Fair Well: Miami 101 (Part 3)

NADA

Previous Miami posts

Is Anybody Happy?

C'est What? 

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

Miami 101 (Part 2): Untitled and Miami Project

Booth installation of Feature Inc., New York City: Cary Smith paintings on outer wall; David Deutch and Todd Chilton inside (more in subsequent images)

I wasn’t always enamored of the NADA fair. For the years when it was at the Ice Palace in downtown Miami, I felt NADA lived up to its name, as in zilch, zero, nada, nothing-to-see-here-folks. Then it relocated, inexplicably, to the ballrooms in the glitzy Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach and something changed. Was it the fair? Was it me? I don’t know, but I now love this fair.  

Its aesthetic, at least in the past few years, is provisional, casualist, quirky—very Lower East Side, even among galleries that come from as far away as Japan. A material sensibility is strong; the art here is made from stuff, and a strong sense of how it’s made is visible. Though the art at NADA may occasionally appear cobbled together, there were also galleries showing sophisticated work, like Feature. There was not much in the way of figurative painting or new media.

Inside the Feature booth: David Deutsch, above; Todd Chilton, below

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As much as possible I’ve tried to show you booth installations as well as the work. One thing I want to mention is that many booths did not have identification cards with the artist's name, true not just here at NADA but throughout the fairs. While I understand the motive--the dealer wants to engage the viewer--it makes reporting infinitely harder. If the dealer was busy with a collector and/or I was on the move, there was no conversation for me. Add to that the lack of a catalog at most venues (or at an untenable cost--ABMB, for instance, charging $70 for its tome), the only ways to get the needed information were to call the gallery (not possible when I'm writing at night) or on the gallery's website.  Sometimes I didn't post an image of work I loved because I just couldn't find the information about it.

At Joe Scheftel, New York City: High visual drama with an Adam Henry painting and drawings by Judith Braun

Installation detail below

Individual work and detail, below, by Braun

Braun, you may remember, had a brief tenure on Bravo's Work of Art. She didn't make it to the end, but she is the one with the New York gallery and a presence in Miami. So there.

Another individual work by Braun, with detail below. All are graphite on paper

Installation views at Laurel Gitlen Gallery, New York City

Detail below, possibly by Edgardo Aragon

At Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt: Lena Henke sculpture. (It looks like draped glass but it's epoxy resin and fiberglass)

At Simone Subal Gallery, New York City: Sam Ekwurtzel

Detail below

At Misako & Rosen Gallery, Japan: Erika Verzutti

Closer view of  one of the works

The views between walls beckon

Below: Joanne Greenbaum  at Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago

At Kerry Schuss, New York City: Viewers taking in the work of Sadie Laska

Below:  Closer view of a Laska work

At Jack Hanley Gallery, New York City: Alain Biltereyst paintings

Below: Closer view of one

At Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York City: Anya Kielar installation

At Kate Werbel Gallery, New York City: Anna Betbeze(?)

Installation at The Hole, New York City

At Thomas Erben Gallery, New York City: Dona Nelson painting

This is the kind of art fair photo op I live for

Below: Work from Patricia Fernandez (also shown above) at David Petersen Gallery, Minneapolis

At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York City: Jennifer Paige Cohen sculpture of what looks to be sweater-covered plaster. Love!

At Linn Luhn, Dusseldorf: Florian Beaudrexel

At Josh Lilley Gallery, London: Peter Linde Busk

This time around, the figuration seemed to come from another century . . . or another planet

Above: At Derek Eller Gallery, New York City: Keith Mayerson

Below: At Josh Lilley, London: Carla Busuttil

NADA takes over three function rooms at the Deauville: two ballrooms (of course they would be named Napoleon and Richlieu) and this space, called Le Jardin, which houses cubicle-size booths. Presumably they're less expensive, making it possible for smaller galleries to participate

In the Jardin section, at Frutta, Rome: Alek O constructed fabric paintings and Gabrielle De Santis painted marble

And then there were these, by an artist (unidentified in my notes) in the Laurel Gittlen booth--a good visual metaphor of  how I was feeling by Saturday afternoon



Next Up: Pulse, Ink and (maybe) Design Miami

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