About Me
Elisa Turner is an award-winning art critic and art journalist. Her forthcoming book from the University Press of Florida is Miami's Art Boom: From Local Vision to International Presence. Supported by a very generous grant from the Knight Foundation, it is drawn her personal Miami Herald archives dating from 1987 to 2007 to create a chronological portrait of Miami's evolving art community. It is enhanced with essays updating this historical material, providing a contemporary context in light of Miami's considerable changes following the inaugural Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002. Her book directly challenges outsiders' misconception that Miami's art community was lackluster before 2002. To support her writing of new essays for this book she received a 2024 a MIA Artist Grant from Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and 2023 Ellies Creator Award from Oolite Arts.
In 2020 she was one of nine visual art journalists nationwide to receive the annual $50,000 Rabkin Prize. In 2021 and 2020 she was awarded First Place for her Arts Commentary & Criticism and in 2021 Second Place for her Arts Beat reporting from Florida’s Sunshine State Society of Professional Journalists. Other awards include the 2019 Leadership Award of the Florida Chapter of ArtTable and President’s Volunteer Service Award from Miami Dade College in 2012.
Her writing has appeared in Artburst Miami, Art+Auction, Art Circuits, Arte Al Dia, ARTnews, ArtSpeak Florida International University, Biscayne Times, Burnaway, Delicious Line, Fine Art Globe, Hamptons Art Hub, Hyperallergic, Miami Herald, and Miami Rail. She has taught writing at Miami Dade College and guest-lectured at University of Miami and New World School of the Arts. She wrote the foreword covering the Miami art scene from early 1980s to 2006 for Miami Contemporary Artists by Julie Davidow and Paul Clemence (Schiffer Books, 2007). Launched at Art Basel Miami Beach, this well-received book gathers statements by over 100 Miami-based artists with full-color photographs of their work.
Her Miami Herald career began in 1986 and continued for 21 years.From 1995 to 2007, she was primary art critic for the Miami Herald, with international assignments to Havana Biennial, Haiti, Venice Biennial, and Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. As Miami Correspondent for ARTnews magazine, she has written reviews, news reports, feature stories, and profiles of prominent figures in Miami's art community. She has taken part in over 20 panel discussions in Miami venues concerning the visual arts as panelist or moderator. She is a member of the International Association of Art Critics, U.S. Section, and ArtTable, a national organization for women in visual arts professions.
She is a contributor to Artburst Miami. This website is based on her contributor page to Artburst Miami.