MIAMI, FLA.- Depart Foundation announced the launch of a new, permanent project space in Miami Beach. The new space opened in December 2015 with the presentation of WONDERWHEEL , curated by Italian curatorial and editorial platform CURA., as the first in a series of annual guest-curated exhibitions. The project space located within Nautilus, the newly-opened 250-room South Beach oceanfront property, has been established in partnership with Depart Foundation advisory board member and owner and co-founder of SIXTY Hotels, Jason Pomeranc to further the ongoing efforts of the Foundation to foster an active, international dialogue and engagement with contemporary art, and adds to the Foundation’s itinerant program and existing presence in Rome and Los Angeles.

Conceived by the Italian curatorial and editorial platform CURA. and its founders Andrea Baccin and Ilaria Marotta, WONDERWHEEL is a site-specific exhibition featuring videos, paintings, sculptures and installation works by international artists, some of whom have been presented recently by the Depart Foundation including Petra Cortright, Marc Horowitz, Grear Patterson and Gabriele De Santis, as well as Zachary Armstrong, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Oliver Laric, Helen Marten, Takeshi Murata, Oliver Osborne, Marco Palmieri, Eddie Peake, Cameron Platter, Jon Rafman and special projects by Ryan Gander, Francesco Simeti and Martin Soto Climent.

Depart Foundation’s Founder Pierpaolo Barzan says of the project, “The Depart Foundation strives to connect artists with new opportunities and places, and to create opportunities for critical dialogue and reciprocity. The new Miami project space at Nautilus will further this goal, providing the Foundation and its artists with an exciting and dynamic new context to explore. We are very grateful to Jason Pomeranc for his vision and enthusiasm in furthering our footprint internationally.”

Jason Pomeranc, owner and co-founder of SIXTY Hotels, says of the collaboration: “Contemporary visual culture is a vital part of today’s travel experience. We have always embraced art as an integral element of our hospitality offering, and we’re delighted to partner with the Depart Foundation to house their permanent project space in Miami.”

WONDERWHEEL occupies the length of Nautilus’s lobby perimeter wall, punctuating the space with unexpected visual interjections of neo-pop, graphic imagery, playful visual texts, popcultural impressions and fantasy frameworks. The installation explores the aesthetic, symbolic and expressive territory of a new generation of young contemporary artists who are revisiting childhood imagery in their work. These artists, in varying and individual ways, channel intentionally naive impressions to convey the complexity and ambivalence of adult experience