PAMM Prize Artwork by Daniel Ochoa from Quiet Hours Selected for PAMM’s Permanent Collection

(MIAMI, FL — December 9, 2025) — Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to announce the selection of the third annual SCOPE Art Show PAMM Prize, an acquisition gift that provides funding for PAMM curators to acquire artwork for the museum’s permanent collection from SCOPE Art Show, which took place in Miami Beach from December 2–7, 2025. This year, PAMM Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs & Chief Curator José Carlos Diaz selected two works by Daniel Ochoa from Miami-based gallery Quiet Hours.

“I’m delighted to have selected Inside Your Body, There is a Light That Never Goes Out (2025) and Biophoton (2025) by Daniel Ochoa from Quiet Hours, an exciting new space in Miami that is just beginning to establish its presence,” said José Carlos Diaz, PAMM senior director of curatorial affairs & chief curator. “This acquisition is especially meaningful because Ochoa is local to our vibrant art community, which continues to grow stronger year after year. His work, which blends sculpture and design, explores themes inspired by his Latin American roots, and I look forward to seeing it installed at PAMM alongside other works by Miami artists, fostering an inspiring dialogue.”

Fresh off Ochoa’s first solo exhibition The Anatomy of an Object at Quiet Hours, where he explored the human body as both inspiration and instrument crafted from wood, leather, and other natural materials, the artist blurs the boundary between object and organism, revealing how bodily presence informs the objects we live with, touch, and inhabit. Ochoa’s practice is deeply rooted in an ongoing fascination with the body’s ability to change, evolve, and heal over time. Just as the body endures cycles of pain, growth, and recovery, so too do these materials. Ochoa’s objects respond to the body as much as the body responds to them. Through material, form, and presence, Ochoa invites us to reflect on the human form and the quiet rituals of inhabiting space.

Inside Your Body, There is a Light That Never Goes Out (2025) and Biophoton (2025) were newly created for Ochoa’s presentation at SCOPE and mark a deepened engagement with the spiritual dimensions of his practice, using light and reflection as mediums. These new sculptures also represent an experimentation with scale, developing substantial, imposing forms whose physical presence conveys a sense of gravity that lures viewers in for a more intimate and immersive experience.

“It is an honor to have Daniel Ochoa’s work acquired by PAMM—Daniel’s talent seems to continually unravel across mediums and materials, yet his meticulous attention to detail still comes through in each work,” said Max Machado, founder of Quiet Hours. “I am grateful for the opportunity that SCOPE provided to test my intuition about Daniel and his work and elevate our program at Quiet Hours. Thank you to Hayley River Smith, SCOPE, José Carlos Diaz, PAMM, and Blayne Planit for your support. And, I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the others in our community doing great work to elevate artists, including Commissioner, Queue Gallery, Tunnel Projects, and more. There’s something special about creating intimate shows, and there are a lot of artist stories that need space to breathe. We plan on telling those stories.”

“We are committed to amplifying the voices shaping contemporary culture, and we’re honored to present the SCOPE Art Show PAMM Prize to an artist whose work not only reflects this moment, but expands the possibilities of what art can do,” said Hayley River Smith, director of SCOPE Art Show. “This recognition underscores our belief that artists are the architects of our future, and it is our responsibility to champion the practices that challenge, inspire, and move us forward.”

ABOUT DANIEL OCHOA

Daniel Ochoa was born in 1980 in Santa Rosa, CA. He has lived and worked in San Francisco, CA, and Brooklyn, NY, and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. He is currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ochoa constructs imagery for 2D works and new media projects that are informed by experience, technology, and imagination. Painting in layers, he uses masking techniques to jumble formal qualities such as abstraction and realistic representation. He sources imagery from mapping platforms, APIs, and social media networks as a way to trace the effects technology has on the construct of perception. The combination of divergent elements suggests a pluralistic visual experience bridging the historical framework of painting, self, and the influence of technology on image making.

ABOUT QUIET HOURS

Quiet Hours operates as both a gallery and a production space in Miami, FL, establishing its first location in 2025. It elevates practices that move fluidly between art, architecture, design, and the everyday. The fast-evolving curatorial program is rooted in a belief that art is not separate from life, allowing rising artists to build their own world within the constraints of the small-format physical space. Each exhibition is an active participation between artist and audience, and should benefit those who show up.

ABOUT SCOPE ART SHOW

SCOPE Art Show is a pathbreaking art show providing a platform for experiential innovation and discovery within the ultra-contemporary art market. For more than 20 years, SCOPE has redefined what an art fair can be, specializing in showcasing emerging artwork from around the globe with a dynamic program of events at the intersection of culture at large, giving the show a unique relevance to global and local audiences. Located on the sands of Miami Beach amidst the iconic architecture of Ocean Drive and 8th Street, SCOPE Art Show presents more than 110 diverse exhibitors from more than 27 countries. SCOPE was founded by artist and entrepreneur Alexis Hubshman in 2002 and has staged more than 90 presentations to date.

ABOUT PAMM

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), led by Sandra and Tony Tamer Director Franklin Sirmans, promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The 41-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013 in Downtown Miami’s Maurice A. Ferré Park. The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.