Miami ART WEEK
December 2024
After taking the pulse of the art world in DUBAI, HONG KONG, SEOUL, LOS ANGELES, LAS VEGAS and NEW YORK this past spring with the art galleries that make up a portion of the players in the international art market, we end our meetings with the teeming world of contemporary art at ART MIAMI & ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH, an unmissable highlight of the major art market scenes; the very heart of this complex system that we readily nickname the "Minotaur"?
NEW YORK
A WEEK BEFORE
A transit through NEW YORK first, passing through CHELSEA and its many art galleries, introduces us in particular to the powerful works of Esther Mahlangu at ROSS + KRAMER, omnipresent in several art fairs at ART MIAMI - SCOPE, UNTITLED & ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH - as we will see a few days later.
It was the opportunity to receive an invitation for an opening event next Tuesday in MIAMI.
Miami Beach
Tuesday evening, December 3
Opening night at ROSS + KRAMER in MIAMI.
We discover the figurative paintings Twin Habit by Ross Caliendo both peaceful and luminous in the middle of the waltz of cocktails and the discreet sounds of the DJ that we would have liked less wise and more delirious to carry us away to unbridled late-night dances!
TWO HOURS
later
A few steps further, we discover the AVANT GALLERY, spaciously located on the ground floor of an imposing building whose architectural signature is none other than that of our compatriots Herzog & De Meuron.
The opportunity to receive a second opening invitation two days later from S.L., director of the gallery, who we discover is, like us, a great admirer of the music of Jean-Sebastien Bach.
Miami Beach
Thursday evening, December 5
Opening AVANT GALLERY.
A Thursday evening lived to the wild sounds of the DJ, where we saw the fashion world twirl among the works of Marcos Anziani, Paul Parsons, Gabriella Noelle, Chase Lock, Tim Tadder among others.
Miami Beach
One Day before, December 4
On Wednesday, Esther Mahlangu’s brightly colored geometric paintings greeted us at the first stands of one of MIAMI’s satellite fairs, SCOPE: a video played on a loop and told the story of her journey, and we were left for a moment stunned by the strength that emanated from the eyes of the almost nonagenarian South African lady.
One or two stands further on, we liked, in the midst of so much visual saturation, the subtly provocative works made up of an assembly of gallery business cards with the text “OMNIA VANITAS” on them, bringing us straight back to the essentials!
Miami Beach
Friday, December 6
Another evening.
"Thank you for leaving Untitled
and thank you for your visit"
It’s 6 PM, time to head out.
We pass H.A., a painting under her arm: no it is not for her, nor she who chose it, besides as an art advisor she would not have chosen it, but her relative wanted it, because he liked it enormously without lining up a six-figure price for it.
Acquiring a work of art because we like it, starting from our taste and our desire: being an art collector is sometimes simply that too!
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
saturday, December 7
The day after these appetizers, the main course, the entrance to the Holy of Holies, ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH, awaits us: we wander from stand to stand and by chance we come across the gracious and welcoming gallery director of ROSS + KRAMER, also visiting, to agree on the formidable omnipresence of Esther Mahlangu's works in Miami this year.
A few hours later, the essential values seen, the astonishing presence of many "textile" works, our tired eyes seem to have scrutinized all the novelties not so new after all.
In the middle of this effort of abundant creations given as fodder to the most curious, to the highest bidders too, the break is welcome, the time to get to know a young man visual editor for a renowned New York fashion magazine: the perspicacity and freshness of his words give us the energy necessary to continue the visit with in mind the idea of seeing each other again in New York or in Switzerland, who knows?
We enjoyed at a running pace, not to say at a brisk pace, the abstract, figurative and styled works of the SCOPE, UNTITLED and of course ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH fairs that we emerged with the impression of a dazzling kaleidoscope, dizzying to the point of making us dizzy.
Only to the point, in the end.
We are ready to take another turn on the "carousel" as soon as we have seen up close how the one we have "friendly" named the "Minotaur" works!
business is
business
Two sales figures relating to two Swiss galleries: - Given at the top of the list of best sales is the HAUSER & WIRTH gallery with in particular its sale for USD 4.75 million of the work "Untitled (2014)" by David Hammons. - The sale for 1 million of the sculpture by H.R. Giger "Necronom Alien III (1990-2005)" by MAI 36 GALERIE in ZURICH.
Source: Artsy newsletter, december 9.
Fabienne
Guyen Bossel
New York
December 16
2024