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ART BASEL|MIAMI BEACH AND MIAMI ART WEEK by Dena Stewart

Exhilarating, enlightening, educational, inspirational and exhausting, are a few of the adjectives to describe Miami Art Week, when from Nov. 29 – Dec. 5, Art Basel|Miami Beach brought together 254 leading galleries from 36 countries and territories across the globe. But that was only at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

What Art Basel actually does is serve as the catalyst for satellite tent-Fairs, Galleries, Hotels, Restaurants, and private homes to use ART as a way to bring crowds to Miami. And these crowds throw parties. And we, the people who live here, take advantage of these events to be exhilarated, enlightened, educated, inspired and exhausted from going to or reporting on these fabulous events!

The following are just a few of the art-related offerings that took place during this frenetic, traffic-snarling, very fun week.

Art Miami – showcased an array of iconic and important art works, dynamic projects and special installations from more than 130 international galleries.

CONTEXT – Art Miami’s open atmosphere – created a meaningful dialogue between artists, galleries and collectors while providing the ultimate platform for the presentation of mid-career, emergent and cutting-edge talent.

Design/Miami – presented its fair in Pride Park, opposite the Miami Beach Convention Center. The fair featured over 35 gallery and Curio exhibitions, as well as hybrid physical and digital format and online programs of design talks and 3D virtual tours.

Untitled Art – an innovative and inclusive platform for contemporary art, balanced intellectual integrity with cutting-edge experimentation, refreshing the standard fair model by embracing a unique curatorial approach.

SCOPE’s selection of contemporary art from 140 international exhibitors was presented alongside museum-quality installations, panel discussions, and nightlife events. New to the SCOPE pavilion was The New Contemporary, an experiential multidisciplinary that presented large scale installations, music performances, and panel discussions.

NADA, known for showcasing underexposed artists and their works, brought life to Miami Art Week with its young gallerists. 

With the mission to connect Latin American and Hispanic artists across the globe, PINTA–Miami expanded its European footprint with a focus on Spain and Latin American Art.  

The Wolfsonian-FIU presented a series of new exhibitions, Shameless and Aerial Vision along with Dominga’s Photo Studio a collaboration with the City of Miami Beach, through its Open House program, Lamborghini Countach: Our Legacy to the Future, Strange Objects, New Solids, and Massive Things, and SustainabItaly – People, Planet, Prosperity.

The Jewish Museum of Florida featured Hello Gorgeous, an eclectic exhibition of costumes, photos, videos, record album covers and other objects, celebrating the life and work of Barbra Streisand.

Jada Art Fair hosted a multimedia artistic body of work by local and international artists, from paintings to NFT’s, immersive installations to performances, films, faith-based events to a major sculpture installation.

Rubell Museum provided one of the most far-ranging museum exhibitions of contemporary art ever presented. Drawn entirely from their expansive collection of over 7,200 works by more than 1,000 artists, the exhibition featured defining and seminal works by artists whom the Rubells championed as they were first emerging.

Frost Museum of Art Retrospectrum had the most expansive and in-depth exhibition of Bob Dylan’s artwork ever staged in the United States.

PAMM, Allied with Power featured African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection celebrated their most recent acquisitions of international African and African Diaspora artists.

The Bass Museum opened with Alex Israel x Snapchat, an exhibition of works that use Snap’s augmented reality (AR) technology to bring Alex Israel’s Self-Portraits to life.

Jorge Pardo: Mongrel, a site-specific installation by the Cuban American artist Jorge Pardo, featured a new series of quasi-abstract drawings along with modernist chairs, custom-fabricated chandeliers, and a carpet designed by the artist in MOAD’s expansive Skylight Gallery.

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) celebrated a historic retrospective My Name is Maryan a monographic presentation encompassing four decades of paintings, sculptures and drawings.

The Betsy Hotel had an Owners’ reception to showcase their art collections.

Two of the “must-go-to-Fairs” are in Wynwood – Spectrum and Red Dot. Spectrum Miami and Red Dot Miami form the acclaimed contemporary and fine art experience that collectively presents some of today’s most coveted national and international galleries and artists from the U.S and around the world.

Defending Democracy portraits of U.S. Military women, painted by Mary Ellen Scherl, were presented at a private party hosted by Laura and Gary Curson.

A Fish Called Avalon restaurant jumped into the ART WORLD with a hanging sculpture representing a slice of their famous Key Lime Pie.

When the traffic turned to one long parking lot of gridlock, we took a break and went to Harry’s for some beverages, delicious food, and swag bags with men’s grooming products (that could also be used by women).

All in all, my takeaway from Art-Fair and Gallery hopping, was the simplistic way of presenting the paintings, sculptures, and installations. In the past, canvases were stretched and framed. This year, many were mounted as “tapestries” and affixed to the wall with thumbtacks. Sculptures leaned against partitions, and installations were movable and interactive. The new addition to the Artworld was the NFTs (non fungible tokens) that represented art – that is, a computer-generated image of the art that appears on the blockchain generally used for cryptocurrency tabulation.

And now we all look forward to what Art Basel will bring to Miami next year!