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The Tropical Art Carnival: Introducing Art Basel Miami
- Author: Vivianne Lapointe
- Posted on: Friday December 4, 2009 at 12:00 PM
- Filed under: exclusive, art basel, miami
"Miami Beach is where neon goes to die" is a quote by famous American stand-up comedian & satirist Lenny Bruce. Indeed, Miami's reputation is all about partying in the limelight, latino heat and very, very short skirts (of various neon colors).
However, for last ten years, the city has been morphing into a new underground art mecca as well as a mainstream cultural destination, thanks to the venue every December of Art Basel Miami Beach, the most important art show in the United States, and its multiple satellite art fairs.
So, for once, in addition to hanging out on the beach 'til the break of dawn, people come to Miami to see, make, sell or buy art. The extravaganza around the fairs is getting bigger every year. The local artists, mostly located in the Design District, are setting new exhibition standards in putting together really outstanding, out of the box shows.
Next week, after we have digested all the content that is being pushed down our throat way too fast right now, we'll post a few more articles so you can get a really good feel of what trends are emerging from this year's fairs & which artists are to watch.
In the meantime, here's a preview:
Does this face look familiar to you? Kehinde Wiley’s monumental portait of Michael Jackson is shown at everybody's favorite booth, Deitch Projects.
As part of the tradition, artists and visitors put on their best outfits (!) and start drinking champagne at 11h00 am!
We dig pieces like this one below with funny play on words...
The recession may pretty much be over and collectors, in a much brighter mood than last year, but sales are still slow, according to an article published in The Art Newspaper.
One trend noticed this week so far in galleries worldwide: artist have been creating very strong, beautiful collages and mixed media pieces.
Larger-than-life pieces with primary colors are in style this year.
Several monster-inspired sculptures, reminescent of hit movie Where the Wild Things Are. Thankfully, no vampires or warewolves anywhere in town... so far! ;)
Watch out for more coverage next week!
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“I abolutely L O V E Michael with my heart -beat ... yet I'm certain he would not mind at all if I picked the D E S E R T artpiece....most sincerely...... e'er so much....”
