Tomorrow, Pérez Art Museum Miami opens one of its most poetic exhibitions of the season: Anina Major: The Sacred Mangrove, on view October 1, 2026 through August 1, 2027. It is the Bahamian-born artist’s most significant institutional presentation in the United States to date, and she has transformed PAMM’s waterfront gallery into a walkable, protective landscape of woven clay, bottle trees and shells.
Major rebuilds Bahamian palm-leaf weaving strand by strand in clay, honoring her grandmother Saphora Newbold, a Bahamian straw weaver whose work put Major and her mother through college. Tower-like woven sculptures, a shell path, and works made with melted sea glass and sand turn the gallery into a space for slow looking — where memory, ancestry and care become tangible.
The centerpiece, Water Tower (2024), enters the scene from PAMM’s own permanent collection. Looking out the gallery’s windows, Biscayne Bay and the cruise ships extend the exhibition’s themes — Miami’s deep Caribbean ties reflected back in clay.
A recent 2026 USA Fellow and Phaidon Great Women Sculptors artist, Major brings craft into fine art and fine art into the heart of the Caribbean story. Don’t miss this one: it’s free with museum admission, and it stays through next summer.
Photo: Anina Major, Water Tower, 2024. © Anina Major. Courtesy the artist and Tern Gallery. Photo: Andrew White.
