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!!