Fair Play: The Miami Roundup

Report complete. The entire list of posts:
Some Paintings

Stuff

NADA

Best. Gallery. Name. Ever
Pulse
Art? Or Not Art? (Answers posted 1.6.12)
Lean Times
Black is the New Black. Again
Art Miami
A Bloggers' Guide to Art Miami
Seven

A Long, Tall Drink of Aqua

Art Basel Miami Beach

Amuse Oeil

The World Wide Web

Occupy Miami?

Prologue: Head to Toe

Peekin' In

This year's roundup is not so much a best and worst of--though I do have a few superlatives to bestow--but a chance to connect the dots, note unusual installations, make a few observations, and (finally) wrap the whole thing up for another year.

Got a Match?

You know the saying, There's a lid for every pot? It's used mostly by dating services and matchmakers, but what's to keep us from doing a little art yenta-ing of our own?

Above and below:

Balzer Art Projects, Basel, at Pulse: Nici Jost site-specific work on the Pulse grounds and in the gallery booth

Above: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, ABMB: artist unidentified

Below: Standard, Oslo, ABMB: artist unidentified

Above: Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York: Art Miami: Viola Frey

Photo by Andrea Kirsch, The Artblog

Below: Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, NADA: artist unknown

Above: Budweiser Couture, on a fairgoer at Pulse

Below: Budweiser Decor, Cady Noland installation at the Rubell Collection. Image from the Rubell Family Collection website 

Adele and Eva (more commonly known as "Eva and Adele") at ABMB

Photo from Beached Miami by Jordan Melnick

Newt and Calista (more commonly known as the "Tiffany Twosome"). OK, I'm cheating here. They weren't in Miami and Newt doesn't normally wear this much makeup

Photo via Facebook 

. . .

 Wigging Out

Sometimes it's the fairgoer who just happens to walk by an installation of hairpieces, thus becoming part of that installation if only for a moment. And sometimes it's a Nick Cave Soundsuit that appears to channel Cousin Itt. But sometimes, well, you just thank the Universe for compelling you to surf through People of Walmart when you're supposed to be working on a Miami Roundup post. 

Above: Standard, Oslo, ABMB: Nina Beier

Below: Mary Boone Gallery, New York, ABMB: Nick Cave

Below: A person of interest at People of Walmart. Though this is not what's normally meant by hair extensions, PoW's caption writer called this look "weavetastic," which merits a shoutout of its own

. . .

One Size Fits All

Speaking of extensions, the award in the Stretchable or Expandable category goes to an artist who fills out a sweater better than a porn star with implants.Well, if the implants were made of lumber and protruded from all over her torso.

Lehman Maupin Gallery, New York, ABMB: Erwin Wurm

. . .

Manorexia

Here we see the unnatural thinness of the women's models combined with the off-to-the-foxhunt jauntiness of the menwear line. You think this picture has something to do with Ralph Lauren, too, don't you?

Sorry We're Closed, Brussels, NADA; artist unknown

. . .

I Can Get These for Less on Canal Street

Well the logo bags, for sure. I don't know about the paintings. But if these aren't available, there are some sunsets on velvet that you can pick up for a song.

.

At Rudolf Budja Gallery, Miami Beach, Art Miami: Zevs
. . .

Toward the End, It was Just Mini Coopers and Smart Cars

At least that's how it seems.



At Karsten Greve Ag, St. Moritz, ABMB: John Chamberlain

. . .

 If Your Erection Lasts Longer Than 35 Years . . . . . get to a museum immediately.

Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, ABMB: Lynda Benglis iconic dildo photo

. . .
.

Toys For Tots

With a shitload of money.

Tony Shafrazi, New York, ABMB; Mike Kelley sculptures

. . .

Dopey

Honestly, do I really need to say anything about this?

At Hauser & Wirth, London, ABMB: Paul McCarthy, Bashful

. . .

Which of These Images Doesn't Belong?

Hint: Your answer depends on whether you're grouping them them in the category of Things That Clean or Art.

Above left:  P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, Seven: Jennifer Rohrer, Resolve, gouache on paper; above right: the cleaning cart at the Deauville Hotel, site of NADA

Above: Pierogi, Brooklyn, Seven: John Stoney, Corner Piece #2

Below: Canada, New York, NADA: Joanne Malinkowska, In Search of Primordial Matter, washing machine on perpetual spin cycle

. . .

