertainment memorabilia market. "I think th e ruby slippers [which sold last year for $32 million] should be looked at as seriously as a Giacometti sculpture or a Basquiat or a Van Gogh," he says. "I was the under bidder for a client on the Citizen Kane sled at over $14 million. Darth Vader's lightsaber sold for over $3 million. You're seeing so many seven and eight-figure pieces of entertainment memorabilia. It's really just beginning. Art has been collected for hundreds of years. These markets are less than 50 years old, and in some cases, 30 years or less. There's room to grow there. Popular culture affects everyone. Casablanca is important. The ruby slippers are important. The origin of Superman is important. There's no debating taste there. It's easier, especially for new money, to understand paying $10 million for a Mickey Mantle baseball card or $9.2 million for a Superman comic than a Rothko."

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