Hyperrealism and Queer Futurism Exhibited Together at NADA Miami
**Exploring the Future of Art and Identity at NADA Miami 2025: A Dive into Hyperrealism and Queer Futurism**
Miami — At this year’s NADA Miami, artists and galleries presented visions that intertwined hyperrealism and speculative futures, examining how mundane objects carry profound emotional and political significance. The standout presentation featured Miami painter Thomas Bils at Baker-Hall Gallery. Bils’s photorealistic works, notably “Phone Wallet Keys” (2025), captured the precarious nature of identity with precise detail, illustrating the fading promise of security once associated with bureaucratic documents like social security cards.
Bils, who hails from Central Florida, explores how everyday life’s specificities reveal deeper emotions. His painting “Phone Wallet Keys” elevated a social security card to a symbol of fragile bureaucratic identity, reflecting on the uncertainty surrounding American citizenship and security.
Others, like Lee Pivnik, pushed towards imagined futures through the exhibit “Chimeras,” exploring adaptations necessary for survival in a changing environment. Pivnik’s coyote chimera, crafted from local materials, symbolized resilience and resourcefulness in a hostile landscape, engaging LGBTQ+ communities in storytelling.
Debbie Lawson’s sculptural alligator at Sargent Daughters Gallery echoed environmental endurance, grounding her work in South Florida’s ecosystem. Similarly, Maddy Inez’s “Fire Follower” series connected ancestry and ecology, depicting resilience through botanical forms blooming post-wildfire, hinting at knowledge resurgent after colonization.
Foundry Seoul’s installation by Omyo Cho and Hyunhee Doh speculated planetary evolution in response to climate change, showcasing hybrid organic-technological forms that visualized adaptation under environmental pressure.
Sheet Cake Gallery x Burnaway featured Claire Torina, who reframed domestic elements as monumental through a mini gallery installation, exploring how mundane objects become complex symbols.
Overall, NADA Miami 2025 exhibited how artists like Bils, Pivnik, and Inez navigate identity and ecological futures. They posed questions about sustaining identity amid instability, where hyperrealism and queer futurism offered profound strategies for survival and community.