Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009. Art Miami

Fair and Fair Alike coverage so far:

. Red Dot

. NADA

. Scope

. Aqua Art

. Pulse

. The Big One, Art Basel Miami Beach

. An Overview Before the Individual Fairs

. Art Bloggers at Art Miami

. Are We Out of the Woods?

. A Little Gossip

. Art? Or Not Art?

. Nosing Around

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Pulling up to the fair first thing in the morning

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Art Miami is the other big fair in town, and so I’ve saved it for the end as a kind of bookend to ABMB. While the new kid from Basel may have put the Miami fair scene on the map, Art Miami is the hometown favorite, an event of 20 years’ standing. Formerly a January event at the Convention Center, it relocated to Wynwood and rescheduled itself a few years ago to be part of what fellow blogger C-Monster calls "The Basel Frazzle." That sense of transition and permanence is manifest by the new venue, which features a tent over a poured concrete floor.
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I spent the entire day at Art Miami on Saturday. After the Blogger Panel ended at 1:00, I had lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon taking in the fair. That’s what was needed, too, because the venue held close to 100 exhibitors.
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Following is a selection of what I saw and liked--or simply found curious. One of the things I look forward to at this fair are the Latin American galleries with their inventory of classic geometric abstraction. I was not disappointed. Here’s an overview.
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View from the mezzanine, which houses the VIP lounge. (Admission: I pulled this from press materials. I never did get around to taking my own shot from this vantage point)

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Blue chip at Scott White Contemporary, San Diego:

Norman Bluhm in the foreground; Yves Klein in the middle distance (and below); and is that a Leger on the far wall?

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When the rain came down in thundering torrents againt the tent's roof in midafternoon, I wondered how all the museum-quality stuff would fair. Fine, it turns out.
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Below, Yves Klein, La Venus d'Alexandrie (Venus Bleue), 1962; pigment, synthetic resin on plaster, ed. 174 of 300. Right, Tim Bavington paintings

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Love this! Thomas Downing, 1962, magna on canvas, Gary Snyder Project Space, New York
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Foreground, Harald Schmitz-Smelzer, Diskos 8, resin on plywood; undulating sculpture by Herbert Mehler; both at Lausberg Contemporary, Toronto and Dusseldorf
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Anna Joelsdottir painting, acrylic, ink and colored pencil on panel; at Stefan Stux, New York
And that's the dealer looking all Miami-ish in the white linen suit
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Karin Davie oil on linen; at Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm
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A ubiquitous presence at the two big fairs: Gunter Forg. Here, Untitled, acrylic and oil on canvas; at Zane Bennett Contemporary, Santa Fe
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Little geometries: Charles Arnoldi paintings, oil on aluminum; at Eckert Fine Art, Kent, Connecticut
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Richard Purdy geometry, encaustic on panel, app 59 x 37; at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
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Greely Myatt geometry, reminscent of a quilt but pieced from aluminum signs; at David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
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A quirky use of materials continues with Duncan Johnson's pieced construction of repurposed wood. What you can't see: a fine surface grid of pencil lines and nail heads; at David Findlay Gallery, New York.
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Two spatial geometries:
Above, Sarah Amos, Meandering Deviation, etching on paper on panel; at Cynthia Reeves, New York
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Below, Will Insley, Hinge Space, Fragment No. 93.11, acrylic and pencil on masonite, 80 x 80 inches; at Westwood Gallery, New York
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Paintings by John Griefen and Tad Wiley, respectively, at Gary Snyder Project Space, New York
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Another ubiquitous fair presence: Yayoi Kusama. Here at Piece Unique, Paris
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Joe Fyfe, I Primi, various fabrics; at James Graham, New York

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Also at Graham: Mary McConnell, ink and mixed media on Japanese paper

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Closer view, below

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Cherubic and creepy: Jose Cobo, Galeria Ferran Cano, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona
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Curious: Reena Saini Kallat, Synonym F, portrait made from acrylic on rubber stamps

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Back view, below
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Latin American abstraction: It wouldn't be Art Miami if there weren't a good selection. And it wouldn't be a good selection if Jesus Rafael Soto were not represented
Here, a selection of Soto at Art Nouveau Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela
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Cesar Paternosto paintings at Durban Segnini Gallery, Miami

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Below, a curious Soto; also at Durban Segnini

(More curious: another gallery had one just like it)

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Think I was kidding about the trees? Here are a few more, photographs this time:

Above and below, Shai Kremer, Shooting Defense Wall, Jerusalem, C-print; at Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco

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Detail, below
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Robert Voit, views of South Africa, Great Britain, Italy; at Amador Gallery, New York
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Doug and Mike Starn, Structure of Thought, inkjet print on mulbery paper with wax and encaustic; at HackelBury Fine Art, London
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Leslie Holt's fabulous little "forgeries" at David Lusk Gallery, Memphis.

They're a taste of what's to come in the next post

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Next up: The Pretenders