Art Basel Miami Beach held its private preview and opening night vernissage on Wednesday, December 1. At 11am collectors, VIPs, and members of the press hurried (and sometimes shoved their way) into the annual fair that is host to over 250 international galleries this year. Sections like Art Nova, the curated Art Kabinett, and Art Positions helps to break up the enormity that is Miami’s Basel but often times, to get noticed, galleries feel the need to take that extra step beyond just presenting top quality work (which they noticeably did this year). Solo exhibitions, booth walls with a splash of color or print, and specially designed booths can be found throughout the convention center helping to catch the wandering eye of the collector.
Galerie Gmurzynska's booth designed by Zaha Hadid.
Galerie Gmurzynska has not only a prime spot directly across from the entrance of the fair but a booth designed by architect Zaha Hadid. It’s an impressive setup and a nod to the gallery’s recent exhibition, “Zaha Hadid and Suprematism” which transformed its Zurich space.
Gary Simmons at Anthony Meier Fine Arts's booth.
Anthony Meier Fine Arts had Gary Simmons create a site-specific work to tie into his current exhibition on view at the gallery in San Francisco. The smudged writing on three brown walls in the center of the space is emblematic of his recent work.
A skull made of beetle shells by Jan Fabre at Magazzino's booth.
Magazzino brought a solo exhibition of Jan Fabre’s skulls and framed, mosaic works made from jewel beetle shells, a tribute to the Belgian Congo. Fabre is a Belgian artist well known throughout Europe. He’s shown at institutions like the Pompidou but his work is not as well known in the US. With a booth focused on Fabre’s work, Magazzino took this year’s fair in Miami as an opportunity to introduce American and Latin American collectors to his work.
“Kenneth Noland and Anthony Caro: The 1960s” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash.
Some gallery’s opted for a curated exhibition over a solo, like Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s presentation of “Kenneth Noland and Anthony Caro: The 1960s”. Caro’s sculptures and the long, horizontal paintings by Noland are perfectly complimentary – an oasis among the hodge-podge of artists in so many other booths.
Wall openings by Pablo Bronstein.
Galleria Franco Noero’s booth exterior consists of several shaped wall openings by Pablo Bronstein. (To view works by Andre Dadson inside, some vertically inclined visitors may have to duck.)
Ernesto Neto, Circleprototemple…!, 2010, Galeria Fortes Vilaca.
If you don’t mind crouching, be sure to check out Galeria Fortes Vilaca’s booth that has a red, gazebo-like structure that visitors can sit in and bang a drum using a mallet suspended from its mesh roof. The piece, Circleprototemple…! (2010), is by Ernesto Neto was shown at the Hayward Gallery in London over the summer.
