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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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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Another view of the main lobby, A Scott Campbell “tropical fantasy” (represented by the Miami based OHWOW Gallery) is the top center work

Art Observed was on site at the Soho Beach House Miami during the week of Art Basel Miami Beach for a tour of the 150 work art collection assembled for the private club and hotel.    Keeping a close connection with the artistic community has been an important part of the strategy for the Soho house brand, which has multiple locations in England as well as in New York and newly in Los Angeles, Berlin and Miami Beach.   This week marked the first Art Basel Miami Beach for the location and it hit the ground running,  hosting some important events such as dinners for White Cube and Victoria Miro galleries and a W Magazine event.

A John Baldessari on the left and a Friends With You on the right, in a hallway on the main floor

More story and images after the jump… (more…)

Gert & Uwe Tobias, Exhibition Poster, Woodcut, CFA Berlin, 2010. All images via Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin.

Currently on view at Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin is “Neue Arbeiten,” an exhibition of recent work by fraternal collaborative Gert & Uwe Tobias (b. 1973). The show features over fifty pieces by the Romanian-born twins, including ceramic sculpture, drawings, collages, and the colorful, large-scale woodcuts for which they are best known. Their interdisciplinary practice incorporates folkloric imagery, regional iconography, and popular culture, creating a self-referrential, multimedia visual narrative. Like all of their previous exhibitions, they designed a site-specific woodcut poster for the CFA show, which comments upon and participates in the body of work on view.

Gert and Uwe Tobias, Ohne Titel (Untitled), Woodcut, CFA Berlin, 2010.

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Installation view via Team Gallery

Team Gallery in New York is currently showing der osten im norden des westens (which translates as ‘the north of the east of the west’) by Gert and Uwe Tobias. The title eludes to the unique provenance of the twin brothers -born in 1973 in Transylvania but currently based in Germany- who effortlessly blend Russian constructivism, Bauhaus architectural references, a strong historical sense and a dash of whimsy in their colorful, graphic work. This is their first exhibition in a New York gallery.

der osten im norden des westens [Team]
Interview with Gert and Uwe Tobias [veoh.com]

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Kunstmuseum Video from Vernissage.TV (Click for link)

Running from March 5th until the 12th, the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, Germany will feature a full survey of twin artists, Gert and Uwe Tobias’ work. 100’s of works be on display, including their well-known oversized wood cuts. In the video Dr. Stefan Gronert, curator of the museum, speaks about the artistic world of the Tobias brothers.

Gert & Uwe Tobias / Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany[Vernissage.TV]