[caption id="attachment_9728" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="The Praz-Delavallade Gallery Booth (E7), Art Basel Miami Beach"][/caption]
It would be impossible to find a common thread to connect all the artworks now on display at the convention center-turned-gallery space that is Art Basel Miami Beach. And why would you try? When it comes to the massive and impressive range of art now being showcased by galleries from all over the world, it’s obvious there are more mediums artists are using today than ever before. Of course, there were many beautiful and provocative paintings, drawings, and photographs on display, but Whitewall found particular interest in the artists that are using strange, or strangely using, materials to make art.
Leandro Erlich’s The Boat (2010, at Sean Kelly Gallery, B17) consists of three windows overlooking video screens of a passing sea under a bright blue sky (complete with floating buoys). It is made from metal, wood, and aluminum.
13 over-sized birthday candles lean up against the wall in Phillipe Parreno’s Untitled (2010). The candles are actually made from real paraffin wax. The piece is showing at Schipper (E3).
Dirk Skreber uses foam tape beautifully as a contouring method in his colorful, large-scale portrait. The panel, called Katee II (2010) is on display at Blum & Poe (J22).
Wood chips make a dramatic effect scattered at the foot of their whittled origin in David Adamo’s Untitled (2010) made from stone and wood at Freeman/Nelson-Freeman (B8).
