Fair Well: Miami 101 (Part 2)

Untitled and Miami Project

Previous Miami posts

Is Anybody Happy 

C'est What? 

Miami 101 (Part 1): Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Miami, Aqua Art 

Approaching Untitled from Ocean Drive

 

This was the second year for Untitled, a splendid upstart located in a tent on South Beach. Planted as it is so close to the water’s edge there's potential for disaster, but on a clear day it’s as close to heaven as you can get. From the Art Deco stretch on Ocean Drive, it’s a short walk on metal mesh pathways into the tent. Feeling “faired out”? Go sit in the café and take in the view through the enormous windows. Better still, walk out onto the deck for a 180-degree view of sky, sea and sand.

 From the fair's promotional materials: an aerial view of the tent

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 Entering the tent: Cordy Ryman construction, one of the fair's 12 "Projects." Ryman was presented by Dodge Gallery, New York City, which represents him

Untitled is a curated fair. Unlike other fairs where galleries apply, independent curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud was hired to develop a curatorial vision for this fair. He not only invited selected fairs but worked with the gallery directors to select specific artists from within each gallery’s program. The result is an event with diverse offerings but a strong sense of materiality that combines the provisional character of the Lower East Side galleries, the relaxed atmosphere of Aqua, and the elegance of the big venues discussed in the previous post.
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I liked it from the moment I walked in last year, and I was not disappointed this time around. Chahoud selected 100 galleries from numerous countries, and he also placed 12 solo projects throughout the fair. Although conventional painting is in shorter supply here, there was enough for me to feel visually satisfied—and certainly invigorated by the rest of what I saw.

Above and below: views of the fair

The round piece in the center of the wall, by Kathleen Kucka at Gallery Geran Mayeh, New York City, is too good to not post a detail:

How many tents have this kind of view?

Below: View from the deck

If ABMB and Art Miami are can be characterized by high heels and expensive Italian shoes, then Untitled has a distinctly different sartorial standard

 Above: the artist and gallerist Jennifer Dalton from Auxiliary Projects
Below: Ed Winkleman and Jay Grimm sitting in the Winkleman Gallery booth (more on the work from both galleries coming)

Heels, but not corporate. These fabulous feet belong to Cindy Rucker, owner of the gallery that bears her name. Oh, to have a picture of the rest of her! I don't, but I can offer you the next best thing: a shot of her booth, below

At Cindy Rucker Gallery, New York City: Adrian Esparza construction, made from threads taken from a serape, the artist's cultural touchstone

Detail below

At Blackston Gallery, New York City: Rachel Beach sculptures

Opposite view detail, below

At Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery, Miami: Matthew Deleget deconstructed paintings

At Vigo Gallery, London: Ayan Farah paintings

Installation view below

At  Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York City: Kirsten Nelson sculptures

Closeup of one below

At Site Lab, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Alois Kronschlaeger's vertiginous grid

Below: the sculpture cuts through the  tent's sprung floor to anchor into the sand

The open booth at Auxiliary Projects, Brooklyn

Below: Arielle Falk's installation, Breathe in, with fans that don't blow air, and 3-D-printed plants that don't produce oxygen

At Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles: Margie Livingston sculptures, above and below, made from layers of acrylic paint. I'll show you more when I get to the Painting post

At Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York City: Julie Schenkelberg sculpture

At Winkleman Gallery, New York City: Leslie Thornton videos in which the artist pairs a video with a kaleidoscope version of the same image. (I'm not a video watcher, but I watched these!)

Above: Too matchy matchy? I couldn't resist shooting Murat Orozobekov, gallery partner and cofounder of The Moving Image fair, in front of Thornton's flamingo video

At last, painting! I'll show you more in the Painting post, coming next week

Above: Melissa Brown at Fred Giampietro, New Haven

Claire Sherman, DC Moore Gallery, New York City

 Richard Hull at Western Exhibitions, Chicago

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Miami Project

Moving now to another tent, this time in Wynwood, we come to Miami Project. This is the second year for this fair, too. And like Untitled, it’s one of my favorites. Many galleries that formerly exhibited in Pulse have resettled here, where the light is brighter—thanks to the white tent roof—and the aisles wider.
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“The fair organizers could easily have crammed more booths into the space here, but they didn’t,” said one appreciative gallerist. Dealers who were not showing this year were out reconnoitering, and this was the fair they all seemed to like the best, so let’s hope that the space will not be compromised with the addition of more booths next year. (Still there’s a dance. While some dealers are stepping up from Pulse—as many did this year— others are likely to make the step up to ABMB next year.) 

Views, above and below, into Miami Project showing comfortable seating, bright light and wide aisles

Installation at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York City 

Too matchy matchy? The ever-stylish Zoubok seems to have coordinated with Charles McGill's assemblage of reconstructed golf bag parts

Fair view with DC Moore booth in center (yes, the gallery had booths at both Untitled and here)

Below: Barbara Takenaga paintings. Her work is also on the outside wall of the booth, shown above center

Also at DC Moore, which I fully expect to see at ABMB next year: Joyce Kosloff

Detail of painting,  below

At Thatcher Projects, New York City: Matthias van Arkel,  Bill Thompson, Robert Sagerman, Nan Swid

At Eli Ridgeway Contemporary, San Francisco: Amy Ellingson

Works on paper and paintings in this fabulous solo installation of small works on paper and large-scale paintings

Another fair view, here into the booth of Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston

Booth view of Loretta Howard Gallery, New York City, with painings by Friedel Dzubas, Cleve Gray and Norman Bluhm

These are the fair views I live for: Paintings in what could be museum installations

In distance, David Row and Darby Bannard at Loretta Howard Gallery; Paul Feeley at Garth Greenan Gallery, New York City

Below: Another Feeley with a view to Row and Bannard

At Lesley Heller Workspace, New York City: Sara Sosnowy painting and Ken Buhler watercolor

Love this installation at Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, with Marlon Mullen and others

At Eric Firestone Gallery, Easthampton, New York: Mia Fonssagrives-Solow. Would it surprise you to know she was a jewelry designer before turning to sculpture? 

In the next post I'll have  overview pics from Pulse and NADA 

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