As Art Basel Miami Beach and its surrounding footprint took over Miami this December, marking a vibrant close to the season, Appraisal Bureau was proud to sponsor an ambitious exhibition by the France-born, London based artist Marguerite Humeau. The show, held at the city’s prestigious Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), will run until March 30, 2025, and is the first major presentation of the artist’s work in the United States.
Entitled Marguerite Humeau: \*sk\*/ey-, the immersive installation offers a provocative exploration of a future where conventional notions of materiality and temporality are radically reimagined and confronts pressing themes such as post-human existence. The displays’ speculative forms, informed by the looming threat of climate change, propose a mode of living that is as thought-provoking as it is unsettling.
“Visitors have been enthralled with Humeau’s surrealist and haunting immersive installation,” says Alex Gartenfeld, ICA Miami Artistic Director, who co-curated the display along with ICA Miami Curator, Stephanie Seidel. He adds that “The reception to the exhibition has been outstanding, and we are thrilled to present the first museum exhibition of Humeau’s work, continuing ICA Miami’s history of providing these first institutional platforms for important rising artists.”
Installation view: "Marguerite Humeau: *sk*/ey-" at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Dec 3, 2024 – Mar 30, 2025. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.
The exhibition’s opening coincided with the 22nd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. This year, over 20 international art fairs took place alongside the main fair, in a now heavily anticipated annual whirlwind of activity.
Notable offerings during the fair included Picasso’s Couple with a Cup,1969, for $30 million at Acquavella Gallery, contributing to the growing sense of optimism that appears to be cautiously unfolding. Such buoyancy is welcomed following a year in which the sector was faced with a degree of market correction in auction rooms across the globe, amidst a broader platform of global economic recession and political instability.
That both the UK and the US now have settled into political systems could well be behind the boosted energy going into 2025, while growing confidence in the positive role that technology plays in the efficiency and transparency of the sector also looks to be a surefire trend as we move into the next 12 months.