Rachel Feinstein is an acclaimed American artist known for her intricate sculptures and installations that explore themes of luxury, desire, and societal contrasts. Drawing from 18th- and 19th-century European art, fairy tales, and baroque interiors, her work blends romance, kitsch, and artifice in unexpected ways.

Her latest exhibition, Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years at The Bass, spans nearly three decades of work, showcasing her multidisciplinary approach across sculpture, painting, video, and performance. Central to the exhibition is a site-specific commission of expansive mirrored wall panels, probing the opulence and contradictions of Miami’s identity.

Join us in conversation with Rachel as she shares her creative journey and the inspirations behind her latest exhibition:

Photo by Zaire Aranguren. Courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach.

This is your first major exhibition in Miami. How does it feel to return to your hometown to showcase your work?

It’s a very profound experience, just flying down there, showing up at the airport, which I would go to for every single family vacation and flying home from college, and being picked up by my parents and taking my own kids down there to be with my family over the holidays and now I’m going down for this show. It's a very different and incredibly fulfilling experience.

I did this photoshoot with Roe Ethridge last week, where we went to all my hometown places like my old parents' house. Both my parents have died and my life is just very different to how it used to be in Miami so it was very emotional. So many places just aren’t even there anymore. Your life changes of course, but it just seems like also the world has very dramatically changed in the last 30 to 40 years. It feels like a big shift for everybody and not just for me.

Can you dive deeper into the concept behind the 30-foot mirrored panels at The Bass? What do they think they reveal about Miami’s identity?

The difference was when I made the ones for Rome or New York, I kind of just scrolled through images. I thought about the Colosseum of course for Rome, but for Miami (because of my personal connection), I knew the exact places that I wanted to represent and they were all based on my childhood.

There is the Seaquarium that is slated to be demolished soon, and there was a Serpentarium which I believe was torn down in the mid-70s. A kid fell into the alligator pit and was eaten by alligators in front of his parents and he was my age (six) when it happened. It was right near my house and I remember very vividly thinking it could have happened to me because we would go there all the time.

Then there is the new Parrot Jungle which has been turned into this new place called Jungle Island in a different location. It has a totally different feeling - it’s a theme park, whereas before it was a beautiful old 1920s tropical garden that happened to have wild parrots flying around.

The Venetian Pool is where I had my rehearsal dinner with synchronised swimmers. Each of these places has a very important story - my parent’s house is in the painting and so is the Biltmore Hotel where I had my prom and I also had my wedding reception and Fairchild Tropical Garden is where my sister got married.

You check off all of these places and I made a list and got almost all of them in there! I would find a picture that looked like something I wanted to paint with the light coming in from the left so it would match. Then I would cut up the pictures and arrange them as an 8-foot long collage which was based on the Zuber and the Dufour wallpapers with how the panorama flowed through with rivers and waterways and mountain tops and I kind of made that work with the Miami collages.

Then I drew that in a big huge drawing and gridded it up and painted it on the mirror. It was a long time coming, it took me about a year. It’s huge, it’s like six panels (which are six feet tall and five feet wide) and these heavy major mirrors get hung up next to each other and make a huge long line.

The cool thing about working with mirrors is you can use the mirror to represent both sky and water. You can do these beautiful washes using the enamel paint so it looks like the reflecting building inside the mirror. It’s incredibly atmospheric.

How has Miami's art scene influenced this exhibition in any way?

Growing up in Miami, there wasn’t much of an art scene or culture at all. In some ways, I think that was very good for me, as it gave me a free, open road to do whatever I wanted. There was no kind of old history that I had to wade through. And now, it’s great because obviously there’s a huge world of people who want to see art, look at art and be involved in art and I think I benefited very much from that. I feel guilty that I benefited from no culture and now all the culture has come at the right time for me!

I liked growing up in the “desert,” if you understand that. There is a reason why abstract expressionism came from America - there’s no history. Miami especially, is a very new city with not much of a past, so it was a good thing for me.

How have mentors like Kiki Smith shaped your artistic development and practice?

For me, the most mind-blowing experience was coming from nothing in terms of culture. I always loved art and making art but I didn’t understand how you connect the dots from drawing at home with your grandma to then becoming a world-class artist. I didn’t come from a background where I was surrounded by art. I thought art and (especially sculpture) was like Rodin, these old bronze-looking figures and I didn’t get it.

When I was going to Columbia University for pre-med because my dad was a doctor and my mom a nurse, I was taking art classes on the side because I always loved it. There, I had a class with an incredible sculptor called Judy Pfaff. There was no art department so it was kind of a bare-bones situation and I remember during this class she took a garbage can and dumped it out on the floor and said “Everyone pick something from this garbage and make a sculpture”. It blew my mind - I couldn’t believe that could be art!

Coming from Judy Pfaff and then Ursula von Rydingsvard and then Kiki Smith, the three of them showed me you can make anything you want. They were huge teachers for me in that way.

Your work is heavily influenced by 18th- and 19th-century European art. Are there specific artists or movements from that period that continue to inspire your work today?

Miami has this kind of fascination with Rococo which is also present in other places in Florida, predominantly at Walt Disney World and so I always saw Rococo through the lens of an American aesthetic. The Sleeping Beauty Castle and these kinds of Liberace-style gold chandeliers everywhere. So when I went to Europe for the first time, I remember seeing it in a totally different light. I like Fragonard of course, and Boucher inspires me, but I'm also drawn to 16th-century German art and sculpture like Tilman Riemenschneider. It’s a mixture of a lot of things: the form and the shape of the drawing line. I don't like Rococo, because it's Rococo, it has a reason for it, if that makes sense.

People see it and think “It’s just like my grandma’s teacup” or something. If you understand how it came about, this revolutionary feeling that was happening in Europe. You know, it echoes our time right now. You know this idea of, let them eat cake. Let's have like, little pretty cupcakes when the world is crumbling and going on fire. That's what I'm interested in: a dichotomy, you know.

Reflecting on your career, what has been your proudest achievement so far, and why does it stand out to you?

I guess the last two big shows — a big survey at the Jewish Museum in New York and the other at The Bass in Miami, are pretty huge. My mom was able to see my Jewish Museum show. My dad, unfortunately, had just passed away. Now all my mom and dad's friends, and my sister are going to come to the opening. It's that feeling again, of just like, wow. I couldn't have expected this when I was 10 years old or when I was going to Columbia University and I was just living in New York City, it’s a feeling of utter gratitude.

As an established artist, are there any emerging talents that have caught your attention recently?

There are people, but I don't remember their names. There are just things I see. I don't have Instagram, so I don't use social media and I don't track people. I'll just see something at a show or in a magazine or something. A movie called “Tuesday” came out this summer. It was very odd and very magical and strange with the Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The filmmaker is Eastern European in her 30s and it was just very odd, it's basically a very dark fairy tale, about death. I'm amazed that it was made at this time when people want to see shiny, happy things because it's really intense and I found it quite interesting.

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