Emmett Moore: Neon Sun

A new outdoor installation takes shape in the Sculpture Garden at Nina Johnson as Emmett Moore debuts Neon Sun, a presentation of functional works that reimagine Miami’s material landscape through vivid color, cast forms and repurposed infrastructure. The exhibition brings together seating, lighting and vessels arranged like a home garden, reflecting the artist’s long-standing interest in the interplay between the built environment and the region’s ecological foundations.

Moore’s practice blurs the boundary between utility and sculpture, transforming industrial remnants into refined objects. Aluminum benches, tables, and chairs incorporate I-beams, grating and cast impressions of tree trunks and mussel shells, unified by a neon pink finish he describes as “pure and primal”—a hue that bridges natural phenomena with the glow of signage and nightlife. Above the seating, coral-like lamps carved from scrap EPS foam allude to Miami’s oolitic limestone bedrock, while a 3D-printed vessel composed of mussel shells and disposable lighters draws parallels between ancient coastal histories and contemporary waste.

Rooted in design and architecture, Moore’s work is shaped by a personal ethos of functionality: objects must withstand daily use even as they carry narratives of reuse, consumption and transformation. That approach lends the exhibition its distinctive tension between artifice and authenticity, humor and precision, sculpture and furniture. Select works from Neon Sun will also appear in the gallery’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, serving as both artworks and the seating elements for the presentation.

This exhibition is on view December 1 through February 7 at Nina Johnson.

Emmett Moore is a Miami-based artist and designer whose interdisciplinary practice examines the shifting relationship between built and natural environments. Working with repurposed materials, construction components, and everyday objects, he reframes utilitarian forms through unexpected shifts in scale, color and context. Moore’s work has been exhibited at the RISD Museum, the Bass Museum of Art, the Frost Art Museum and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and he was the first Miami-based designer to present a solo exhibition at Design Miami. His work is featured in institutional collections and has been covered by Art in America, Architectural Digest, The Guardian and The Art Newspaper, among others.