Spent the Day at Scope and Art Asia. I thought Scope was really interesting this year. The problem with scope is it's always trying to do that one thing that doesn't make much sense in practice - while in concept it seems great. I'm referring to "The Market". To me "The Market" felt a little bit like someone got really interested in ETSY and thought they would try to put something like that together here. In your web shorthand "The Market" = FAIL.

However I was really happy with the rest on Scope. The galleries had a lot of interesting work and you could really see the divergent approaches these galleries had in the presentation of the show. Maybe this is the thing that really works for Scope - the fact that I think they prefer galleries to bring no more than five different artists. This just makes for a very focused approach. Any way it really works for me.

I saw a few things that I enjoyed - I'm avoiding things you've seen elsewhere or before but focusing on what's new to me.



Sara Carter at Aureus Contemporary. These grid and process based artworks were right at home in my heart. Where I'm usually more of a physical and minimal painter she is just the opposite - Lots of color and a thinness to the artwork that allows her layers to be built up over and over again.

Huang Yan at Exhibit A. I'm fairy new to the Chinese market and artist, I know a few but not a whole lot of them, and I have no idea how well Huang Yan is known, I do know that the work I saw was really strong. A combination of painting, bodyart and photography made for some very interesting viewing.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

I was able to see a rough cut screening of Tamara Davis's upcoming new movie Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child as well as a brief Q and A afterwords. I like JMB and the whole New York scene of the early eighties so I was looking forward to this, but at the same time I was hoping for something really new that I hadn't seen before that helps tear down or build up the mythology. Davis's film, the core of which is her footage shot a year or so (maybe more) before his death is really strong, I just wish there were more of that and less people talking about him.

Davis's goal is to humanize the mythology of JMB and she gets close, and I'm sure will get closer as she continues to dial in the movie, as I stated before - the movie is a rough cut and it's strong. I wonder if I'm too close to the subject matter to see it as a "normal" viewer.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child will premier at Sundance later this winter. I think Miss Davis has some work in front of her.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, movies

Quick hits from Aqua and NADA. I'm always pretty happy with Aqua as a fair and this is a good year for Aqua although I guess it's not as new as it was a couple of years back and as a result it's hard to keep it on the hipster radar - all in all probably a good thing. One disappointment I had with Aqua this year is the fact that they did not have both the hotel as well as the Wynwood locations this year. It appears the Hotel location was given up - I'm guessing economic forces were involved in that decision.

I have a trickier relationship with the show at NADA. While there is a bunch of art I like there, In the back of my head I'm always thinking that the galleries are all on the same note, and that is not a particularly good thing. I'm sure there are subtleties that you miss at the fairs as it pertains to a galleries program but based on what you see, it is becoming a monoculture in a way I'm not overly comfortable with. I really think this is more a fair thing than when you are actually at the gallery proper.

Here are a few things I saw that made me happy.
+ Kris Graves Projects (Aqua) +KGP is a fairly new gallery in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, I first met Kris at Pocket Utopia and have been impressed with his program. He's brought a bunch of his artists down with him this year and it's a great mix of interesting things to see.



Alex Schneideman at Chandler Fine Art (Aqua). Love these. AS makes images that seem like stripped down abstractions but have an added layer of context that brings forth both a documentary approach to a minimal aesthetic, the only question I get with these is where to next?

Randall Scott Gallery (Aqua) The former DC gallery, now in New York has a great overview of his program as well - I was always a fan of his gallery when I was in DC and that continues here

Lori Nix at Miller Bloch (Aqua). I was surprised to see a series of black and white images of hers in the booth. I was caught off guard by these and think these might be worth exploring a bit more. (can't find a photo - sorry)

Damiàn Navarro at Evergreene (NADA). I really like these amazing monochromatic paintings that share sensibilities with Morris Louis. These were starkly different from much of the other work at the fair - and in that stood out even further.



Sarah Crowner at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (NADA). Crowner sews panels together (not unlike Blinky Palermo) and then stretches and paints into these interesting and dynamic paintings. Her use of velvet alone is both surprising and gets far more than you would ever think possible from such a simple use of the material.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

I had the amazing privilege of being invited to an event I'll remember for the rest of my life tonight.

That's a pretty powerful sentence, and I mean every word of it. Earlier today I was at the Robert Miller Gallery looking at the artworks on display at ABMB and was lucky enough to be invited to a performance by Patti Smith to an audience of less than one hundred.

If you've read my blog for awhile you might remember that about a year ago I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Ms. Smith when she was in Washington DC promoting the movie "Dream of Life". In that post I pretty much gushed about my fanboy attitude when it comes to both her music and poetry. So I'll skip that part - but I think you can follow along with that quick description.

I was thrilled to hear her read one of my favorite poems Dylans Dog which was performed in a dylanesque twang as well as a great reading of babeloge (in my mind one of the highlights from her album "Easter". She finished the evening with an acapela version of Because the Night that ended in the crowd singing the chorus.

I think these audio files might be of interest to a few people - they are excerpts (almost complete, but excerpts), but very listenable.

Patti Smith - Babelogue (excerpt)


Patti Smith - Because the Night (excerpt)

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, music, New York

I spent most of the day at art basel, because let's be honest it is the best show in Miami. I know that a few people think that Basel is a bit conservative. I disagree, but whatever. There are a few stories that people are trying to move forward about the fair this year, but really these are so manufactured that they become rather uninteresting. Here are the few ones that people are trying to float out there and well I think it's up to me to refute them.

1. Someone will talk about "Market Transparency". The truth of the matter is Market Transparency is a child's dream (with about the same grasp on reality) as it pertains to real world economics in an industry that is driven by privately held companies.

2. Art Basel is reinventing itself. This just makes me laugh. Yes the fair has redesigned the floor plan, and added a few new amenities. But face it, it's an art fair and commerce is really the name of the game at the end of the day.

