Charleston Represents

My trip to Miami had several motives. My main goal was to see the art, of course, but I am also lucky enough to work for an artist who was showing in Miami. My boss, Benjamin Hollingsworth, was showing several pieces in a show entitled Voyeur at a new luxury condominium on the corner of Collins and 21^st Street. So on Friday morning Kristy Bishop and I headed down to Miami Beach to help hang the show.

Luckily the opening later that night was awesome! Benjamin, Kristy, and I were a little worried after spending the afternoon just asking for bad luck—as a part of Ben’s installation, we broke mirrors and walked under ladders all afternoon! Whew! Here’s a few shots from the installation and the opening (sorry, the light’s not so great):

The before shot: installation

Other works at Voyeur; triptych by Ben Olson

The after shot: Kristy and Shelley lighting the candles at the opening

And I was happy to see there were other artists representing for Charleston! In addition to about 10-15 artists I spotted from Charleston in Miami, I knew that Scott Debus, another Charleston artist, was out there somewhere with a moving truck full of work, but we hadn’t found him yet. One night, while walking through the Design District of Miami, we stumbled upon Scott, putting his work out there on the busy streets. Scott had rented this huge moving truck and turned it into a mobile gallery. The shear spectacle was drawing in a huge crowd, with Scott’s paintings on wood creating a mural alongside the truck and a small entryway at the top of the truck’s ramp. It was like going into a fun house, and the inside was even complete with Scott’s fun house mirrors! He was selling a lot of work and had a line to get in. I call it a success! And even though Scott mentioned he had been there almost 24/7 all week and was maybe a little exhausted, I could tell by the smile on his face that he was having a great time too. All in all, it was a great vibe for viewing work. I talked to Scott recently about his experience and he suggests we all (Charleston folks) pack up our moving trucks and take over an entire parking lot in Miami next year. The mobile gallery is on—maybe we can make it an entire mobile art fair…who’s in?!

OHWOW!

All over Miami, there are countless openings and private art parties. On my second night in Miami, I went to the OHWOW opening in the Design District, entitled It Ain’t Fair, a clever play on the show’s separation from the convention hall style fairs. OHWOW has been putting on the It Ain’t Fair show since its establishment in 2008. The show featured works by Barry McGee, Neck Face, and photographer Tim Barber. The work tends to be a bit edgier and more like street art, what OHWOW refers to as progressive contemporary art. Like in much of the Design District and Wynwood areas of the art fair, this style of work and alternative setting draws a greater number of young people. It is nice to see that type of crowd viewing work by young and emerging artists and it’s a bit of a relief from the way the main convention can feel a bit stuffy, crowded at times with older, wealthy collectors buying art from fifty years ago.

And some of the work was really great:

Michael Genovese's highly reflective sculptures are reminiscent of ancient texts, like Hammurabi's Code

I love Aurel Schmidt's Prismacolor drawings/collages!

Visitors view photographs by Julia Ziegler-Haynes.

This little guy sat on top of a crate labelled and ready to go to the MOMA!

Sculpture by Lucien Marc Smith

Art at the Aqua!

4:00 PM on Saturday: After a couple hours at the Convention Center and an amazing lunch at La Sandwicherie (a great sandwich, walk-up, outdoor, counter-like place, that a friend recommended), we stumbled onto a little gem on our way back to feed the meter. Almost three hours later (whoops!), I was more than happy we had the detour—stumbling upon Aqua Art Fair!

The intimate setting of the fair, located inside the Aqua Hotel on Collins Avenue, instantly puts you at ease. The hotel rooms themselves are completely cleared out and each one is then occupied by one of forty-four galleries. The feeling is more intimate and far less intimidating than the main fair. The vibes are just good, with lights in the trees, lounge chairs, a hot tub, and a bar all in the courtyard surrounded by two stories of the renovated hotel, which still holds on to its mid-century charms.

And the art: AWESOME! Most of the galleries are from smaller cities in the U.S. and Canada (well, smaller than NYC or Berlin, like at Art Basel), like San Francisco, Philadelphia and even Tucson. And there are still those big city showings like NYC and Toronto—all in all, a great mix of work from everyone showing. In addition, most of the gallery owners and docents were welcoming, ready to answer questions, and offered information even before you asked.

The work shown reflected the broad range of mediums and ideas that artists working today are using. There was a lot of work that used unusual materials and surfaces like Jessica Drenk’s toilet paper sculptures or Gary Emrich’s photo transfers onto old paintbrushes (below).

And I was super happy to see a large number of encaustic works, including some beautiful work at Conrad Wilde Gallery and at Blunt Collective/AWOL Gallery!

