Tiermetabolismus V (Katzchen) by Jonathan Meese at Bortolami Gallery, Art Basel Main Fair, Hall B, Booth I-09.

Art Observed will be on site as of today for the ninth edition of the America’s biggest contemporary art fair: Art Basel Miami Beach which will open to the public on Thursday December 2 and will run through Sunday, December 5.

The main section of the fair will house over 180 galleries and over 40,000 are expected following the December 2nd opening.  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler are the main fair organizers alongside its main sponsor UBS with Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art as the associate sponsors.  While Art Basel is still the main draw, the NADA Fair (the New Art Dealers Alliance) up the road at the Dauville Beach Resort will open to the public Thursday December 2. It will run through Sunday December 5 and also should not be missed.

Untitled (Art Fair Floor) by Ryan Reggiani.  Kate Werble Gallery at Nada Art Fair, booth 312.

The fair week is notable for its bridging of the Latin American buyers with American and British art centers as well as its uniquely intense amalgamation of social, media, fashion and other spheres of influence into the business of selling art.

The global art market seems to have stabilized this year and the main fair, along with its very significant satellites, should be met with lively buying this round.  Beyond this, all around Miami, the social calendar will be infused with events to the point where there is little chance to avoid regretfully missing something.

A view of an installation by Terrence Koh at The Island, an event during the week (see bel0w).

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Artist, Nicolas Pol, poses infront of one of his works at the opening party for his show, “The Martus Maw”

Lastnight ArtObserved was on site at the opening of “The Martus Maw;” the first US exhibition featuring the “wild and raw” work of the emerging French artist Nicolas Pol. Housed in an old meat market at 80 Essex Street in New York’s Lower East Side, the private party recalled an art gathering of the Warhol era when openings were not just for the art crowd but included prominent pop culture figures of the time from the worlds of art, fashion, literati, music and social scenes – an element typical to shows produced by Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld’s company, Feedback Production Ltd. Vladimir, son of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, has a penchant for working with emerging talents to promote and produce their shows and provide a platform for them to sell their art – this is Vladimir’s fourth show and follows an exhibition of works by Richard Hambleton that previewed in an equally star-studded affair in September this year.

Puaka Crusade, Nicolas Pol

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Barbara Kruger’s installation at the Lever House on Park Avenue in New York via Lever House Collection
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Whether we realize it or not, our daily lives are filled with multitudes of graphic and visual information. While reading a newspaper, watching television, walking on the street past countless advertisement, we constantly absorb information. It is this aspect of social and public sphere that Barbara Kruger exploits in her current installation at the Lever House in New York. A project commissioned by the real estate  mogul Aby Rosen, whose collection features such names as Jeff Koons, George Condo, John Chamberlain, Keith Harring, and Barnaby Furnas, holds tight to its message of “an image is worth a thousand words.” The text as art exhibition, titled “Between Being Born and Dying” runs through November 21st, 2009.

Related links
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Barbara Kruger “Between Being Born and Dying” installation [Lever House]
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Barbara Kruger Bio [PBS]
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Barbara Kruger at Lever House [Lindsay Pollock]
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Helvetica at 50 [BBC News]
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50 Years of Helvetica exhibition [MoMa]

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Kanye West uses Kaws for his cover art (Takashi Murakami has also had the privilege) [theartcollectors]
Art collector Aby Rosen’s Core Club, featuring works by such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat and De Kooning, owes its founding members funds [NYPost]
A closer look into the ramifications of the art “crash” [WallStreetJournal]

The Art Museum of Ontario goes for the “Bilbao effect” with a new $276 million Frank Gehry-designed facility (it’s his hometown) [NYtimes] more here [Bloomberg]
With exhibtions recently at the Grand Palais in Paris and now at Gagosian Gallery in London, Ricard Serra interviewed [ArtNewspaper]
Are art and fashion cross promotions becoming gauche? [ArtInfo]
and in related news, the assumption is that this year’s Art Basel Miami will be more austere [CNN Money] more on this here [NYMag]

Pharrell on his design for Perrotin Gallery via [BBC]

Gallerist Perrotin collaborates with Pharrell [Billionaire Boys Club]
The recent effect of “non-doms” on the art market [Portfolio.com]
German gallery tries to halt Beuys sculpture sale [The Art Newspaper]
Vanessa Beecroft, Peter Brandt (2x) Aby Rosen in today’s Page Six [NYPost]
Remembering Robert Rauschenberg [NYMag]

Aby Rosen via Wikipedia

Aby Rosen’s influence on the worlds of real estate and art [NYMag]
Review of “The Gates” documentary on HBO [New York Times] and here [New York Sun]
An evaluation of street art’s move to high art [Financial Times]
Editorial on Title validity of “forced sales” under Nazi threats [Wall Street Journal]
Update: Review of Tuymans’s Disney themed works at Zwirner [New York Sun]

Aby Rosen via New York Social Diary

Real Estate Mogul/Collector Aby Rosen Silent Partner with Peter Brant in Art in America and Interview [The New York Post]
Spiral Jetty threatened by energy development [Arts Journal via C-monster]
MCA Chicago Director Joins Haunch of Venison, London [Art Forum]
UK Corporate Art Spending Reaches All Time High [Financial Times]
Gap’s Fischer Family to Start Negotiations Concerning San Francisco Art Museum [Bloomberg.com]
Lucian Freud Reportedly to Paint Portrait of Actor Jack Nicholson [The New York Post]
Brian McMaster Disputes Potential for Current UK Art Scene to Rival the Renaissance [Guardian Unlimited]

Bond No. 9 via Portfolio

Bond No. 9 Captures “Essence” of Warhol with New Perfume [Portfolio]
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Photographer Taryn Simon Accesses Restricted Areas In Her Latest Book [The World’s Best Ever]
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Gallery Owner, Lawrence Salander, Risks Eviction by Aby Rosen [bloomberg.com]
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Shepard Fairey Endorses Obama With Iconic Image [Cool Hunting]
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Shedding light on much hyped Sale: Hirst and White Cube Insured Diamond Skull, For the Love of God [The Art Newspaper]
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Art Cologne Drops Chief, Worries About Future [bloomberg.com]
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Proposed: World’s Largest Sculpture Garden in France [Art Forum]