3. Sales are up or down. How would anyone know? Someone might get an honest answer from a couple of friends (off the record, of course) So that seems like a great way to gather empirical data on sales during the fair. Remember that part about privately held companies? Now you know what private means.

With that out of the way, here's a few of the things that caught my eye earlier today.

Agnes Martin: I'm not naming the gallery but when an Agnes Martin is sagging on the stretcher - don't put it on the wall here. It's poor form. No I will not name the gallery.

Pace has a Robert Irwin that you could live with in your home (or even your bushwick apartment). The more interesting thing to me was it was made earlier this year. I'll admit it kind of goes against what I thought he was doing lately. Although it's been awhile since we last chatted on the phone (I kid, we don't talk on the phone , we both prefer to text each other). However the fluorescent light based sculpture was strong and self contained.

Christopher Wool at a few galleries. You know I could complain about that but to be very honest here, I love his current work. The more of it I see the more I want to see.

Some German gallery (didn't catch the name) has a pretty big (20 feet?) Anselm Keifer here - which must mean it's a secondary market gallery because AK evidently is seriously anti art fairs. Or at least as far as his work is concerned.

Gagossian brought a bunch of early Warhol's to the party - I'm surprised at this, it seems kind of obvious and can't they sell them all year long anyway? However at Books and Books tonight I got to paw through the Gago produced catalog of Sonebend's Warhol's - that book is pretty amazing. These two items are probably connected, by the way.



Joel Shapiro has a suite of prints at Gemini GEL which I just love. They have been on a real roll lately with the Ellsworth Kelly print last year (see numerous posts on the subject in the blog) and these. Just great artworks. Please do go see them, I know printmaking is kind of the ignored third cousin of the art world these are honestly worth looking at.



Patti Smith at Robert Miller - PS has been taking photographs for just about forever and the images are strong yet personal - like an even more poetic version of Robert Frank.

I don't even want to talk about this (below) at Deitch.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

This is more than likely my last post on the Miami art fairs of this year - thanks for reading.

Snippets of conversations/ideas
I'm in a both at one of the Wynwood fairs and I hear a gallerist complain that as soon as a red dot is placed on an artwork, that artwork is immediately interesting to any number of people coming through the booth. Is this really something to be complaining about? Try pulling out the catalog of that artists work and show those people something...

On Art Basel Miami Beach (and other shows) being slow...
I'll admit the traffic at ABMB for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Saturday and Sunday is kind of like tourist season so I don't count them as much) was slower than in times past, however some other things were missing as well, namely the blue chip artists (you know who they are) only a handful of very minor Warhols, almost nothing of note from the eighties, etc. I understand galleries bringing slightly less expensive works to the show - that makes sense, why fire sale something special if you can hold on to it for five years (frankly the idea of holding on to a multi-million dollar painting for five whole years seems so outlandish - doesn't it? [end sarcasm]). But it still addresses the point - if you are concerned about the sales and the traffic, and you bring mid-line work to the fair, isn't that what you deserve?

Sales are down, but so is the entire world economy - thats a non-story. The question is; why are galleries playing small when this is the time to be big and bold - grabbing eyeballs and new clients from other galleries that are sitting down and complaining. It's business 101 - when all your competitors are creating a vacuum by leaving, something has to move in to take it's place, it might as well be you.

Shoes
By this I mean women's shoes. Miami Beach is usually a great place for shoes and people watching - as it's all kind of wrapped up together - however the shoes that women were wearing this year were simply amazing - not in a slutty way nor in a "I love Sex and the City way, but in a stylistically amazing way. I know that there are people that are turned off by this kind of thing, I am always amazed (and probably a little turned on) at the sophistication of design that is on display in such a relatively simple thing like footwear.

On Art Miami
Evidently there was a bit of drama around Art Miami this year with galleries pulling out or not pulling out - along with whatever legal wrangling might come with all that. What really struck me was how grown up this show was compared to the others. A strong mix of recent work along side more mature work. It's presentation was more like ABMB than any of the other fairs - which is nice. It also really shows the work in a better way than the other fairs. I heard no one complaining here as sales seemed as strong as suspected by the galleries I spoke to.

Showing the same artwork from booth to booth
I was shocked to see so many galleries selling the same multiple so close together in more than one fair. In one case it was literally two booths away. This is a shame - but at the same time are galleries supposed to put away the work? it's unfortunate.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Things I desperately want to own - Aqua Art Fair (Aqua Wynwood version)
Ted Larsen, Bumper at Rule (Denver, Colorado); I'm only just beginning to learn about Ted Larsen's quietly engaging small sculptures. I'll be learning more. By the way, the entire staff at the Rule Gallery booth were some of the nicest people, go see them just for that...


Mingering Mike, Hemphill Gallery; I'm thrilled to see people buying the MM artworks. A wise decision was made to reproduce this work as multiples - that If I'm not mistaken is actual size to the originals. Mingering Mike is the real deal by the way - it's such a great story about how that work was lost, found, returned and now presented that it really should be some kind of movie.

Kevin Finklea at Pentimenti Gallery (Philadelphia); These are just amazing. Reductive images that quietly hold the space they are in and activate the area around them in an amazing way. Probably the most interesting work I had no idea of before I came to the fairs.


Things I desperately want to own - Art Basel Miami Beach (Part 2)
Kris Martin, For Whom... at Sies + Hoke. This is the spectacle of all the fairs, and usually I'm not the guy going wow that's the biggest, shiniest thing - therefore it's the best. In this case a bell that is mechanically driven to fully swing - with out a strike inside to ring said bell is oddly political and universal at the same time. very timely and in this case one of the best things at all the fairs I've seen. (image not from ABMB - but from other installation)

Anselm Kiefer Merkaba at Galerie Thomas; This surprised me because I have known of AK disdain for art fairs for a few years - in fact he does not allow his primary gallery to sell his work at the fairs (a couple of years ago his NY gallery actually rented out a space to show just his work in Wynwood). So clearly this is a secondary market type gallery, still it was a great Kiefer - sized in a way that you could actually live with it (maybe 4 feet tall x 6 feet).

