Facundo Yebne only started creating art in 2024. But the openly gay Miami-based artist has already made an impact. Since taking up art, he’s created two large public installations in the heart of Miami Beach’s gaybourhood, Lincoln Road. In October 2025, he won fourth prize for installation art at the Florence Biennale in Italy. Not bad for a beginner attending an international art exhibition for the first time, submitting a work that he created during the exhibition itself.
Yebne moved to Miami from his birth country of Argentina in 2007 with just a suitcase and his Frenchie, Machito. By 2011, he had founded the business Design Suites Miami, which managed more than 500 condos as short-term hotel-style rentals. Facing burnout, he sold that business in 2021, a decision that gave him time to ponder becoming an artist.
His medium? Rubber ducks. His two Lincoln Road pieces are exemplary. UnityBeak is composed of two huge rubber ducks, constructed of thousands of smaller rubber ducks, who seem to be going in for a kiss. Proud Love is an eight-foot-tall rainbow heart, also made of smaller rubber ducks.
Wander+Lust talked to the rubber duck artist about his playful art practice, living in Miami and his favourite trips.
How did the Florence Biennale go for you? I guess you had to bring thousands of rubber ducks across the Atlantic with you?
Actually, the luggage that I had with all the ducks got lost. Although they did find them after five days, for a while it looked like they weren’t going to, and I ordered them again. So I had a million ducks in Florence.
So what are you going to do with them?
I found a couple of galleries where I can leave them. I’m coordinating a show in December in Sicily, so it’s good for me to have stuff here I can use when I come back.
How did you end up in Florence in the first place?
I started creating art in 2024 and very quickly, I found the ducks or they found me. We created a bond. I started to make things, gifts to give to friends and so on. At one point, a friend suggested I apply to Art Basel Miami. I applied to several shows and they accepted me in all of them. Then I took a booth at another art fair, Red Dot Miami. I had only one piece when they told me I was in that exhibition, so then I did 23 pieces in two months. That’s when I realized the emotional connection people had with rubber ducks. During that show the people from the Florence Biennale saw my work and invited me. In the meantime, in February 2025, Miami Beach commissioned the two works for Lincoln Road, to have them installed before Miami Beach Pride in April. When we were installing those ducks, we had rain one day that flooded the place where we were working and the ducks were floating everywhere.
Why rubber ducks? Did you play with them as a child?
Not as a kid. But four years ago, I went to Chatham in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Walking in this little town, I saw the first rubber duck store I’d seen in my life, Ducks in the Window (507 Main St., Chatham). I couldn’t believe all the different types of ducks they had. I started collecting them, buying them when I travel. Everybody has fond memories of rubber ducks from when they were kids. It always brings a happy memory, takes them to a happy place. During my show in Red Dot last year, people I didn’t know came to talk to me about their memories, about their childhood.
The message of your art is unity, love, inclusivity, joy. How does that message resonate these days?
When they first commissioned me for Lincoln Road, they wanted the heart, which I did, but the second installation was supposed to be a family. Because of the political situation we are living in, they replaced the family with UnityBeak, the two ducks facing each other, which is about how many small parts working together for a common goal makes us stronger. In the gay community, we build a really strong base for this. It’s horrible that they ripped up the Miami Beach rainbow crosswalk. I’m on a LGBTQ2S+ advisory board for the city of Miami Beach and when it started happening, we had the idea that we could make a sculpture of the bricks they were removing. But it was in vain. So I’m hoping my installations will bring more happiness and inclusivity.
You’ve lived in Miami since 2007. How has it changed in that time?
Just after I moved to Miami, there was the economic crash in 2008. It was very disruptive. A lot of people from all over the world moved to Miami, real estate prices increased. You had wealthy rich people moving into luxurious buildings, but you also had a lot of people coming to party. What I love about Miami is the weather, the people. I’ve made a lot of friends. You have a community vibe here. Something you don’t see in Argentina is the fundraising they do here, with people donating time and money to charities and other causes. I admire Miami for that.
What are your favourite places to go out in Miami?
I don’t really go out. Well, my favourite party is the Winter Party (February 26 to March 2, 2026). I love that most of the events are on the beach. You are right by the water and you can see the cruise ships coming in and going out of port. Being near the ocean helps me relax and have fun.
How often do you go back to Argentina?
I used to go eight times a year. These past two years I’ve just gone once or twice. Becoming an artist has changed my travel patterns. I’m investing time in creating and I still have responsibilities, businesses to run.
What’s your favourite destination?
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. I love the beach, the vibe, the people. I’m a fun and positive person, and in Rio, people are always having fun and enjoying life. It’s one of the few places where I can go and disconnect. I like to spend time at the gay beach at Posto 9 in Ipanema. (Read our insider’s guide to the best of LGBTQ+ Rio here.) It’s very different from Miami, which is more of a quiet place, beach-wise. In Rio you have vendors selling food and drinks. You can rent chairs and umbrellas, and they’ll bring food and drinks to you, so you don’t have to worry about bringing anything. Everybody is working out or running, which makes it sexier and sweatier.
What’s your preferred mode of travel? By yourself? As a duo? With a group of friends?
Lately it’s been more of my own, but I usually like to travel with a partner or companion. It’s easier.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
