City Art in Public Places Hosts Kick-Off for New Wave Artist Residency

Published on November 12, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Kathleen Joy, Director of Communications
City of West Palm Beach – Mayor’s Office
kjoy@wpb.org

(561) 822-1411 (TTY: 800-955-8771)

Sybille Canthal, Director of Arts, Culture and Community Building
City of West Palm Beach – Mayor’s Office

scanthal@wpb.org

(561) 822-1521

City of West Palm Beach Art in Public Places Hosts Season Kick-Off for New Wave Artist Residency

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (November 12, 2026) — The City of West Palm Beach's Art in Public Places (AiPP) program will host a panel discussion presented by New Wave Artist Residency on Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mandel Public Library, 411 Clematis Street.

The panel discussion Art in Public Places: How Public Art Commissions Transform Artistic Practices will feature artist José Alvarez (D.O.P.A.), whose immersive large-scale installation Surround Me with Your Love (May All Beings Be Happy and Free), 2026 was commissioned by the City’s AiPP program and is currently on exhibit at The Urban. Joining him are South Florida regional artists Lauren Shapiro and Laura Tanner Graham. Moderating this panel discussion is Amanda Sanfilippo Long, Curator and Artist Manager for Miami-Dade County's Art in Public Places program.

Rooted in AiPP’s mission to elevate West Palm Beach’s public spaces through impactful and engaging public art while fostering meaningful connections between art, place, and community, the City is honored to host New Wave’s Art Residency program. The program’s mission to support artists through access to time, space, and professional development reflects the City’s AiPP’s initiatives.  

Panelists will share first-hand experiences of taking their artistic practices beyond the studio and into the public realm, navigating unfamiliar environments, working with new materials, and collaborating with municipal agencies to bring their public art projects to life.

Following the panel discussion, attendees will have the opportunity to meet the participating artists and join José Alvarez in an artist-led walkthrough of The Urban.

The event designed as a “lunch and learn” experience that offers an opportunity for artists, art advocates, and community members to learn more about the creative process behind public art commissions and their impact on shared public spaces.

Register here.

Schedule

• Location: Mandel Public Library; 3^rd floor Auditorium, 411 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

• Panel Discussion: Art in Public Places: How Public Art Commissions Transform Artistic Practice

• Date & Time: Thursday, November 19, 2026, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

  • 11:30 a.m.: Arrivals, coffee and light bites

  • Noon: Introductory remarks and panel discussion

  • 1 p.m.: Artist-led Art Tour and boxed to-go lunch

  • 2 p.m.: Event concludes

Discover the City’s AiPP program through our free digital guide on Bloomberg Connects — featuring audio commentary from José Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) on his exhibition, available in English and Spanish.

For more information, please contact Sybille Canthal, Director of Arts, Culture and Community Building, at scanthal@wpb.org or call (561) 822-1521.

Join the conversation on Instagram! Follow @WPBAiPP & @TheCityOfWPB.

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About the City of West Palm Beach

The City of West Palm Beach is a vibrant and dynamic city on Florida's Atlantic coast. With a rich history, thriving arts and cultural scene, and a commitment to sustainability, the City of West Palm Beach is a great place to live, work, and play. As one of the three largest cities making up the South Florida region and the central city of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach is a vibrant, growing waterfront city that seamlessly blends the business advantages available in the area with a more refined and relaxed environment for living and working, making it an exceptional destination for both residents and professionals alike. To learn more about the City of West Palm Beach, visit our official website or follow us on our social media: Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), and LinkedIn.

To contact the City of West Palm Beach, please dial (561) 822-1200 (TTY800 955-8771).

About Art in Public Places

The Art in Public Places (AiPP) public art program of the City of West Palm Beach, Florida serves its residents and visitors by presenting a diversity of artworks to be experienced in our city. The program works with the public and private sector to commission artists at all career stages to create meaningful artworks —both permanent and temporary —throughout the City’s Public Places. For more information about AiPP WPB, please visit www.wpb.org/Residents, follow us on Instagram, or contact Sybille Canthal, Director of Arts, Culture, and Community Building at (561) 822-1521 or scanthal@wpb.org.

About José Alvarez (D.O.P.A) b. 1961, Venezuela Lives and works in South Florida

Born Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga, Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.), creates paintings/collages on mica, videos, installations, and performances, through which he breaks down belief systems into intersecting components of science, spirituality, and mysticism. His works burst with psychedelic patterns, colors, lush floral imagery and traditional shamanic materials such as crystals and porcupine quills. They appear as hallucinatory portals into other realms.

Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) has performed and exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen in New York, NASA Johnson Space Flight Center, Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia, Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Marlborough Gallery in New York, The Moore Space in Miami, Ratio 3 in San Francisco, Jeffrey Deitch in New York, the Yerba Buena Center for The Art in San Francisco, The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Beth Rudin DeWoody’s The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, The Kemper Art Museum in Kansas City, The Drawing Center in New York, Boca Raton Museum or Art in Boca Raton, FL and the San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas, among others. In 2020, he was included in A VeryAnxious Feeling: Voices of Unrest in the American Experience at the Taubman Museum of Art; In 2021, for the Sarasota Art Museum, he created an impressive 10.5 × 78 foot vinyl mural, his largest to date. In 2024, he was featured in the traveling exhibition Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. José Alvarez is represented by Gavlak Gallery, West Palm Beach.