Things I desperately want to own - Scope

Derick Melander Flesh of my Flesh ADA Gallery; Richmond Represent! A great column of folded cloth going from light to dark to light again. Some serious time was logged at fan thrift to be able to find just the right colors and amount of material to get this right - time well spent. By the way, ADA is really showing some great things these days - so keep an eye out for them.

Things I desperately want to own - Art Miami
Doug and Mike Starn Bhudda; I love these images, in fact I really like the entire output that the Starns have been doing since the early eighties. I really don't know why they are not one of those names that people talk about all the time.

Cy Twombly Roman Notes Leslie Toknow; I just love this six part print of CT. It just sings.

Things I desperately want to own - Pulse


Envoy Enterprises; Frankly I don't remember any of the art at EE. I did love the installation, with its baroque wallpaper, beautiful sofa and bookcases. Enormous points for thinking about the presentation in ways that is very different than the standard - the booth was busy as well - I guess that helps also.


Right across the hall from Envoy Enterprises is Bitforms Gallery is showing an r. luke dubois who presented these amazing letterpress images that are styled on vision charts, but with narratives that address current situations.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

I am woefully behind on just about everything I need to discuss from the Miami art fairs week. However I wanted to get this up before too much time was lost. I have a number of posts in the works - along with a few artists I had not seen before. Look for these posts to finish the week.

As far as commerce at the fairs goes, I'll discuss that a little bit later, as far as the shows go clearly some shows are going to be better than others. This is clearly the case, not only between shows but also different venues of the same show. A great example of this is the Bridge fair. The Wynwood version could not have been more different than the South Beach version. At the end of the day the curatorial/selection of this fair was probably right by attendees but more than likely wrong by the galleries showing, Wynwood was the ugly stepchild to the far more interesting South Beach version.

While you had this, you also had two shows that were almost identical NADA and Pulse. I am probably in the minority here, but neither show was all that interesting. The selection (with very few exceptions) seemed like a formula - deadpan photography, Illustrative looking figurative work/messy figurative work, and maybe some ironic approach to abstraction. Yes you can nit pick this general criticism, but at the end of the day it is a dispassionate view of these two fairs. Was the curatorial/selection approach too similar? is the current zeitgeist just that simple? I don't know. But I know that it made for an amazingly redundant viewing experience.

I'm sure you might say the same things about Scope, Aqua (both versions) and Art Miami, but I would not. In fact those fairs seemed like shining beacons compared to the others. One last negative thought; Why would a gallery pay to be in the containers (Art Positions) at ABMB? It has to be the worst viewing experience and I cant imagine much if any commerce happening.

However even after all my bitching about a few of the shows, I remain completely optimistic for the next 48 months of the art world.

I've seen more people discussing the ideas about the work before they even think to ask about price - and this is at a fair which really is closest in nature to a yard sale for the art world. This is going to be the time after the next couple of months where the standard rules start to change. Galleries will actually aggressively start to differentiate themselves from each other and real growth in approach - not growth in sales will help dictate the changes we see on gallery walls. I know this sounds a little bit like some senior year art school fantasy, and maybe it is. But this is the kind of thing we have always talked about wanting - will we be happy if we get it?

At the same time we have to be prepared for more competition between the spaces offered to artists, because some of them won't be around for much longer. Jerry Saltz estimates that 50 - 75 galleries will close in New York in the next few months. I live in Washington DC how many will close here? Consider that there are probably 20 places really showing work you want to see, where does that leave you? Competing for 16 that already have full rosters and will try to cherry pick the best from what goes under. I think it means that artists will have to take control of there own practices like never before.

The reality is this.
Art will continue to be made, because for the people who make art - it's what they do. Why would they stop?
Galleries will continue to sell art, maybe not as much, but it will continue.

We all know that being in the arts is not the easiest thing in the world, we knew that when we started. Let's start moving forward.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Art Loves Film: Herb and Dorothy Directed by Megumi Sasaki.
A lot of interest has been circulating around the collection of Herb and Dorothy Vogel. The story is one of two collectors who against almost unbelievable odds became some of the most important art collectors in the world. Megumi Sasaki has created an amazing documentary which is three love affairs in one, the Vogel's with art, the Vogel's with the artists they collect, and with each other.

Before I go into talking about this movie, I would like to tell you how (before this movie) the Vogel's entered my life.

In the mid-ninties, my wife (Catherine for those of you late to the show) and I went to the show of the Vogel's collection at the National Gallery. We had never heard of the Vogel's, but the story intrigued me. We went to the show and realized the we could do something similar (we were smart enough to realize that we were never going to be in the same league as they were). To say we were inspired is an understatement. I still believe that the two of us bring that spirit to the few works that we do buy. Anyway, I hold the Vogel's in the highest respect.

Back to the movie. This is Ms. Sasaki's first feature length film - and its a good, honest, straightforward film about two extraordinary people. It has a couple of places that seem a little bit too clumsy in the telling of the back story of the Vogel's meeting, but other than that, it is a brisk and enjoyable film. We as viewers watch the love the Vogel's have for each other and the way that is reflected back to the artists and the art they collect. The film is scheduled for release early next year, I think you'll enjoy it.

I was in Wynwood today at Pulse, Scope, and Aqua (among others) I'm still chewing on that just a little bit - look for a big post tomorrow...

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

I'm narrowing my focus on the fairs this year in order to be able to speak with a little more depth on subjects - don't worry, there will still be a bunch of half baked ideas floating around for everyone. I have four basic areas I'm going to focus on; the state of the artworld, the Vogels, Interesting art works, and oddball stories I stumble over.

Things I desperately want to own - Aqua Art Fair (Aqua hotel version)


Lisa Neighbour; LN does these amazing etched or engraved knife blades with text, usually snippets of poetry. This is a horrible description. Represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects.


