The Miami Herald has it’s own list of signal events for 2008. No surprise that Art Basel’s decision to re-up for three more years. Here is the Herald’s top five exhibitions:

1. Thoughts on Democracy: Some 60 artists and designers from South Florida and around the world weighed in on the state of freedom and democracy in Thoughts on Democracy, a provocative exhibit inaugurated on the eve of the country’s 232nd birthday at The Wolfsonian-FIU.

2. Unbroken Ties: Dialogues in Cuban Art (Sin rupturas): Curated by Jorge Santis, who single-handedly assembled the best museum collection of Cuban art in the area for the Museum of Art l Fort Lauderdale, the exhibit created a moving narrative about what it means to be Cuban on both sides of the Florida Straits.

3. Wifredo Lam in North America: The historic retrospective at the Miami Art Museum — the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of works by the most celebrated Cuban artist of the 20th century — attracted near-record crowds.

4. Miami: City-Metaphor: A provocative show at Centro Cultural Español (Spanish Cultural Center) in Coral Gables featured 26 Hispanic immigrant artists dishing on the state of the city.

5. 30 Americans: The Rubell Family Collection’s portrait of contemporary African-American art consists of more than 200 striking works by 30 artists and spans 27 galleries of the 45,000-square-foot exhibition space. A revelatory show.

The Year in Review: Visual Arts (Miami Herald)