Launched in 2019, the City of Miami Beach’s Legacy Purchase Program acquires world-class pieces of art for its public collection and – crucially – invites residents to be part of the process. This year, the city designated a budget of USD 50,000 to purchase a work by an emerging artist being shown at Art Basel Miami Beach. Specifically, the artist must be exhibiting with a gallery in the Positions or Nova sector or a newcomer in the main Galleries sector who joined from Nova or Positions within the past 4 years.

After careful review of the galleries’ planned showcases, the city’s seven-person Art in Public Places Committee nominated three finalists, and the winner has now been chosen by the public through an online voting platform. Announced by the mayor during a reception earlier today, the City of Miami Beach will acquire Nina Surel’s ceramic wall-based installation Allegory of Florida (2023) from the Miami gallery Spinello Projects.

Miami residents were captivated by Surel’s bas-relief multipart mural, which was installed across a wall in the Miami Design District earlier this year. Comprising over 100 pieces of stoneware ceramic, Allegory of Florida reimagines the state as a goddess of feminine fertility that unifies human, animal, and vegetal worlds. Images evoking notions of fertility, pregnancy, and birth coalesce with those of flora and fauna native to Florida, including herons, coonties, and beautyberries. As part of the Legacy Purchase Program, the work will find a new permanent home at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Surel, who was born in Buenos Aires and is based in Miami, joins the program’s distinguished legacy, with previous acquisitions including Amoako Boafo’s painting Cobalt Blue Earring (2019), Farah Al Qasimi’s installation Plant Market/Stray Flowers in Swimming Pool/Still Life with Sample Text and Piña Coladas (2021), and Anneke Eussen’s sculptural wall work It’s Alright (2023). This year’s other finalists were Ximena Garrido-Lecca and william cordova, both presented by the Peruvian gallery 80M2 Livia Benavides.