Mark Todd; MT uses a comic book vernacular to create his small scale artworks. Using Jack Kirby as a jumping off point, his work seems to respect the past, while at the same time look towards the future. I saw his work at Billy Shire Fine Arts


Richard Hell/Christopher Wool; Psychopts. I want all of them - it's like a disease. They are probably available many places however I was treated so nicely by the folks at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller that's where I'd spend my money.


Peter Dayton; The Stella paintings. These are just the greatest things - a month or so ago I spoke of seeing his work at Winston Watcher where he uses old surfboard techniques to work in and around color field artwork - this is similar except it uses the Stella black paintings to the same effect. Glenn Horowitz Bookseller (again)


Lori Nix; one of my favorite artists has a new series she is working on - its a continuation of her most recent work and even more ambitious, but seems to be heading thematically to everyday kind of places, in this case a laundromat. At Miller Block Gallery

Jerry Saltz is very different when you hear him speak
Caught the conversation with Jerry Saltz at ABMB This is the End: The Rising Tide of Money Goes Out of the Artworld and All boats are Sinking love him or hate him, this was a great talk. It has singlehandedly made me happy about the current state of the art world for easily the next 48 months. Essentially we are in the art world not the art commodities world. Art is still going to be made and art will still be sold. The big difference is that the talk about art as investment, art as high priced ornament, etc. will go away and we can actually talk about art again. I'm already seeing signs of this and could not be happier.

I am putting together a larger post on the sales aspects of the fair - I don't expect that to be ready for a few days.

Things I desperately want to own - Art Basel Miami Beach


Mark Tansey; MT looks better and better especially with the post I will have on the big show tomorrow or friday. At Gagosan


Elsworth Kelly; The new EK print at Gemini G.E.L. is just a masterpiece - it's bananas as Rachel Zoe would say. At Gemini G.E.L.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Since I almost never talk about money on the blog, I thought this might be interesting to some. It's from the Art Newspaper ABMB edition.

After Sotheby's sale (the recent auction), financial analysts advised their clients not to buy the auction house's shares.

SK: The analysts understand the art market less than dealers and collectors. To take the Sotheby's sale as an indication of how the entire market is doing would be a mistake. Analysts judge shares by looking at the profits of a company. Because of the guarantees they offer, auction houses can hold record sales and still lose money.

I am not saying there is no relation between the financial markets and the art market, I'm saying there is no obvious relation. It makes more sense to relate the results of the sales to the freshness of the work to the market, the quality of the art on offer and so on. There are a lot of factors.

Also, the auctions reflect a part of the market made up of relatively few artists. At Art Basel we show over 2,000 artists and that number only represents a fraction of the artists the galleries exhibit. So, it is better to take auction results only as one indicator, of course a strong psychological indicator about general confidence in the market, but one which only reflects a small part of the overall art market.

From the Art Newspaper www.theartnewspaper.com

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Lunar Procession (detail)

I am a child of the space program. Ask anyone who knows me, they will attest to this. When I was growing up kids my age were promised space exploration and possibly colonization, as this was truly the newest part of our existence we could explore. We were also feed images and ideas of this; Major Matt Mason, Star Trek, Silent Running, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, Soyuz, Gagarin, Armstrong and Laika. We all know there are thousands more - maybe you had them in your childhood as well. The amazing future that NASA presented me as a child is in no way keeping with the NASA we live with today.

Which bring me to Kahn and Selesnick: "The Apollo Prophecies".
A quick story is necessary to be told about the images before encountering them, although not critical, it does add a degree of deeper understanding to the viewing experience. The Apollo Prophecies depicts, in long panoramic images, an expedition of 1960s American astronauts who arrive on the moon to find a lost mission of Edwardian space-travellers. To the stranded Edwardians, the Americans are long-awaited gods - the fulfillment of prophecies revealed to them many years before.

That is the germane kernel of knowledge needed to enjoy these images to the fullest.

I was recently made aware of these images at the AQUA fair in Miami, they struck me like a version of what might be called "steampunk" (a version of science fiction set in the past with technology built with that days technology - steam engines, radiators, etc, but these could make computers, cars, rocketships, etc.) and in a way they are - however with this fable attached to them they become much more interesting.

The images are panoramic in approach most are 12" X 70" Each image is either a major event or a story cycle that carries you to the next image. Each image is perfectly built so that it feels "real" as well as fake, but fake in the right way. (if that makes a bit of sense). The staging of these with the forced horizon edge curving under the characters of the images with the edwardian looking space gear makes for a experience that you are indeed looking at a smaller planet than earth, so does the fact that everyone is wearing a space helmet of some kind. The built wood and metal structures, organic Edwardian outfits retro-fitted with space helmets and breathing apparatus bring to mind Jules Verne pushed through a science fiction story.

Today I hold a grudge at the future that was promised and eventually denied, These images that rework the NASA mythos are unexpected and brilliant. They might very well be a metaphor for the lack of exploration we are now engaged in and the way we could be seen in the not too near future. Regardless they are a masterful and eccentric approach to narrative and image making.

Please Note: Yes, I am aware of Spaceship 1 and the recent attempt to privatize space, it's really not the same as NASA and the Soviet program of the 60's and 70's. Todays astronauts wear polo shirts and jumpsuits, more importantly they are made to seem smaller than the technology - a unheroic stance and screaming of "the wrong stuff".

For more detail on Kahn and Selesnick, please follow this link

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, DC Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

Isaac Layman: Since we last checked in on Mr. Layman, he has joined the Lawrimore Project in Seattle, and was kind enough to forward a few new images. "Foam Core" (above) is especially strong - it follows the approach that I mentioned earlier this month of multiple images being worked to make a whole. By the way, I've been misspelling his name for a little while now - sorry.

Robert Flynn: RF was kind enough to send me a few images of his previously mentioned lawn objects. Below is "Mr Fancypants".

