By Coral Gables Gazette staff

Coral Gables is turning familiar public spaces into unexpected encounters with art this season as Art in Public Places debuts Intervals, a suite of contemporary installations by five international artists. The works, distributed across multiple outdoor sites, create a temporary network of artistic interventions that invite viewers to reconsider rhythm, space, and movement in the city. The project opens this month and remains on view through early 2026, marking one of the most ambitious public-art undertakings the city has staged in recent years.

Artists and their works anchor the series across five public sites

The installations create a network of temporary interventions across the city:

• Ricardo Alcaide, Liminal — The Plaza, 111 Palermo Avenue
• Emil Lukas, #2023 Radiant — Hotel Colonnade, 180 Aragon Avenue
• Pepe Mar, Silver Dust — Aloft Coral Gables, 2524 S. LeJeune Road
• Marielle Plaisir, The Duck — The Plaza, 2912 Coconut Grove Drive
• Troy Simmons, Spore (Durchbruch Hybrid Series) — H. George Fink Studio, 2506 Ponce de Leon Boulevard

At its core, Intervals expands the idea of public space by placing artwork in settings that residents experience every day. Rather than anchoring pieces in a single plaza or gallery, the project emphasizes pathways, edges, and ordinary locations—places where the visual field shifts as people commute, stroll, or pause between destinations. This distributed format aligns with the city’s long-term emphasis on walkability and invites viewers to engage with art through movement rather than static observation.

A citywide installation shaped by rhythm and movement

The project centers on the concept of “intervals”—the spaces between forms, the pauses within motion, and the moments that allow transitions to occur. According to Art in Public Places, the selected artists respond to these ideas through a range of materials and spatial strategies, transforming familiar landscapes into places of artistic inquiry. Some pieces explore light and shadow, others animate structure or trace patterns across surfaces shaped by daily activity.

By distributing works throughout the city, Intervals supports the notion that art can frame everyday encounters. Sidewalks, entry points, and transitional outdoor zones become stages for interaction, drawing residents into a layered environment that encourages reflection. The approach complements Coral Gables’ long-standing investment in civic design and public green spaces, reinforcing the relationship between visual culture and the built environment.

Five artists bring distinct perspectives to shared public ground

The participating artists—each chosen for their ability to work responsively within outdoor settings—develop installations that engage directly with site conditions. Some sculptures establish visual anchors, while others prompt curiosity through unexpected positioning or scale.

Placed together, the installations create a constellation of viewpoints that reveal different aspects of Coral Gables’ architectural and natural environment. One work may highlight the geometry of a walkway; another may interrupt a familiar sightline to draw attention to light patterns or textures that typically go unnoticed. The city’s landscaping, Mediterranean architectural heritage, and street alignment become part of the visual vocabulary through which each piece operates.

Each installation also carries its own artistic logic.

Ricardo Alcaide’s Liminal at The Plaza uses raw construction materials—aluminum, MDF, exposed brick—to explore the beauty of unfinished surfaces and the emotional traces embedded in built environments.

At the Hotel Colonnade, Emil Lukas’ #2023 Radiant turns thousands of hand-stretched threads into an optical field that seems to generate light from within, shifting as viewers move.

Pepe Mar’s Silver Dust, installed at Aloft Coral Gables, layers custom printed fabrics and archival imagery into a collage that excavates cultural memory and the way personal history resurfaces in contemporary form.

At 2912 Coconut Grove Drive, Marielle Plaisir’s black-bronze sculpture The Duck reimagines a once-dismissive metaphor as a monument to resilience, transforming a symbol of marginality into one of dignity and permanence.

And at the historic H. George Fink Studio, Troy Simmons’ Spore introduces a biomorphic structure drawn from microbiology and architectural forms, suggesting a hybrid future in which natural and built systems merge.

Project reflects the city’s evolving public-art strategy

Intervals builds on Coral Gables’ broader effort to integrate contemporary art into civic life. The city’s Art in Public Places program has long supported permanent works, but large-scale temporary installations provide a different layer of engagement. They allow artists to work with experimentation, reconsider public areas, and test new relationships between design and community.

Temporary projects also encourage repeat viewing. Residents may encounter a piece on a morning walk, then notice a new detail when passing again during the evening. This iterative experience aligns with the program’s goal of expanding access to art through routine movement rather than formal destination-based visits.

Intervals also continues a trend of bringing international voices into the city’s public realm, presenting works that resonate within Coral Gables while connecting to broader contemporary-art dialogues.

Art as a lens for understanding a changing Coral Gables

The timing of Intervals adds significance. As Coral Gables invests in parks, mobility, and urban design, the project reinforces the role of the arts in shaping how the community experiences change. It offers a cultural counterpoint to ongoing planning initiatives and creates a shared framework for thinking about place, identity and civic space.

For longtime residents, the installations provide opportunities to see familiar streets through a refreshed lens. For students, visitors and new residents, they introduce a sense of discovery and help define Coral Gables as a city where design and artistic expression remain central to public life.

How—and where—to experience the installations

Intervals is free and open to the public. Art in Public Places encourages residents to explore the works in sequence or to encounter them gradually as part of their daily routines. Because the project spans multiple locations, viewers can engage at their own pace, returning to installations throughout the season as lighting and weather conditions change.

The city will host additional information sessions and site details through its Art in Public Places website, along with opportunities for residents to learn more about the artists and the concepts shaping each piece.