Thirty-five years ago in Miami’s Biscayne Bay, eleven uninhabited islands were encircled with pink fabric. This exhibition commemorates the ambitious environmental intervention by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and its lasting impact on Miami as a center for contemporary art. Through drawings, models, photographs, and surviving materials, visitors can explore the brief two-week life span of Surrounded Islands, and the incredible effort by the two artists to leap over government and logistical hurdles to make their vision—and the 6.5 million square feet of floating fabric it required—a reality. pamm.org

Tara Donovan is an alchemist of materials, transforming index cards into towers that loom like otherworldly stalagmites, and plastic cups into sculptural waves of cellular shapes. This major exhibition fills the whole of MCA Denver with both new and old work, ranging from wall-based pieces to freestanding objects. This allows viewers to see how she repeatedly experiments with the same materials, whether drinking straws, Slinkys, or rubber bands, and explores their possibilities in every direction, asking what these humble objects can be when pushed to the limits of their potential. mcadenver.org

New Mexico is in many ways a microcosm of the Americas, with its complications of borders, immigration, and the divisions and displacement that arise when those are restricted. The third iteration of SITE Santa Fe’s biennial examines these issues through the contemporary art of the Western Hemisphere, with twenty-three participants from eight countries. The work includes new commissions, such as Eric-Paul Riege’s re-creation of an ancient Diné dwelling in which the sacred art of weaving was taught, Sable Elyse Smith’s neon text and video pieces on masculinity and violence in relation to incarceration, an outdoor interactive sculpture by Eduardo Navarro, and a large-scale installation right on the façade of SITE Santa Fe by the pseudonymous artist Lutz Bacher. sitesantafe.org

For his book Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1962), Ed Ruscha photographed twenty-six gas stations between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, where he grew up. Its sleek aesthetic and methodical subject matter influenced the popular style of artists’ books, and was the start of his many publications that delve into the visual vernacular of the West, from Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) to Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965). In 2013, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired Ruscha’s archives. Archaeology and Romance is the first exhibition to feature this collection, with more than 150 objects revealing the evolution of his practice.  hrc.utexas.edu

For its first fashion exhibition, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is chronicling thirteen years of Rodarte’s playful femininity. Started in 2005 by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the American fashion house has drawn upon Vincent van Gogh paintings, Emily Dickinson, Japanese horror films, and other cultural touchstones for their works of wearable art. Through ninety complete outfits, each demonstrating the detailed craftsmanship and oft en whimsical concepts of their clothes, viewers can get an intimate perspective on these luxury looks. nmwa.org

Outside the Denver Art Museum, a gargantuan broom sweeps bits of hulking trash into an oversize dustpan. Big Sweep (2006) is one of many ordinary objects that the husband wife team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen magnified into astonishingly large sculptures. Oldenburg’s early work, such as his soft sculptures of mammoth hamburgers and cake, are now celebrated examples of modern art, and this exhibition highlights the equally vibrant collaboration between him and van Bruggen, which endured from the 1970s until her death in 2009. The survey includes thirty-nine drawings and one sculpture, demonstrating how the works on paper served as conceptual playgrounds for their monumental art. denverartmuseum.org