Fair and Loathing: Coincidences, Trends and a Coupla WTFs

Fair and Loathing: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

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You know the old saw: Two's a coincidence, three's a trend. An amuse oeil for you while I plow through the painting pictures.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Stones

Immediately apparent on my first walk-through of the big fair, rocks became more visible the more I looked and then showed up at most of the other fairs. Well, you can't get more down to earth than stones. I'm sure the art handlers loved them. I am particularly fond of Katie Paterson's three existential rocks, below. The Glaswegian took three found meteorites, cast them, melted them, and recast them back into new versions of themselves.

Katie Paterson, recast meteorites, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh;  Art Basel Miami Beach

Alicja Kwade, iron and stone, Kamel Mennour, Paris; at ABMB

Lee Ufan, natural stone and iron, at Kukje Gallery, Seoul; ABMB

Installation at Francesca Minn, Milano; ABMB

Ismael Ortiz at unidentified gallery; Untitled

At ABMB, artist and gallery unidentified

Mark Hagen, Neon in my Veins, volcanic glass on burlap, at John Wolf, Los Angeles; Aqua Art

At Galerie Leme, Sao Paolo; at ABMB

Sam Moyer, marble and fabric, at Galerie Rodolfe Janssen, Brussels; at ABMB

Detail below

Ken Fandell, Rock, photograph, at Traywick Contemporary; at Miami Propject

Alan Magee, Aphorism, acrylic on canvas, at Forum Gallery; at Miami Project

Plus Sizes

The Lumbersexual look was big in Miami. Non popular, necessarily, just big. An average-height person would come up to the elbow of of the shirt shown below. The ghostly gowns from Beverly Semmes loomed large (I'm a fan). There was a polo shirt for a polo team. And a giant glove? Don't cough.

Artist unidenfified at The Sunday Painter, Londin; NADA

Beverly Semmes at Shoshanna Wayne, Los Angeles; Pulse

Jose Lerma at Roberto Paradise, San Juan; NADA

Amanda Ross-Ho at The Approach, London; ABMB

Just as Wearable as Your Manolos

And even more expensive.

Diego Bianchi, Stairs, at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris; ABMB

Lia Chaia at Vermelho, Sao Paolo; ABMB

Detail below

Juan Luis Moraza at Gakeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid; Untitled

Hair Today

It's not just the preponderance of  hair, but the back-of-the-head pose. Oddly compelling.

Jose Castrellon at Diablorosso, Panama; Miami Project

Individual photograph below

Nina Beier, human hair wig in painted frame at Metro Pictures; ABMB

Individual work below

Alex Katz, Tracy, at Graphicstudio; Ink

Rosemarie Trockel at Spruth Magers, Berlin and London; ABMB

It Had to Happen

Once selfie made it into the OED, the art was not far behind. Two's a coincidence here (both at Pulse), but there were hoards of people taking selfies of their own.

Tapp Francke at Gallery Nine 5, New York City

Lisa Levy at Schroeder Romero, New York City

(yes, that's moi in the mirror, above and left) 

Up next: Painting, lots of it

Fair and Loathing: Miami 2014

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

While the national news was weighted with stories of ever more black citizens assaulted or killed by abusive police--including in Miami this past August--the city was awash with reports of impossibly wealthy collectors buying impossibly expensive art during celebrity-filled VIP openings that flowed into after parties stretching long into the night. Those worlds collided for several hours on Friday evening during the fairs when demonstrators blocked I-95, which leads to one of the causeways between downtown Miami and Miami Beach, leaving hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fairgoers stuck in taxis while the meters ticked—or in packed, fair-provided shuttles going nowhere.

The best of times: Bridget Riley in David Zwirner's primo location opposite the entrance, at Art Basel Miami Beach

The worst of times: Having to fight for your life

“It was a nightmare,” said more than one fairgoer of the traffic, the lack of available taxis, and the extortionate rates charged by Uber, whose billionaire owner was getting wealthier by the moment—to say nothing of the current events that prompted the traffic tie-up. (Meanwhile, one of my taxi drivers, a lovely, edging-toward-elderly man named Clairvoie, told me he hadn’t gotten a raise in 10 years.)

Yes, Miami can be a bit of a warm and breezy bubble for those too busy to check in with the real world, or a source of cognitive dissonance for those who do. But the Miami I inhabited for six days was largely one of hardworking artists, dealers, critics and curators staying in crummy hotels with slow wifi and working long hours, a sorority/fraternity of colleagues trying to earn a living from the work we do. 

The New York dealer Pavel Zoubok, posting on Facebook, offered this perspective: “Behind all the gloss and misinformation that surrounds the art world is a very real community of passionate, creative people that I am very proud to be part of. I am reminded of this every time we gather on such occasions.” Yes, thank you.

