Pérez Art Museum Miami presents Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols, a major exhibition bringing together iconic works by Jean-Michel Basquiat in Miami.
Pérez Art Museum Miami has announced Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols, a major exhibition opening 25th June 2026 that brings together a rare selection of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat—uniting some of his most recognisable paintings under one roof for the first time.
Timed to coincide with the global influx of visitors during the FIFA World Cup, the exhibition draws on loans from the collection of Kenneth C. Griffin and is supported by Griffin Catalyst. Co-curated by PAMM director Franklin Sirmans and curator Megan Kincaid, the show offers a focused yet powerful entry point into Basquiat’s practice.
Bringing together nine paintings and a sculpture—an often overlooked aspect of the artist’s work—the exhibition centres on Basquiat’s recurring motifs: the human figure, fragmented language, and a layered visual syntax that moves between image, text and symbol. Across these works, colour and composition operate as both structure and disruption, reinforcing his distinctive approach to painting as a site of accumulation and tension.
Highlights include Untitled (1982), a defining example of Basquiat’s fixation on the human head; In Italian (1983), a densely layered composition that operates simultaneously as portrait, linguistic puzzle and autobiographical document; Pez Dispenser (1984), where consumer iconography is reworked through painterly distortion; and Untitled (Tenant) (1982), in which a skeletal figure is embedded within a charged field of numerical and symbolic references.
Alongside the works, visitors will encounter archival footage of Basquiat speaking about his practice—offering a direct and often rare insight into the artist’s own voice and thinking.
“As Miami prepares to welcome a global audience for the FIFA World Cup, Pérez Art Museum Miami offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience visual art from across the Americas,”
said Kenneth C. Griffin.
“I am proud to partner with PAMM to present some of the greatest works by one of America’s most iconic artists, Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose art has a unique power to connect across communities and generations.”
While Basquiat’s image has become ubiquitous—circulating across fashion, music and popular culture—Figures, Signs, Symbols shifts the focus back to the work itself. Here, the emphasis is on close looking: on the mechanics of how meaning is constructed through repetition, layering and fragmentation.
“At PAMM, this exhibition feels both inevitable and vital. Miami’s layered histories, diasporic communities, and global outlook create a context where Basquiat’s visual language—rooted in memory, migration, and cultural hybridity—can be experienced with particular depth and immediacy,”
said Franklin Sirmans.
“This is a compelling moment to revisit Jean-Michel Basquiat not as a market phenomenon or pop icon, but as a rigorous, self-taught master of painting and form. By bringing together works that are rarely seen in depth, we’re inviting audiences to slow down, to look closely, and to encounter a new way of understanding an artist whose name is universally known but whose complexity still demands deeper study.”
“By bringing these works together, audiences will see how Basquiat constructs meaning—layering references, symbols, and language in ways that forge connections and gain in complexity,”
added Megan Kincaid.
“The works move between art history and contemporary culture, using humor and critique to reflect on mythmaking, socio-historical forces, and power—ultimately inviting viewers to look closely, sensemake, and think together.”
Born in Brooklyn to a Puerto Rican mother and Haitian father, Basquiat’s diasporic perspective remains central to his work—something that resonates strongly within Miami’s own cultural landscape. This exhibition positions that context not as background, but as an active framework through which the work can be re-read.
More than a headline moment, Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols offers something rarer: the chance to encounter works often seen only through reproduction, reframed within the slower, more attentive space of the museum.
Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols is organised by Sandra and Tony Tamer, Director Franklin Sirmans, and
Kenneth C. Griffin Collection Curator Dr. Megan Kincaid, with the support of Jaimie Ludwig, Executive
Assistant, Director’s Office. The exhibition is made possible with generous philanthropic support from
Griffin Catalyst.
Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols– A rare gathering of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most iconic works come together in Miami for the first time, generously loaned from the Kenneth C. Griffin Collection. Opening June 25th, 2026 Pérez Art Museum Miami
