Amanda Ryan
Art Basel Miami Beach, the largest art fair in the country, returned for its tenth installment last week, and the event continues to take on epic proportions with numerous satellite fairs, scores of nightly events, an estimated one billion dollars in sales at the main fair, and record attendance of fifty thousand.
Following “Focus: Latin America” at New York’s Armory Show in March, Brazilian galleries made a strong showing with sixteen represented in the fair, four of which held spots in the Art Positions section showcasing new talent. Among them, artist Paulo Nazareth took the boldest stance with his Banana Market/Art Market at the booth of Sao Paulo gallery Mendes Wood. The artist filled a vintage VW bus to the brim with green bananas and sold them as they ripened throughout the week. A sign around his neck declared, “My Image of Exotic Man for Sale,” and a typical exchange went something like this:
Collector: “How much for a banana?”
Nazareth: “Banana – ten dollars.”
Collector: “Too much!”
Nazareth: “But this is art!”
Nazareth’s work connected scarcity and demand in the art market with the commodification of exoticism, juxtaposing the fair’s excess with the everyday life of the working poor. Photo opportunities with the artist (the “exotic man”) were selling for one dollar when I visited on Thursday afternoon.
Artur Lescher, Liquid Metal, 2011, aluminum. Courtesy of Galeria Nara Roesler.
Brazilian galleries also stood out in Art Nova, the section for new galleries. Artur Lescher’s Liquid Metal at Galeria Nara Roesler effortlessly folded and crumpled against the wall, dissolving the weight of the material. Galeria Marilia Razuk was also notable, with minimalist sculptures from Felipe Cohen, who won the Banco Espirito Santo Prize in 2009, and Cabelo, who was featured in Art Positions in 2006. The emphasis on Latin America at this year’s Armory Show and Art Basel Miami Beach looks forward to next year’s highly anticipated Sao Paulo Biennial, curated around the theme of “poetics.”
The Satellite Fairs
While the majority of the Art Basel Miami Beach galleries feature blue chip artists, the satellite fairs offer other opportunities for galleries to show their artists in Miami. Though less consistent overall, these fairs are the place for collectors to enter the marketplace and discover new artists.
Dave Miko and Tom Thayer, Camber Clamber Squinch Winch, 2010-11, oil on aluminum with video projection. Courtesy Eleven Rivington.
NADA Art Fair, now in its ninth year, returned to the Deauville Beach Resort in North Beach. Due to the overwhelming number of applicants and successful sales last year, NADA expanded from two to three ballroom spaces this year and offered the option of smaller project spaces for young gallerists and artists to participate in the fair. New York-based gallery Eleven Rivington was particularly strong, with rustic wooden sculptures from Michael DeLucia and a collaboration between Dave Miko and Tom Thayer, for which Thayer projected his stop-motion videos onto Miko’s enamel-on-aluminum paintings.
Heather Gwen Martin, Axis, 2011, oil on linen. Courtesy Luis De Jesus Gallery.
Pulse Art Fair returned to the Ice Palace this year, where highlights included Heather Gwen Martin’s paintings at Luis De Jesus and Olivo Barbieri’s utopian architectural renderings and landscapes at Yancey Richardson. Marc Fox’s paper sculptures were among the most striking installations, sharing a booth at Larissa Goldston with Orly Genger’s elegant gouache on paper paintings.
Ward Shelley, Fluxus Diagram, 2011. Courtesy Pierogi Gallery.
Seven galleries band together and dispose of the booths for the Seven Art Fair, and the resulting show feels pleasantly exhibition-like (though, of course, not quite that cohesive). Appropriate to an art fair challenging the conventional model, Seven had its share of work analyzing the art world, including Powhida’s famous rants and Yevgeniy Fiks’ investigations into famous figures and institutions (for example, Stalin’s Directive on Modern Art). Pierogi’s Ward Shelley displayed carefully rendered visual diagrams about art history, one measuring the growth of painting sizes in abstract expressionism, the other charting the Fluxus family tree.
Cleon Peterson, The Brinksman, 2011, acrylic on wood. Courtesy Cooper Cole Gallery
Scope had a heavy emphasis on pop and street art. Christopher Baker’s Hello World! or How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise lined the entryway with five thousand video diaries taken from the internet, and David Rohn’s nearby performance piece The Amazing Ultron imitated the animatronic fortune tellers ubiquitous at carnivals and county fairs. San Francisco gallery White Walls devoted their entire space to street artist ROA, whose loose, naturalistic style belongs alongside the work of Swoon and Gaia. Cleon Peterson’s graphic scenes of mayhem and urban decay, which followed a successful show at New York’s Joshua Liner Gallery last spring, were on view at both Toronto-based Cooper Cole Gallery, and LA’s New Image Art.
Sarah Trouche, Action for the Great Wall, 2011. Courtesy the artist.
Comprised primarily of Brooklyn galleries, Fountain Art Fair was the rebellious younger sibling. Housed in a warehouse just off the beaten track, graffiti pieces covered the walls of the yard that at night hosted performances by Ninjasonik and Fab 5 Freddy. The fair’s mood was casual and inviting—a bar and couches situated amongst the artworks encouraged visitors to kick back and stay awhile. Most notable was self-represented artist Sarah Trouche, whose performance pieces on the Great Wall and in Tiananmen Square got her escorted to the airport and banned from the country.
Runner-up in the Kim Kardashian look-alike contest. Image via artobserved
In addition to the ever-expanding roster of satellite fairs at Art Basel Miami Beach, the nightlife scene has exploded in recent years, with gallery openings and parties for everything from magazines to fashion labels and car companies. Highlights included OHWOW Gallery’s fourth annual pop-up exhibition in the design district, featuring, as usual, an impressive roster of up-and-coming artists. Art and fashion magazine Visionaire celebrated Brazilian artists with a party at South Beach’s Delano Hotel on December 2 to release their Rio-themed issue, featuring jewel- and feather-clad dancers. On Saturday, December 3, MoMA PS1 hosted a Kim Kardashian look-alike contest honoring Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, with an all-night after-party and DJ set by New York’s Ghe20 G0th1k. The contestant cleverly dressed as Kardashian on the Barbara Kruger-designed W Magazine cover came in second place.
More highlights from the week:
Ian Burns, Progression, 2011. Mother’s Tankstation Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. NADA Art Fair
Ruby Sky Styler. Nicele Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY. NADA Art Fair
Michael DeLucia, (to be titled), 2011. Eleven Rivington, New York, NY. NADA Art Fair.
William Powhida, Dear Art World (Derivatives), 2011. Graphite, Watercolor, and pencil on paper. Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY. SEVEN Miami.
Sam Falls, installation view. OHWOW Gallery (Los Angeles) Group Show
Greg Haberny, installation view. Like the Spice Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Aqua Art Fair
ROA, installation view. White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Scope Art Fair.
Screening of the documentary “Limelight” celebrating Seth Browarnik’s “Art of Night” series at the Shelbourne Hotel
Karmelo Bermejo, <, 2011. Solid gold nugget painted in false gold. Maisterravalbuena Gallery, Madrid, Spain. ABMB
Andy Warhol, various prints. L&M Fine Arts, New York, NY. ABMB
Barbara Kruger, installation view. Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY. ABMB
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