MIAMI, FL.- Pérez Art Museum Miami is presenting a new exhibition featuring artworks by established artist Christo, opening August 19, 2022. This exhibition presents stellar works gifted to PAMM by Christo’s longtime friends Maria Bechily and Scott Hodes, and features many drawings and collages which are fine examples of Christo’s drawing practice and methods of artistic production.

Christo (born Christo Vladmirov Javacheff) and his wife and artistic partner Jeanne-Claude made an undeniable impact on the history of art since the mid-20th century. Together, these two artists have created large-scale, ephemeral, public art projects. Their works have involved dramatic interventions in carefully selected outdoor locations. During their nearly 60 year career, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work has helped to expand the definition of art beyond paintings and sculptures. Instead, these artists envisioned and executed a radically democratic art form capable of speaking directly to diverse audiences across a full spectrum of society in public space.




Christo and Jeanne-Claude declined all financial support from governments, institutions, single patrons, and foundations during their career, and instead, chose to fund their massive art projects through the direct sales of drawings such as those featured in this exhibition. These works memorialize the projects and represent an alternative to the traditional funding structures for art. Collectively, the drawings exemplify an expansive overview of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s body of art, comprising their major projects spanning from the late 1960s to the early 2000s.

PAMM has a longstanding history of presenting works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 2018, PAMM exhibited a major show with Christo’s participation, Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83: A Documentary Exhibition, which featured archival materials and artworks from the artists’ site-specific 1983 installation, Surrounded Islands, in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. This 2018 exhibition at PAMM commemorated the 35th anniversary of Surrounded Islands, as well as the founding of PAMM’s predecessor institution, Center for Fine Arts. PAMM opened in January of 1984 as the Center for Fine Arts, directed by Jan van der Marck, who also organized Surrounded Islands with the artists, in 1983. Van der Marck first presented Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 1968, as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

This new exhibition featuring drawings and collages by Christo is a chance to see the artworks that helped fund their massive public art projects such as Surrounded Islands, and is a testament to PAMM’s history of showing the works of these two acclaimed artists.

Christo Drawings: A Gift from the Maria Bechily and Scott Hodes Collection is organized by former PAMM curator María Elena Ortiz.