Hernan Bas, The Swan Prince, 2004, Acrylic and waterbased oil on linen, 30 40 inches, photograph AFC

Basic questions such as “how good are these paintings” remain surprisingly difficult to answer when applied to Hernan Bas, particularly in light of his copious exhibition history and press accolades. There’s a crudeness to the way Bas applies paint which even to the skilled eye can muddy the distinction between knowing skill, and dexterity with the medium and sloppiness without sufficient resolution. Certainly earlier Bas paintings leaned more towards the latter, though the works currently on display at the Rubell Family Collection gallery exhibit almost astounding growth.

Hernan Bas, Photograph AFC

I’m not convinced however, that the work is fully developed yet. While the paintings are undeniably beautifully painted, several on display feature one too many props or affects. For example, the painting pictured above has all the allure of the similarly elongated figures of John Currin, or a contemporary such as Jansson Stegner, but these same references also make the neck piece feel slightly contrived. Virtually all the paintings in this same gallery suffer mildly from too much something or other, be it over work, or excessively complicated landscapes.

By contrast On the Jagged Shore, a largely black and white painting depicting dandy boys along a rocky coast, or The Ribbons After the Party, a small portrait painting maintain a high level of complexity without ever doing too much. The queer narratives take shape without being too linear or directed, and the paint itself holds these grander Cecil Beaton like compositions together.

Photograph Art Fag City

14 Miami art fairs seemed like an awful lot last time around, but diligent viewers could still manage to see most if not all of it. The 24 fairs this year present problem to viewers because it not only becomes impossible to see all the art out there, but every viewing experience becomes mediated by the work you have just seen and what you plan to see. In short there’s too much art to properly focus on what’s in front of you.

Thomas Zipp, Geist Ueber Materie/Spirit Over Matter (Future Organ), 2006, Mixed Media with text, Photograph AFC

The Rubell Collection provides some relief to this, offering a museum setting that in large part manages to block out the deafening exterior noise of the fairs. Don’t expect a cheery walk in the park though, Euro-Centric Part 1 brings together some of the most darkest artistic expressions of contemporary culture I’ve seen to date. Thomas Zipp’s Geist Ueber Materie suggests the rumbling of an ominous presence; either a giant air conditioner, or an undefined presence or future much more sinister. In another gallery, a Jason Rhoades hanging neon light sculpture and cum covered pillow packs a strong punch it’s second season in a row (it was exhibited last year as well), pointing towards a material culture that is in and of itself pornographic. Nathalie Djurberg’s animated shorts and Franz West’s paper mache sculptures were also strong, as was Christian Boltanski’s unmonumentalesque sculpture Untitled Reserve, 1989 [pictured below.] As a whole, it’s hard to imagine a more convincingly bleak picture than the one presented here.

Christian Boltanski, Untitled Reserve, 1989, clothes, black and white photographs, and lights, 111 x 64 x 7 inches

AIPAD and photoMiami, Photograph AFC

AIPAD and photoMiami; two art fairs where the frames were typically more interesting than the photographs themselves. Exceptions to this evidenced by the work of Robert Glenn Ketchum at Wach Gallery AIPAD, who coupled bad photography with tacky presentation, and Olaf Otto Becker at Cohen Amador Gallery, photoMiami, who doesn’t win the race, but at least gives his frame a run for its money.

Olaf Otto Becker, Talerua Bay, 07/2005, Archival pigment print, 46 x 54 inches, Cohen Amador Gallery, photoMiami. Image copyright Cohen Amador Gallery. My crappy photo including the frame here.

Not the Aqua courtyard. Photograph AFC

For some reason Aqua’s courtyard makes everyone want to buy either the art or the viewing experience, even if it’s not all that good. Don’t get me wrong, Aqua’s no Scope, but, the fair certainly seemed a little lack luster relative to last year’s effort.

