Bare Tits, Serious Money & Oligarchs
Top 10 Art Basel Miami Beach Moments
Top 10 Art Basel Miami Beach Moments
Art Basel Miami Beach 2013 was showcased from the 5th to the 8th of December 2013. Historical works were showcased from all over the world by both the masters of the Mordern and contemporary art, as well as new pieces by emerging artists. The main exhibition included paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations and with artworks and performances as part of the landscape at Miami’s nearby beaches. Here, in no particular order, are Art Republik’s 10 of the most exciting and controversial happnings at Art Basel Week Miami 2013.
1. Marina Abramović at the VIP opening of UNTITLED
Portrait of Marina Abramović
It is generally understood that when Marina Abramović enters a room, its entire infrastructure becomes warmer, more illuminated, more forgiving. This became a proven phenomenon as she graced the exclusive opening of the UNTITLED art fair, stationed directly on the sand next to Ocean Drive and 12th Street in Miami Beach. The opening saw Abramović unveiling a unique self-portrait, whose sales would benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. UNTITLED opened its sophomore edition with 90 international exhibitors under the technical direction of Jeff Lawson and curatorial directorship of Omar Lopez-Chahoud.
2. Pérez Art Museum Miami opens to the public
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) as seen from Biscayne Bay
Designed by world-renowned Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, and buoyed by a mammoth gift from local businessman and philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez (resulting in the museum taking on his name), the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) opened to the public on December 4th during Art Basel week with a lively set of parties and private dinners. W Magazine hosted a private event for VIPs and museum patrons, while collective Los Jaijackers gave a large crowd disco classics re-worked with Spanish techno flair. The museum program opened with Ai Weiwei’s According to What?, selections from the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, and Project Rooms inhabited by works from Yael Bartana, Monika Sosnowska and Hew Locke. Exceptional leadership during the fundraising and construction process by director Thom Collins and curator Tobias Ostrander has yielded ripe fruit, as PAMM has been universally hailed by visitors and press as a cultural milestone not just for the city of Miami, but for the entire network of American institutions.
3. Audemars Piguet sponsors Art Basel and throws a rollicking party at the Miami Marine Stadium with Emmanuel Perrotin
Kolkoz, Curiosity (2013), Inflatable installation, Image courtesy of Audemars Piguet/Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
For the first time, couture watchmaker Audemars Piguet became a major sponsor of Art Basel and made no secret of it with a sizable booth inside the VIP Collector’s Lounge at the fair, itself, and with a role in throwing one of the most memorable soirées on the fair circuit. Power gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin (who recently opened a space in Central Hong Kong) and Audemars arranged a party celebrating Curiosity, a floating, blow-up Swiss chalet from French duo Kolkoz (Samuel Bartouche and Benjamin Moreau). Using the historic Miami Marine Stadium in Key Biscyane as a backdrop, guests were treated to complimentary cocktails by Double Cross Vodka, fish tacos and ceviche, mini Key Lime pies and chocolate ganache, and (in the true spirit of the Caribbean) Davidoff cigars. A rocking DJ kept revelers dancing on the white astro-turfed barge well until 3am.
4. Kanye West plays ‘art historian’ at a talk with Jacques de Meuron of famous firm Herzog de Meuron and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist
From L to R: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jacques de Meuron, Kanye West, Photo credit: Janelle Zara
Image courtesy of Janelle Zara for Blouin ARTINFO
Surface Magazine’s ‘Design Dialogues’ saw architect Jacques de Meuron (half of the Pritzker Prize-winning firm Herzog & de Meuron) engage with producer, rapper and (now) performance artist Kanye West in discussion, moderated by curator/critic Hans Ulrich Obrist. Amazingly, de Meuron praised West’s musings on Le Corbusier and seemed to offer friendly advice on the dangers of crossover products. If anything, the discussion was anchored by de Meuron’s intensely precise observations on misplaced Art Deco in Miami and Obrist keeping the proceedings in decent form.
5. Art Basel hosts its VIP opening on December 4th with brisk sales and celebrity sightings
Installation view at Art Basel Miami 2013
Image and photo credit: Courtesy of Cheim & Reid, New York
At 11am on December 4th, a select group of collectors, journalists, sports and screen luminaries, curators and high-profile financial sponsors filed into the Miami Beach Convention Center for the First Choice Preview of Art Basel in Miami. This was followed by another preview at 3pm, then followed by the Vernissage (or grand opening) at 6pm. 258 galleries from 31 international locales presented thousands of works by iconic, established and emerging artists across every conceivable medium: painting, sculpture, film, installation, performance and editions. During the early hours of the First Choice Preview, personalities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, Val Kilmer, Jeffrey Deitch, Jeff Koons, Kanye West and Sean ‘P. Diddly’ Combs roamed the booths as serious sales began. Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler and Art Basel Hong Kong director Magnus Renfrew expressed their pleasure at how the fair has continued to develop over the last twelve years, placing a greater emphasis on the input of the local artist community in Miami and South Florida. Standout galleries from New York included dealers Paul Kasmin Gallery, Sean Kelly Gallery, Cheim & Reid and Lehmann Maupin. London galleries Lisson Gallery, White Cube, Sadie Coles HQ, Victoria Miro Gallery, Max Wigram and Vilma Gold were notable entries, as were other galleries from across the globe including Magazzino, David Kordansky, Raebervonstenglin, ZERO (Milano), Standard (Oslo) and Miami’s own Spinello Projects.
