Art Basel Miami

Too Much To See In A Day …

Or Two

Photos & Story
By Alejandra Campos

Art Basel Miami Beach, both the main venue and the satellite fairs, is such a large event that in order to see everything you would need to spend every day and every hour of the fair visiting the exhibits. There were exhibitions in different parts of Miami Beach and also in Miami. So it is really impossible to see everything. The best thing is to do some research before you set out and to pick and choose what you want to see.

Acrobats

The main venue had galleries from around the world including Mexico, Spain, Germany, China, Italy, UK, Dubai and the United States, to name a few. Attendance this year seemed to be higher than last and apparently the economy didn’t affect it as negatively as it did last year. It’s been reported that sales were much better than in 2008. There were pieces and installations for every taste and pocketbook. From the very clever to the more traditional.  There was an installation by a Japanese artist that was comprised of hundreds of threads, paper butterflies and colorful oval shapes which hung in one room. Very labor intensive and quite beautiful.  

Knitted Bull

Another interesting item was a video and sound installation Giant Bum by Nathaniel Mellors, which had three animatronic heads with sound. There was a head of a bull covered in crochet by Joana Vasconcelos of Palma de Mallorca, as well as a photograph by Massimo Vitalli called Frigido Feragosto. There was neon art, and a sculpture of a set of drums with neon on the inside which looked like it went on infinitely. There was some very erotic art in one section, as well as lots of contemporary paintings and sculpture all over the place. And there was a huge portrait a la Louis XV on a horse, ready for a hunt, but with Michael Jackson’s face. To each his own!

The satellite fairs included 17 venues with such diverse art expressions as Graffiti Gone Global, which was an exhibition of international street art and the Red Dot Fair with modern and contemporary international galleries featuring paintings, photography and sculpture.  One of he largest satellite exhibitions was the NADA Art Fair Miami Beach. NADA stands for New Art Dealers Alliance, which included a display of galleries and individual artists. 

 Private collectors were also represented. The Cisneros-Fontanals collection, the Margulies Collection and local art collectors Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz all had their collections on display at different venues. Local museums such as the Bass Museum in Miami Beach, Lowe Art Museum at UM, Miami Art Museum did their thing, as well as Miami Dade College, who had exhibits of photographs and contemporary Mexican art on two of their campuses. 

 All in all, this was a great week for art and a great week for Miami!