A Conversation About Art Basel

A recent conversation I had regarding ‪#‎ArtBasel‬, the mega-cluster-F. 
I start. 
"So this year there are come cool events happening--"
"I'm not going to anything where we have to wait in line with a gaggle of people trying to get in while some snooty person with an iPad looks for our name."
"Right. Okay, well there's also---"
"And then we get there and the crowd isn't the right crowd, or not a big enough crowd, or not a smart enough crowd. Or where parking is a headache, or where we get stuck in traffic. Or where the valet line is 100 a-holes long. Or where we have to fight to get a drink/tiny bite/spoon of tuna tartar. Or where I get elbowed by Julian Schnabel and Jeffrey Deitch starts yelling at his door people. Or anything where we stand around WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN."
"Yep. So I guess that covers it. See you in a week?"
"Sounds good."

Blue Velvet Makes So Much Sense Now

Plenty of silliness makes its way to our city every year for Art Basel (cue Dita Von Teese straddling a giant lipstick that bucked like a mechanical bull above the Delano pool in 2006), but this temporary installation put together by Isabella Rosselini is a special kind of crazy. It's called Seduce Me and it's a series of five short videos written, directed and starring the Blue Velvet icon in which she explores the seduction rituals of seahorses, dolphins and ducks.
And in honor of artistic exploration why don't we take one minute and fifty-nine seconds to have our minds blown with Isabella's depiction of the mating habits of bedbugs.


December 1-5, 12-6p, $7, at The Wolfsonian 1001 Washington Ave,
305-531-1001.

Wynwood Art Lounge this Saturday

Your Daily Art

Shot at the Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz Collection.

Irreversible @ Metropole South Beach

Monday: Nektar de Stagni Jewelry Salon

MOCA at Goldman Warehouse Closing

After four years of innovative exhibits and performances the MOCA has decided to close its annex in Wynwood. From a museum press release:

The MOCA Board’s decision took into account the uncertainties of the current economic climate as well as the expansion of MOCA’s current Joan Lehman Building in North Miami, which will begin in 2010. The expansion will double the museum’s current size and include new gallery space, art storage space, an education wing, and multi-purpose space to present performances, films and lectures.

Over the past four years, the collaboration between the Goldmans and Museum of Contemporary Art increased visitor traffic to the area and offered visitors and students a place to experience the wonders of contemporary art. From December 2005 – July 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art presented 13 group and solo exhibitions at MOCA at Goldman Warehouse. MOCA’s presence in Wynwood has served to inspire the community within the Arts District and helped validate the quality level of the arts initiative in Wynwood.

A Chat with Hernan Bas

Miami art darling Hernan Bas is in New York with a show at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery and a retrospective at the Brooklyn Musuem. He talks to Blackbook mag about the retardedness of Basel and his favorite Miami bar, "Kiss 14." I'm thinking he meant PS 14 and the interviewer got it wrong. Unless there's a Kiss 14 out there and it's so under the radar even Google hasn't heard of it.

What are your favorite places in Miami?
I like to go to Pop Life and there’s a bar where artists hang called Kiss 14 near downtown. It’s as close to a dive bar you can get on the mainland, and not have to pay $30 a drink.
What’s the vibe like there?
It’s a lot of off-the-wall local bands, like Schematic records and all these kids who play bongos and weird ass shit. It’s a local old haunt. On the beach, the Deuce Bar is the classic dive bar. In the last couple of years at Basel, it gets flooded, and I can’t go because it’s the hipster capital of the world. Because of that, we go to the Deuce and Kate Moss is across the bar.
What was Basel like for you this year?
It was pretty laid back. Everyone was so freaked out about how the economy was going to destroy the world, and the art world in particular, and everyone was on their best behavior in a weird way. As much as you can never be ostentatious in Miami, people were trying not to be. The over-over-over-the-top parties were just over-the-top. That was the big difference this year. It’s always weird for me, because I’ve become the unofficial dignitary of the town. Basel turns into a lot of interviews and all my friends thinking I can get them every drug in the planet. I’m always like, “I’m not a drug dealer, by the way.” I may want to skip Basel this year and go skiing, even though I’ve never been skiing in my life.
How does being in Miami affect your work?
I think Miami helps me because I don’t find it distracting at all. Economically, it makes more sense. The studio I have in Miami is 4,000 square feet, it’s massive and what I pay in rent would get me a closet in New York. I like looking out the window and seeing pelicans. There’s something magical about that. The façade of the building next to my studio is built like a castle, with pyres and everything. So I look out my window and there’s a castle and a sunset. I’m like, “Where the fuck am I?” It’s also not the best neighborhood in the world so it’s like: pelican, castle, crack-head. Miami is weird because you can walk 10 blocks and be in the heroin pit—like the Lower East Side, circa 1980. Then you go five blocks the other way and you’re staying at the Fontainebleau.

