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…)

Tracey Emin, Self Portrait with my Eyes Closed (2012), Courtesy of White Cube Gallery

Tracey Emin’s work inaugurated the new White Cube space in São Paulo, Brazil on December 1st, 2012 with her show I Don’t Believe in Love but I Believe in You.

Her recent works seem to embody a coming of age, perhaps even paralleling the growth of the gallery itself. The new pieces appear to have a new found calm and tranquility beneath her common narratives of love and sex. The exhibition has a quiet resonance that suggests the fruition of a lifetime’s work, setting the tone of the new venture.

Tracey Emin,  The Beginning of Me (2012), Courtesy of White Cube Gallery

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Terry Richardson and Pharrell Williams at OHWOW It Ain’t Fair 2012 photo by Aviva for Art Observed

On December 7th, 2012, at 743 Washington Avenue (on the Miami Beach side and not across the bay in the design district) OHWOW inaugurated the fifth and last edition of It Ain’t Fair (IAF), a venue for avant-garde art across all media. It began in 2008 in Miami, concurrent with the main fair, as another way to view work by emerging artists such as Tauba Auerbach, Ashley Bickerton, Cyprien Gaillard, Clayton Patterson and others.

Atmosphere at OHWOW It Aint Fair Miami 2012, all photos by E. Schwartzberg for ArtObserved unless otherwise noted

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Yue Minjun, Great Joy (1993). All images courtesy of Cartier Foundation.

On view through March 17 at the Fondation Cartier in Paris is an exhibition of the emblematic work of Yue Minjun. Appropriately titled “L’ombre du fou rire (The shadow of crazy laughter),” the show features Minjun’s large-scale paintings easily identified by caricatured self-portraits frozen in laughter that have rapidly gained international popularity in recent years.

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Collectors seeking iconic works at the Old Masters sales in London this week have led to uneven results: at Sotheby’s a bidder paid $47.9 million for “Head of a Young Apostle,” by Raphael; at Christie’s, only 29 out of 54 lots sold, bringing in $18.6 million, just over low estimate. “The name is not enough. It has to be a top example by an important master,” said Jonathan Green of the Richard Green Gallery in London. Additional speculation is that international, non-Western buyers are not interested in the historical subject matter from a cultural standpoint. (more…)

The Pompidou has hired Sylvia Chivaratanond as its first adjunct curator in New York. The move is part of the museum’s effort to promote a current knowledge of the contemporary art scene among its Paris curators. She has organized shows for major US institutions and is married to Philippe Vergne, director of the Dia Art Foundation.

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Danh Vo – We The People (detail) – Gallery Chantal Crousel, all photos by G. Hansen for ArtObserved

Copper – tarnished, polished, battered, and even mailed FedEx packages (as with Walead Beshty’s piece at Regen Projects) seemed to make an appearance in many places at Art Basel Miami Beach this year. One amazing example was Danh Vo’s curving, paneled “We The People” at Galerie Chantal Crousel, also perhaps the largest copper piece at the show.

Daniel Buren – Bortolami Gallery

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New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Art Fair 2012, all photos by E. Simone for ArtObserved

The NADA fair is home to the some of the youngest, and most surprising artists and gallerists during Art Basel week, and is often described as a respite from the big-named, shiny, high-altitude atmosphere of the main fair. Dealers and collectors come to NADA searching out the new artists they think have the most potential, reveling in the discovery.

Keith Farquhar, Leslie Fritz Gallery (formerly Renwick Gallery) (more…)

In a replication of their performances at the MoMA in New York this past April, 2012, legendary German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk will perform eight classic albums in chronological order, with “spectacular 3D visualizations and effects” in Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern. At both museums the show was billed as “a chronological exploration of the group’s sonic and visual experiments.” Tate Modern’s title, slightly different than MoMA’s, is KRAFTWERK – THE CATALOGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,  and tickets go on sale December 12th.  (more…)

The man who spent nearly half a million dollars in the first hour of Art Basel Miami 2010 is missing from the action this year. Steven Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisors, may be taking a break due to recent legal trouble. Though Cohen has not been charged, his employee Mathew Martoma was accused of insider trading while working at SAC, and there are rumors the government will parlay their Martoma accusation into a charge against Cohen. Galleries to whom Cohen is especially loyal will miss him this year, and David Zwirner of the eponymous gallery told the New York Times, “We would absolutely hate to have him not active in the market, I can wholeheartedly say that. I think the art world is rooting for him. I’m rooting for him. I wish he were here right now.” (more…)

Though nothing official has been decided, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California are in talks to form a possible partnership. The deal could potentially alleviate MOCA’s fiscal instability by linking it to the ambitious university, which has pledged to raise $6 billion by 2018 as part of a fundraising project. However, USC provost Elizabeth Garrett told the Los Angeles Times that talks “are very preliminary at this time,” and MOCA spokesman Lyn Winter shared similar statements.  (more…)

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, The Secret Societies group show, courtesy Schirn Kunsthalle

At a ceremony held in Kiev, Ukraine, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was announced winner of the Future Generation Art Prize, funded by Ukrainian collector Viktor Pinchuk’s foundation and worth $100,000. Yiadom-Boakye, born and working in London, was shortlisted for her portrait paintings of mainly black subjects, which through cultural context have taken on a political charge. Her work is urgent, sweeping, and dark. Yiadom-Boakye says each work takes her less than a day to complete, because “it’s about a certain kind of urgency and capturing that time frame.”

