FAIR FACTOR: Pulse

View of Pulse from the entrance lot, where sculptures by Chris Larson and Jurgen Mayer were installed

While Collins Avenue was thronged with people strolling from hotel fair to hotel fair, the Wynwood section of Miami was clogged with cabs taking people from venue to venue. Everything here is big. Big—as in a lot to see. Big, as in spacious. Big, as in ideas.

This year, Pulse moved into a warehouse building, so the floors were solid (unlike previous years when the plywood flooring made you feel as if you were on the high seas) and there was plenty of AC. Aside from my usual search for geometric expression in painting, there was no theme to what interested me, just a lot of diverse work and ideas. Here’s some of what I liked:

At Jack Shainman Gallery, New York: painting by Odili Donald Odita

At Davidson Contemporary, New York: an installation of Paul Dacey's painted discs

At Charles Cowles, New York: four geometries by Roberto Juarez and a large acrylic on canvas work by William T. Wiley

At Galerie Kleindeinst, Liepzig: Tobias Lehner painting

An ambitious (and gorgeous) large-scale work on paper by Nina Bovasso at BravinLee Programs, New York

At Jack Shainman again, the most material of abstractions: Leslie Wayne, center, with a detail below

More materiality, above and below: Leonardo Drew at (I think) Finesilver, Houston

Winkleman Gallery, New York, in black and white. The gallery got primo position right by entry, and while I thought the stark installation was smart, I didn't realize just how smart until I was on my way out, my eyes athrob with color. There's always room for more B&W

Work by Andy Yoder, David Kinast and Sarah Peters, above; by Peters, Yevgeniy Fiks and Carlos Motta, below

I got to the gallery after the big run on Jennifer Dalton’s bracelet giveaway. A plexi bin contained plastic bands printed with one of two options: I’d Rather Be Hot Than Rich, in white lettering on black, and I’d Rather be Rich Than Hot, in black on white. ) Dalton is a provocateur in the best way: she makes you laugh and then her message hits you over the head. I’d been in the New York gallery the week before, and Ed Winkleman offered me a choice of bands. I pondered, but only briefly. I Rather Be Rich Than Hot. For an artist rich means owning your own loft, a country house, the money to buy your friends’ art. And health insurance. Health insurance is hot!

"This went down pretty much along gender lines. The men chose rich, the women chose hot," said Ed. (I might not have the exact quote, but that was the gist.) I transgressed. But I wonder the age of the female choosers. When you reach a certain age, you know that hot gets you only so far. Rich is having your independence.

For an image of the bin and plenty of discussion about the hot vs rich issue, click onto Ed's blog.

At Schroeder Romero, New York, a chandelier by Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope, Blood, Money and Tears. I'd seen it in New York a few months earlier, but here the high ceilings and black backdrop offered a grander scale. Look up close and it's made from syringes and pills, illuminating, presumably, our culture's dependence on illegal substances--and probably the legal ones as well

Below, Lisa Schroeder and Sara Jo Romero

At the PPOW booth, another sculpture I'd seen in New York a few months earlier. As with the chandelier, the open fourth wall created high drama. Work is by Bill Smith. Detail below:

Installation at Thatcher Projects, New York: Robert Sagerman painting, left wall; three framed works on paper by Frank Badur; Marcus Linnenbrink sculpture on floor

Below, another corner of the Thatcher Projects booth: Bill Thompson shaped sculptures and Richard Thatcher grid on back wall; cut paper work by Adam Fowler, and colored grid by Carlos Estrada Vega

Sculptor as editor? Richard Thatcher with new works in which issues of Artforum are sandwiched between sheets of stainless cut to reveal only portions of the cover

.Two works below:

Installation at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York: Donna Sharratt, one of my favorites, has three mixed-media mandalas, including one on a denim ground in the diamond-shape frame; new to me were the adjacent three collage paintings by Davie Poppie

At Postmasters, New York, a video showed an ocean liner perilously

adrift on the high seas. But wait. A little camera, circling the ship model installed in the center of the gallery, was in fact projecting the nausea-inducing image as it bobbed on its track

I thought this was one of those fuzzy bunny installations until I got up closer. Dresses for two heads? Mutant pets? In fact it's a political statement, see text below, courtesty Dinh Q. Le and the Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monics. In Miami! And you thought pink was the new orange. . .

I'd seen this sculpture at the Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco in November and paid it no mind. Here it looked great. So I guess the old real estate axiom applies to art at fairs: It's all about location, location, location.

Clementine by Joana Vasconcelos, crochet over painted and glazed faience

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A perfect pair: Anders Krispar torso at Union Gallery, London, and Ray Beldner shirt embedded in beeswax at Catharine Clark, San Francisco

Twin picks: At at Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt: the gallerists perfectly coordinated with the painting