Art Basel Miami is an international art show featuring over 250 leading art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa exhibiting 20th and 21st century artworks by over 2,000 artists.
It takes place in the historic Art Deco district and is an overwhelmingly massive art show.
I found that most of the artwork was not to my taste but there were a few absolute treasures that made the
day.
Featured prominently by the gallery Shanghart , was a Chinese artist named Sun Xun, born in 1980 in Liaoning Province. His illustrations and animations had the most magical steampunkery imagery:
One of the best parts of the show was the opportunity to see works by modern masters outside of a museum setting. Calder is one of my favorite artists and numerous galleries carried his work. As I passed by this gigantic one, I overheard a man ask the gallerist if it could be painted
a different color to match his house.
Joking? Let's hope!!
I found very few ceramics in the show. One piece I loved was at Tilton Gallery. A suspended sculpture by Simone Leigh entitled Emperor Jones, it featured ceramic pods fired in a raku crackle white glaze, with clear blown pods filled with graphite.
And last but not least, I loved the absurdity of these installations of palm trees and turf within the building-
and that people were actually treating them as they would a small public park!
The best part of the weekend in Miami, though, were the small independent satellite fairs. My fave was
Aqua Art Miami , which takes place in a small funky hotel in South Beach. Galleries took over each hotel room, which ringed a large palm tree filled courtyard. I found the artwork featured by the galleries there to be much more interesting and accessible, and dare I say it- current!!
Based in Seattle, Aqua's organizers have made it their mission to promote innovative programming from the west coast as well as the greater USA and abroad, with a particular interest in young dealers and galleries with strong emerging artist programs.
Innovative book works at Donna Seager Gallery
Krause Gallery was featuring Rob Tarbell, one of my favorite artists ever since we had a two-person show together a few years ago. Please check out his website, these unearthly works are made with smoke marks on paper. Yes, you read that right- smoke!!
More tomorrow!
I love Rob too! we just purchased two of his rabbits for the Martha Jefferson Hospital, nice to have you both in the collection! He will be showing with us at NIH in November 2011.
ReplyDelete