On the grounds at the Bass Museum of Art, a few blocks from ABMB and across the street from the beach: Fieldwork, curated by Nicholas Baume. Here, Lynda Benglis, foreground, and Jessica Stockholder left rear, two of 26 sculptors in the outdoor exhibition

An Overview
There were 22 fairs (some international and mega, like Art Basel Miami Beach at the Convention Center; others small and artist-run, like Fridge Fair in Little Havana); four private collections on view; at least two big museum exhibitions; numerous local gallery exhibitions and a few pop-up shows in both Miami Beach and downtown Miami; and dozens of special projects around town. There were also numerous talks at ABMB’s Conversations program, including one with Lynda Benglis; a panel, The Importance of Women Artists in Today’s Market, at Miami Project; and a conversation, Women in Art, at Pulse.

If you started with the previews on Tuesday the 2nd and walked briskly through each event until the last closing on Sunday the 8th—scheduling visits to take advantage of selected 10:00 a.m. start times and 10:00 p.m. closings—it might have been possible to see almost everything. Almost. But it would have required superhuman stamina, miles of travel and traffic, and several hundred dollars in entry fees (if you didn’t have comp entries) to see it all. Remembering everything would have been impossible.

I chose to photograph and remember what I saw, so I got selective with the fairs: Aqua Art, Art Basel Miami Beach, Ink, Pulse, NADA and Untitled, all on the beach side; Miami Project and Art Miami in Wynwood. 

In terms of special events, I walked through the grounds of the Bass Museum of Art to see Fieldwork, 26 sculptures curated by Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of Public Art Fund, placed on a greensward across the street from the beach. Then I crossed Collins Avenue to walk on the beach at Collins Park, where the Peabody Essex Museum had organized performances of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests, half a dozen enormous articulated sculptures whose sails captured the wind, which propelled the skeletal forms to “walk” across the sand. Despite the gathered crowds, which pressed close to the great beests, it was still possible to experience their quirky, cartoony, lyrical, sci-fi fabulousness. I stopped into the Square Foot exhibition at Projects Gallery in Wynwood, a mixed-bag exhibition of work by artists who were not necessarily fair-represented. (A closing will take place tomorrow night, December 10.)

One of Theo Jansen's Strandbeests on the strand

Close to 200 artists showing their work at Square Foot in the Projects Gallery in Wynwood

Some highlights
Several of these categories will appear as dedicated posts

. A lot of great painting, large and small, at all the fairs 

Claire Sherman, foreground; Robert Kushner, center rear, at D.C. Moore Gallery, Miami Project

Joan Brown and Andrew Masullo at Gallery Paule Anglim, also Miami Project

Dona Nelson at Thomas Erben Gallery, NADA

Katherine Bradford at Freight and Volume, Miami Project

. As always, a nice selection of Mid-Century geometric abstraction, not only from Latin America, which delivers dependably strong work, but from U.S. dealers showing the work of Myron Stout, Leon Polk Smith, Judith Rothschild and others

Decio Viera and others at Guillermo de Osma Galleria, at ABMB

Judith Rothschild at Valerie Carberry Gallery, at ABMB

. Fiber- and cloth-based work, like a wall of wrapped forms by Sheila Hicks, and unraveled serapes reconfigured  by Adrian Esparza 

Sheila Hicks at Sikkema Jenkins, ABMB

Adrian Esparza at Cindy Rucker Gallery, Untitled

. Strong work on paper, from large to small--both contemporary and from decades past

Michelle Stuart solo exhibition at Leslie Tonkonow Projects in the Survey section of ABMB

Drawing on the financial pages: Horacio Zabala at Henrique Faria Buenos Aires. at Untitled

Detail above, installation below

. A blurring of lines between categories, which is not a bad thing. At Ink, for instance, a fair devoted to prints, I saw some great paintings by Mike Carroll at Dolan Maxwell (you'll see pics when I publish the Paintings post). At Pulse, there were some large cut-metal shapes—ferns and coral on tangerine walls—that seem to have come from straight from Design Miami. And artists known for their work in one medum were showing a selection of work in another, like Polly Apfelbaum’s painterly ceramics at ABMB

Polly Apfelbaum's painterly ceramics at Galerie Nachst St., Stephen/Rosemarie Schwarzwalder, at ABMB

Trends 
. A bunch of rocks
. A ton of tondos
. A lot of talk, well words--and that's not counting the ever chatty Mel Bochner

Rocks, real and cast, by Alicja Kwade at Kamel Mennour, at ABMB

Judy Pfaff paper and plastic tondo at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, at Miami Project

Say what? Lisa Levy at Schroeder Romero Gallery, at Pulse

More trends
. Plenty of black and white, and gray—even from Josef Albers. (Funny story: As I’m standing in front of a shades-of-gray Albers, a couple of nouveau collectors approach the painting. She to him: “Yves Klein, right?” )

