Fair Game: Miami Wrapup

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The posts:

What to Wear to an Art Fair
Miami Overview
Domestic Affairs
Painting in the Big Box
More Painting at More Fairs
Small Works in a Big Week
Brains: Who Knew?
The Stuff of Sculpture
Blogger Walk-Through of Art Miami 


This post ends my coverage of the Miami arts fairs for this year. The Wrapup is an opportunity to bring together all of the loose ends from Miami. And by "loose ends" I mean the stuff I found amusing, perplexing, unusual, or just plain gross.

1. Best Unintended Relationship Between Art and Fashion

 

Would you believe red lace?

MB: Blake Rayne, Untitled, 2010, 78 x 51 inches

 

Unidentified gallerist

 . . . . .
 

2. What Do These Fairgoers Have in Common?
 

 

 The shaved heads, of course.

Seeing a Buddhist monk at ABMB was a first for me. However my visit would not have been complete without a sighting of the gender-ambiguous Eva and Adele. (A disappointing note: They were staying at the same dump of a hotel as I was. So much for the glamour.)

 

 . . . . .  

 

3. Sorry, I can't hear you. I have wax in my ear

Bees, too. And bits of honeycomb. They're all in there. This is the kind of art fair surprise I live for.

Context: Catherine Jacobi, Hive, at Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago

 

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4. Home Improvement

 

I entered ABMB the moment it opened  to the press on Wednesday, so when I saw the first ladder I just thought the gallery wasn't quite ready for its closeup. Then I saw another. Thinking about the fashion dictum, " Two of anything is a coincidence. Three's a trend," I doubled back to the first booth. The ladder was still there. I'd call it a curious coincidence.

 

 ABMB: Jose Maria Sicilia at unidentified gallery

 

ABMB: Bjorn Braun, Blauenberg, 2012, at Meyer Riegger Galerie, Berlin

 

. . . . .

 

5.  Foot Fetishes

 

When I saw the hanging legs with the chewed-off toes, the infamous New York Post headline popped into mind, "Headless Body in Topless Bar." I wondered what could, er, top it. Then I saw the dominatrix boots made out of concrete.

 

ABMB: Jim Shaw, Dream Object (Hanging legs made our of fiberglass with toes bittewn odd to demonstrate effect of snimal traps) at Metro Pictures, New York City

 

Below, also at ABMB: Sarah Lucas, Beefcocktitbuster, 2012

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7. Orchids? Spiders?

On closer inspection, these hothouse flowers were in fact deconstructed high heels. Rumor has it that Manolo Blahnik saw them and had to be carried out on a stretcher.

 

Context: Kaarina Kaikkonen, The Queen of the Night, 2012, at Galleria Sara Zanin, Rome

 

 

. . . . .

 

8. Domestic Geometry

 

 After the exploding shoes, the totemic table didn't surprise me. But it did suggest a conceptual pairing with the totemic roasting pans, which I love and which you can see more of here and below.

 

NADA: James Hoff at Callicoon Fine Arts, New York City

 

ABMB: B. Wurtz at Metro Pictures, New York City

Installation vie below 

 

 . . . . .

 

9. Three Chefs Contemplating a Giant Cube

 

Nothing snarky here. I just liked the fact that three guys involved in ABMB's food prep would stop to ponder this marble sculpture. Nice to know that (waaaay) overpriced lunch is not the only thing on their minds

 

Ai Wei Wei (I think) at Lisson Gallery (I think)

 

. . . . .

 

10. What's With the Eyes?

 

I wouldn't call this a trend in the same way that brains seem to be, but there were a surprising number of eyes on the fairgoers--and that's not counting the security cameras.

ABMB: Marc Quinn, The Eye of History (Atlanticv Perspective) Ice Age 1, 2012, at White Cube, London

ABMB: Gavin Turk, Nazcar Boncugu, 2012 at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

 

Installation view above

Aqua Art: Artist unidentified at Systema Gallery, Osaka

 

Art Miami: Ruben Maya at unidentified gallery

 

Installation below

 . . . . .

 

11. Art or Not Art?

 

How many times can I show you a trash bag and ask the question? I suppose as many times as there's a trashbag to shoot.  So: Art or not art?

 

 

Art: Gavin Turk, Refuse, 2012, painted bronze, edition 2/8, at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

 

 

OK, here's another one: Portapotty or sculpture?

 

 

So, yes, it's art. Convincing, eh? So convincing, in fact, that I heard

someone had used it.

 

 

 

One more: Art or Not Art? You're gonna have to post your guess in the Comment section

 

. . . . .

 

12.  Ego Trips

No, Dorothy, youre not at the Armory Show, where the message writ large in pink neon was Scandinavian Pain. This is Miami, home of big egos, big bucks, big breasts, and all things young, tight and lifted, where the messages were appropriately supersized.

ABMB: Jack Pierson at Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago and New York

 

ABMB: Barbara Kruger at Mary Book Gallery, New York City

 

ABMB: Cosima Von Bonin, Petzel Gallery, New York City

 . . . . .
 

13. Last Word

 

Or vice versa
Photo: E. Linda Poras, near ABMB


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