Day 2 in Miami was a busy one for deCordova!
by Dennis Kois
I spent some time previewing the main Basel fair, running around to prep an itinerary for a “walkaround” tour in the afternoon for a few of our patrons who are down this week. I was juggling looking for interesting work, trying to not get lost in the maze that is the exhibit halls (I heard one collector telling her friend that she likes to think of the Basel layout, with it’s central layer of blue-chip galleries surrounded by aisles and aisles as the seven levels of hell…), talking to gallerists and chatting with the friends I ran into in the fair (Barbara and Jonathan Lee, Boston area collectors and all-around ecumenical arts supporters, Andrew Witkin from Barbara Krakow, Olga Viso, Director of the Walker Art Center, artist and Rappaport Prizewinner Orly Genger, and others I’ve forgotten already… it was a blur!).
All that is to say I was not exactly on top of snapping pics for my blogging… but I promise to do better today.
While I was off looking my wife (former curator!) and kids were at the fair as well, looking around;
what kid could resist a lego sculpture…
though unless it was by Chris Burden (it wasn’t) I wasn’t interested enough to write down the artist info. Never a good sign when a museum director’s kid invokes “I could have done that!”
Among the works I thought interesting, there was a really nice Pedro Reyes sculpture at Lisson (in marble, quite different than his installation at the current Carnegie International) that had already sold for $40k (bargain, I think). The 303 Gallery had a beautiful Jeppe Hein mirror sculpture (an artist we’re interested in at deCordova for the Park) as well as a Doug Aitken mirrored piece that read “MORE MORE MORE MORE” 12′ high (emblem for the art market of late, obviously).
Lelong had an interesting and–for an artist I think of as a pacifist at heart–quite chaotic and visually aggressive Jaume Plensa work. Metro Pictures had a couple perky Claire Fontaine works, including these sliced, stuffed tennis balls backed by a backlit transparency.
Sarah Gavlak (based in Palm Beach) filled most of her booth with a white Orly Genger rope installation, and was busily showing iPad images of deCordova’s installation by the artist to fairgoers. There seemed to be a lot of nice Alice Aycock sculptures around the fair, and I really loved one of James White’s b/w photo-realist paintings on aluminum at Sean Kelly.
Last night we had a tasty group dinner at Yardbird, then walked over for a 10pm party hosted by Tony Shafrazi and Tommy Hilfiger at the Delano hotel. Low celebrity quotient, though Jay-Z and Beyonce were there (where was the baby???) later on. Somehow my wife Stacey and I got separated, so ended up in separate cabs back to our hotel at 1am.
And what would Miami beach be without excess of all types? This morning as I ambled down for coffee (thanks to my kids, who wake up at 6am sharp no matter what time mommy and daddy get in!) I saw these
parked outside my hotel– I’d wager that’s $3million plus on wheels. Miami Beach is alive and well.
Today off to all the ancillary fairs, then tonight’s reception, sponsored by Art New England and Skinner, at the Fontainebleau. Many more pics to come, I promise!