 You've Got Male
Without John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage to serve up their creepy images of big-bosomed naked women, the objects of our attention this year were just about all male.

At Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, ABMB: Jennifer Rubell sculpture of Prince William, left, and a gallery representative. Note the naturalistic pose and coloring of the figure at right, which features a seemingly spontaneous turn of the head and facial expression

Van de Weghe Fine Art, ABMB: Duane Hanson, High School Student, 1990/92, bronze polychromed in oil, approximately life size

Froelick Gallery, Portland, Aqua Art: Stephen O'Donnell, Le Fumeur, acrylic on panel

At Rubell Family Collection, Miami: Charles Ray, painted cast fiberglass mannequins

. . .

You Had Male

Normally you'd just see a specimen like this in a medical lab, but because the artist photodocumented his transition from male to female, well . . .

. . . let's just allow the wall label to speak for itself:

. . .

You've Got Spam

A good ton of it, each cozied in its own knitted jacket with just a soupçon of silver lamé. Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart.

Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, ABMB: Haegue Yang sculpture

Detail below

. . .

Best. Makeover. Ever.

Here art history came to photographic life and got made over into a far more fetching couple than Piero's Tuscan duo.



At Robert Mann Gallery, New York: Maria Alche y Ramon Teves, Ushuaia (diptych), 2006

Now if they would only do something about Sr. Arnolfini and his hat:

. . .

Mel, Shut Up Already

He's been going on like this for the past several years.
.

At William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, Art Miami: Mel Bochner

. . .

Barbie Dream Art Fair

Barbie has had dozens careers, including Canadian Mountie, Paleontologist, Presidential Candidate, and Artist. But this may be the first time that she's had her own booth at an international art fair.

At Regina Gallery, London and Moscow, ABMB: Jonathan Meese. The title of this installation is Schaukel Die Versachlichte Fuhrung Kunst Ins Erzland (Kunst Jenseits)--minus the umlauts, which I don't have on my keyboard. According to my German-speaking friends on Facebook, it translates into something like Rocking the Art of Objectivity into a Law-Free Country.

(No word on how to say "spam cozy" in German, though.)

If I had to guess, these would be Pole Dancer Barbie, above, and Boner Barbie, below. I must say that these are some of the best uses to which the anatomically unstable doll has ever been put

. . .

Most Seductive Images of a Carcinogenic Substance
I'm one of those annoying former smokers who thinks no one should light up within 100 feet of another human being (especially me), but I find these images sexy beyond all logic.

Pae White castle-size tapestries

Above: Kaufmann Repetto, Milan, ABMB

Below: Neugerreimschneider, Berlin, ABMB

. . .

I Don't Care if They're Not Art, I Love Them

I think Lucio Fontana would have agreed with me about the top one. And the bottom one is surely the graffiti grandchild of Joan Mitchell and Frank Stella.

Fence tarps in Wynwood

. . .

Does This Installation Make My Butt Look Too Big?

If there's one thing worse than spending time in an installation looking at yourself in the mirror, it's taking pictures of yourself and then asking people to tell you, "Oh, no, you look fabulous."

Sies + Hoke Galerie, Dusseldorf, ABMB: The Art Kabinett installation by Claudie Wieser. (You can figure out who the blogger in the mirror is)

. . ..

The End

Over and out. Sayonara. Adios. Ciao. Until next year. Maybe.

At the Rubell Family Collection, Miami: Joel Kyack, installation

Last year for the Art or Trash post I got an indignant comment (anonymous, of course) that said in part, "You and your following of Art Moms probably enjoy this sort of conservative "debate" ...but really only a complete idiot would suggest Cady Noland's work might be confused with artless trash. Congratulations on involving the Internet in your personal insecurity and lack of intellectual curiosity."

Well, Anon, I hope you have enjoyed this year's installment of my "personal insecurity" just as much. Noland's beer-can installation is in it again this year, because it's still up at Rubell and it just went so well with pop-top cardigan. That bud's for you. And for the record, I have no children.

That I know of.

Big thanks to everyone who sent me to Miami. I am most appreciative of your help. To all my other friends reading this: If you enjoyed my coverage of the Miami art fairs, or the blog at any other time of year, please consider making a one-time annual donation of $20 (though any amount is welcome) to help support my effort. See the Donate button on the sidebar. Thank you.