After the travesty that was Ultra Music Festival's brief sojourn in Virginia Key in 2019, followed by COVID-19 cancellation in 2020 and 2021, one would have been forgiven for thinking the star-studded, internationally renowned festival might have lost its way. But big-name DJs, top-quality stage production, and mind-bending pyrotechnics have returned to Bayfront Park. In 2022, Ultra reclaimed its reign as one of the supreme leaders of the festival world. And this year, the throngs saw the return of dance-music legends such as techno club DJ Carl Cox, trance idol Armin Van Buuren, and superstar trio Swedish House Mafia. Next year's tickets are already on sale.

Sugar, spice, leather, and spikes. New Jersey-born Octavio Aguilar (AKA Dope Tavio) designs clothes that differ from your summer suits and honey mango-colored sundresses. His designs are a shock-and-awe campaign of ruffles, layers, stripes, and polka dots laid bare in black and white. Each Dope Tavio piece is a statement better suited to a rave or punk show than, say, your nephew's bar mitzvah. Aguilar has gained support from the likes of Patricia Fields and made it through some tough rounds on Project Runway two years ago. If the material can be altered, Aguilar will find a way to manipulate its contours.

Marrying millennial angst with a retro '70s vibe, Dee Wahlung's illustrations are a trippy fever dream of anthropomorphized telephones and empanadas, wavy fonts, and rainbow colors. After getting her start as a ghost designer for a local wall décor brand, the 28-year-old has transformed her illustrations into prints, stationery, and household items for a client list that includes Restoration Hardware, West Elm, and Nordstrom. She now oversees the art direction for international lifestyle brand Ban.do and works as a freelance designer for local shops like Gilded Moon jewelry and Great Oak Tattoo.

Whether she's launching a new product or designing a magazine cover, Reyna Noriega imbues each project with the colorful and whimsical Caribbean-Latin flair from her heritage and upbringing in Miami. After a stint as a high-school art teacher, the Florida International University alum went to work as a freelance graphic designer. Her unique illustrations soon graced the covers of the likes of the New Yorker and Science magazine. More recently, Noriega partnered with the hair-accessory brand Goody to design Caribbean-inspired hair tools for the Goody Tru collection. She's now collaborating on a swimwear line with Nomads and the Clif Family Winery's limited-edition 2021 Napa Valley red wine blend. Noriega hopes her art can inspire other BIPOC women to live unapologetically. "We are deserving of peace, joy, happiness, and confidence where we're at right now," she says. "It's not something we have to break our backs to achieve. I want women to feel empowered to embrace that aspect of their lives and cultivate it all around them."

It's hard to make sense of Jason Seife's mesemerizing paintings of Middle Eastern carpet patterns when you realize he grew up in Little Havana. But Seife was raised by Cuban and Syrian immigrant parents, and his work is the kaleidoscopic byproduct of Miami's diaspora. His search to fulfill both sides of his ethnic identity led to painstaking research into textile arts during trips to Syria and Iran. The remarkable artistry that followed is on full display at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in Coming to Fruition, Seife's first museum show in the U.S. and, perhaps more important, the culmination of a boyhood dream to have his art exhibited in his hometown.

Anastasia Samoylova is captivated by Florida: The state stars in not one but two photography books by the Russia-born, Miami-based artist. In FloodZone, which was published in 2020, Samoylova's brooding images of coastal flooding, toppled plam trees, and construction sites to explore Miami's continued development as the threat of sea-level rise and hurricanes looms. In Floridas, published in 2022, Samoylova explores Florida's idiosyncrasies as a tourist destination, a playground for the wealthy, and a swampland paradise — by juxtaposing contemporary photos of her own against archival photos and paintings by the famed photographer Walker Evans. Samoylova can capture an ordinary construction site, streetcorner, or beachscape, and evoke multiple layers and themes through the portrayal.

Founded in 2005 by art dealer and curator Anthony Spinello, Spinello Projects connects local, national, and international art lovers to relevant, cutting-edge artworks, from international art stars to emerging Miami-based painters and conceptualists. The Wynwood-adjacent gallery's programs are ambitious and constantly evolving: It got its start with highly conceptual work but has transitioned to paintings that are more approachable yet still visceral (take the recent exhibition In So Deep by Miami-based artist Ema Ri). Spinello's commitment to artists who were born and reared in Miami extends to helping to expand their careers with art fairs and special presentations around the world. A study-abroad system of sorts, the gallery also forges new paths locally for out-of-town and international artists. The gallery is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday from noon till 5 p.m., by appointment only. Email [email protected] to connect.

After Thanksgiving, multiple fairs pitch their tents on the sands of Miami Beach for Miami Art Week. But none is as exciting as Untitled Art. Founded in 2012 by Jeff Lawso, it is among the most highly respected independent art fairs with a reputatio for paying it forward by subsidizing booths for emerging artists, fledgling galleries, and nonprofit organizations. The long list of participating galleries always features local representation. At the 2022 fair, in fact, the Bonnier Gallery provided one of the most impressive works on view: All is well, All is well, All is well, a cylindrical stainless steel piece by artist Amanda Keeley that was inspired by Buddhist prayer wheels and encouraged viewers to spin it around and around.

Miami's contemporary art scene is world-renowned, but no local exhibition has baffled scientists and engineers quite like the Coral Castle Museum in Homestead. The limestone sculpture garden is often referred to as Florida's Stonehenge because no one's quite sure how its eccentric creator, Edward Leedskalnin, singlehandedly carved more than 1,000 tons of coral rock, including a tower, furniture, and a nine-ton gate that moves with the touch of a finger, without modern construction equipment. Cryptically, Leedskalnin, who is said to have stood just over five feet tall and tipped the scales at 100 pounds, would boast that he "knew the secrets of the pyramids," but whatever those were, he took them with him to the grave in 1951. There has been speculation about supernatural powers and reverse magnetism, providing fodder for segments of Ancient Aliens and Leonard Nimoy's series In Search of....

We're not given to bestowing "Best" honors to shuttered establishments, but consider this the exception that proves the rule. Tower Theater opened its doors in 1926. In 2023 those doors were closed after the City of Miami abruptly terminated the theater's contract with Miami Dade College, which had been managing the historic property since 1992. Navigating from the silent era to the streaming age is no easy feat, and it's worth celebrating the variety of films that screened at the now-imperiled Tower during its 97-year history. From its two screens, Spanish subtitling, and topnotch programming in collaboration with the Miami Film Festival, the Tower is special. Its absence leaves a hole in the region's contemporary art-house scene. With Tower Theater dark, the Coral Gables Art Cinema, the Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami, O Cinema South Beach, and Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale are the last screens standing.