6. NADA Miami Beach draws critical praise and fiscal success
Gabriele de Santis [tutto quadra] (2013), marble, acrylic, frame, 42 x 32.5 cm each
Courtesy of the artist and Frutta, Rome
A general sense of teamwork and comradeship pervaded this fair ordinarily known for its nose-in-the-air attitude and aggressively avant-garde works (often frightening away most inexperienced fair-goers and art observers). At the iconic Deauville Hotel, sales for the 2013 edition of NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) Miami Beach occurred so quickly, gallerists would approach artists relaxing in the lobby to aid their various sales tasks. Outstanding entrants included Clifton Benevento, Zach Feuer, The Hole, Rachel Uffner, François Ghebaly Gallery, Frutta, Josh Lilley Gallery, Temnikova & Kasela and Miami-based Locust Projects.
7. Klaus Bisenbach honored at Cocktails & Curators hosted by The Medium Group at The Standard
From L to R: Spike Jonze, Diana Picasso, Klaus Bisenbach, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Amani Olu
Hosted by The Medium Group (comprised of PR ingenues Amani Olu and Larry Ossei-Mensah), MoMA P.S.1 Director and MoMA Chief Curator-at-Large Klaus Bisenbach was presented with the Curatorial Excellence Award in the presence of director Spike Jonze and Diana Picasso among a crowd of hip, young art professionals. The Standard Spa, hidden among the Venetian Islands in Biscayne Bay, provided an ideal setting right on the warm, breezy bay as guests sipped on White Oak Vodka cocktails and were refreshed with Perrier and Zico. DJ Gabby Mejia provided a slick soundtrack as visitors networked as furiously as a bee colony.
8. Cars and art collide: Ferrari, Jaguar, Maserati, Audi and more featured during Art Week
Keith Haring – Image courtesy of Venus Over Manhattan, New York
Wherever you went in Miami during Art Basel Week, you could hear the roar of a V-8 engine (often, even more power than that). Carmakers Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley, Audi, Porsche, Maserati and Fiat were either event sponsors, creative partners or the subject of exhibitions, themselves. Collector-turned-dealer Adam Lindenmann of New York-based Venus Over Manhattan churned out Piston Head: Artists Engage the Automobile with Ferrari at Herzog de Meuron’s 1111 Lincoln Garage rooftop. Works made from and made onto cars from Keith Haring, Richard Philips, Kenny Scharf, Dan Colen & Nate Lowman, Franz West and the Bruce High Quality Foundation were accompanied by Ferrari’s brand new hybrid creation, La Ferrari. Wallpaper* Magazine cooperated with Jaguar to present Handmade: a fusion of applied design furniture, clothing and jewelry created collaboratively between two or more professionals from the automotive, design, fashion and/or art spheres. Audi, as per usual, graced Design Miami/ with an impressive display of their new R8 V-10 Roadster; visitors could listen to the engine performance on a set of headphones whilst sipping champagne.
9. Public Art is revived at Welcome Reception for Art Basel VIPs in Collins Park
Image courtesy of Art Basel/MCH Group Ltd.
Public art has long been a contentious business in Miami, often with city and county commissioners preferring flashy, bright nonsense as opposed to treasured contemporary monuments (take Chicago, New York and London as exemplars). This year, however, excellent taste and audience approval went hand-in-hand as the Art Public sector of Art Basel was unveiled at a private reception on December 4th in Collins Park. Curated by New York Public Art Fund’s Nicholas Baume, the park holds works by Richard Long, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Mark di Suvero and Aaron Curry. During the evening, young male and female models (dressed only in jeans and workboots) pounded away at red, steel cubes, generating a disjointed but steady primal rhythm.
10. Ai Weiwei, Piotr Uklański, Tracey Emin feature at major Miami institutions
Ai Weiwei, Map of China (2008), Collection of the Faurschou Foundation
Image courtesy of the artist
As a city, Miami presented a powerful trifecta of museum shows: Ai Weiwei, Piotr Uklański and Tracey Emin staged major solo projects as PAMM, The Bass Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA Nomi), respectively. Weiwei’s According to What was comprised of a horde of painted porcelain crabs and an entire vertical room stacked almost floor-to-ceiling with tessellating silver bicycles (hung horizontally). Uklański’s show ESL pulls from the acronym ‘English as a Second Language’, providing works that both challenge and embrace notions of identity politics in the forms of dyed fabrics, red-drenched canvases and a giant fabric eyeball sculpture. Emin’s world-famous neon proclamations of innocence, love and longing appear at MOCA in her show Angel Without You. The exhibiton exclusively displays Emin’s neon works all created over the course of 20 years and includes her 1998 film Why I Never Became A Dancer.
The writer Shana Beth Mason is an art consultant and critic. Contributions include Art in America, artillery Magazine, FlashArt International (online), HOUSE Magazine, Kunstforum.as, Lightbox Publishing (Venice), The Miami Rail, thisistomorrow.info (London) and San Francisco Arts Quarterly (SFAQ). She serves as the Miami editor of Whitehot Magazine (New York) and the Miami edition editor of MyArtGuides.
