Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009. The Wrap-up Awards!

This post ends my coverage of Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009

. Reused, Recycled, Repurposed, and Just Plain Crafty

. Pulling a Thread

. Blanc et Noir

. Working the Angles

. A Little Peek at the Geometry of the Next Post

. Five Woven Grids

. House and Home

. Bourgeois, Benglis, Wilke

. Mano a Mano

. The Pretenders

. Art Miami

. 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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So how do you wrap up 22 posts about 11 fairs--plus a private collection and a guerrilla event-- representing some 1000 galleries and well over 10,000 artists? With an Awards post, of course. Here are my 20 picks:

1. Oddest Premise for an Artwork: The Picasso Sandwich

Tibi Tibi Neuspiel's toast of cast and painted wax, Narwhal Art Projects, Toronto; at Aqua

It's worth noting that "Picasso sandwich" for the Spanish painter would likely have been him pressed between his wife and his mistress

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2. Most Outrageous Premise for a Miami Art Event: Art Burn

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The Wynwood guerilla grill-a-thon presided over by El Celso in the parking lot of Las Tias resale store. There were marshmallows to toast, but given the black smoke coming from some of those art materials, uh, none for me, thanks. And, really, what's more fun than warming yourself by the fire when it's 85 degrees? I think we were all surprised that the varnished frames didn't blow up and that the fire department didn't show up. A good time was had by all. Really.
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3. Oddest Juxtaposition of Art and Venue: NADA

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Those chandeliers in the ballroom of the Deauville Hotel are too imposing for irony, too chichi for elegance--a style of decor my late Italian-American father would have called "neo-greaseball." .

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4. Most All-over Coverage of an Allotted Exhibition Space

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Minimalism be damned.
A tie between the booth at Claudie Groeflin Gallerie at NADA, above, and the booth at Fountain, below
Extra points for the Groeflin Gallerie staff shown here for ignoring everyone who entered their booth
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5. The Tony Manero Award for Best Use of a Disco Shirt Pattern
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And I mean that sincerely. I dig this painting by Geoffrey Todd Smith, at Western Exhibitions, Chicago. Bonus points for the way the carpet matches, um, the drapes.

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6. Best-Ever Use of Castoffs
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Portia Munson's green vitrine at PPOW, Pulse.

Beats a shark in a tank any day
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With special mention to:
Ulla von Brandenberg, left; at Pilar Corrias, London; and Cordy Ryman, DCKT, New York
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And hosannas to the international master, El Anatsui, below, at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; at ABMB

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7. Creepiest Painting
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And it's a tie!

Alison Schulnick at Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, left; and artist unknown, at Charlie Smith Gallery, London; both at Pulse

But, hey, you be the judge. Which do you think deserves top honors?
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8. Creepiest Coincidence
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Above, Maria Jose Arjona, Affirmations, at Galerie Anita Beckers; Pulse

It hurt just to look at her. The artist was standing on six glasses, each half filled with water and goldfish. Someone reported that she had been standing on blocks of ice with screws embedded in them, and that as the ice melted the screws dug into the soles of her feet. Now that's positively Opus Dei--and would certainly have made her the clear winner in Marina Abramovic Endurance category
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Below, Maurizio Cattelan, La Rivoluzione Siamo Noi (We Are the Revolution), at the Rubell Collection show, Beg, Borrow and Steal.

That's the diminutive artist hanging by his jacket. Well, it's not actually him. But you knew that

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9. Best Coincidence

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Holey, golden and undulating: There's probably an S&M act for that description, but I'm referring to the works here; both at NADA

.Above, Ricardo Rendon's perforated felt sculpture at Mitterand + Sanz, Zurich

Below, Hilary Berseth's engineered beehive at Eleven Rivington, New York

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10. The Artwork Most Likely to Induce Seizure

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Don't scroll too fast: Your retinas could detach!

Detail above of the painting by Philip Taaffe, at the Rubell's Beg, Borrow and Steal
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Full view, below

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Special mention to Garth Weiser, Flying J, left, also at the Rubell Collection; and Caetano de Almeida, Distrito 4, Madrid

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11. The Barilla-Buitoni Award for Most Unexpected Use of a Pasta Accessory

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Haim Steinbach, Untitled, gallery unknown, at ABMB
(Hey, I have a red one, too. But my untitled is bigger than his untitled.)
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12. Most Gruesomely Creepy

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. There's no blood, and the artist is a master with the use of wax, but this is one creepily cadaverous object, views above and below

Berlinde de Brucyker, at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano

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13. Most Poignantly Unironic
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. Unless the batteries on my bullshit detector are dead, this was a touching and honest sentiment in a booth that was otherwise full of amusing illuminated puns and one-liners, at the Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles; NADA
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14. Best Unintentional Review of a Show by an Artwork in It
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.Adam McEwen at the Rubell Collection's, Beg, Borrow and Steal
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Well, I was not not very disappointed,
but I wasn't bowled over by the show, whose theme was appropriated and reused materials.

The concept was spot on, though, as the current that ran through all the fairs, and I've included images of some of the works in several posts, including here. I do appeciate the generosity of Mera and Don Rubell, who opened their doors to the public (for free)
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15. The I'll-Have-15,000-Cups-and-a-Very-Large-Pot-of-Hot-Water-Please Award
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. One of the works I did love at the Rubell collection was Ai Wei Wei's minimalist block...of tea
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16. Best Reason for Going to Verge














Young artist Zach Storm was in residence, drawing his first-time impressions of the fair, at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston. "In residence" means he was not only working there; he was sleeping there at night
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17. The Build-Me-Up-Tear-Me-Down Award
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Build me up: Maximo Gonzalez, at Galeria Valle Orti, Valencia, Spain; at Pulse .
Tear me down: Twenty Twenty, Miami; at NADA
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Are these really award-worthy installations? Not really, but their odd symmetry deserves visual mention

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18. The OMG Award for the Most Fabulously Obsessive Use of an X-Acto

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.I. Love. It.

Jill Sylvia's handcut ledger paper, at Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco; at Aqua

I'm guessing Ponzi schemer Madoff might have considered something similar for his own books

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Detail below

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19. Joan Mitchell Memorial Plaque for the Best Use of Paint to Cover Graffiti on an Exterior Urban Wall

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How fabulous is this? I photographed it just off of N. Miami Avenue as I was walking from Scope to Artburn
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20. Most Likely to Have Been Thrown Out By the Janitors
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An unheard-of four-way tie! All at ABMB
If Joseph Beuys's Fettecke, five pounds of butter applied to a wall, could have been thrown out by an overzealous janitor in 1980s Dusseldorf, it's entirely possible that these trasheriffic pieces could have met the same fate
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Above, Pablo Cabrita Reis, Door as Table as Door, vise and found door; at Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris

Below, Ruben Ochoa palettes, at Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles

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.Wait: There's more!

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Above, Rivane Neuschwander, Involuntary Sculptures, a mixed-media collection of objects made by diffrent people during conversations; at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
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Below, Ryan Gander,
Remnants of Theo and Piet's fall from 1924, through the Avery Coonley playhouse window, during the struggle brought on by an argument over the dynamic aspect of the diagonal line, into this white room, 2009, at Lisson Gallery, London
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Apparently the work crumbled under the weight of its title
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That's it from Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009. And now I'm going to take the rest of the year off.