The Most Important Art Dealer

Gary Nader Fine Art’s collection of Botero monumental sculptures is also a spectacular site. About 50 Botero sculptures of various sizes will take part in the show, including Male Torso, which has been exhibited in more than 20 cities worldwide since 1992. Botero’s children, Juan Carlos and Lina, will attend the opening exhibition show on the great artist’s behalf.

The gallery celebrates the master artists, like Botero, Picasso, Matta, Matisse, and Lichtenstein, but it also represents the upcoming, notable artists as well. Thus the grand show may be Botero, but the gallery will also highlight Enrique Martinez Celaya: Selected Work 1992-2010, which is a broad survey of work by the Cuban-born artist who works in various medias like painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and installation and is most known for his large-scale paintings made from tar and other materials.

“Celaya is incomparable to any other artist at his age (46),” Nader explains. “If you look at his curriculum, the collectors who praise him, his museum showings, it’s an amazing array of achievements for such a young man in the arts. He’s a critic’s artist, which makes him a very valuable artist in the contemporary world.

Enrique Martinez Celaya: Selected Work 1992-2010 will follow Celaya’s commissioned installation of four paintings for the world’s largest cathedral, the Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, and his works at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City. Gary Nader Fine Art will publish a 180-page hardcover book of Celeya’s works, which will be available for purchase during Art Basel along with a 250-page hardcover book of Botero’s masterpieces.

Nader was following Celaya’s work for a few years before the artist opened his Whale & Star studio here in Miami. “I went to visit him and I was amazed. Not only by his quality of work but also by his conviction as an artist. The way he conducts himself and the ways he conducts his profession are unparallel.”

But the didactic gallerist was most impressed by Celaya’s own commitment to art education. “He teaches to underprivileged children in the studio. He give talks to fellow artists, art critics, and the public.” Celaya capitulates everything Nader respects in a young artist: “the quality, the force, the willingness to do something different.”

Not that Celaya needs Gary Nader Fine Art as a platform to jumpstart his worldwide acclaims. “He’s already there,” Nader says. “But there is always room for growth.” And there’s no better exposure than a spectacular showcase at the Gary Nader Fine Art gallery during Art Basel Miami Beach.

As an art dealer for more than 30 years, Nader was not only “born with the eye,” he’s also studied the subject since he was a little boy growing up in his father’s gallery. His work desk is not a desk, but a library of art books, magazines, and journals piling high on the table and the floor surrounding it. “You have to go to the museums and the art shows and fairs. You have to read the books, search the Internet, and study new artists every day.” Nader opened his first gallery at the mere age of 19 in the Dominican Republic and by age 23, he had his first art gallery in Miami located in Coconut Grove.

“It’s been a long road, but people have responded. I have collectors all over the world who trust my eyes and my judgment. It’s very hard to keep a gallery open. So I’m really proud of what I do.”