Galleries spite Sandy to show at Art Basel Miami

The son of the late Beatles legend John Lennon has about a dozen landscapes in a show titled "Alone" at the Overture Art Fair.

"It's basically about having that moment in time where you can reflect, you can think about life, think of the past and present and future. It's that moment in time when you have a bit of peace," Lennon said about the photographs he shot while traveling between music and charity projects.

Lennon also exhibited his photography during the 2010 art fairs, and he was looking forward to enjoying Miami's social scene. "You get every kind of character and every kind of style," he said. "I just hope that doesn't detract from the actual work of the artists who've come here."

Away from the velvet ropes and celebrity glare, many public art installations offer culture for free.

Street artists, including Shepard Fairey, have painted colorful new works onto the exteriors of the warehouses of the Wynwood district. Red, blue and green resin alligators crawl up the yellow facade of Miami's Freedom Tower to raise awareness for Florida's environmental issues.

There's even a kind of scavenger hunt. Over the last two years, the French artist Invader has installed more than 70 mosaics of space alien figures throughout Miami, and maps to each spaceman's location will supplement an exhibit of his new work in the Jonathan LeVine Gallery booth at the Pulse Miami fair.

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Follow Jennifer Kay on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jnkay.