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami

Let's start with my catching up with yesterday information about Flow.
Arthur Roger Gallery (New Orleans) is showing Nicole Charbonet (top) whose built and developed paintings are a new interest if mine - I became interested after seeing them in ArtPapers magazine and in person they are as strong as they seemed.



Kenise Barnes (Larchmont NT) is showing Robert Flynn (above) who does these amazing charcoal and graphite images of sod. I know this sounds weak - but it's just the opposite. These are amazing images and deserve your attention. A recent work is based on trophies and "boy toys" (my phrase) - well worth searching out. I understand he also does some amazing sculpture of items found in Home Depot - it sounds good so I'm waiting for that.
Miller Block (Boston) is showing Lori Nix who was gotten enough words from me in the last few days. So you know that you should be looking at her work a good bit.

After Flow yesterday, I had even lower hopes for the Bridge show. So I walk in and am handed the second largest and physically intimidating catalog of the last week - its almost the size of "Parabola" that I mentioned on wednesday ok, it's half that size - but its still big -like an old issue of "Interview". Again Flow is probably the best of the fairs after ABMB and I was also surprised by the high quality at Bridge as well. I really did think these two shows were just me too art fairs - I was so wrong. Both of these shows have set the bar very high, in fact it might be that these "late bloomers" are the real future of what is going on in Miami for the next few years as far as growing the orbiting events. Neither one is using the whole location, nor are they tied to any single location giving these events the ability to grow and shrink with almost no downside. Don't get me wrong, AQUA is a great event, however the AQUA Hotel is already full so what's next? Other than a deeper editing in the gallery selection process, I'm not sure.



So lets get to what I saw... Johnnie Winona Ross (above) is showing a painting and a great set of prints at Elin Eagles-Smith (San Francisco) - since we last spoke about JWR - he has developed a waiting list for his paintings - but a few prints are still available. I'm as thrilled with his work as I was last year.
Trillium Press has some great things going forward, including a book of David Mamet Cartoons.
Front Room Gallery (Brooklyn) is showing works by Emily Roz Who creates large grids of images taken from movies and television. Using Polaroid film she is able to mimic the look and feel of images flickering on screen. She also is able to hold up a mirror depicting formula and genre of the american landscape.
PierreFrancois Ouellette (Quebec) is showing John Latour as a re-staging of his show, "Lost Words". Latour is one of four who make up this show - his work occupies a space between Joseph Kosouth and edited FBI documents.
Andrew Edlin (NYC) is showing swiss photographer Mario del Curto (below) photographic the work of architect Richard Greaves. These feel like the work of someone photographing the folk art of the American south however most of these were shot in Canada - and it hardly matters. The images are eccentric and familiar, yet have are fascinating in a way thats hard to ignore them.



Back to AQUA
I meant to spend a few moments with Isaac Layman, however when I as there he was pretty busy with some folks so I put off the conversation with him for a later date. That said, lets touch on his work a little so you can see where my excitement is coming from. IL's work sits in a relationship between the detail and the whole - it shows that the parts are more complicated than the larger whole. These images recall a sort of updated cubism that is all the more fascinating in that he is building images based of many smaller images toward a collective whole. A macro/micro type approach. Isaac Layman is showing at Soil

Platform had a number of nice Jaq Chartier's paintings. These are always a strong and continue to impress me with the vernacular of the image that is built and referenced throughout all of the works.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, Collecting, Drawings, general notice, Jaq Chartier, Lori Nix, Miami

Let's start with the celeb sightings today - frankly I'm tired and need to do the easy stuff first. Jay Z and Beyonce this was a total fluke. I was leaving through the most inconvenient door - because where I was going was right on the other side. I get my bag checked and the next thing I know - I'm looking at this really beautiful woman - with big eyes and the most perfect skin I've ever seen. Pretty amazing, so it took me a few moments to see the bodyguards - and then there was HOV. The amazing thing is that I always assumed that he was like 6'2" in fact he is more like 5'10". 5'10" nicely dressed though. It was then I realized who it was - I'm the worst on that stuff (although reading this week, you'd think it was all I do.



Dennis Hopper I attended the "art loves movies" event last night for a special screening of "Easy Rider".(full disclosure - I had never seen this all the way through before) Hopper mentioned that at the time he was influenced by Allen Darcangelo, Ed Ruscha, and a few other of the california artists at the time. Funny thing you can really see this during the quieter road scenes, which granted act as a transition between scenes, but still the influence is there.

The secret mass transit system I think some people know this, but did you know there is a mass transit system that effectively links all the art fairs together? Here are the basics - every fair has a bus that goes from ABMB to the other events - AQUA, NADA, and ~pulse. So your basically looking at a web of bus trips that emulate from the big show at the convention center. This has probably saved me and a number of folks a ridiculous amount of money in cab fares.



NADA This is a good show. Saw some really interesting stuff here - most of it I had not seem before. Murray Guy is showing Matthew Higgs (above), and other than having a great first name, his work is just great. While reusing book elements, he isolates them and allows the viewer to apply outside thinking to his work. This is not far from the process that William S. Burroughs and Bryon Gysin developed in the seminal book "The Third Mind". Samson Projects (Boston) is showing the classical nudes of Gabriel Martinez. Galerie Olaf Stuber (Berlin) is showing just a couple of photos by Poison Idea. Galleri Christina Wilson, and White Columns had a few really interesting pieces as well.



Flow Art Fair is probably the best of the smaller fairs. I know this is saying quite a little bit. here's the deal, the galleries are positioned below ABMB but above the NADA and AQUA fairs - and maybe this is just me but the quality seems higher than all of the rest (with the exception of ABMB). I was real dubious of the show - thinking it was just a me too type of event. A bought a Lori Nix(not the one above) from the Block Gallery in Boston. I was pretty giddy after that and completely ignored doing any kind of legitimate note taking. So sorry about that - I'm going back Saturday and I'll have some real notes for you then.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, Boston, Collecting, Ed Ruscha, Film, general notice, Lori Nix, Los Angles, Miami

It's going to be one busy town this weekend - I mean even breakfast was insane. at 10:30 on a thursday you would think breakfast was starting to slow - in fact it was just getting busier. Saturday morning this town just might explode. While the town is getting heated, so are some of the major collectors. The Art Newspaper which told the story yesterday about the hotels jacking up prices, the collectors are saying the same about the dealers. Leslie Waddington is quoted as saying, "What are they complaining about? dealers also hike the prices when things are going well."

