Art Basel Miami: Overview

For the first year since I began my career in the arts, I am lucky enough to be attending the Art Basel Miami festivities in Miami Florida this year. I arrived down here, to beautiful yet muggy weather, and began my foray into the world of art, fashion and celebrities who flock to Miami every December.

The opening night, I attended the "Oceanfront Welcome Party" which was free to the general public after the preview party for Art Basel at the Miami Convention Center. It was held in Collins Park on the beach next to the W Hotel, and included drinks and food. Artist Pae White has created an installation that a visitor could walk through while they are enjoying the myriad of events they are holding there everyday during the fair, including Art Perform, Art Video and a curated music program.

The highlight of my evening was catching a glimpse of Chuck Close, a contemporary artist whose career has spanned more than 30 years. He is most well known for his realist portraits (especially of himself) using a mosaic technique to create the impression of his model's faces.

Here is an example of his work:

Chuck Close

Emma

As you can see from this example, his work is usually done as a mosaic of a
person's face. This is interesting as it is a combination of impression and
classic portraiture. The even more interesting thing is that since 1988 he has
been paralyzed from the neck down due to a rare spinal artery collapse.
That hasn't stopped him from continuing his art career and creating some
of the most recognizable art in the 21st century.

As my trip progressed, I went to 5 different art fairs all together: Art Base
Miami, Art Miami, Pulse, Scope and Art Asia. I was unfortunately unable to
attend every fair, but by the end of the day a fair goer is exhausted and can only
take so much visual stimuli before a nap is in order. Some of the highlights of
the fair include:

Art Basel Miami:


This painting by Sylvester Stallone, although not my favorite,
garnered much attention from fair goers as well as the media.

This adorable tie sculpture, a whimsical addition to all the blue chip art


All the artwork by Ghada Amer, who along with two other artists gave a
wonderful artists talk on sex, politics and the Middle Eastern art scene.


The creative and mind blowing installations by Jacob Hashimoto. I can't believe they
installed this for a 5 day fair. And apparently, they all sold out, fantastic!

Art Miami:

Mondrian, re-imagined as a disco dress!


Karin Davie, one of my favorite printmakers


John Grillo, a living artist whose work can be included among Modern masters

Scope/Art Asia:

And one of my two favorite paintings I saw while in Miami, by artist Ran Hwang

and last but not least:

The meditative and contemplative artwork of artist Lee Sun-Don

There was plenty of other great art, as well as excited dealers who were actually selling things
which is great news for the arts. Let's hope next December is just as great for the fairs!