Unfortunately, such news won’t come as much surprise to some; we heard a lot negative rumblings earlier this year amongst dealers regarding the fair’s difficulties filling the new Wynwood space, and their over priced booths. I can’t speak to Wynwood — like everyone else I know, I didn’t make it over there (I heard sales were next to nothing)– but short of Fette’s Gallery, Cinders, and Heskin Contemporary pretty much everything at the South Beach location left me with nothing to say. It was like visiting the art suburbs, virtually everything looked vanilla.

I suspect this fact accounts for the incredibly few photographs I took at this fair. I’ve got no lowlights on my camera, and only a few shots of the better work in at Aqua. An unbalanced snapshot of the fair below.

Installation shot, Fette’s gallery.

Not all of the work at Fette’s gallery is to my taste, but I like that the gallery has a unique and unified vision. Expressionistic work filled the gallery space, most of it disturbing in one way or another.

Kelie Bowman, Cinders

Cinders had a number of Kelie Bowman’s inventive watercolors on display. Small and charming, these works stood out in the Aqua crowd this year.

Julie Peppito, Heskin Contemporary

Julie Peppito’s work probably appealed the most to me at Aqua. Unfortunately, the drawings proved impossible to photograph mid afternoon, but if they weren’t a blur of reflection, I’m quite certain readers would remark on the complexity of mark making and color use. From afar these works may look chaotic, but up close they are amongst the more beautifully detailed drawings I saw at the fairs.

Red dot approximately 1/2 inch in circumference.  Photograph AFC 

I think it’s safe to say this work sold.

Scope Miami, Photo AFC

I’ll tell you what; Scope’s emerging artist grantees improve every year, the floor plans and organization of their booths has gotten better and their curatorial programs have seen real growth. All of this may be meaningless however, if the fair cannot start attracting quality exhibitors. They might also start refusing a few of the crappier galleries willing to pay their booth fees, or they’ll see the whole ship sink.

Sara Cook and Robert Munn’s Depthography (Center). The Proposition

Take husband and wife team Sara Cook and Robert Munn, who specialize in 3-D art; while the effect of their “depthography” loses something on this computer, this kind of familiar arcade poster doesn’t really need more attention than it already received through the mid 80’s. The Proposition’s booth as a whole has an almost delightful so-bad-it’s-good quality to it, but it seems to come without the artist’s or gallery’s awareness, which of course renders it virtually meaningless.

Imagine this booth replicated with variation by 100 and you’re looking at Scope. It’s really not worth discussing all the bad work that was shown last week — there’s simply too much of it — but since I liked some of the Scope commissions I’ve posted a few below.

Dennis Oppenheim, Safety Cones, Photograph AFC

A self depreciating public sculpture? We approve!

Boris Hoppek’s Entrance Installation, Photograph AFC

This large and moderately appealing sculpture sits in the center of a spacious sitting area near the front entrance. As far as I could tell the inside was largely used as additional storage space, which means the man pictured inside the sculpture isn’t part of the piece.

Situ Studio and Matthew McGuinness

A reasonably decent biomorphic form graces the entrance of Scope. Situ Studio and Matthew McGuinness leave viewers with the mistaken impression that there was average work at the fair.

Photograph AFC

One of the benefits of attending a fair catering to those who actually have money is that your shit never has the chance to stink. The above photograph documents the most luxurious porta potty I have ever experienced. A special thanks to photoMiami and AIPAD for making this all possible.

Posts on photoMiami, AIPAD, Scope, Aqua and the Rubell collection to arrive after we return to New York.

Pulse, Photo AFC

The problem with 24 simultaneously running Miami art fairs has less to do with the fact that you can’t possibly see and absorb everything, than it does the dispersion of good work. For those interested in emerging artists, there simply isn’t a place where most everything will be worthwhile even if it isn’t all to your taste. This creates a problem for viewers, as well as for readers of this blog, who may tire of reading mixed to negative reviews of the fairs.

Julie Heffernan, photo AFC

In theory, invitational fairs such as Pulse offer some relief, and for those who have a taste for good, albeit traditional approaches painting, photography and sculpture the fair will mostly come through. Probably my favorite work in the show, the Julie Heffernan still life pictured above currently hangs on the walls of P.P.O.W. Heffernan, who has been showing professionally for several years now has two additional works hanging at other galleries in the same fair but to my mind this is by far the best of the three.

