Oh My Ami
On Monday we managed to set out for a touch of sun and fun on the final leg of our packed week on South Beach. Bryan (below) and I found ourselves at some of the smaller (and free-of-charge) fairs yesterday instead of the larger Wynwood lot. It was a nice balance to the ‘box’ with many hotel rooms offering AC, outdoor views and thin winding corridors.
(* Is that passing woman above a Stockard Channing lookalike?)
We started at what I would consider the only poorly conceived fair that we attended overall, Art Now. I caddily referred to it as “Art Never”. Pardon me, but it’s hot, and there’s lots to see. This hotel was run down, the rooms cramped and drab and much of the art, honestly, was what I might call tourist fare. When you entered you were confronted by a large canopy piece with fabric toilet paper dangling from above. Tacky! We ventured forward less-the-none.
Next it was the Red Dot and Bridge Art Fairs, which was in a fun and very 80s hotel, lots of white, and a wild red shag carpet, futuristic motifs in their polypropolene furnishings. This fair was hipper, however after asking one NY dealer about a Miami artist she was showing, noting that I had never seen her work before though had at three different fairs, she adamantly pointed out that they “owned her soul” because she “signed a contract”. I responded by saying “I am scared of that”. And her hard and fast attitude had a whole lot to be desired. For myself, I would never work with a dealer with this sort of ownership angle and approach. And no matter how I am ever “handled” and however many galleries I would consider showing with – it’s either a two-way street or the highway in my opinion. It’s a critical and delicate relationship, one that I waited until I was 41 years old before I said, yes, I can trust this person to truly “represent” me. That’s a seriously important job, and if my dealer barked like that, someone who puts their position ahead of the art they’re dealing, I would cast them to the wild dogs.
NAME DROPPING SECTIONAL: Through these fairs it was pleasant to see Portland folks strewn all over. Among them were Bruce Guenther, the Butters folks, Maryann Deffenbaugh, Rod Pulliam, G. Lewis Clevenger, and the crew from Laura Russo. Most seemed in good spirits. I got the chance to speak with Howard Yezerski after many years, I was approached by artist John Ruggeiri from Boston who was showing work at the Provincetown Firehouse Art Center –we have started conversations about co-curating something for ’09 over the last year, and it was wonderful to meet him for the first time in person. I stopped to talk with one tattooed Brooklyn gallerist who was showing big old oil paintings with figures from history painted finely and in KISS makeup – I pointed out to him the lead story in the current issue of Art Papers on the neo art/goth movement.
I got a certain thrill seeing how some of the local ‘bling culture’ sort of rolled its way into hi and low brow everywhere you looked around town. Though in the higher category, the three standouts of the week were works by photographer Clinton Fein (showing at Toomey Tourell who had stands at two fairs). The work, a partial commentary (sort of a brutal homoerotic take) on Abu Ghraib, were striking, visceral and bloodied bodies, masculine, pretty raw stuff. Nothing else quite like it in the fairs. I was excited that Erik Schneider of Quality Pictures had works by former Floridian William Cordova who was selected for this year’s Whitney Biennial. Very intimate collage/drawings with a particular introspective direction mostly having made a vanishing act over and above in the entire scene. Big, wild and colorful doesn’t always speak to everybody. And these works’ whisper is louder than any of the huge Massimo Vitali’s I saw along the halls. Mind you, those are stunning and comment on the maximal aesthetic, but the Cordobas spoke to this informal quietude and poetic form such as those from the era of Schwitters and Cornel.
Lastly, it was jaw-dropping to see the amply gorgeous striped paintings of William Betts – stunning and machine made, with a popping interplanetary cross section of color field painting and pure geometry. Several dealers seemed to have his surveillance pieces which I think are good and ripe for our time, but nothing compared to his optical stripes. If you were thinking of getting me a lil’ something for Xmas, my wish list is official.
The best fair that I attended by far was the extremely well organized Aqua Wynwood, where the feeling was fresh and contemporary with vendors from all over. This was a more intimate space, with about 30-40 galleries. Inside was the best booth all week, and that has to go to Lawrimore Project, where Scott Lawrimore helped escort me into that rock box in which I appeared inside in yesterday’s blog. He had video work by Susan Robb, Tivon Rice’s video/light sculptures and other large scale projects as well. Elizabeth Leach Gallery had a strong presentation with power pieces by Cris Bruch, and some of the best Jaq Chartier’s I’ve seen. She also has Sean Healy’s cool glass houses floor piece and MK Guth’s extremely popular elongated braid lenticular images.
Today a few of us made it down to SOBE and rented a cabana complete with super comfy lounge chairs, with fitted towels surrounded by people in so many various stages of undress. It was slightly on and off overcast though we all took in the last rays of light before escaping the town of lawless swerve happy driving, white sands, palm trees and more blue (sky and azure waters) then I’ve experienced in decades. The light breezes were nice as we each made our way into the Atlantic. Lapping waves, mojitos, eating at The News Café, shopping at Puma and window shopping at Barney’s. This was a resort trip away. Who knows…maybe I’ll be talked into coming back…..
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Richard Speer of Willamette Week caught up with me as we crossed in our rounds and reports here.
BYE BYE BASEL: The New York Times captured the real sense of the whole ‘movement’ and is running this recap video of Art Basel Miami Beach.