Here’s a link to a short article in The Art Newspaper for anyone interested in the state of satellite fairs during the upcoming Art Basel Miami Beach and other events. Despite the loss of AIPAD and Flow, from what I’ve heard there’s still more going on in Wynwood this year than ever.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, you [...]

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I’d like to thank everyone who tuned in to Art Squeeze for the sights and sounds of Miami Basel 2007, brought to you by our unofficial corporate sponsors: Dr. Scholl’s, Tylenol (Extra Strength), and more than a dozen Mexican and European breweries.
On a final Basel-related note, here’s an interior shot from Deon Blackwell’s exhibit, Body [...]

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Did I unknowingly save the best for last? Maybe.
New York galleries Pierogi and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts and London’s Hales opted to go it alone (as the first two did last year), renting a Wynwood warehouse for their own exhibition rather than joining one of the fairs.
As a result, the three galleries were each able [...]

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A big, collective “don’t bother” to these three fairs of emerging and unrepresented artists. Not to be Debbie Downer, but if you’re going to skip something, this is it.
I will give a shout out to Steven Gagnon, whose border cruiser projection vehicle plays a video interview with an illegal immigrant in its backseat window as [...]

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This fair takes place in the Design District just north of Wynwood in a lovely building called the Moore, which houses many small design and creative services offices. By Sunday I was tempted to skip it, but C. Emerson Fine Arts’ Lori Johns recommended stopping by. Very glad I did.
I’ll just say, London’s Albion Gallery [...]

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If you love contemporary art, you’ve hit the jackpot at both of these fairs. Pulse is the one on everybody’s radar; all the cool kids (read, galleries) are here, and the crowd knows it. In contrast, visitors could practically hear a pin drop at Aqua Wywood even though—in my opinion—the work was as good. Pulse [...]

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In my humble opinion, Photo Miami propagates an unfortunate misconception about contemporary photography, which is that if an image is printed as a glossy Lambda print, mounted on aluminum, or coated with resin, it must be art. Oh, and it’s gotta be big, too.
That dismissive comment aside, there were some interesting pictures lurking amid the [...]

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Kurt is going to kill me, but honestly, there’s not much worth seeing at Pool Art Fair except for him. So let’s dwell on him…

Here’s Tampa-based artist Kurt Piazza looking fabulous as ever in front of his wonderful graphite “organic compression” drawings. Kurt also showed a pair of hypnotic abstract videos with great soundtracks and [...]

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Now this is what I drove down for! Aqua rocks.
Aqua Art Miami takes place in the approx. 30 rooms of the Aqua Hotel, which is arranged around a central courtyard and pool. (This year, there’s also an Aqua Wynwood, which I haven’t been to yet.) Tons of good stuff here. I thought the best [...]

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Local collector Stan Storer suggested that I go to Miami Ink to see a series of woodcuts about the Iraq war by LA artist Sandow Birk. Boy, am I glad I did.
Birk is well-known for his paintings based on historical works that deal with contemporary issues. This series of prints, The Depravities of War– inspired [...]

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These two satellite fairs are next door to each other in boutique hotels on Collins Ave. Flow is much smaller than Bridge, but both have an interesting array of work by emerging and established artists shown by younger and/or smaller galleries. Hotel rooms are temporarily transformed into white-box gallery spaces, and hallways can get crowded, [...]

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That’s right. Art Basel Miami Beach—the main event, the big banana, el grande enchilada, the triple Venti mochaccino of art—is pretty much a giant snore. Aside from the feeling that you can’t not go to ABMB because it’s the hub of everything going on here this week, I see no real reason for spending significant [...]

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