The City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places ("AiPP") program will acquire an artwork from Art Basel Miami Beach for accession into the City’s public art collection—and we need your help! The Legacy Purchase Program is funded through the City’s AiPP fund, which is dedicated to the purchase of public art.
The selected artwork(s) will join the City's permanent public art collection, and will be displayed within a dedicated, publicly accessible area of the Miami Beach Convention Center ("MBCC"). Art in Public Places is a City of Miami Beach program for curating and commissioning public art. The program was created in 1984, with its ordinance adopted in 1995. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for City Projects and joint private/public projects.
After much deliberation, the City’s AiPP Committee has narrowed down the submissions to three (3) works of art which include a piece by Troy Makaza.
Opaque Mirror for an aspiring emperor & Steak For Dinner 2021 by Troy Makaza
Having specialized in painting in art school but always interested in form and texture, Makaza decided to develop his own hybrid medium which would enable him to unite his artistic goals. After experimenting with various materials, Makaza arrived at silicone a material which can be cast, painted with as well as woven and tied.
Over the past six years Makaza’s works progressively developed as an opportunity to speak both viscerally and philosophically to the issues Makaza finds compelling as a young Zimbabwean concerned with both politics and their impact on daily lives of ordinary people as well as a globally engaged millennial. Resonating with traditional modes like weaving and tapestry but unequivocally contemporary, Makaza’s works articulate the conversation of what African and uniquely Zimbabwean contemporary can be – a paradigm internationally engaging and locally compelling.
At only 26, Makaza’s works have already received critical and collector acclaim, winning the Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019 and with participation in institutional exhibitions such as Five Bhob at Zeitz MoCAA in Cape Town and Welcome Home at Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech.
You can vote for Troy Makaza's artwork here.