The People’s Art Fair
Has Art Miami Been Getting a Bum Rap?

Participants in 2007 hail from China, Italy, Germany, Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Spain and elsewhere, illustrating the fair’s blip on the international radar.

 
Control (---) by Charles Glaubitz will be on display as a part of SLICE during Art Miami 2007.

By Angie Hargot

Even given the timid warning, “I’m sure you’re sick of being asked about the comparison to Art Basel, but…,” Ilana Vardy, her voice ringing out against the chaos of installations at the Miami Beach Convention Center, lets out a long sigh and a chuckle that seem to say “well, yes, actually.” Vardy is the show director for Art Miami 2007, the 17^th annual installation of the hundred-plus-exhibitor modern and contemporary art exposition in Miami Beach, which opens Friday.

Before the ink is even dry on the sales tickets for the millions of dollars of art sold at Art Basel just a month ago, this weekend, 115 galleries from 22 countries will be cramming their wares into the cubical-like booths of the Convention Center. But this year of the longest-running art fair in Miami’s history is being billed as a little different. For one, half of those 115 galleries are showing at Art Miami for the first time. And this fair’s all too happy to ride the art wake that Basel made, and grow all the bigger each year for it.

“The work at Art Miami is much more accessible. The average price is in a range where collectors starting out can buy multiple pieces,” Vardy said.

And with no admission charge on Friday the fair is much more accessible for patrons too.

Still, it seems a lot of stories you read about Art Miami make some reference to Art Basel. Well, it’s a tough act to follow. In fact Vardy credits Art Miami’s proximity to Basel as the biggest setback to running the four-day fair. “I can’t expect to be considered on the same level [as Art Basel],” she said. “But everybody’s benefited from Art Basel. The community is much smarter now. We each have our own place. It’s not easy to sell this show to galleries internationally – but we’re much better off now than we were three years ago. A lot of that is thanks to Art Basel.”

In fact this year Art Miami organizers expect to see increases in numbers similar to those of 2006, when patronage grew 10 percent to 24,000 visitors.

But Vardy does battle with perceptions as well – “the perception of how Art Miami can be successful in the marketplace so close to Art Basel,” she said. “But it’s a perception, not a fact.” Vardy, the show’s director for the past six years, has an impressive show-building resume after an eight-year stint heading the team that brought Art Chicago to the forefront of the American art scene. Her talents aren’t lost in Miami.

After all, Art Miami is changing. The fair, previously an important exposition of Latin American artists, will be showing only 14 Latin American galleries this year. Participants in 2007 hail from China, Italy, Germany, Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Spain and elsewhere, illustrating the fair’s blip on the international radar. Galleries from Turkey and Ireland are new additions to the fair.

Art Miami 2007 kicks off Friday at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Keep an eye out for emerging artist Fraser Taylor. You’ll see almost 1,000 of Taylor’s oil on paper works surrounding you at the StART SPACE (London) booth.

Keeping the spotlight closer to home, several Art Miami events focus on the benefits of staying small. For the annual Director’s Choice Program, Vardy has selected local Wynwood artist Purvis Young. Young, a Miami native often described in the art world as a street artist, keeps a studio at NE 17th Street and Second Avenue. According to Vardy, Young has been painting for more than 50 years and is very well collected. The mediums used in his work are often something like “house paint on baking sheet” or “… on plywood.”  The titles – “Tent City Violence” and “Pregnant Lady with Syringe on Top of the World.” A 17-foot painted installation by Young entitled “The Wall of Peace” will greet visitors at the entrance to Art Miami.

“We really believe in working with the community,” Vardy said. “Purvis is somebody who’s coming to be recognized as a superstar internationally. And he deserves it. He’s a legendary figure in Miami and a symbol for what Art Miami is doing more and more.”

The changing feel of the fair can also be felt at the fair’s new initiative: SLICE. Exhibited inside the Convention Center, this group of four first-time participants was rigorously selected to present “younger, cutting-edge artists” and provocative works. The galleries in SLICE come from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the United States. As part of SLICE, California and Mexico’s Galería H & H (booth 447) will be presenting works by Charles Glaubitz, Ricardo Sanders and Mely Barragán.

Other satellite events include lectures on art collection and on Caribbean art, a performance series at Damian B. Contemporary Art Center, and the “ArtShop: Diego Garcia & Gotta Get Up” art shopping event at ArtCenter/South Florida.

During the fair, works by now New World School of the Arts artist-in-residence Nall (or Fred Nall Hollis) will be exhibited at the Westwood Gallery Booth. At times surrealist, often collage-esque, Nall’s paintings incorporate line drawings reminiscent of Dürer-era etchings with modern-day collage techniques, usually surrounded by unexpected elements creating frames around a central image, lending to an almost voyeuristic experience for the onlooker – somehow, somewhere, you’re nagged by a flush of guilt for enjoying them. Nall’s body of work culminates in a cabinet of curiosities that has come to symbolize everything from gender roles to slavery to popular culture circa the ’80s. In his newer works, the central image behind that window frame more often uses elements that perhaps reflect Nall’s hometown in Alabama: vegetables and flowers; lighthouses and sailboats – all still subverting the traditional concept of the still life. Nall traveled the world on an art expedition from Paris to Istanbul to Mexico and studied under Dali, no doubt securing from him a well-tuned sense of the surreal.

Not to be missed: Nall’s sculpture entitled “The Wounded Dove of Peace” from his Violata Pax exhibit at Miami-Dade College. Presented as one of Art Miami’s satellite exhibits, it’s a 13-foot, two-ton bronze sculpture of a dove, reminiscent of the medieval brazen bull, but with a quite contradictory symbolism.

Chelsea Galleria Wynwood (Booth 118) will also be exhibiting some must-see pieces, with gallery artists Gory (Rogelio Lopez Marin), Francisco Olazabal, Lola Flash, Hiroshi Watanabe, Daniel Kedar, Rosa Munoz and Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gomez. For your consideration: Chelsea Galleria artist Kate Kretz’s “Blessed Art Thou,” which depicts the artist’s idea of Heaven and Hell. Heaven is illustrated by an angelic Angelina Jolie with babies in tow; Hell is your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart.
Tina Spiro, curatorial director of Chelsea Galleria, has also curated a project entitled Caribbean Crosscurrents with artists from Curacao, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. With the success of last year’s Caribbean project and Miami’s Caribbean influences, organizers have sought to make the project a permanent fixture at Art Miami. The plan is for one nation of each of the four major Caribbean languages – Spanish, English, French and Dutch, to be represented through the work of artists. “Miami is an enormously creative and productive venue,” Spiro said. “It’s the local flavor – Miami is more the focus of Art Miami.”

Busy with preparations at the Convention Center, she took a few moments to weigh in on her predictions for the success of this year’s Art Miami.

“It’s just starting. It’s shaping up beautifully,” Spiro said, but offered up a bit of colloquial advice not to jinx it. “As they say in Jamaica – you don’t want to put your mouth on it.”   

Art Miami 2007: January 5 to 8
Miami Beach Convention Center, Hall A
1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach.

Schedule:

• Friday (free day) Jan. 5, 2 - 10 p.m.

• Saturday, Jan. 6, noon - 8 p.m.

• Sunday, Jan. 7, noon - 7 p.m.

• Monday, Jan. 8, noon - 6 p.m.

Tickets are $12 for adults. For more information call 866-727-7953.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com.