Nathalie Alfonso Wins $25,000 for No Vacancy, Miami Beach 2025 & Denise Treizman Wins $10,000 GMCVB’s People’s Choice Award

Miami Beach, FL – The City of Miami Beach, in collaboration with the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA) and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 edition of No Vacancy. The $25,000 Juried Prize has been awarded to Nathalie Alfonso, who presented BayScape— at International Inn on the Bay. The $10,000 People’s Choice Award, sponsored by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), has been awarded to Denise Treizman for her presentation Wish You Were Here at Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club.

The jurors for this year’s presentation are Chana Budgazad Sheldon, Executive Director of MOCA North Miami, and Natalia Zuluaga, Chief Curator of The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum. These esteemed curators awarded the Juried Prize to Nathalie Alfonso’s BayScape—, a light drawing that transforms the second-floor window band of International Inn on the Bay into a translucent, ever-shifting landscape mirroring the bay beyond.

The People’s Choice Award, which is determined by the public via an online vote, was awarded to Denise Treizman for her work Wish You Were Here, a large-scale tapestry woven from pool noodles and playful found objects.

“No Vacancy reflects the creative spirit that defines Miami Beach. By transforming our iconic hotels into platforms for contemporary art, we are supporting local artists and reinforcing Miami Beach’s position as a global destination for culture and innovation,” said Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner.

No Vacancy is a juried art competition that supports and celebrates local artists, provokes critical discourse, and encourages the public to experience Miami Beach’s famed hotels as art destinations. The sixth iteration of this competition included 12 participating artists and collectives drawn from a call to artists issued by the City and selected by a Committee composed of representatives from the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Committee, Cultural Arts Council, and MBVCA. Each selected artist created a site-specific work for display at one of 12 different hotels throughout Miami Beach, which were on view from November 13, 2025 to December 20, 2025.

Funding for this project is provided by the City of Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority as well as the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. For additional information, please visit https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/no-vacancy.

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About the Artists

About Nathalie Alfonso

Nathalie Alfonso is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice investigates the body, memory, ephemerality, landscape, and the tension between visibility and invisibility. Through drawing, installation, video, and performance, she explores physical endurance and the expressive potential of mark-making. Her work often emerges from testing the body’s limits, revealing subtle gestures embedded in repetitive labor. Alfonso holds an MFA from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) and a BFA from Florida International University (Miami, FL). Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, the Baker Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
Spinello Projects, the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery, Dimensions Variable, the Art and Culture Center Hollywood, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, and Marymount University.

About Denise Treizman

Denise Treizman creates immersive installations and sculptural works by blending repurposed materials, handcrafted elements, and remnants of mass consumption. Her work balances fascination and critique, transforming everyday objects into dynamic, thought-provoking compositions. Treizman’s vibrant use of color amplifies the playful energy of her work. Treizman earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and is currently a studio resident at Laundromat Art Space in Miami, Florida. She has had solo exhibitions at the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the Coral Springs Museum of Art, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago, University Galleries of Illinois State University (2021), Proto Gomez Gallery (2021 | New York, NY), Cuchifritos Gallery (2016 | New York, NY) and Wave Hill’s Sunroom Project Space (2016 | Bronx, NY) amongst others. She was part of the Bronx Museum for the Arts’ AIM Biennial (2015) and prominently featured in the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art.

About the Jurors

About Chana Budgazad Sheldon

Chana Budgazad Sheldon has been Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) North Miami since 2018, leading a community-driven mission that elevates underexplored artists, supports local creators, and presents significant first-time exhibitions. During her tenure, MOCA secured $3 million in HUD funding and a $1 million community engagement gift, expanded public art and programming, and has provided free admission to more than 60,000 North Miami residents annually. She has overseen landmark exhibitions including AFRICOBRA: Nation Time, the first Venice Biennale Collateral Event for a Florida institution. Previously, Sheldon led Locust Projects in Miami and served as Director of Casey Kaplan gallery in New York.

About Natalia Zuluaga

Natalia Zuluaga is a curator and editor based in Miami. She is currently the chief curator at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University. Since 2014, she has also been the co-director of [NAME] Publications, a non-profit press and exhibition space. She previously served as the Artistic Director at Art Center/South Florida (now Oolite Arts) where she led their exhibition, residency, and artist opportunities. Zuluaga has been a guest editor for Shift Space 2.0; a critic-in-residence for the Great Meadows Foundation, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Louisville, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Florida International University. In 2023, Zuluaga was the recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Writers Grant.

About the No Vacancy Selection Committee

About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Committee
The Art in Public Places Committee is a seven-member City Commission-appointed citizens’ board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for city projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance.

About the City of Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council
The Cultural Arts Council (CAC) is an 11-member body created in 1997 for the purpose of developing, coordinating and promoting the performing and visual arts in the City of Miami Beach. The CAC serves as arts advocates before governmental bodies, coordinates collective marketing initiatives for the local arts community and funds not-for-profit arts organizations. Since the program’s inception, the CAC has awarded approximately $18 million in cultural arts grants, supporting thousands of performances, exhibits, and other cultural activities in Miami Beach.

About the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA)
The MBVCA is a seven-member authority, appointed by the City of Miami Beach Commission, with the goal of encouraging, developing and promoting the image of Miami Beach locally, nationally and internationally as an outstanding tourist destination. To this end, the MBVCA strategically focuses its funding investments in a balanced manner, fostering outstanding existing programs, stimulating new activities and encouraging partnerships. The MBVCA is committed to a careful, long-term plan for allocation of resources to help Miami Beach thrive as a destination with something for everyone.

About the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB)
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau is an accredited, independent not-for-profit sales and marketing organization whose mission is to attract visitors to Greater Miami & Miami Beach for leisure, business, meetings and conventions. To get further engaged with Greater Miami & Miami Beach, join the conversation by following us on our social media channels: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Press Contact
cityofmiamibeach@culturalcounsel.com

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