Ink: The Best Non Basel Fair on Miami Beach

Unidentified dealer running around INK, Photograph AFC 

Trust a dealer association like the IFPDA to put together a great fair.  The organization claims to represent the best print dealers in the country,  so it stands to reason that the fair would be a good one. And it is.  The hotel suites are larger, the courtyard is relaxing, and the art is great.

John Wesley, Sleeping Porch, gouache on paper, 14 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches at Dranoff Fine Art

Take this great John Wesley at Dranoff Fine Art .  It’s a playfully inventive piece — great to look at.  Certainly, the fair presents a welcome relief to yesterday’s experience of dreading even looking at art.

Fred Sandback, Mapp mit zehn lithographien, 1977, Reverse ground lithograph, 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches.

Not that anyone reading this blog will know what they’re looking at, but the above documents an exquisite suite of Sandback prints.  Hard to believe just four years ago, those prints sold for a couple hundred bucks a piece.  Sadly, the artist’s death, and the explosion of the contemporary art market has increased the value of the work astronomically.  Today, the asking price for this series is $32,000.

Left: Amy Sillman, Oe-N, 2007, Color sugar lift and spit bite aquatints with soft ground etching, 35 x 28 inches, Right: Jose Lerma, Untitled 2, Lithograph and handmade paper, 32 x 30 1/4 inches photographs AFC

Finally, apologies to the artists for posting such a poor representation of their work, but it’s either this or guessing what the work looks like.  Sillman and Lerma, at Crown Point Press and Tandem respectively, earn the award for best art by emerging to mid-career artists.  Lerma’s work in particular grabs my attention, the layers of handmade paper in this work adding depth and character. In fact, the print is probably my favorite of the fair.  Not bad for an artist who really hasn’t been showing for that long.