Hernan Bas Painting via Hikari
A not to miss on the Miami Art Basel agenda, is the famous Rubell Family Collection. Displayed in the design district in a large, blockish, museum-esque building. While a private collection, there’s nothing private feeling about it, including the vacuous galleries, bookstore and several banners on light posts proclaiming its presence. It’s clear that the Rubell’s have contributed and shaped the contemporary art world as we know it.
Thomas Zipp
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However, being a private collection and not a museum, the collectors don’t have to answer to anyone except the curators who they themselves hired (who in fact, answer to them, I’m sure). Therefore, the collection is more eccentric and more focused than that of a museum show. The pieces there have the feeling of being handpicked, not because they are not museum quality, but rather because you get a sense of enthusiasm and dialogue going on for the collector.
Jonathan Meese
Jonathan Meese (detail)
The first floor was dominated by large Andreas Hofer paintings, a German painter who shows with Metro Pictures in New York and Hauser and Wirth in London and Zurich. Heading upstairs, we were surrounded by vanity mirror sized John Stedaker collages, each a little window beckoning viewers closer to get a better look. The most impressive gallery included a multi-channel video piece by Hernan Bas, complete with a large sculptural installation of romanticized sea treasures, flotsam and jetsam, strewn across the floor. While Stedaker was the image on the PR materials for this year’s exhibition, Hernan Bas was clearly the star, his paintings, rarely seen sculptures and videos conveyed the eerily romantic nostalgia for a past fantasy that remains always beautiful and wavering.
Hernan Bas Installation
Hernan Bas Painting 1
Hernan Bas Installation 2
Urs Fischer
Hernan Bas Writings
Andreas Hofer
