"Fear of Being Yourself" by Edgar Plans at Aurora Vigil-Escalara de Arte (Photo by Irene Sperber)
A banner year of art fairs globally: 377 major exhibitions were held in 2024, in 2019 there were 408 so we’re darn close to most-saturated yearly fair status.
With Art Week encroaching, Whole Foods shoppers on Miami Beach were audibly grumbling about the traffic by Monday, a glut of shoppers and a general energy rush washed over pretty much everything. My early Sunday morning beach walk ponied up a shocking amount of people meandering the elephant exhibit on the sand by 8:00 a.m. Carlos Betancourt’s reef sculptures shaped like starfish held court just below the elephants. If you don’t have a photo of yourself with the herd of elephants you are the only one in this postal code, so get on it. Free and open to the public. The Great Elephant Migration is an ecotouring exhibit of 100 pachyderms on the beach until Dec. 8 (at 36 and 37th Streets).
At left, "Yellow (and Gray not shown)" by Jae Ko at C.Grimaldi Gallery; At right, "Pistia (Forged Steel)" by Junko Mori at Adrian Sassoon, London (Photos by Irene Sperber)
Art Miami kicked off on Tuesday for a select audience of worldly collectors and Press. Though there were exhibitions we’ve seen in years before, this show still presented a good deal of compelling work to keep one entertained and informed. I tend to gravitate to the South Korean artistic sensibilities for reasons of great detail, soft yet powerful presentation. There was plenty of intrigue to keep me circumnavigating the aisles.
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I stood in front of Miami’s Oliver Cole Gallery at Art Miami waving my arms tastefully as the little flip-discs moved on a person-sized art piece in concert with my movements. I felt a little dumb, but stood there methodically flailing anyway.
(”Interwoven Existence” can be found at Booth AM 130 and 131)
Art should encourage discourse. A gallerist at Aurora Vigil Escalera Galeria de Arte and I engaged in several minutes of back-and-forth ruminations regarding the piece titled “Fear of Being Yourself.” Jump starting thought and reaction is part of the “draw” (pardon the pun) in witnessing the diversity of art speak. Two people randomly participating in thoughtful interchange brings us into each other's sphere in warp speed. Reactions and sharing ponderings is key to a successful art fair experience.
Speaking of reactions. There was a a piece taking aim at that banana taped to the wall that caused such a kerfuffle several years ago at Art Basel. Everyone went mad over this ode to gallery-absurdist-art theory. It irritated me since art is supposed to evoke a reaction and here we all were reacting all over the place.
It accomplished the task... ergo, a successful art piece?! I was extra annoyed then. There is, let’s call it “comment art” in this year's Art Miami of a nonedible banana made to resemble a hand grenade. Several of us stopped to speak of the original and there we were off and running with more dialogue discussing that darn banana being a jumping off place to think about where the world is heading.
“Bang-nana” by Mr Debonair can be seen also at Oliver Cole Gallery.
At left, Shearling chairs from The Future Perfect Gallery (Photo by Irene Sperber); At right, Vigna Sasso Brooch (Photo courtesy of Despina EC Gallery)
Art Miami is awash in butterflies fashioned in paint, paper and steel cut-outs, video . . . did I leave anything out? Butterflies represent the journey of self-discovery, change, freedom and lightness. So yeah, maybe we do need more butterflies . . .lots of them.
The degree of thought and follow-through in the area of folding paper works kept me enthralled. There were a number of pieces in the genre on display. Jae Ko (C. Grimaldis Gallery) is one of the most fascinating of the manipulated and dyed paper genre as well as George Sebastian Sachi of Maison D’Art, an extremely savvy artist from Bangalore with cut-outs of pristine white archival paper into mind-numbing delicate and complex pattern cutting, layering and placement technique.
Design Miami has its own cut-out artists. This time Junko Mori from Adrian Sassoon Gallery, London holds her own with a stunning forged steel sculpture. The Design Miami tent (across from the Miami Beach Convention Center and the Botanical Garden), is showing a bit of fuzzy furnishing this year. I was waiting for everyone to catch up. I’ve been buying my fuzzy sofa pillows for years. European shearling easy chairs beckon the fair-weary crowd while wicker hands cling to the armrests of several pieces just in case you miss the part about where to lay your own body parts.
From the merely curious non-furniture furniture to the sumptuous and/or practical, Design Miami stretches the idea of design to live by into an entirely different concept. If you’re not living your art, it’s time to visit Design Miami and pick up your game.
ART MIAMI
When: Wednesday, Dec. 4 through Sunday, Dec. 8. Hours, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: One Herald Plaza, NE 14th St., and Biscayne Bay, Miami.
Tickets: $65, one day, $165 multi-day; senior 62 and older and student 12 to 18, also groups 10 or more, $42.50.
Info: www.artmiami.com
DESIGN MIAMI
When: Wednesday, Dec. 4 through Sunday, Dec. 8. Hours, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach.
Info: www.designmiami.com