Best Reason Not to Take Your Kid to Art Basel

Shot at Bridge Art Fair.
(Overheard)
5 year-old girl: Mommy, what are they doing?
Mother: Just keep walking!

Scion Installation @ Raleigh Penthouse

Paradise Lost: Opening Wednesday

Under the Bridge, Dec. 5-6

Hustle Collective @ The Marlin Hotel

Patrick Mimran Opening Dec. 2

Small Cars, Big Ideas

The Wolfsonian has partnered with Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Smart Car, during the week of Art Basel|Miami Beach and Design Miami (December 2-9, 2008), to host to eight Smart cars, each customized with a different quote about democracy from a renowned artist or designer and with graphics created by Elliot Earls, Cranbrook’s artist-in-residence The cars will be used to transport guests of the two institutions.
From the press release:
The project, titled Smart: Thoughts on Democracy, complements The Wolfsonian’s exhibit Thoughts on Democracy, an initiative in which more than sixty artists and designers created original works inspired by Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” posters. The idea of the exhibition—inviting artists and designers to participate in a graphic “remix” that reinterprets Rockwell’s posters in today’s visual language and given today’s political climate—has resulted in a thought-provoking and stimulating exhibition on view in the museum’s lobby through December 7, 2008. The exhibition, in turn, gave rise to the idea of soliciting artists’ quotes on democracy to include on the Smart cars.

New World Symphony Kicks it Off Right

Caught the New World Symphony's kickoff last night at the Arsht Center and was duly impressed with Miami's vibrant cultural institutions. I am referring to three entities here - the Arsht Center (with its magnificent acoustics), the Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas aka MTT, conductor and musical force. I've attended Friends of NWS events before where usually a few musicians deliver creatively-imagined pop culture-referencing pieces in a party setting. This was my first encounter with the full majesty of the orchestra, and it was a revelation.
South Florida Classical Review has a great review of the concert and I found his last lines to resonate with my thoughts as the night ended:

The finale rounded off the performance quite gloriously, the New World members delivering the music with muscle and refinement, MTT seeming to encapsulate and convey the expressive essence of each variation in his body and gestures.

One could not deny MTT's enthusiasm for and animated delivery of the music (at one point it seemed he was doing "the robot" he was so into it). The fact that he was able to make a 200 year-old composition sound so fresh and alive is a testament to his talent and that of his posse of instrumentalists.

Thinkism at the Mall

The Wolfsonian, aka the "Museum of Thinkism" continues to grow in awesome-ness. They've got a temporary installation up at the Aventura Mall that coincides with their democracy-soaked programming this season. It's worth checking out next time you're rushing off to the Ferrari Store.

Art Happenings

Up and coming artist Federico Nessi gets a nice write-up in anticipation of his upcoming show at Spinello Gallery Saturday night.

The show will be a visual, auditory and experiential event addressing existential and metaphysical realities: Who are we, really? Are we predestined by our nature and genetics to be and behave in a certain way or can our natures be changed or mitigated by our environment? Do our parents, schools, and circumstances contribute to our personalities or are they set in stone by forces we can’t control? It’s the eternal question of nature vs. nurture. Can one supersede the other?

Questions worth asking, a show worth seeing.

RIP Moore Space

The Moore Space is closing. Probably because Rosa De La Cruz is building a private museum/collection a la the Rubell Family Collection.

New Media Art Opening

Ami James is a post-millennial Renaissance man. Not only is he the co-owner of famed tattoo dive Love Hate Tattoos (and the star of reality show Miami Ink based on the spot), but he's also a digital artist. Check out his work Friday when ArtCenter/South Florida hosts hosts a preview of “the86collective” an installation of new media art. There'll be plenty of Ruby Rey cocktails on hand for those of you who refuse to peruse art sober.
800 Lincoln Rd.
South Beach
305.674.8278