These works and the galleries felt more in reach as a young artist. I left with the feeling that I could actually make it in the art world or be in a fair like this in the (maybe?) near future. I even met and talked with one of the artists who was nearby as I admired his work, which I loved and totally related to my own style of painting—Matthew Schofield.

The evening ended after almost three hours of careful browsing with my feet soaking in the hot tub in the courtyard and talking to new friends…the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon of art in Miami. And then it was back to real-life duties, like that meter and dinner, which would be the leftovers I was carrying around in a bag for a few hours!

And now for what I think was the best of Aqua (these pictures are by me and you can click ‘em to make ‘em larger!):

Carrie Seid, aluminum and mylar covered in silk; can ya see it?

Jaq Chartier, acrylic, gesso, and stain on panel

Amy Casey, Circling Wagons, 2008, acrylic on paper

I love how it's completely made up of shades of browns!

Megan Whitmarsh's embroidered creations!

Eamon O'Kane, ink on paper

This artist also does beautiful architectural paintings and sculptures.

Lauren DiCioccio had a number of works at Jack Fischer Gallery, all stitching including an entire deck of hand embroidered cloth playing cards. I loved these books, where every word is carefully stitched over!

Of course I was stopped in my tracks by this moon by David Joron. Ah, the likeness is astounding...

David E. Peterson

Diem Chau makes these delicately embroidered organza pieces and then stretches them over China bowls and plates.

Carved wooden coat hangers by Maskull Lasserre--there was a whole set!

Casey Roberts takes the chemicals for developing Cyanotypes and uses chemical reactions to create the colors in her paintings. I have no idea how this works but the result is amazing and beautiful!

Sidnea D'Amico

Rocky Grimes, I took home a little t-shirt souvenir screen-printed by this artist. Yay for inexpensive souvenirs that are also art!

Marcia Perello Ramos

Welcome to Art Basel Miami 2010!

So I had to take a week to recover from the mental and physical exhaustion and visual overload that was my week in Miami. Now that I have had time to digest it all and having just unpacked today, I’m ready to review my very first Art Basel!

I tried to do the best possible job of planning for this year’s Art Basel Miami, especially seeing as I was a “first-timer.” I had researched the festival online, buying my tickets way in advance and viewing the schedules of lectures, events, and artist/gallery lists. I had even studied the map of the Convention Center and friended Art Basel Miami on Facebook to keep myself up-to-date. Nothing could prepare me for the sheer size of the main fair as well as the great number of other fairs. Basically, the art world takes over the entire city of Miami.

The word of the week was “overwhelmed.” I heard it from all of my friends who were there and overheard it from other fair-goers: “This is amazing, but I’m sorta overwhelmed.”

The first day of the fair was going to be all Convention Center. What I really should have planned was how to divide and conquer this ginormous space! I simply weaved in and out of galleries being distracted by something shiny or colorful around the corner, completely away from the aisle I was attempting to finish. And all the while, I’m quickly trying to jot down names and notes on works that I love.

After a few hours at the Convention Center, my friend and fellow artist, Kristy Bishop and I quickly drive over to NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) Art Fair. The plan here is to run through really quickly, see what it’s about, and come back another day. An hour later, we decide it’s totally worth a complete visit and save it for another day (more on that later).

So, here are the highlights and my faves from the first day at the main fair:

Cy Twombly, Gaeta, 2004 at Greve

(image courtesy of Christie's online)

Vija Celmins at McKee Gallery, NYC (both pieces above)

Huge and beautiful Hiroshi Sugimoto photograph, Ohio Theater, 1980 (my favorite photogrpaher!)

The next three are all at Marlborough Gallery:

Claudio Bravo, Triptico azul y verde, oil on canvas, 2010

One of several self-portraits by Stephen Conroy

Raised acrylic painting (yes, all the little people come off the canvas about half an inch) by Juan Genoves

Kate Shepherd, Stones, Red Ache, enamel and oil on panel, 2010

(image courtesy of kateshepherd.com)

Erik Benson, Brownfield Playgrounds, acrylic on canvas, 2010

(image courtesy of oneartworld.com)

Jan Fabre's beetle shell and stuffed bird sculptures at Magazzino

Andrew Dadson's scraped paintings

(image courtesy of contemporaryartdaily.com)

Oh, and our first night in Miami (Dec. 1^st) was also awesome and the best possible start to the week: seeing Metric live on Miami Beach with hundreds of others and bumping into some good folks from Charleston while running about on the Beach!!

More coming soon, along with come pictures of artwork and the fairs that I actually took!!