Eat. Sleep. Breathe Art
Hottest names in contemporary art and fashion industry collided for a long weekend of exhibitions and parties as the 17th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach got underway.
The five-day event was made up of 20 international art fairs and attracted more than 83,000 visitors. Artists, celebrities, models, influencers, and more descended on Miami in their most out-of-the-box street style looks to experience all of city’s hottest art spots.
Prada kicked off Miami Art Week with the opening of their pop-up – Prada Mode. Imitating a nightclub, Prada Mode embraced its visitors with music, art, festivities, dining, and, of course, fashion. Prada Mode featured a site-specific intervention by artist Theaster Gates and events organized by the National Young Arts Foundation and Document Journal.
Since 2012 Basel allures people not only by convention of emerging gallerists but also by a bona fide party circuit with club nights and musical showcases where celebrities like Kanye West and Leonardo DiCaprio are renowned guests.
The Versace Mansion, which is known now as Villa Casa Casuarina, welcomed the guests on Thursday night for the annual Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series finale party, this year hosted by Tessa Thompson. Laura Harrier, Sasha Lane, Devon Windsor, Shaun Ross, Kevin Garnett, Garrett Neff, Chloe Wise, Gaïa Matisse and more joined this party, which celebrated the highlights of the arts program.
Therme Art Program presented Therme Forum at Design Miami/‘s 2018 Talks Program, a series of conversations on sustainability, body and art in design, architecture and urban planning. A special guest, Virgil Abloh, attended “Back to the Body-Human-Oriented Forms in Art, Design, & Architecture” talk.
This year Fendi and Design Miami/ celebrated their ten-year anniversary. For this occasion, Fendi presented The Shapes of Water, a project by Sabine Marcelis dedicated to rediscovering one of the elements that the Italian fashion house cherishes most water.
One of the many highlights of the week was a new version of “Autorreconstrucción: To Insist, to Insist, to Insist…” by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillega - a large-scale performative installation in the new Grand Ballroom.
Galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia make up the impressive list of participants in the Miami Beach show. Each year the event presents whales of art industry such as White Cube gallery’s artist Damien Hirst, Galeria Continua’s contemporary Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa, König Galerie - Erwin Wurm’s significant pieces and more.
Art Miami Pavilion caught crowded around pieces of American Artist Deborah Simon with her “Flayed Rabbit”, Manuel Merida with her series of spining Circules MOUVEMENT/ MATIERE/MANUCHROME “Cercle Alu” and Lina Condes’ beautiful sculpture “Anthropogenic”.
Antonio started his week with the Faena Festival, visited performances in the Forum, viewed installations of Alfredo Jaar, Derrick Adams, George Sánchez-Calderón and others. He adds that Scope Art Fair, which displayed 140 exhibitors, was overflowing with lot of art works to the point of excess that undermined our capacity of seeing Art. Instead Cardoso suggests the Context Art where Anna Zorina Gallery’s “electric” works of John Bradford got his attention. On Wednesday he visited the Art Basel Miami where in his expert opinion one of the best booth was Jocelyn Wolff’s solo show of Katinka Bock with minimalist sculptures. Also, Eva Kot'átková's scissors – presented by Meyer Riegger – caught his attention.