It's the year of the sculpture.

From the stellar private collections showcased in Wynwood to the stately gardens at Fairchild and Vizcaya, to the oceanfront, parks, and the Miami Beach Convention Center housing Art Basel, the landscape is brimming with shapely works.

But to appreciate these works, discard the traditional definitions of sculpture, although there's plenty of traditional renditions to view as well. Think of contemporary sculpture as an expansive category in which just about anything goes in a three-dimensional space. Think hybrids that pair sculpture with video, sculpture with sound, even sound as sculpture, as in the exhibit The Killing Machine & Other Stories at the Miami Art Museum and the Freedom Tower.

''The old order of public sculpture -- defined, in the most conventional and antiquated terms, by the canon in the park, the bronze equestrian statue, the decorative fountain, or the abstract monument -- has little or no relation to advanced contemporary art practices, or to the ways in which we see and attempt to understand ourselves, our various shared histories, the natural landscape, or the built, urban environment,'' warns the Art Basel Miami Beach catalog introducing this year's sculpture-centric ``Art Projects.''

Art Basel organizers tapped nine international artists to produce works that challenge the boundaries of contemporary sculpture, or are installations with a strong sculpture component. The result is a United Nations of sculpture for the public's view.

Among the works:

• Scarface by French artist Claude Lévque is a light sculpture made of iron letters reminiscent of old movie banners. The work is inspired by the 1983 Brian de Palma film by the same title made in Miami Beach. A statement on the fascination of teens with Al Pacino's refugee-to-drug-lord character, the piece was first presented in Marseilles in 2000, and comes full circle in its ''glittery object'' persona in front of The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.

• Nomade, a towering body in a crouching position, was sculpted by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa using linked letters made of stainless steel. A new work commissioned for Basel, viewers can walk inside the 26-foot sculpture, which is at Miami Beach's Lummus Park (Fifth Street and Ocean Drive), inviting meditation on the body as a metaphor for home.

• Denmark-born artist Jeppe Hein, who lives and works in Germany, brings his Modified Social Bench A-K to Miami Beach. The series of distorted benches will be dispersed throughout the Art Deco District. Don't expect to sit comfortably on Hein's benches. The artist would rather, with the twists and turns of his benches, provoke thought about the way the environment shapes behavior in social spaces.

• German Bjorn Dahlem's Traveling Snow Shovel is just what the title implies -- and in Miami Beach, the shovel sculpture will not rest in snow, of course, but will be buried in sand. The work makes reference to Marcel Duchamp's snow-shovel piece of 1918, Sculpture for Traveling. Dahlem's lonely shovel will be at Art Positions in Collins Park (between 21st and 22nd streets on the beach).

Besides the Basel exhibits, fairgoers can tour Vizcaya Gardens & Museum and view the sculpture of Miami artist Cristina Lei Rodriguez that speaks of the life cycle. At Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, the sculpture of pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein graces the grounds, while across town at MAM and the Freedom Tower, the sound sculptures and installations of Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller exhilarate the senses.

Closer to the convention center, along Washington Avenue and 17th Street in South Beach, strollers going from hotel to exhibits (and from party to party) will surely spot the bronze traveling sculptures of Spaniard Manolo Valdés, inspired by Velázquez's meninas and Matisse's abstraction, a worthy sample of traditional public sculpture.

But perhaps the best sculpture show in town is at The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Wynwood (591 NW 27 St., Miami), where most of the 45,000-square foot space has been devoted to selections of sculpture from the collection of Martin Z. Margulies.

''Sculpture has always been an important component of the collection from its beginnings in the 1970s and '60s,'' says curator Katherine Hinds. ``Since we began the collection, the field of sculpture has expanded and changed through the introduction of installation, new materials, and video installation, and it is very exciting to pull of all the work together.''

An impressive slate of 20th century pioneers -- Noguchi, de Kooning, LeWitt, Segal -- are shown alongside some of the most provocative contemporary talents. Among the younger sculptors represented are Florian Baudrexel, Peter Belyi, Siobhan Hapaska, Charles Long, Ivan Navarro and Courtney Smith.

''From a historical point of view, it's an important assemblage of work,'' Hinds says. ``These artists did revolutionary things in the field, and as a result, you are seeing also revolutionary work in the 21st century. You are seeing a lot of hybrid, sculpture and film, sculpture and video.''

Among the most stunning pieces on exhibit: The mammoth volcanic rocks by Michael Heizer titled Elevated, Surface, Depressed from 1981. Made from volcanic scoria and aluminum and weighing 40 tons, the sculpture is an awesome sight to behold. The floor of the warehouse had to be jackhammered and excavated to fit the larger rock into its aluminum pedestal.

''A Herculean task,'' Hinds says.

Similarly striking are the works of the new generation, among them the 2007 crumbling city of Russian artist Belyi, Danger Zone, which he created on-site, and Paraparquetry a sculpture that looks like the model of a city by the Paris-born American Smith, who sculpted the multilevel, multicolored parquet floor from 1,200 pieces of wood she scavenged during weekend visits to her mother in Connecticut.

A sample of hybrid in new sculpture is the poetic purple neon wheel barrel, Flash Light: I am Not From Here, I am From There, by Ivan Navarro, a Chilean who lives in New York.

Navarro's sculpture, which speaks of fear and violence, is set against a video clip of the artist lugging the wheelbarrow down a railway, as poetic lines flash across the screen and a mournful song blares from speakers.

''Being happy,'' the song goes, ``is my color.''

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