I'm thinking as the fair gets bigger, the next step will be the larger galleries hosting their own show around the fair - there are enough empty store fronts that a Pace or Gagossian could easily host their own event - catering to clients with a larger inventory, and more exclusivity. This has been the norm in traditional retail for years - shows within shows. I would not be surprised to see the mega galleries take this route at some point - soon.

AQUA Art Fair
Aqua had more ups and downs this year than last. However the highs are higher but the lows are much lower. I would rather not name names - and I will not. That said there are a few galleries here with the stink of trying to be too far ahead of some "avant-garde" curve, which is not going to come. However I would like to point out a few galleries that are really showing a rigorous and exciting program.

Steve Wolf Fine Arts out of San Francisco has a great showing of a number of artists. Soil from Seattle is an interesting artist co-op. Isaac Lymon (image above) has some very interesting photo/collage work - well worth looking into. I hope to interview him one-on-one Saturday. I'll be sharing that conversation as long as my fingers hold out. Other Gallery (Winipeg) is the biggest pleasant surprise on the whole show. This gallery is showing innovative, original and somewhat quirky artworks. Michael Dumontier (bottom) is a real standout to me, with his reductive, simple and engaging artworks. Especially his "matchstick" works. Irivine Contemporary (DC) had a strong showing - especially interesting are the photo works of Kahn & Selesnick (below) whose work is showing in January. This is well staged work but not like a Gregory Crewdson - these have a depth and a feeling of authenticity - not of a fantasy, but of reality. Amy Kaufman at Trawick (SF) I could use a good bit of research on her work as it seemed interesting as well. Sixspace Culver City CA, has a interesting group of artists including Coop, and Glen E. Friedman.



More on AQUA later in the week.

ABMB - Art Positions
There is a type of High Art/ low art game that is being played in the Art Positions containers. Almost all of this work is forgettable and I hate saying this - I'm lead to believe that these are people with new ideas and approaches, however it seemed like it was a well organized attempt to take the mantle of cutting edge art from whoever is currently holding it and I have no idea who that is. Artists have been working on the high/low for quite awhile now - it's not like this is a terribly new idea or even approach. So where are we going?

This dour thought has lead me to think about the long form video that is presented in the "black cube". People rarely "sit" through these videos all the way - so I wonder about it's long term power as an art form. Is there a better way to present this kind of work? I know that art needs to grow, and video is doing this - but where do we go from here? Because the current approach to presentation is about the worst possible.



ABMB
I saw a husband and wife buy a Warhol "Brillo Box" today and it was a great thing to watch - you could see the pride in the collectors buying it, you could see the happiness in the sellers selling it, then a pragmatic question came from the wife. "Is there a way to protect it when we entertain guests?" which was a great question because along with the pedestal that the "Brillo Box" was sitting this sculpture became the perfect height for all their friends to put empty glasses on during a party. So I sat back and listened to the five of them (husband, wife, gallery owner and two assistants) come up with ideas to temporarily protect the box. It was almost like a scene out of a sit com - charming as well as amusing. Still watching the couple buy that piece - beaming with pride - and I'll admit a was proud for them as well.

INK
Ink was a charming and wonderful small show. At the same time it was held in hotel suites - which made it nice not to have to go into someone bathroom to look at the art for a change. The whole fair was different - very polished and sedate - but lacking that go, go, go, sell, sell sell approach of the other fairs. I had a lovely conversation with Diane Villani about how great it was to see Jennifer Bartletts "Rhapsody" at MoMA as well as her beautiful series of prints called "House". If I could I would have bought them there and then. INK just had a happiness and calmness that has not been seen elsewhere.

If I'm not mistaken INK has come about due the Art Basel not inviting the Print House's back to the big show - I do believe that there is a certain school of thought that believes the print arts are second to the other art disciplines. I can see this happening to the book/artist book crowd next - they have been relegated to a hallway out side of the show, but in the same building. The ateliers and books as art crowd needs to be represented under the big tent somehow - lets hope that INK can carry on, but that ABMB will find a way to bring some of the print houses back.

Tomorrow: Flow, Bridge and ~Scope art fairs

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Books, Collecting, general notice, Video, Washington DC

There is such a buzz of excitement around all of Miami - as I was driving down Collins Ave from the airport, I saw at least three other art fairs loading in so there is a good bit of action and expectation in the city right now. Today was just a really busy day - not exactly a day for viewing much, but I did see a great Botero. I don't remember who has it - or for that matter who bought it already - but all I could say was wow. It just stopped me in my tracks It's a painting of a nun who is just exploding with internal conflict with these two little parsed lips desperately holding it all in. Just a fantastic painting.

I spent most of my time just trying not to bump into people - and I realize ABMB really opens tomorrow - so I expect it's going to be really pretty crowded this year.

On the social end of things we had a free concert from Peaches on the beach - she seems a bit past her prime - she would have been great three or four years ago -she's playing at the opening of Art Positions (these are the containers at the beach) but at least the organizers are trying to keep that area young (and she is german) so I can see how the choice was made. Plus she orbits the whole art thing a bit anyway.

Friday night Dennis Hopper is introducing a screening of "Easy Rider" which although Hopper has a art connection, it is still a pretty cool thing

But the big news was my meeting Russell Simmons - granted I only meet him for like 10 seconds but we are talking about Russel Simmons here - totally cool. I'm not even that big a hip hop fan. By the way, RS is one of the founders of DEF JAM records and the PHAT Farm clothing line. He was at a party being thrown in honor of Kehinde Wiley.

