CFile’s Chief Editor is currently on a four day march through the ten miles of corridors that make up Miami’s annual December Art Theme Park, from Art Basel/Miami, to Design Miami, Art Miami, and Scope. Over a thousand dealers from all over the country are in town peddling their wares in mini fairs or collaborating with local dealers and even using hotel rooms as venues. The strong whiff of “essence de hustle” is everywhere.
Clark’s reporting on the action will be published this Monday but here is a snippet:
Question is, are there many buyers. It would seem so from the VIP opening for Basel Miami, which was packed to the gills, although, to be honest, every other attendee did look like an artist in search of dealer.
I witnessed one moment in this regard. A handsome young man in his early twenties was standing close to a booth, clearly gathering his courage to enter. After a moment or two, he rolled up the sleeves of his t-shirt to show impressive upper arms and shoulders, took a deep breath, switched on a big, dazzling smile and with great élan swept into the booth and walked straight up to the dealer who was vividly impressed. But the artist was looking for a gallery, not a date with a portly dealer and a free meal. I saw him some hours later looking much less confident and his sleeves were rolled down.
There are several themes this year and ceramics is one of them, as well as clay in some surprising and disguised forms. For a teaser, here is Yeni & Nan who were part of an important movement in Venezuela in which the human body became the main instrument of artistic expression. One of their most emblematic works, Body: Air, Water, and Earth, 1983 (shown above and below), was presented at Art Basel by Henrique Faria Fine Art.
Above image: Garth Clark at Art Basel/Miami in front of Yeni & Nan’s Body: Air, Water, and Earth, 1983. Courtesy of the artists and Henrique Faria Fine Art.
Yeni & Nan, Body: Air, Water, and Earth, 1983. All images courtesy of the artists and Henrique Faria Fine Art, who presented the work at Art Basel 2013.
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