From February 2025, the second-floor galleries of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) will be hosting a new archival collection titled “Surrounded Islands”, a donation made by the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and entirely dedicated to the pair’s iconic Miami installation of of the same name in Biscayne Bay, Florida.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Surrounded Islands to be revived in Florida
The NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale will become the permanent home of the Surrounded Islands Documentation Exhibition, an overview of the duo’s iconic work.
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- Ilaria Bonvicini
- 02 October 2024
The exhibition will showcase over 43 of Christo’s preparatory drawings and collages, photographs and photo murals, engineering surveys, environmental studies, correspondence, scale models, and even pieces of the pink fabric used to wrap 11 Biscayne Bay islands alongside other archival documents that trace the history of this groundbreaking project.
Surrounded Island has “left an indelible impact on South Florida and the art world by redefining the interaction between art, environment and public space” says the museum’s director and chief curator, Bonnie Clearwater. This exhibition will offer a behind-the-scenes look at this self-funded, monumental project of 3 million dollars that involved environmental groups and local residents alike, and that together with many other installations like Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Australia, 1968-69, Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1995 and The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85, contributed to associate Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s signature to the realm of Land Art.
Opening image: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83. Photo Wolfgang Volz © 1983 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation