Art Fairs

Miami, Part IV: Rebecca Morgan’s eye on the figurative (and a bit of abstraction)

Guest Contributor Rebecca Morgan / The Miami fairs constitute true spectacle. I enjoyed watching it happen from a safe distance, and found it even more exhilarating to be present and in the thick of it all. The general atmosphere across the fairs and social scenes throughout the week was congenial and bright, celebratory and effervescent. The most fruitful aspect of the fairs for me was meeting the  any artists, gallerists, and curators I had not encountered before in New York or elsewhere, and knew only via the Internet. And I was able to see firsthand work which I had only seen images of online or merely heard about.

[Image at top: Shara Hughes @ American Contemporary]
 

 Russell Tyler @ Ballast Projects

The satellite fairs of NADA, Untitled, Miami Project and Pulse were exceptionally valuable for showcasing emerging and mid-career artists. Many of the artists I encountered were peers from New York and abroad, and I felt as if being able to show at these fairs was an attainable goal insofar as they tended to reflect the kind and caliber of work on display at many a gallery in Bushwick, the Lower East Side, and Chelsea as well as at pop-up and grassroots venues elsewhere. These fairs emphasized painting and sculpture, and did so in a more down-to-earth way than the slick, up-market Art Basel Miami Beach. In this vein, it was at once exciting and grounding to see Hyperallergic host Hypersalon in an airbnb apartment,
which consisted of a week of salon-style exhibitions, daily artist talks, and “hosted conversations on the conditions of networked culture in contemporary art.” 

Instagram and social media reigned, �capturing� the fairs in their fantastical art-tropical surroundings. More broadly, the fair illustrated
how Instagram was becoming an absolutely essential tool in the art world. Although the many reflective and mirrored sculptures and paintings gave fair-goers some opportunity to ensure that they weren’t missing anything they might want to see in the peripheries of their chosen paths, one could cover considerably more visual ground by investigating hashtags for the respective fairs, geotagged locations, and @ mentions to link up with artists, locations, and individuals. These tools continually kept everyone informed about what to see, who to see, and what they missed on their first pass.
 
 
Finally, I loved seeing how each gallery came up with its booth concept and how it informed or skirted the general aesthetic of each fair. For me, the fairs amounted to a State of the Union message about the art world at large, a sociological as well as a substantive education, and a lot of fun.

Pulse: A smaller but visually concise fair with strong and beautifully curated booths.

Russell Tyler at Ballast Projects
Jean Lowe @ McKenzie Fine Art
Jean Lowe,�Boy Crazy, 2009 Enamel on papier-mache, 14 x 9 1/3 x 3 inches
Christoph Ruckhaberle@ galerieKleindienst
Lisa Levy @ Schroeder Romero
Barnaby Whitfield @ Gallery Poulsen
Barnaby Whitfield @ Gallery Poulsen
Artist Barnaby Whitfield poses with his paintings @ Gallery Poulsen
Detail, Aaron Johnson @ Galerie Poulsen
Cleon Peterson, Judgment, 2014, 72 x 72 inches @ New Image Art Gallery

�NADA- This fair felt very casual yet conceptually challenging, consisting of hot emerging and mid career artists.
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

Installation view @ CANADA
Katherine Bernhardt @ CANADA
Spotted on the wall of drawings at CANADA
The Hole presented an installation by Kasper Sonne, Jim Joe, Holton Rower and Rose Eken.
Rose Eken @ The Hole
Rose Eken @ The Hole
Jesse Harris @ Cooper Cole
Jesse Harris @ Cooper Cole
Installation @ Magic Flying Carpets
Daniel Heidlkamp @ White Columns
Daniel Heidlkamp @ White Columns
I liked this low key set up with Karin Gulbran’s ceramics @ White Columns
Bruce M. Sherman @ White Columns
Jose Lerma @ Roberto Paradise
Elise Ferguson @ Regina Rex
Henry Gunderson, Swarm Behavior, 2014, Flashe and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches @ Regina Rex
Trudy Benson @ Lisa Cooley
Graham Collins�@�The Journal Gallery
Beach Views at NADA with Julia Bland @ On Stellar Rays
Chloe Seibert @ Coutney Blades
Max Brand and Raimer Jochims @ Jacky Strenz
Julia Bland @ On Stellar Rays

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

Keith Mayerson @ Marlborough Chelsea
Alex Becerra @ ltd Los Angeles
Jun Kaneko @ Gerald Peters Gallery, Art Miami
Former professor and friend Elise Siegel @ Accola Griefen Gallery, Context Art Fair
Miami Projects- I was very happy to end fair week here. There were many really great emerging and mid-career artists that I have been excited about for a while.
Happily, there was a lot of Katherine Bradford @ Miami Project. 
This is a wall @ Richard Levy Gallery.
 Katherine Bradford @Richard Levy Gallery
Wayne White @ Jonathan Liner Gallery
Paul Wackers @  Elenor Hardwood Gallery

Yevgeniya Baras, Untitled (abstract highway and trees) 2014, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches @ Steven Harvey

              Katherine Bradford, The Pool House, 2014, oil on canvas, 20 x 17 inches @ Steven Harvey
 
Deborah Brown @ Lesley Heller
Devin Powers @ Lesley Heller

Cristina de Miguel, Love Story, 2014, Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 60 inches @ Freight and Volume

 This is one of my all time favorite titles for a great painting:  Cristina de Miguel, Two Bitches or Mother and Daughter, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 52 x 34 inches @ Freight and Volume.

Katherine Bradford, Mothership, @ Freight and Volume
As a huge fangirl of Andrew Wyeth, I was absolutely shocked and thrilled to see this weird painting by him @ Adelson Galleries.
More Paul Wackers @ Lehman Gallery
Miami appropriate detail of Paul Wackers @ Morgan Lehman Gallery
Detail of Paul Wackers @ Morgan Lehman Gallery
A grouping of Joseph Garlock paintings @ George Adams
Hernan Bas, On the Jagged Shores, 2002, acrylic and water-based oil on linen, 52 x 70 inches @ the Rubell Collection
I’ve always wanted to see this Dana Schutz in person. Frank 

 

on a Rock, 2002, oil on Canvas, 66 x 47 inches at the Rubell Collection.

Related posts:

Two Coats of Paint’s Miami Correspondents: Rebecca Morgan and Heather McPherson (2014
Miami, Part I: Rebecca Morgan’s picks from Untitled and Art Basel (2014)
Miami, Part II: Heather Leigh McPherson Reports on NADA(2014)
Miami, Part III: Heather Leigh McPherson attends a Bomb discussion, Untitled (2014)

From previous years:
 
Mary Addison Hackett’s Report From Miami, Day 1: Basel (2013)
Mary Addison Hackett’s final Miami round-up (2013)
Painter Tatiana Berg’s picks from Art Basel Miami Beach, 2012, Part I (2012)
Tatiana Berg reports from the satellite fairs, Part II (2012)

——
Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. For permission to use content beyond the scope of this license, permission is required.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*