Basquiat exhibition in Miami

Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols, an exhibition that brings together nearly a dozen works by Jean-Michel Basquiat—uniting some of the artist’s most recognizable paintings under one roof for the first time—will be presented at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Opening June 25, 2026, the exhibition draws on works from the collection of Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel and a longstanding PAMM supporter, with the support of Griffin Catalyst, his civic engagement initiative.
Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols, co-curated by Sandra and Tony Tamer, Director Franklin Sirmans and Kenneth C. Griffin Collection Curator Megan Kincaid, marks among the most significant presentations to date of the late artist’s work. Across nine paintings and one sculpture—a rarely discussed aspect of Basquiat’s practice—this exhibition concentrates on the artist’s implementation of classic themes such as portraiture and the figure, script and language, and his conceptual amplification of color, form, and composition.
Exhibition highlights include Untitled (1982), a standout example of Basquiat’s long and deep engagement with the human head—his most persistent anatomical motif; In Italian (1983), one of the artist’s richly layered compositions, operating simultaneously as portrait, study, linguistic puzzle, and autobiographical document that reflects his engagement with the Italian Renaissance tradition of anatomical investigation; Pez Dispenser (1984), a painting of the iconic candy dispenser that extends Pop Art’s elevation of consumer goods—void of clean lines and mechanical reproduction, rendered instead with nostalgic affection and irony; and Untitled (Tenant) (1982), in which a distorted, skeletal figure recalls German Expressionist depictions of bodies strained by the weight of the world, surrounded by statistics that transform the figure into a charged conveyor of the elements.
For more information visit: https://www.pamm.org/en/exhibition/basquiat-figures-signs-symbols/