No Vacancy: Alex Nuñez, You Cannot Step into the Same Ocean Twice

Like stepping into the ocean, the place may feel the same, but the light has changed, the water has moved and so have we. Alex Nuñez’s "You Cannot Step into the Same Ocean Twice" begins with the landscape that has shaped her life and practice: Miami. Drawing from South Florida’s Caribbean light, dense vegetation and proximity to water, Nuñez creates an environment alive with the saturated color that defines her paintings. Printed aluminum palms emerge around an iridescent portal that reflects the viewer as sunlight passes through it, casting colored shadows across the hotel. Paintings and works on paper carry this imagined ecosystem onto the surrounding walls. For Nuñez, landscape is never simply a backdrop. It holds memory, identity and the possibility of renewal. Here, the Miami she knows becomes something you can enter, reflect within and experience anew. Alex Nuñez (b. 1984) was born in Miami, Florida and lives and works in Miami. She received an M.F.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York. Inspired by South Florida’s subtropical landscapes, Nuñez creates imagined environments exploring adaptation, resilience and transformation. Working across painting, installation and sculpture, she combines acrylic, pastel, oil stick, glitter, crystals, gold leaf and iridescent pigments in works that shift with light, movement and time. Solo exhibitions include “There’s a Gator in the Pool” (2025), Faena Art Project Room, Miami Beach; “No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá” (2023), Baker/ Hall, Miami; and “C12 Emerging Artists” (2013), Marianne Boesky, New York. Group exhibitions include El Museo del Barrio and Deering Estate. Nuñez received the C12 Fellowship Award (2012), WaveMaker Grant (2018) and Deering Estate Residency (2019). Her work includes a 2026 Miami-Dade Art in Public Places commission and artwork loans to U.S. Embassies in Madrid and Panama City.