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12.08.2008

FAIR WEATHER: Prologue

Miami Art Fairs, Art Basel Miami, Aqua, Art Miami, Bridge, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, Rubell Collection

This is the fourth year I’m writing about what has become a cultural phenomenon in December: the art fairs in Miami. Unlike some bloggers who began posting in real time, I’m taking a more circumspect approach. Over the next couple of weeks I'll post every few days. As I go through some 2200 images (thoroughness: a blessing and a curse), I'm still deciding whether to do it by venue, as I have in the past, or thematically, which will connect the dots between fairs. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, a little taste follows. As you can see, the dealers offered up a jumble of stuff:


The sublime: Louise Bourgeois at Hauser & Wirth, Art Basel

The ridiculous: Not sure who, what or where from , but when these suits were not inhabited by artists giving gorilla hugs to fairgoers at Art Basel, they sat slumped against a wall






The cinematic: Mickalene Thomas at the Rubell Family Collection's exhibition, 30 Americans

The cartoonish: Richard Jackson at Hauser & Wirth, Art Basel. I'll leave it to you to decide whether what was going on was a transfusion or an enema; in either instance the paint went in and then it came out





The seductively simple: Rachel Whiteread's luminous cast resin boxes at Luhring Augustine, Art Basel

The eye-bendingly complex: Ignacio Uriarte at Noqueros Blanchard, in Art Basel's Supernova section



Abstract and geometric: Frederick Hammersley and William Metcalf (with Jeremy Thomas sculpture) at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Art Miami

Abstract and lyrical: Helen Frankenthaler at Ameringer & Yohe, Art Basel





The expansive installation: Danese Gallery, at Art Miami

The tight quarters: David Castillo Gallery, at the Containers

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The quirky: Laubert at Space, at Pulse

The grotesque: Berlinde De Bruyckere at Yvon Lambert, at Art Basel (relax, it's wax)




Video in the park: The evening entertainment in Collins Park

Video in the closet: Kelly Mark's installation, The Kiss, in a teeny tiny space at Platform Gallery, Aqua Art



Recycling the mattress: Lucia Fabio and Robert Andrew Mueller at Accomplice Projects, Bridge Wynwood

Recycling the carpet: Rodney McMillian at the Rubell Family Collection's 30 Americans. (I bet the Rubells will look at this piece one day and say to themselves, "What were we thinking." ) Hey, it matches the floor




If you’re impatient to see what’s been written about the fairs, link to Art Info, The Art Newspaper, The New York Times, and the Miami Herald. Or click onto the New York-based blog Art Fag City, where Paddy Johnson provides the quirkiest reporting around.

Among these publications you’ll learn everything from who bought a three-ton bell with no clapper and for how much ($200,000); when Marilyn Manson paints (at three in the morning); who those two bald ambiguously sexual persons in pink are (Eva and Adele); who described Art Basel Miami Beach as having “the ambience of a sample sale” (Ken Johnson inThe New York Times) and why fairgoers are walking all over Barbara Kruger’s work (it’s a floor installation).

More soon.

4 comments:

Nomi Lubin said...

Wow, that carpet gives me an idea. I'm about to get rid of a rug because it's so dirty. I was going to use it on my studio floor. Now I'm thinking maybe it's not dirty enough! A bit more and I can hang it on the wall, maybe dirt it up some more, and call it art. Yay!

Nomi Lubin said...

I dig those kissing TVs.

Nomi Lubin said...

OK. Sorry for triple post. But I looked again at the carpet, and actually that rectangle within it is kind of appealing. I have the feeling, though, that the visceralness of it all would overwhelm the delicate geometry in life. Hm.

Anonymous said...

And I thought the carpet in my boyfriends living room was just ugly. Now I see that it's art.