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, High Seas, 2007, Mixed Media Sculpture, with motor, camera and Live video output, 84 x 48 x 54 inches

It would appear Pulse is the “new media” fair now, Postmasters and Bitforms representing the only new media art I’ve seen (sorry vertexlist, I haven’t made it to Fountain). Jennifer and Kevin McCoy’s motorized miniature Titanic boat and projected movie is a little literal for my tastes, but I’ve posted it for the beauty of the sculptural object alone. Also, it warrants mentioning that the broken version of this piece displayed at Eyebeam earlier this summer was incredible. Rather than relying on moving gadgetry to create an ongoing film, the piece was surrounded by white fabric and lights; the moving shadows telling the story of a sinking ship. While this installation may not represent my favorite version of the work, it is not a piece to be missed.

The second wing of Pulse, Impulse outside this frame, Photograph AFC

In contrast to the many strong booths in this fair, Max Protetch, and Jack Shainman amongst them, Pulse too had its fair share of duds. Rather than list them all however, I’ll simply note that the exhibitor floor plan did a real disservice to the fair, seperating this year’s crop of curated emerging exhibitors (Impulse) into a different wing. While an isle of regular exhibitors were also located in that section, that section of the fair as a whole seemed out of place and awkward. Impulse may have been weaker than usual, but even with that, Pulse very much felt the lose of programming that normally infuses life in an otherwise stuffy fair.

For all the art as you’ll see in Miami, it’s worthwhile considering what isn’t here. I’ve seen even less video this year than last, very little performance, and almost no new media, (I’m not so sad to see the ipod art go away, but I wouldn’t mind viewing a few choice animated gif selections). This probably comes as a surprise to no one, but heavily conceptual art either never makes it here, or is evaluated by market values and visual presentation.

Photograph AFC

So sue me; I forgot to post this pressing summary of NADA’s Friday night party with Gang Gang Dance. In case you’re wondering, the crowd out front broke down into three categories; those who were invited and waiting to get in, those who weren’t and wanted to get in, and those who weren’t sure if they wanted to get in at all. Falling into the latter group, I stuck around long enough to take this photo and went home.

Photograph:Matthew Green

In other parties I didn’t attend, Art Forum’s formal soiree at the Wolfsonian last night saw a line of party goers that wrapped around the street. Having arrived in capri pants and a t-shirt, my outfit went a long way in convincing the party organizers I should have been on the press list as opposed to the RSVP line, but it didn’t get me in any sooner. I waited around to see a Yossi Milo employee try to charge his way in, and Fette of Fette’s Gallery fight with a bouncer because he was refusing access to her husband, before I decided I’d had enough and took off. You’ll have to check the Art Diary for star sightings and actual gossip.

Photo left: copyright scope right: AFC

Anyone else think the Scope limos are a little over the top? Don’t get me wrong, I like the shuttle service, but I feel like I’m on my way to a casino in these things. A classical music playing casino. With flowers. And a tour guide.

NADA, Photograph AFC

I’ll be honest; I don’t know what to think of NADA. The majority of the fair seemed average to me, and having spent a lot of yesterday looking at bad art, the inevitable show stinkers had a fairly negative effect on my viewing experience. Martin van Zomeren’s booth for example consisted of a lone hanging pocket watch by Wilfredo Prieto titled Time is Gold in their space…you can guess the color of that piece. If the work doesn’t already seem bad enough, anyone who attended the fairs last year would recall a strikingly similar stunt pulled by Urs Fischer and his gallerist Gavin Brown Enterprises at Art Basel whereby they cleared the booth for a single suspended cigarette box to be dragged around. Roebling Hall also disappoints, having shown much better work at the Armory and Nada Miami in previous years. The sculpture in their booth wasn’t awful mind you, but we’ve all seen mirror sculptures that make a space appear endless and various objects carved out of wood (Ersser was identified by us as a standout at Scope a couple of years ago, but he’s still doing the same thing with a concept that already risked falling into gimmick.) Momenta Art’s booth almost lost me for good with their celebration of poor text based art. Love is Over reads one poorly painted mirror on panel piece by Rockelle Feinstein, “Another gripping saga of the difficult and moody artist (yawn).” says another piece, this time by Carl Pope. Both inevitably evoke the response; So what?

