OnTheCusp.org

Back from Miami

Ok, I first thought I would tell you in more detail about all the things that took place while in Miami but after writing several paragraphs I decided to take a different approach. Less editorializing and more bullet points for faster read. After all, the longer piece was starting to bore me while reading it. So here it goes.

Thursday
Flew into Miami Thursday morning, checked out the Aqua art fair and Bridge art fair. Both were great though I found Aqua the easiest to navigate of all the fairs. Finally met gallery owner and blogger extraorinare, Ed Winkleman (much younger than I had pictured). Wonderfully nice guy. Turns out his gallery is now showing the work of Ivin Ballen an artist whose work I have liked for awhile now.

Friday
Started the day off at the Rubell Collection. One hell of a nice space to look at art in, with some wonderful pieces. Oh, and Keanu Reeves was looking at some art there too. Later we hit NADA, Pulse, and Scope. I think NADA was the stand out of these fairs, and we saw David Byrne checking out some art.

Saturday
Off to see the main fair, Art Basel Miami. So much art, so many people. This fair started off really strong for me but towards the end I was either feeling overloaded or just less interested in a lot of the secondary market works being shown in the back portion of the fair. After we left there, we checked out Ink (an art fair of print publishers and dealers) then off to see the Art Containers on the Beach (for me the idea of these was much better than the results), later that night we headed back to Bridge then off to Flow. So much art at this point that I was feeling overloaded yet still inspired. Oh and saw David Byrne once again while we were eating at Jerry's Famous Deli (Open 24 hours, we ate there every day)

Sunday
While sitting in the lobby of the airport in Miami, finally got the chance to talk with more of the Indy folks who happened to be on the same flight. The whole trip was very much worth it. Flew home and slept most of the day away.


Worst thing about the art fairs: Could not find a single cohesive map of all the art fairs and their location with proper information
Worst thing, Runner Up: The free shuttle system between fairs, horribly marked, could not find out where they stopped
Friendliest Gallery: Bucket Rider from Chicago, though most of the smaller galleries were friendly
Worst Gallery Practice: not labeling the name of the artist being shown
Worst Practice, Runner Up: illegible, hand written labels directly on wall
Easiest Fair to Navigate: Aqua
Worst Fair to Navigate: Scope
One piece I would have bought: A small painting by Scott Richter (sorry no picture of it; do any of you remember what gallery was showing the two small paintings of his, I can not remember?)
Best Painting Chops on View: Albert Oehlen, his paintings were on view throughout Art Basel and wonderfully exciting, in particular a colaborative painting with Jonathan Meese (seen below)


















Indiana Artists showing work in Miami: Brose Partington, Judith G. Levy, Lenore Thomas, and Carl Pope (is he in Indy?). Were there more?

Well, hopefully next year we will see a stronger contingent of Indianapolis artists showing in Miami. Only time will tell. Enjoy.

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