Haute Spots in the Convention Center
• VIP Desk | Info Zone D
• Art Collectors Lounge | MBCC, Hall D
• Worn out? The Spa At David Barton Gym will be offering treatments in Hall D (305.534.1660)
Don’t Miss In Art Galleries, German Gallery Neugerriemschneider will present a pavilion by Jorge Pardo including works by Franz Ackermann, Olafur Eliasson, and Pae White; Miami’s own Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin (194 NW 30th St.) will present three monumental new Takashi Murakami paintings; Klosterfelde from Berlin will mount a Hanne Darboven series consisting of 600 sheets, as well as a 30-foot Matt Mullican painting.
What’s New in 2009
Oceanfront Area
This year, Collins Park will serve as a platform for virtually all of Art Basel Miami Beach’s cultural programming. The space was designed by L.A. artist Pae White, and during the day, it will be dominated by large color blocks that transform into a shadowy group of buildings as night falls, housing merchants and performers. In this labyrinth-like metropolis on the sand, White has designed an open-air stage that will host the Art Video, Art Film, and Art Perform programs, as well as Art Basel Conversations.
Don’t Miss: Art Film: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a sneak preview of the documentary feature film (Friday, December 4, 8:30 p.m.), which will be shown during Oceanfront Nights.
FRINGE FAIRS
Art Basel Miami Beach is flanked by a number of smaller fairs, some of which have been running since long before the Swiss fair came to town. Here are three of our favorites:
Art Miami (NE 1st Avenue between NE 32nd & NE 31st St.)
This year marks the fair’s 20th anniversary, and the milestone will be honored through a wide-range of special exhibitions, including a large outdoor sculpture by Tony Craig and video installations curated by Asher Remy Toldedo.
The Differentiating Factor: Art Miami also presents decoative arts, African tribal art, Pre-Colombian art, Japanese bamboo art, textiles, and kiln-formed glass.
Don’t Miss: Art-dealer and financial expert Asher Edelman discussing “Art as Investment,” Thursday, December 3 at 2 p.m. RSVP: vip@art-miami.com.
Art Miami will also partner with ArtTable to recognize a group of women for their ongoing contributions to the visual art during ArtTable’s annual reception on December 4 at 10 a.m.
Design Miami/ (NE 39th Street & 1st Court)
This is a celebration of the best of design. Two fairs are held each year, one in Miami and one in Basel, Switzerland, both concurrent with Art Basel. It features a marketplace for limited-edition designs of museum-quality luxe items like furniture, lighting, and objets d’art. There are also Design Talks and Design Performances, and special exhibitions, including Limited Forever at Cappellini Miami (10 NE 39th St. / 305.576.3636), a collection of nine timeless limited-edition designs from 2000 to 2009.
The Differentiating Factor: Each year, Design Miami/ Designer of the Year award is presented to a prominent designer whose advanced body of work demonstrates quality, innovation, and influence, pushing the boundaries of art, architecture, and design. This year, Maarten Baas will join the likes of Marc Newson, Zaha Hadid, Tokujin Yoshioka, Fernando & Humberto Campana as a recipient of this prestigious accolade. He has created a special theatrical environment that will be on display throughout the fair.
Don’t Miss: Swarovski Crystal Palace, an atmospheric installation, with 860 square feet of “sails” covered in more than 1.5 million Swarovski crystals. The marvel is located at the entrance to the Designers’ Lounge, and is definitely worth a look; the material is so thin that some of the panels, which are more than 500 square feet, can be packed into the trunk of a car.
SCOPE Art Soho Studios / 2136 NW 1st Ave.)
This global art fair is a long-running satellite fair of Miami’s Art Week that also presents annual shows in New York, the Hamptons, London, Basel, hosting a whopping 30 fairs over the last eight years alone. SCOPE is dedicated to museum-quality offerings that reflect emerging and unexplored themes in the contemporary art world.
The Differentiating Factor: According to the founder and director Alexis Hubshman, the younger generation of curators are the reason that SCOPE stands out and is synonymous with what is cutting edge in the world of contemporary art. Among SCOPE’s many successes, count that Franklin Sirmans, a member of SCOPE’s curatorial committee, was recently named chief curator of contemporary art at LACMA, while many of the galleries that show at Art Basel actually launched at SCOPE. “We are really about finding the next new gallery or work that has never been seen before and is not recycled from previous years,” he shares.
Don’t Miss: The members of SCOPE’s curatorial committee present The SCOPE Film Program, with a different film exhibition showing each day of the fair. Hubshman also touts the glories of Iconic, a selection of career-defining pieces from world-renowned artists placed throughout the fair, as well as The SCOPE Sculpture Garden in the 6,000-square-foot grass-lined retreat space located within the venue. And don’t forget about SCOPE’s sister fair, Art Asia, located just next door.