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Ai Weiwei, Forge, He Xie detail, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery

Ai Weiwei‘s Forge is single show across both of Mary Boone Gallery’s Fifth Avenue and Chelsea locations, with installation, video and sculpture that provides a comprehensive look into recent work, and which runs concurrently with his exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum. Ai is an artist, human rights activist, and Chinese dissident who produces thoughtfully provocative, political work. Forge falls firmly in that tradition.

Ai was born in Beijing in 1957 and attended the Beijing Film academy before moving to New York in 1981. He graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1983 and returned to China in 1993, where he currently lives. Though his website and blog have been brutally censored, Ai remains active on Twitter, and video transmissions from him are frequently released, including a recent take on ‘Gangnam Style’ in which he dances, waving around handcuffs.

Exhibition view, Ai Weiwei, Forge, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery

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In an announcement strategically planned to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach 2012, the Knight Foundation announced Monday, December 3rd that it would commit $23 million in new funding for arts and culture endeavors in South Florida. Institutions and groups receiving the funding run the gamut from small, community groups and individuals to more established cultural institutions.  (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview Entrance, all photos on site for Art Observed by Erica Schwartzberg

On Wednesday, December 5th, 2012, Art Basel Miami Beach hosted its 11th annual VIP Preview at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Organizers claim Art Basel Miami has surpassed its Swiss sister Art Basel in size and popularity, though it has yet to surpass attendance figures (62,500 people in 2010). This year, 680 galleries competed to show at Art Basel Miami and 257 were selected. More than 2,000 artists are represented and attendance is expected to top last year’s 55,000 figure. Though definitive sales reports are difficult to pin down (Art Basel Miami never releases official records), $2.5 billion worth of art was on offer in 2011, and several galleries reported record sales. VIP guests include business magnates Steve Wynn, who purchased a Roy Lichtenstein, and Eli Broad, who purchased a Jeff Koons sculpture. Newsprint mogul Peter Brant gave Owen Wilson a tour, and Will Ferrell ceded the stage to his wife Viveca, who sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum. Also spotted: Sean “Puffy” Combs purchasing an Ivan Navarro sculpture, Diane von Furstenberg, comedian/actress Chelsea Handler, and music mogul Russell Simmons. The following is a photoset from the 2012 Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview.

Jesús Rafael Soto, Cubo de Roma, Galeria Elvira Gonzalez

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Erica Schwartzberg

UNTITLED. art fair is celebrating their first year at Art Basel Miami. Under the art direction of New York-based curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud, a beachfront pavilion was designed by architecture firm K/R (John Keenen and Terence Riley) to house a collection of international works by contemporary artists presented by 50 invited galleries. The space aims to emphasize the viewer’s experience  while creating context for the works. “It is about creating a conversation,” says Lopez-Chahoud, “and thereby offering collectors a sense of discovery, diversity, and quality with an international perspective.” UNTITLED. is open through Sunday, December 9th.

Paco Cao, mid-session of a seance, Eternal Rest at (Art) Amalgamated

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Chuck Close, Installation View, Courtesy of Pace Gallery

Pace Gallery in New York is home to Chuck Close’s first gallery show in the city since 2009. The gallery has represented Close since 1977. This latest exhibition features some of the artist’s newest pieces such as Cindy (2012) (a portrait of photographer Cindy Sherman) along with some of Close’s older works. (more…)

As part of the Guggenheim‘s performing-arts Works & Process series, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi brings Sergei Prokofiev’s suspenseful, timeless classic to life in front of Will Cotton‘s newly commissioned, candy-coated installation. Cotton’s largest painting to date (30′ x 11’) is set with a gingerbread castle inhabited by the wolf and his friends. George Manahan conducts the Juilliard Ensemble. (more…)

Steven Murphy, CEO of Christie’s, ranked No. 1 on Art + Auction’s Power 100 list, (which will be released today at a party at the Haven Lounge in Miami). Murphy has built the auction house’s online functionality and attracted new clients. Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Marc Glimcher, Christian Deydier, Eli Broad and Emmanuel Perrotin also ranked in the top ten.
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Jeffrey Gundlach, bond investor and art collector, catalyzed the return of his stolen artwork by telling authorities to check who had Googled his grandmother’s name. Earlier this year, $10 million in artworks were stolen from his home, along with paintings made by his grandmother, Helen Fuchs. It turned out that two parties had searched on Google for “Helen Fuchs” – Gundlach and the thieves, who were subsequently apprehended. (more…)

Cooper Union students have barricaded themselves inside the school in protest of possible plans by the school to start charging tuition. “We’ve got plenty of food, we’re not planning on leaving until these demands are met,” she said. “Until we’re forcibly removed, we are not leaving” said Kristi Cavataro, a junior. The school is trying to maintain financial stability and a high caliber academic program. (more…)

As announced by Jude Law at the Tate Britain, the winner of the 2012 Turner Prize is Elizabeth Price. Price was nominated for her solo exhibition at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, in which she presented a trilogy of video installations. Her work, THE WOOLWORTH’S CHOIR OF 1979 2012 is a complex, multi-layered video she describes as something that morphs into a “PowerPoint lecture, to something that looks like an infomercial to something that feels like a cinematic melodrama”. Black and white photographs of 19th century churches intermingle with web clips of pop performances and news footage of the 1979 Woolworth’s furniture fire, giving the viewer an immersive, guided tour through the debris of consumer culture. Each year, the Turner prize (worth $40,000) is presented to an artist under 50 years old, living, working or born in Britain for an outstanding exhibition in the previous 12 months. (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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