Michael Jones McKean, Installation view, SUNDAY

Work like this can have a dampening effect on the fair as whole, which is real shame because I also saw gallerists and artists taking exactly the right kind of risks. First time NADA exhibitor SUNDAY immediately comes to mind, his booth filled with the layered material sculptures of Michael Jones McKean. It’s a ballsy move; objects don’t sell as easily as paintings, they are pricey to transport, and there’s no back up if the work doesn’t sell. But SUNDAY director Sean Horton talks about his goals for presenting the art first, “With fairs, it’s either too dark or too crowded…we have enough space to do one person’s work justice” says Horton, whose booth is a beacon of light in response to that issue. McKean’s montage sculptures achieve a level of accomplishment in space activation and exhibition design I have yet to see matched at any art fair, including Basel. What’s more, the work itself is amongst the best I’ve seen, the negative and positive space creating complexity and surface to the work. The arrangements themselves would seem almost too perfectly placed, were it not for the use rich textiles, which demand deliberation of that sort.

Pamela Jordon, Untitled, 2007

Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery, another first time exhibitor from New York also puts together a fine booth, Alex Dodge’s keyboard drawing adorned with some sort of dried clear plastic material. It was the near by black paintings by Pamela Jordan however that left the largest impression on me, the subtle shifts in tone and color within the blacks creating a surface with great depth, the more vibrant tones adding movement. Dealer Sam Wilson explained that the fair has been great for Nichtssagend because it introduced them to so many potential clients, but did note the inevitable struggle associated with the fact that everyone, including collectors, tends to buy from whom they know. Although no one spoke specifically about sales, I sense a lot of hang wringing going on amongst all the exhibitors.

In the case of NADA, the hand wringing should be associated with the effects of a cautious collecting practice as opposed to the natural result of a poor fair. NADA may have performed inconsistently, but the number of first time exhibitors who brought their a-game to the fair, suggests they are doing something right.

Ida Ekblad, Political Song for Jessica Simpson to Sing

Jessica Simpson with a gum on her eye at Karma International. A bonus pick posted purely because I like it.

The Miami Convention Center Default Google Map Thumbnail. Originally from Joel Holmberg at nasty nets, via b.

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.

Photograph AFC 

Several sources tell me the really ugly overpriced art at many of the larger fairs isn’t selling.  Normally statements like this wouldn’t be a conversation piece, but today, it inspires the question, “Is the party almost over or are collectors just not that dumb?” Given some of the prices around here I’d like to say it’s the latter, but then again I saw art sell last year I never thought would find a home.  I guess we’ll know how the fairs will pan out by the end of the week, but speculation tells me this may be the first year dealers go back without their standard Basel boatload of money.

Red Dot Miami, Photograph AFC

With 24 fairs in Miami this week, the gradient of what you’ll get is incredibly large, ranging from “My chances of finding excellence are equal to discovering a Picasso in the trash” to “the fair guards gave me a hard time because I don’t have enough plastic surgery to be here”. I suppose it’s all the kind of viewing experience you enjoy; sorting through all kinds of cheap crap to find a few good works versus skipping all that for the good stuff, but with Bridge and Red Dot falling into the former category and my tastes the latter, I ended up dreading the experience of looking at art.

Rather than recreate that experience, I’ve decided to post the two good works I saw, and move on to fairs that actually deserve the attention.

Chris Doyle, at Sam Lee Gallery

I can’t figure out how Sam Lee Gallery ended up at Red Dot. Most of the work in his exhibition space was quite nice, setting him apart from, well, everyone. The image I’ve posted above doesn’t do the work justice, but I really enjoyed these tiny watercolor homes. Each painted from memory, the scale and image placement suggest the kind of fluidity associated with old or dim recollections.

