Art Basel Miami 2023 A Luch Recap.
Original 35mm Film Picture by Luciano DiGiorgio
Art Basel Miami is one of my favorite times of year. It is a full week/weekend of art/fashion, beach, and a whole lot of sunshine. I attended two fairs this year and then stumbled around to various galleries that were having some pop ups. The two fairs were NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) and Art Basel/Design Miami. These two are my favorite ones and the ones that I recommend you to go check it out.
NADA is a fair for up and coming galleries from around the world and the galleries. Art Basel/Design Miami is for the big dogs of the art world. They all have booths at the show. From White Cube, Gagosian, and the list goes on and on. Design Miami focuses on more interior design/ furniture and applied designs (showcasing jewelry brands, fashion brands, fixtures, etc.).
Art is very subjective. I am not a fan of telling people what is good and what is bad. Similarly to what I do when I talk about fashion. I make an objective opinion based on what I initially feel when I see the piece and then the story that is follows. With art, it really has to grab my attention and there has to be a connection between me and the piece. Then I put it on my grading scale, but that's for a different blog post.
On the first day, we hit the pavement running. We checked into our hotel room and filled up on Cuban sandwiches. We made our way to NADA. I like attending this show because it cultivates this environment of young artists who are just getting started. They had a good amount of art that I thought was interesting and art that I was questioning on how it made it past the curator editing cut. It was a fulfilling and eye opening fair.
MV Agusta by Daniel Arsham
Then we made our way to the design district to do some competitive shopping, to see how the Miami shops merchandiser their stores. On our way we stopped at some galliers. We stopped at the Perrotin gallery which had some new work by Daniel Arsham, JR, and Paola Pivi. It was held at The M Building, which was an old factory and now an event space.
Once we finished shopping, we went to the Cartier: Time Unlimited pop up. It was such an interesting and captivating experience. Being a Cartier fan and a watch novice enthusiast it was a well put together event. It gave people who were not knowledgeable before great insight on the brands watch craftsmanship history, as well it presented immaculate references of the time pieces they had on display.
Keith Haring
Day two was Art Basel Day ! If you are a fan of modern and contemporary, it's the show for you. You get to see museum quality pieces all under one roof by some of the most famous artists living and dead. I really enjoyed soaking in all the pieces. I am a sucker for anything: Keith Haring, George Condo, and Yayoi Kusama. I also saw really good pieces by Kenny Scharf and Haroshi. Before I went to Miami I attended a retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein's work at Gagosian. While walking around in Art Basel and in South Beach I saw a lot of his work which was super cool to see in the wild.
Frank Gehry Louis Vuitton Display
Day three was Design Miami. Design Miami is cool because you have vendors that work in making watches, interior designs, furniture, etc. Then we saw Frank Gehry Louis Vuitton pop up in the Art Basel Lobby which was amazing. I adore his design style that translates through his work. Lastly, we went to the Ink Miami Art Fair. This event focuses on art mostly on print work from up and coming artists and contemporary artists.
Overall it was a good weekend and we soaked up all the sun and art that we could. See ya next year.
