Daniel Buren at Bortolami, via Art Observed

The doors have opened at the Miami Beach Convention Center yet again for another December sales event at Art Basel Miami Beach, as collectors, dealers and artists flock to its cavernous halls and pack its renovated structure for several days of sales and showings.  The fair’s place as the final major sales event of the year always seems to bring a last flutter of enthusiasm before the last weeks of December give dealers a chance to catch their breath, and this year was no exception, with collectors packing into the queue early in the morning for a first crack at the event’s VIP opening.   (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach, via Miami New Times

Another year come and gone, another sojourn for the global art community to the southern tip of Florida for a week of fairs, exhibitions and parties on the streets of Miami and Miami Beach, all centered around the sprawling US hub of the Art Basel fair franchise, and spreading out across the city’s streets and parks, boardwalks and beaches.

Liz Larner, via Regen Projects

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Allan McCollum at Thomas Schulte, via Art Observed

The doors have opened on the latest edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, bringing a stream of collectors and dealers into the Miami Beach Convention Center for another year of the fair’s high-profile sales, and an annual look back at the year for the art world.  Commanding a roster of over 200 galleries from around the world, the marquee event of the fall market season in the U.S., and one of the biggest social events of the art world calendar has gotten underway, with thousands flocking to the sun and sand of the Florida metropolis.

Kevin Beasley at Casey Kaplan, via Art Observed

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Nate Lowman, Maria (2017), via Maccarone

As another year in the art world draws to a close, global attention turns to the southern tip of the U.S. for another year of Art Week Miami, the sprawling multi-fair spectacle that each year flood both Miami Beach and Miami proper with waves of art lovers, artists, collectors and revelers for a range of installations and exhibitions, not to mention the infamous schedule of parties and events surrounding the week. (more…)

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Zwischen Zwei Blau (Between Two Blues) (1955), via David Zwirner

As 2016 winds into its final weeks, the art world will once again head south for the annual fairs and festivities of Miami Art Week, headed by Art Basel Miami Beach, its satellite fairs, and other openings, events, parties and performances spread across the Biscayne Bay.  Taking up almost a full week this December, the increasingly diverse offerings should offer a packed last week of major sales and shows before the art world closes out the fall season.

Gao Ludi, Untitled (2015-2016), via White Space

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Miami’s Bass Museum is set to reopen during Art Basel Miami Beach in December, drawing its $12 million renovation to a close with a major museum show by Ugo Rondinone.  “It used to be that going to a museum was akin to going to church,” she said. “Now museums are places where people gather,” says director Silvia Karman Cubina. (more…)

Camille Henrot at Johann Konig, photos via Sophie Kitching, Andrea Nguyen and Rae Wang for Art Observed

The doors closed Sunday on the last hours of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, bringing the season’s international calendar of fairs to a close after a long week of focused sales and openings in the sweltering, rain-soaked locales of Miami Beach.

Tracy Emin at Lehmann Maupin (more…)

Tony Tasset, Deer (2015)

Positioned outside of the Bass Museum of Art on Collins Ave between 21st and 22nd Street, Collins Park’s wide sidewalks and meandering pathways make for the perfect centralized location for Art Basel Miami Beach’s annual sculpture park, positioning a selection of 24 works across the park grounds for interested viewers and visitors.  This year’s selection continued the event’s annual public outreach with a group of works that included scrolling video pieces (Rikrit Tiravanija’s confounding traffic notifications screen) and massive neons (courtesy of Sylvie Fleury), positioned against hyperrealist sculpture (Tony Tasset’s massive Deer) and other minimalist pieces.

AO was on site at the park, and captured this photoset from the install.

Athena Papadopoulos, Two Serious(ly) (young) Women, (Hubba Hubba Trouba and Ouchy Waa Waa Mama) (2015) (more…)

Roy Lichtenstein at Gagosian Gallery

The doors opened this morning on the 14^th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, as the VIP Preview saw collectors, dealers and artists flocking to the Miami Beach Convention Center for another year. The fair, which this year boasts a sizable 267 exhibitors spread across the Convention Center’s sprawling floor plan, saw strong early attendance, and sightings of Eli Broad and Melissa Chiu wandering the fair in the early hours, while advisors and consultants sped past, locked in negotiations. (more…)

Work by Pawel Althamer at Unrealism, via Rae Wang for Art Observed

With the Miami Beach Convention Center opening its doors this morning, the early arrivals to Art Basel Miami Beach decamped to Miami proper this past evening for a series of openings and exhibitions in the city’s thriving Design District. Spread across a several block radius, the neighborhood’s simultaneous hosting of the ICA Miami’s temporary installation space (which opened just one year ago during Miami Art Week 2014), the joint Larry Gagosian/Jeffrey Deitch exhibition, and a number of other projects made it a central location for the first major night of Art Week Events. (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans, Freischwimmer 229 (2012), via Regen Projects

As the month of December approaches for the art world, attention turns once again to Miami Beach, as the 14th American edition of Art Basel brings its only U.S. franchise back to the Miami Beach Convention Center, along with 267 galleries from around the globe, a strong selection of talks, events and projects, as well the numerous satellite fairs, one-off exhibitions, and of course, the parties up and down Collins Ave and the surrounding areas. (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art will be on hand at Art Basel this year, selling a series of Andy Warhol-branded skate decks featuring the artist’s famous Campbell’s Soup Cans, and other selections from his catalog.  The MoMA Shop will be on view at the Delano from November 30 through December 6.  (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach has announced its plans for the 2015 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, featuring works by Glenn Kaino, Chris Ofili, and more across the 27 curated exhibitions in the section.  “These wide-ranging projects encompass both emerging and established artists, and offer unique moments of discovery with precise exhibitions embedded throughout the halls,” says Art Basel Americas director Noah Horowitz. (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach has announced its list of galleries for the 2015 edition of the fair, featuring 267 international galleries drawn from 32 countries around the globe, and a number of projects, opening exhibitions and public installs during the week. (more…)