J.J. Garfinkel, Myriad Quay, 2007, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 45 x 48 inches, Hogar Collection, Bridge Art Fair.

Want to see some more work that doesn’t photograph well? This is painting for painters, so it’s probably best to just go see J.J. Garfinkel’s Myriad Quay in person. Those looking for the work will need to bear in mind, that the fair takes place in what appears to be two buildings, the artist’s gallery, Hogar Collection, in the second. It’s not that hard to find, just difficult to go through if you already been disappointed with the first half of the fair.

The storefront of a Miami beauty salon on Washington Ave.  Photograph AFC 

Flow Miami, Photograph AFC

Taking hotel fairs up a notch, virtually every location I visited today had the majority of the beds removed from the suites. This improves the viewing experience by a level of magnitude eliminating the burdensome question, “What will this look like without a giant bed in front of it”. Additionally, virtually at the exhibitors at Flow, Bridge and Red Dot (possibly others, I noticing after a while,) used track lighting, which means viewers no longer need bring a mini maglight to view some of the finer details in the work.

Linda Durham Contemporary Art at Flow had the most impressive set up of the day, offering a near complete transformation of their hotel room to an exhibition space. The gallery shows work I’m not overly interested in (photographers who sign the front of their prints need to be told to stop), but they otherwise receive a thumbs up from us on presentation.

Michael Berkhemer in the Wildwood Press bathroom at Flow, Photograph AFC

The prize for best bathroom installation I’ve seen thus far also goes out to a Flow exhibitor. Again, the art work at Wildwood Press won’t be making any headlines, (though I’m sure there’s a corporate collection somewhere that will fall in love with it) but the gallery has to receive credit for turning their toilet into an art object. Nothing Duchampian here, just some reasonable exhibition design.

Botero, National Holiday, 2003, Oil on Canvas, 39 1/4 x 51 1/4 inches

For those interested in second rate Boteros (the majority of his recent work), KN Gallery has a poorly painted work executed in 2003. National Holiday includes the signature of Álvaro Uribe, the president of Columbia, which may add something to the history of the painting, but nothing to its quality.

David Byrne, at Hemphill

Last but not least, I took a few shots of David Byrne’s drawings at Hemphill, initially thinking they weren’t overly remarkable. Well, I changed my mind. Later on in the day it occurred to me all that time I spent trying to eliminate the ugly work next to it was influencing how I saw the work. Looking at my photographs, these drawings stand out from a crowd of mediocre at Flow.

Outside the ArtNow Fair, Photograph AFC

Word on the street tells me ArtNow won’t be the worst fair I see this week, which frankly frightens me. I made it through the first floor of galleries before I gave up on the chance of seeing anything moderately interesting, and walked next door to Flow. I’ve posted the best work I saw at the fair below. Consider yourself warned.

Jean-Paul Bourdier, Beginnings, Chromogenic print, 48 x 48 inches, photograph copyright of the artist and Volakis Gallery
Related: Last week’s guess at who would take home the award for worst Miami fair.

Peres Projects installation view, photograph AFC

Admittedly some of the photographs in the Kirstine Roepstorff, Terence Koh collaboration at Peres Projects Art Basel aren’t bad, but so much of this work is over done it’s hard to know what’s good. For example, how many self portrait anal bone probings do we need to see by Koh? Is it necessary to feature all of those black skulls drenched in drippy enamel? At what point does an artist say, okay, I’ve got enough sparkling black blood on this photographed ass? Many of us would have been happier had this point been hit a lot sooner.

neugerriemschneider, installation view, photograph AFC

In other Basel low points, neugerriemschneider’s mirrored floor, hanging wire sculptures and chandeliered overhead, stood out as a booth to avoid. Collectors it would seem, inexplicably love tackiness though; I wasn’t able to get within five feet of a single employee. That said, asking the gallerists questions wasn’t exactly my top priority.