Michiel Ceulers at Mihai Nicodim Gallery, NADA

An achromatic Josef Albers at ABMB

. The usual complement of mirrored, or shiny surfaces. Some screamed “buy me” to the collectors with more money than taste, but there was also some sensuous, gorgeous work—inlaid, gilded—that beckoned for closer viewing, like the exquisite inlaid paintings of Nancy Lorenz shown below

Gorgeous gilding: Nancy Lorenz at Morgan Lehman, at Miami Project

Detail above; full view below

Well, this one's shiny and great for selfies: John M. Armleder at Mehdi Chouakri, ABMB

Yes, that's me below

. Materiality was once again in evidence, from Anatsui's bottleneck-label tapestries, to pine knots set elegantly into sheets of plywood, to paintings that look like bolts of fabric, to a square sculpture of wax and wood so reminiscent of Jackie Winsor I thought it might have been hers

El Anatsui at Jack Shainman, ABMB

Sam Ekwurtzel at Simone Subal Gallery, in the Nova section of ABMB

Detail of inset pine knot, above; full view below of two 96 x 48" birch panels 

Hu Quingyan at Galerie Urs Meile, ABMB

These are double-sided paintings rolled to look like fabric. I saw them at ABMB last year, at the same gallery, but they still do it for me so you get to see them again

Jeremy Wafer wood and wax cube at Goodman Gallery, Capetown, ABMB

. As usual, I paid no attention to video and very little to photography. (Not for nothing is the tag ling for this blog Biased, Myopic, Incomplete and Journalistically Suspect)

More soon. Meanwhile, Jerry Saltz's fake Miami report is better than my real one.

So, Miami Again This Year

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Updated 12.2.14

I'm either an art junkie or a glutton for punishment (or maybe both). This is the ninth year I'm going to Miami to view and report on the art fairs. 

Part of me loves it. I mean, where else can you see a world's worth of art in such concentrated time and space? The other part, however, hates the ostentation, overindulgence, and overpriced--to say nothing of the late shuttles and unavailable taxis--that come with the territory. Can't have one without the other, alas.

There are 28 fairs or events taking place this week! I've highlighted the ones I plan to see. There are eight listed, but actually nine fairs in all, since Art Miami's satellite, Context, is a separate fair next door.

This is the best guide to the Miami fairs, designed by Boyd Level and available from Xipsy. There are two sides (the other provides shuttle and taxi information). Print them out as a double-sided page, for a pocket guide to a week's worth of events

You'd think by looking at the floor plans that the fairs are easy to navigate, but you'd be wrong. ABMB is offering a free downloadable GPS map for iPhones (info here and here) so that you'll know exactly where you are--a big help if you're going for the first time, because even with the map it's easy to feel like you'll never make it out alive.

ABMB: Not as easy to navigate as it looks. But there is help

I'll have work with Projects Gallery at Aqua Art. This is my second year showing with the gallery. Stop in to Room 115, at the far end of the courtyard on the first floor. I'll be in attendance at the Wednesday night opening, later in the evening. and periodically throughout the run of the show. Tell Helen and Frank I sent you.  I know I've said this before, but I love Aqua. It's the anti-ABMB--small, light filled, easily navigable, with interesting art that won't require a second mortgage to acquire.

My painting, Silk Road 224, 2014, encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches
Find me at Projects Gallery, Room 115, at Aqua Art

Aqua: Human-scaled and easy to navigate, plus all the rooms open onto the courtyard

As for the rest of the fairs, on the beach side I'm looking forward to Pulse and Untitled. Untitled returns for the third year in a fabulous tent just feet away from the water. Pulse, making the move back across the Causeway, will have a tent a couple of miles up Collins Avenue. And NADA will be in its regular location, the chandeliered Deauville Resort. If ever there was an incongrous pairing, this is it. Ignore the over-the-top light fixtures and garish carpeting and focus on the art. (And if the day is nice, walk out onto the beach.)

Across the bay in Miami proper, I'll be hitting Art Miami and Context, and my favorite there, Miami Project. There are some great private collections, but the fairs are all about art triage; pick what's most important, because you can't do it all. I will also be stopping into the Square Foot Show, a democratic event at Project Gallery's space in the Wynwood Lofts.

If you're in Midtown, stop in

Free entry
. NADA
. Ink
. Square Foot

Comp entry (additional info here)
I don't know that these will work, but it's worth a try
. For Miami Project, complimentary VIP passes; or try this

. For Art Miami, Context and Aqua, a one-day complimentary pass ; or try this; or this 
. For Aqua and Red Dot contact info@projectsgallery.com or call 267-303-9652 to request free tickets

. ABMB is more difficult to get into on a comp entry, so since you'll be paying a whopping $45 for the day, enter early and stay late to get your money's worth. A few strategies: Get a group of 10 or more and pay $30 each, or be a student or over 65 for the $30 entry. Info here

Here's one thing I won't be doing: Partying. After a day of  walking my feet off, I'll meet friends for dinner and then retire to my hotel room to ice my knees (even the good one), and review the photographs I took.