I discovered a really great magazine called "Parabol". Each issue is curated like a show, but the really cool thing is the size - folded out its 33 inches tall by 23 inches wide opened its 33 by 46 inches. When its open its like the width of a double bed - the typography just screams off the page and there is no better way to look at art when its reproduced at such a great size. Many of you know I've been looking for issues of a magazine from the eighties called "The Manipulator" it has the same qualities as "Parabol".

That is kind of it for ABMB today, however I was given a program guide for The Pompidou and the big news is that there is a Herge Show starting this December. Herge is probably best known for his comic "Tin-Tin" and who doesn't love Tin-Tin. (note to Jimmy Cohrssen - I want at least one t-shirt from that show)

Tomorrow I'll be visiting INK, ABMB, Aqua Art Fair and the Art Positions - so its a pretty big day.

One last note - hotels here have been charging almost double what they usually charge and people are screaming. Some folks are paying 600 - 700 a night for poor service at a premium price - so my 70 dollar hotel seems like a great value.

Labels: 80's, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Books, Comics

Starting tomorrow, it will be postings of 4-5 days worth of activity at ABMB and assorted orbiting events - I'll even try to have pictures.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, general notice

I know there is a more detailed article about this on ArtNet - however I thought I would note that there are 11 events riding piggy back on ABMB. That's pretty impressive wether or not you hate the whole art fair thing. The most amazing part of all these events is that they are pretty interesting on their own.

BTW, yes I'll be there again this year. I'll try to catch a good many of these events - I'm looking forward to the main attraction as well as Aqua - my favorite from last year. A couple of new things this year sound intriguing - INK Miami and the Bridge Art Fair seem to hold some promise as well.

Are you going? let me know and I'll link to your site - maybe we should have a pop or two as well. My email is mlangley@mediastudio.com

The NADA Fair - Dec. 6-10, 2006
Pulse Miami - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Aqua Art Miami - Dec. 7 -10, 2006
Scope Miami - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Flow - Dec. 6-10, 2006
INK Miami 2006 - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Photo Miami 2006 - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Bridge Art Fair Miami 2006 - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Design Miami - Dec. 7-10, 2006
DiVA Miami - Dec. 7-10, 2006
Pool Art Fair - Dec. 8-10, 2006

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, Collecting, general notice, Miami

Received this this evening via the interweb - I'm a huge fan of the AQUA Art Fair. To me its low key, completely engaging and the best of the Miami fairs after ABMB. Although sometimes it beats ABMB as well. Anyway, below are the galleries confirmed for this year.

Acuna-Hansen, Los Angeles
Allston Skirt, Boston
Bank, Los Angeles
Carl Berg, Los Angeles
Blanket, Vancouver
Lisa Boyle, Chicago
Branch, Durham
Cynthia Broan, New York
Bucket Rider, Chicago
Lisa Dent, San Francisco
Davidson Contemporary, Seattle
eyewash, Brooklyn
Gallery Joe, Philadelphia
Greg Kucera, Seattle
James Harris, Seattle
Eleanor Harwood, San Francisco
Howard House, Seattle
Rebecca Ibel, Columbus
Inman, Houston
Irvine Contemporary, Washington DC
LAWRIMORE project, Seattle
Elizabeth Leach, Portland
lemon sky: projects + editions, Miami/LA
LIMN Gallery, San Francisco
Gregory Lind, San Francisco
Motel, Portland
New Image Art, West Hollywood
othergallery, Winnipeg
Platform, Seattle
Plush, Dallas
sixspace, Culver City
Small A Projects, Portland
SOIL, Seattle
SUNDAY, New York
Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley
Western Exhibitions, Chicago
Western Project, Culver City
Tony Wight/Bodybuilder & Sportsman, Chicago
Winkleman / Plus Ultra, New York
Steven Wolf, San Francisco

More info is available (soon) at: http://aquaartmiami.com/

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

The main hall and this includes the art | nova section is incredibly fluid. I was a little bitter by what was for display on Friday feeling that I only saw a small cross section of the art world on display, Saturday that cross section started opening up and by Sunday it was wide open - and the more I think about this the more it makes sense. Your richest collectors are clearly looking for blue chip artists only and really thats the initial market for many. After the dust settles in about 40 hours or so things start getting replaced on the wall and then (for me) it starts to get more interesting. Sunday proved to be no different.

Great Richard Prince's are everywhere. I'm sorry that I never had money in the eighties to buy what I thought was great - the Prince photo I passed up (cowboys) then for $1300 was on sale at one gallery for $795,000. However the other work of his that is available is just terrific, people are clearly going to go home happy from both sides of the sale. I also saw a lot of J M Basquait works, these however are clearly not of the same caliber as the Princes that are available. I remember reading 4 or 5 months ago about how the higher end of the Basquait market was tapped and that collectors were holding on to them tightly - I didn't really think about it then - but its clear to me now.

A surprising great William Wegman is available from Paula Cooper (I think) "Vacationland" is a wry look at US car culture and family vacations across the country - It's practically a map of old and new theme parks and vacation venues. Its big as well - maybe 7 feet tall x 12 wide (I'm guessing). It's densely populated and ambitious I always liked his early video work but never was a big fan of the watercolors - but this is quite the piece.

Barbara Mathes had a great selection of work - "Atmosphere" by Neal Jenney (always a favorite painter of mine) Vik Muniz also was represented with a version of Manet's "Haystacks" done in Pantone color chips.

After thoughts about ABMB: I would go again - the energy around the entire city is just fantastic. ABMB, along with AQUA (a full on success in my book) and ~pulse art (very strong) as well as a million things I did not do makes the art world just crackle with energy and most importantly culturally relevant.

Here are the stats for ABMB:
Museum Groups: more than 100
Journalists: 1000 (bloggers don't count)
UBS Clients at fair: 3000
Attendance at vernissage: 6000
Net Jets: 185
Value of art shown: 2,000,000,000

Last note: I've read a few places that "hold is the new sold" it's clear that with all the excitement that some people hold back on pulling the trigger - I'd love to hear more of this - or will galleries just say how great the show was and leave it at that?