Matthew Eck, former co-director of the SELECT art fairs in Miami and New York, has announced a new fair project to premiere at Art Basel Miami Beach this December, X Contemporary.  “Art doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and X Contemporary aims to present this overlap through dynamic events and collaborations, and within a curated context that prominently features some of the most exciting new galleries and artists today,” the fair says in its press release. (more…)

NADA Miami Beach is moving locations this December, leaving its long-time home at the Deauville Beach Resort in North Miami Beach for The Fontainebleau Hotel further south.   Founder Heather Hubbs notes that the new location will see a fair of “the same exact size or a little smaller, but it won’t be bigger and we’re not looking to expand.” (more…)

Andrea Pinheiro, via Cooper Cole Gallery

Perhaps one of the best located of the fairs during Miami Beach’s annual December Basel onslaught, Untitled Miami once again set up  on the Miami Beach, bringing a number of smaller galleries from the United States and abroad into the fray of Miami Art Week.  Taking cues from last year’s successful week of sales,curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud brought forth another carefully chosen group of galleries and contributing artists for the fair, emphasizing both overall cohesion and stylistic divergence at its picturesque beachfront location.

Rachel Foullon at Halsey McKay, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

Sean Kelly Gallery, Los Carpinteros, Kosmaj Toy (2012).

All images by A.M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved, on location at Art Basel Miami Beach Fair.

Art Basel returned once again in Miami Beach this past week for the 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. Featuring over 300 galleries representing 36 countries around the world, the show has exhibited marked growth from last year’s event, with well over 2,000 artists flocking to exhibit at what has become the internationally-renowned closing party for the world art market each year.  It is of course always an irony that tens of thousands will fly down for the events and parties, with many of them never visiting the vast aggregation of what it said to be roughly $1.5 billion worth of art in one (large) room, a collection that few museums in the world could compete with.   Below is a selection of some of the works we thought to be notable from the fair.

Helly Nahmad Gallery, Mark Rothko No. 1 (1957) and Alexander Calder, installation view

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Los Carpinteros  Güiro – Pop up bar on the Beach – All photos in this post by Art Observed

The events surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach have grown noticeably in the past few years, thankfully so has the pixel count in the latest issue cell phone cameras of our Art Observed staff on site (though some photos below seem to belie this capability). Below is a selection of some of the people, art, cars-as-art, parties and events we tweeted and instagrammed live during the week @ArtObserved, in case you missed it.

Azealia Banks at the Standard Hotel for Terrywood on Friday Night

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Exterior View, Wolfsonian FIU. All photos by A. M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved

On Friday, December 7th, 2012, the Wolfsonian Museum at FIU held a reception for its shows on view:  “Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection”,  “Esther Shalev-Gerz: Describing Labor” and “Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection”. The exterior of the Mediterranean-revival style building recently underwent conservation and its dramatically lit 1926 cast stone façade welcomed invited guests.

Maria Likarz Fashion 1911 (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 photo by ArtObserved

Despite the large number of exhibitors from New York who are in recovery from Hurricane Sandy, almost  every Chelsea gallery scheduled to exhibit will be at this year’s 11th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach week. Events begin as early as today, Monday, December 3rd and run through Sunday, December 9th. Exhibitors and artists are preparing for a flurry of activity, with a multitude of fairs, some old, some new; public installations, exhibitions, collaborations and of course, parties centering around the Delano, The W, Soho Beach House, The Deauville, The Raleigh, The Standard and others. Check out the detailed schedule of events below.

Visionaire Magazine party at Delano Hotel 2011 photo by ArtObserved

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‪‬Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach owner MCH Group readies for Hong Kong International Art Fair this May 17-20 which next year will be rebranded as the Hong Kong edition of Art Basel.  The group seeks to highlight regional differences and host complementing, not repeat, exhibitions; co-director Marc Spiegler says, “There is cross-pollination”

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‪‬60 Minutes’ Morley Safer revisits his 1993 conceptualism question, “Is it Art?” tomorrow night, this time examining the role of art fairs in terms of Art Basel Miami Beach. [AO Newslink]

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Richard Hughes, Dead Flies (2010). Anton Kern Gallery. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Art Basel Miami Beach attracted some 50,000 visitors for the fair’s 10th edition this year in Miami South Beach. Showcasing over 2,000 artists represented by over 260 galleries, the decadent week seemed to exist outside of the current dubious economic situation worldwide. Miami Beach Convention Center hosted the main fair, housing an endless number of gallery booths, a VIP Collectors Lounge, and Art Basel Conversations throughout the week. Nearby the Bass Museum of Art opened a solo exhibition by Erwin Wurm, its front lawn, Collins Park, spotted with sculptures by artists such as Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst. Seventeen satellite fairs got in on the action as well, Art Observed focusing on NADA and OHWOW in particular, while Scope, Pulse, Design Miami, and Art Miami, among others, also drew crowds. The week would not be complete without its exhausting nightlife, exclusive events at hotels like Delano, Mondrian, Raleigh, Shelborne, Shore Club, The Standard Miami, and W, partying late into the morning hours.

Lucian Freud, Seated Figure (1980-82); The Painter’s Mother (1972). Richard Gray Gallery.
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