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12.04.2009

Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009. Nosing Around

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Showing Shane Hope's plexi-mounted digital prints at the Winkleman Gallery booth at Pulse
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MIAMI—Oh, there is something in the air here. Despite the humidity there's a freshness. A sweetness, even. This is a marked change from last year.

If 2008’s fair week had been a perfume, it might have been called Despair. Its top notes of uncertainty wafted away quickly, as the full middle notes—panic, anguish and nervous perspiration—asserted themselves over the course of the week. By Sunday only the bottom note lingered: resignation.
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This year the aroma is lighter. Let’s call it Vert. As in a springlike rebirth. As in the color of money. Perhaps carried away on the breezes of the rising Dow, a top note of apprehension has dispersed, leaving the robust middle tones of optimism, new currency, and a soupcon of plastic swiped discreetly. The bottom note, the underlying scent that lingers hours after application, is cautious relief. Can you smell it?

There are other aromas here in Miami: the salty beach air, a gentle reminder of what you won’t be seeing unless you have an ocean-view room, and car fumes. This year's crop of events is geographically widespread, and whether you're taking the shuttle bus, a taxi or your own rental car, you're gonna get stuck in traffc.
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The smoke that wafted through Wynwood last night was from the guerrilla grill-athon known as Art Burn. Nothing was for sale. Several dozen works of art were exhibited and then tossed into the flames. Call it the anti-fair, carried out under the radar and past your nose. For a couple of hours it was the hottest game in town.

El Celso, left, Art Burn instigator and griller in chief. The event took place in the parking lot of Las Tias, a resale store across the street from the Rubell Collection and around the corner from Art Miami

Reminder: Art Bloggers at Art Miami takes place Saturday 11:30 am to 1:00. We'll be there at 11:00. Look for the signs.

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1 comment:

Larry said...

That piece Ed and his "Bambino" are holding up is one of those remarkable digital constructions devised by Shane Hope - whom I think of as a digital Jackson Pollock. It's true that you can't get a sense of the fantastic degree of detail in these works from a JPEG like that above. Ed has said you need a magnifying glass even when viewing the prints close up.