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

scope MiamiI was dubious of Scope earlier this month but after my amazing day at AQUA - I thought - what the fuck lets give it a try. I am glad I did. It looks to be about 70 galleries - 3 from DC (Curators Office, Irvine, and Numark) In all fairness to the DC galleries I will leave them alone and focus on the things that were new to me, that I liked.



Lisa Sigal at Frederieke Taylor Gallery - to me easily the best work at SCOPE. These are collage works from her usually site specific work, however they hold the wall so well are are so well defined that it's clear to me that they would scale with no problem. Lots of transparency, lots of clear strong soft color, I expect to see more of this in the future.



Rana Rochat at Fay Gold Gallery - really strong encaustic, really personal feeling abstractions great color and that encaustic feel - I would have paid 10 bucks just to see these today. Two or three of FGG's artists were using wax - I'm sure this is just coincidence, however I thought it was interesting to note.

Annette Davidek at Littlejohn Contemporary these are really interesting layered oil on wood, building organic shapes but still painterly. Lots of layers build up to lots to see but the finished work is still on the thin side - I'm not a huge "thin paint" fan but this works for me. go track her down.



Other interesting work at Scope is: Carlos & Jason Sanchez (above) at Christopher Cutts Gallery, Lisa Kereszi at Yancey Richardson,



One complaint: I've bumped into William Betts work 3 or four times now - with the exception that is smaller in scale it continues to seem like Gene Davis's work - If I'm missing something would someone be so kind as to fill me in? (Gene Davis below)



ABMB
Remember my complaint yesterday about how all the galleries used the same pool of artists? It sure didn't feel that way today. Clearly things got sold and new stuff came out - it was like a brand new art mega fair. Here are my highlights:



Eric Doeringer at Flash Art - OK I bought one. A bootleg On kawara (July 1,1974) in my brief conversation with him I asked how the brush with the law last week went - he said it's the best thing that could ever have happened. I agree in the 15 minutes I had to wait to buy my painting he sold 6 or 7 to the person before me and the gentleman after me wanted to buy 40 of them. Smart move for Flash Art for being so timely. For more info of Eric's brush with the law follow this link



Allen Ruppersberg at Christine Burgin. Isnt this really all I need to say? No? OK, I'm a big AR fan and have been since college. He has a problem with some galleries that he doesnt really do the same thing from year to year - I have no problem with that, but I'm sure he's harder to market that way. CB is showing drawings and sculpture and you should go see them right now.

Stuart Davis at Salander-O'Reilly. They are showing two paintings both of black lines on a cream field of a couple of his best known works. I didn't get a chance to talk to the gallery, but I thought the date was after the paintings I knew - I should do some more sleuthing - but I probably wont. Interesting regardless.

Saw a few really good Robert Ryman's - I was particularly interested one and just for the hell of it asked the price. "It's a 12 x 12 paint on fiberglass of some sort and it cost $195,000 dollars" the lovely gallery assistant said. Oh yeah, thats a direct quote.

Random notes:
Bumped into and spoke with Todd Oldham - A hell of a nice guy barely begins to describe him. What an excellent human being.

Had a nice although brief conversation with Max Protech - we have two degrees of separation since we both worked with Nancy Drysdale. Short but enjoyable - it's nice to be invited to sit and just chat - no "I'm too busy, are you buying?"

Perrier Jouet is the official champagne of ABMB it costs $12 by the glass from the cart ladies.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

Lets start with Aqua Art Miami.

This is a huge success as far as I"m concerned. It's casual and comfortable as well inside and outside. It is a hotel show so everyone has to use the space to its best advantage - and most do. 35 dealers from mostly the west coast but there is a good sampling from other parts of the country as well. In a conversation I had with Brett Shaheen (Shaheen Galley, Cleveland, OH) he told me that his show had already paid for itself - and thats a great thing. Let's get to the art.



My favorite painter of the aqua show is Jaq Chartier. Showing at both Elizabeth Leach and Platform. Chartier's work is abstract but plays along the edges with science testing -or for that matter pool water testing. layers of color, bloom, bleed and run (but not too much) while sitting on a soft white background.



Susan Dory impressed me quite a bit as well. Represented by Winston Wachter (New York and Seattle), Dory feels like a new moderninst - I mean that in absolutely the best way. Acrylic on board in a mostly horizontal presentation. Thick layers, warm colors - I'm sure these are not approved by the "crappy painting" set - big mistake. Speaking of crappy painting - the new Julian Schnabel paintings just suck (I'll do more on this at another time).

Some other quick hits at AQUA were - Inman Gallery was showing Darcy Huebler, Gallerie Anne Barrault is showing Eric Nehr, and Howard House is showing Robert Yoder - all worth checking out.


Art Basel Miami Beach

OK, here's the deal - this is pretty overwhelming on first glance - and I'm only speaking of first glances today. When you start looking at most of the galleries you start to notice that there is definitely a "top ten" of artists being shown. after these ten are shown in about 35 galleries you start to see the next 40 or so artists that make up the bulk of most of the rest of the exhibits. Again please note: I'm not talking about the containers or any of the satellite shows - I'm talking about the main rooms.

All this said I found a couple of interesting things.

Christian Marclay - full disclosure I bought a small edition piece of Marclay's today. I think he's great and so should you.
Eric Beltranrepresented by OMR (Mexico City) I will elaborate more later in the week.
Art Papers magazine has a new design
Karl Haendel (Anna Helwing Gallery) has some great ideas.




Erick Beltran (above)

See you tomorrow...

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach

It will be all things ABMB. I'm there Friday, Saturday & Sunday look for daily updates as well as coverage on the Aqua Art Fair - right next door to the cheap-o hotel I'm staying at. I'll be reviwing some work as well as interviewing a few galleries, all in all it should make for some interesting reading.

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach