Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years
The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL
A Viewing Room Experience
During a recent visit to Miami, we had a little extra time, so we stopped by The Bass Museum of Art—usually on our list whenever we’re in town. We didn’t check what was on view beforehand and figured we’d just stroll through, but one exhibition immediately caught our attention.
Scènes de Jardins, Oil and enamel on mirror, 2018
We’d seen Rachel Feinstein’s work before in other museums—mostly her sculptures, those fun, funky, theatrical figures in bright colors. But never her paintings. So, when we saw the painted mirror works in this show, we’ll be honest: we were pretty mesmerized. The mirrors created this layered experience of self-reflection and interpretation at the same time—literally and figuratively.
A Homecoming with Layers
Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years is on view at The Bass through August 17, 2025. It spans nearly three decades of work by the New York–based artist and is notably her first major exhibition in her hometown. While many know Feinstein for her sculptures, her practice stretches much wider: painting, video, performance, and full-scale installations.
The show reflects on themes that run through Feinstein’s career: intimacy, vulnerability, and abjection, while also examining the societal factors that shape human behavior and female identity. But what makes The Miami Years feel especially distinct is how it reveals a quieter influence at play—Miami itself.
Silver Lake Blvd, Oil and enamel on mirror, 2018
Feinstein grew up here in the 1980s, surrounded by the city’s constant clash of extremes: lush tropical landscapes set against commercial overdevelopment, glittering Art Deco façades next to neglected buildings, old-world elegance meeting unapologetic kitsch. That contrast feels woven through the work on view—not just in subject matter but in form, tone, and atmosphere.
Feinstein is known for creating enveloping environments that feel more like staged worlds than traditional gallery displays. She often uses wallpaper, theatrical flats, and mirrored panels—forms that both reveal and reinforce artifice and illusion. In a city like Miami, where reality and fantasy are always negotiating for space, that choice feels intentional.
What Caught Our Eye
At the heart of the show is Panorama of Miami (2024), a massive, thirty-foot-long installation made up of painted mirrored panels. It grabs you immediately. From across the room, the colors and style feel almost Rococo or old-world European. But step closer, and suddenly you spot Miami landmarks: the Atlantis Condominium from Miami Vice, Vizcaya Museum, the Biltmore Hotel, even the long-closed Miami Serpentarium.
The best part is how your own reflection gets caught up in the scene. You’re looking at Miami, but you’re also seeing yourself inside it—layering past and present, personal memory and cultural backdrop all at once.
Panorama of Miami, Enamel on mirrors, Five panels, 5 x 6ft
Feinstein is interested in how Americans and U.S. society absorb and appropriate European culture. This site-specific commission of painted mirrored wall panels spans thirty feet. Akin to the eighteenth-century panoramic wallpapers developed by Jean Zuber and Joseph Dufour, this modern-day tropical setting pictures the Miami region with its contradictory marks of sophistication and decadence, exuberance and decay. The architectural assemblages merge space and time with architectural styles culled from local history, from the Hotel Breakwater on South Beach's Ocean Drive, to the Atlantis Condominium of Miami Vice fame, to the original Parrot Jungle, Miami Seaquarium, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Biltmore Hotel, and the long-closed Miami Serpentarium. This scene serves as the backdrop to the exhibition's selection of theatrical flats inspired by the artist's experiences at Disney World, created in the late 1990s, and her more recent large-scale female figures in tense and twisted poses, each imbued with the lingering impacts of growing up in Miami. (Museum Label Text)
Another standout is Old Cutler (2024), a newly commissioned, room-scale wallpaper installation. It’s inspired by a vintage photograph of Old Cutler Road—a banyan-lined route tied to Feinstein’s own memories of growing up in South Florida.
Instead of offering a straightforward scene, Feinstein transforms it into something that feels caught between real and imagined. Towering trees and dense foliage form a shadowy, almost cinematic backdrop—like the dark forests you’d find in a fairytale. There’s a tension in the space: it feels serene but also unsettling, beautiful yet slightly ominous.
As the first environment visitors step into, Old Cutler acts like a threshold between the outside world and the more layered, personal spaces within Feinstein’s exhibition.
Rachel Feinstein - The Miami Years Project Wall - Photo By Zaire Aranguren
A Sculptural Surprise
In addition to the standout paintings and installations, there were a handful of Feinstein’s signature sculptures on view—some we recognized from past exhibitions. Their bold colors and exaggerated, playful forms added a welcome pop of energy to a show otherwise dominated by more subdued browns, charcoals, and grey tones.
That contrast between vivid sculptures and moodier paintings kept the exhibition from feeling too one-note. It was a good reminder of Feinstein’s full range—both whimsical and reflective, polished and raw.
Ballerina, Hand-applied color resin over foam with wood base, 2018.
Artifice and Memory
Throughout the show, Feinstein leans into her long-standing interest in artifice: cutout sculptures, mirrored surfaces, theatrical backdrops. In a city like Miami—built on façades, fantasy, and reinvention—that theme feels especially fitting.
The exhibition doesn’t try to explain or overstate its point. Instead, it lets you experience the layers for yourself: real and imagined, polished and fragmented, personal and universal.
Rêve de Bonheur, Oil and enamel on mirror 42 × 54 in. 2018
Final Thoughts
We walked into The Miami Years expecting maybe a quick look around. But it ended up being one of the more memorable exhibitions we’ve seen in Miami recently.
If you find yourself in town before August, definitely add it to your list. It’s the kind of show that feels personal and panoramic at once—visually striking, emotionally reflective, and surprisingly grounded in Miami’s unique, complicated energy.
Bradbury, Oil and enamel on mirror 42 × 54 in. 2018
Exhibition Details
Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years
On view through August 17, 2025
The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL
thebass.org
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