If you have links to comp passes, or you're showing at one of the fairs and would like to let everyone know, please post the info in the Comments section.

Here's Why You Haven't Heard From Me

I've been in the studio

With two exhibitions up now and more in the pipeline, including Miami, I've not had a moment to think about blogging. But I will be going to Miami, and I will report on what I see. In the meantime, click on to Exhibitions/Events to see what I've been up to. Here's a peek:

At Aqua Art, Miami Beach, December 3-7, with Projects Gallery: Silk Road 225, 2014, encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

Taking Control: Two Opportunities That I Know Of

I'm not a fan of vanity galleries, those money pits that take your cash and offer little in return. But artist-run galleries understand the balance between opportunity and cost. Let me share two current offerings from venues where artists are in control. 

Ceres Gallery, a Chelsea co-op that normally focuses on the work of women artists, is offering what it's calling Exposure, open to artists of all genders.

Here's how the gallery is billing the event: "10 simultaneous exhibitions each week for five weeks with space available for both two- and three-dimensional work. Each artist will be able to fully avail themselves of approximately 12-17 running feet of wall space with 10+ foot ceilings or approximately 80-100 square feet of floor space."

While I'm not pushing anyone in this direction, I will note that it's in Chelsea, in a much-visited gallery building (The Painting Center, another artist-run gallery, is in the building). The price is reasonable ($275 for your portion of the space) and any money from sales is yours. Stefany Benson, an artist, is the gallery manager. If you're thinking about something like this, come prepared with great work and promote the hell out if it: website, blog, postcards, Facebook. And take advantage of being in Manhattan and all it has to offer.

Projects Gallery, run by the artist Frank Hyder and his partner, Helen Hyder, who is the gallery director, have two locations: Philadelphia and Miami. The Miami gallery, located in Wynwood Lofts in the Wynwood section of the city (where the galleries are), is a short drive away from the tents that hold Art Miami, Context, Miami Projects, and the private collections. The Hyders have announced a Call to Artists for what it's calling Square Foot Art Basel Miami Redux. The price is $60 to enter, but the first 100 entrant are guaranteed a spot on the wall.

Here's how the gallery is billing it: "Artists from around the world are invited to a call-to-artists process that guarantees a spot on the wall for the first one hundred applicants.  This truly democratic process will result in hundreds of works being submitted and chosen.  Creating a grid comprised of 12" x 12" individual spaces with works of all styles and media, including painting, drawing, photography and sculpture, Projects Gallery provides artists an opportunity to be part of the Art Basel Miami art fair events."

Again, I'm not pushing it, but it's a square foot of visibility in Miami, not only during fair week but for well over a month (late November- early January). And again, I'd say, promote the hell out of it if you do it. (Disclaimer: I show with the gallery at Aqua Art.)

Should you commit to opportunities like this? It's your call. I've been to both venues. I know they're legit. If you want visibility in a city where you may not have had it before, check it out. And if you get in, promote, promote, promote.

Last word: I'm a believer in artists taking control of their careers. If you know of other artist-run opportunities, or if you are an artist who runs a gallery or project space that is inclusive of other artists, feel free to note the who/what/where in the Comments section. Include a URL.

Tooting My Horn in This Post . . .

. . . because I have work on exhibition right now in

a couple of venues:  a solo at the Conrad Wilde 

Gallery in Tucson through October 25, along with 

a group show there; and a group show, Doppler 

Effect, at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey 

through January 18. 

Chromatic Reasoning, my solo exhbition at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, is up through October 25 (maybe longer). Concurrent with the solo is the four-artist group show, Relative Geometries, in which I have work along with Annelle Livingston, Robert Moya and Nancy Natale. I attended the opening last weekend and took a number of installation shots, three of which are below:

View of both galleries

Chromatic Geometry 1, 2013, encaustic on panel, 24 x 24 inches

My solo

The group show 

At the Visual Art Center of New Jersey one of my paintings is included in the splendid group show, Doppler Effect. The exhibition, curated by Mary Birmingham, has assembled 46 artworks that explore the illusion of difference between two-and three-dimensional space. Scroll down (or click here) for a well-illustrated walk-through of the exhibition. Here's a peek:  

Installation view: Guido Winkler

Below: Chromatic Geometry 21, 2014, encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches

Photo: Kathy Cantwell

Click here to read the catalog

I'll be back soon with a roundup of exhibitions in New York City