Art Basel Miami – Part 3

So here we all are: gallerists, dealers, artists, collectors and viewers alike in Miami Beach, waiting to be surprised and inspired by this year’s fair. But as much as I want to I am not. Not much by the art nor by the 20 dollars for a glass of champagne (and that was already the reduced price). Lots of Damien H. or Andy W. …walls and walls of that and simply not much new. I overhear the worries of some of the young gallerists in the Art Basel Nova section as they debate the possibility of a financial debacle so they do not manage to sell 2 pieces. Not very hopeful, I can understand them and yet they are young, hungry and want to succeed and so they try, which I prefer, rather than the full and comfortable high price segment galleries that cannot be bothered to even get up or greet you as you enter the booth. For now I just want to leave and get out. I grab a quick cab and head over to PULSE. And I am so glad I did. I am super surprised how much this fair has grown on all levels. Everything is a bit better, smarter and super professional. The location is beautiful and the galleries are well chosen. My favorites include the Swarovski Crystal Cats by Terri Thomas and the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery from New Orleans. We also meet friends such as Jeremy Fish at the Mark Moore Gallery.

There is one piece that inspires me tremendously: it’s the sculpture by Laurel Roth from San Francisco represented by Schroeder Romero & Shredder, a handmade peacock sculpture made out of hair clips, eye lashes and fake fingernails plus some hand carved walnut wood heads. She collects her materials in dime stores and cheap beauty supply stores. Vanity pieces of today’s society build to show these ferocious birds that forever have been associated with pride and cocky self centered attitude fighting one another. Beautiful.

Between Pulse and Zooom, another fair that focuses on art from the Middle East, I love Gallery Robischon from Denver that represents a young Iranian artist who focuses on photographs of blurry faces and yet crystal clear eyes with a hypnotic sometimes haunting stare, based on his experience growing up in a country where women have only their eyes to communicate their feelings, desires and hopes.

I am downing a bloody mary, which is offered for free, plus an additional apple scone and head back out to visit SCOPE. It feels a bit like a fast food meal taking in all these fairs in only 3 days, but there are 8 more to go… And so I arrive at SCOPE. I must say it’s better than Scope in Basel, Switzerland which we attended, but still very empty halls. However, I ran into Corey Halford, had a great chat with Richard Scarry and can see one of the Stoupakis paintings, some new Melissa Foreman, Kukula and Mia. Some booths down at ADA gallery I fall in love with a Morgan Herrin sculpture, a wooden knight.

Eli Klein Fine Art from NYC and Beijing is showing some Shen Shaomin bone sculptures that I personally think are pretty amazing, not to forget the beautiful wire sculptured cello by Shi Jindian shown at Angela Li’s gallery Contemporary . Now I am done done done and as I have to attend the NADA Party tonight (the New Art Dealers Association) I must head home, cook a huge amount of spaghetti and sink into slumber for a couple of hours.

Much more soon !!!