The Wrap Up

All in all the Art Girls had a terrific time in Miami, we visited 7 art fairs, 2 major private collections, 1 artist's studio, the public art exhibition and Wynwood Walls.  Then factor in the good food, good weather (warmer than last year and only one day of humidity), great time spent connecting with art people from around the world and all the fantastic ART, I think it is fair to say that we came home with sore feet but inspired and with re-charged batteries.

Oh, and one final shout out to our good friend Suzanne who always welcomes us to Miami with a smile and a ride. Sorry we did't get any pix of her this trip.

See you next year, Miami.

Art Girls Love the Eden Roc!

Rockin' the Eden Rock; Karen, Linda, David, Sonja and Christine.

Great view and great beach!

Catching up with friends Fecia and Leslie.

Nothing soothes aching muscles and feet like a late night dip in the jacuzzi.

Klein/Silverman Summit - Miami Style

Good friends and fellow art dealers, David Klein and Christine Schefman suggested dinner at Indomania where the specialty of the house is Rijstafel.  Rijstafel means rice table in Dutch.  With 3 types of rice, salmon, white fish, 2 types of pork, beef, chicken and countless vegetable dishes it was a delicious, Indonesian feast by the way of Amsterdam and ultimately Miami.  Additional guests joining us were Michael Rosenfeld, Simonette Hakim and Daniel Cutler.  A fantastic evening was had by all.  We were only missing Manny, Jackie and Jamie.

Seen left to right: Christine, Michael, David, Simonette, Daniel, Sonja.

For more info and reservations, check out their website:
http://www.indomaniarestaurant.com/

Fair #6 - Miami Project

Soldiering on, we visited another new fair to the Miami art fair line up, the Miami Project.  Lots of terrific art, large booths with wide isles and beautiful light.  Art Girls give it two thumbs up.  And two thumbs WAY up to the Richard Levy Gallery who along with their artists were selling work and giving 100% of the proceeds to Super Storm Sandy relief.  Who says the art world is superficial and all about the parties???

And what a groovy cafe area to rest our feet with an air stream trailer and artisinal sorbet. A foot massage would have been very welcome about now but we'll settle for sorbet.

Wynwood Walls - Viva Tony Goldman!

We went to Wynwood to see the new Shephard Fairey mural and have lunch at the Wynwood Kitchen. The Mural is a fantastic love letter to peace, love, art and Tony Goldman, the Miami real estate developer and art lover who transformed the warehouse neighborhood of downtown Miami by inviting street and graffiti artists from all over the world to work there.  The food at the restaurant was delicious and a monumental Shepherd Feiry work in itself.

Art Public

Next stop was the public art component of Art Basel Miami.  Located in Collins Park, adjacent to the Bass Museum, Christine Kim, Assoc. Curator of Contemporary Art from LACMA curated this site-specific exhibition of outdoor sculpture, installation, video and performance art.  It was terrific and here are some highlights.

Lourival Cuquinha of Brasil  has stretched a clothes line across the park in a statement of socio -geographic empowerment.

In his work "Declaration," Dave McKenzie has hired an airplane banner service to fly over Collins Park to propose marriage.  The names are intentionally unisex.  McKenzie intends to point out the social acceptabiity of certain private lives to enter into the public sphere while others are denied entry.  "Will you marry me" becomes "Can you marry me?

"Poets in Miami" by Jaume Plensa  are inspired by philosophers who contemplated humanity and preached to crowds seated atop pillars during the Byzantine Empire. These works are also illuminated at night. 

Teresa Margolles' Untitled is composed of six cement benches cast with water used in the washing of bodies of murdered people in the Guadalajara morgue.  Honestly, it was so hot and humid, Karen and I were quite possibly close to death ourselves at that moment and were happy for the cool cement to rest on.  

Love Stream #2 by Randy Polumbo is an incredible experimental wonderland, part amusement park attraction and part psychoanalytic intervention.  The environment speaks to a world of pleasure and sensuality, emersing the viewer in an exotic and lurid Garden of Eden of voluptuous hand-blown glass flora sprouting from every surface.  As fantastic as it was in the day, it must be amazing at night!  

Fair #5 Untitled

One of the newest fairs is Untitled.  Located right on South Beach, it is a small fair (only 50 galleries) and was curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud.  It hosted an exhibition titled "Lush Life."  In addition to its beautiful location, it was a gem of a fair with a fantastic view!

Aside from the location, we discovered what was possibly our most favorite work of the entire week. These living carpets are the work of Martin Roth.  The artist plants seeds that literally grow into a floral pattern complimenting the floral pattern of the carpets. He explains that "these works are reactions against our relationship to the natural world that has been supplanted by an idea of nature."  We don't know how a private collector could possibly continue to keep it alive but it was quite beautiful, ephemeral and no doubt fleeting.  I don't know if there was an intended connection between women's work and Mother earth but we three Art Girls were mezmorized!

To read more about Martin Roth and his incredible work click here:

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/841276/emerging-grass-grows-and-fish-swim-in-martin-roths-natural

Los Angeles gallery Steve Turner Contemporary presented another highlight from this fair: paintings by Parker Ito, a multi-media and Internet artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Ito questions and explores the viewer's experience and the differences between viewing a work in person in a gallery setting vs. how his work is documented online.  Ito's work is "complete" when a viewer takes a photograph of it using a flash.  These paintings were beautiful before we photographed them, but the flash had an amazing, even eerie effect.  The only record of this transformation remains on our iPhones (well, we can share it here on the blog too).

Photographed without flash

Photographed with flash

The only art fair cafe with a view of Miami Beach.