Miami Beach, day 2
I spent the afternoon and early evening yesterday scanning the main fair and saying hello to a lot of familiar faces.
Along the way I chatted with Josee Bienvenu, who represents Julianne Swartz (her lovely show is currently up at deCordova) while Josee was looking at art in the main fair (her booth is at Pulse). I had an entertaining run-in with Michael Conforti from the Clark in Williamstown… Michael is like a full-time performance artist. Others air-kissed include Abigail Ross-Goodman (working hard as always), Mary Sabbatino (Director of Galerie Lelong), Susan Edwards (Director of Nashville’s Frist-they have a really thoughtful family education center. If you haven’t seen it check it out), deCordova Overseer and collector Beth Marcus and husband Richard (though we lost each other in the crowd), and the ever-present Jonathan Binstock, VP of art advisory for Citi.
I was checking out the booths with deCordova Trustee Dune Thorne, and her mom, Mazie Cox, and we had some great conversations–about the market, about what museums do, and why they matter. Mazie is a board member at the Farnsworth, and I learned we can thank her for the design of the funky Farnsworth entrance, as well as for helping found Thornes Marketplace in Northampton.
This year’s main fair feels flat–lots of safe, blue-chip work, which given recent auction results isn’t a surprise. Safe sells. One thing I noticed is that there seems to be quite a bit of large-scale pictures generation work on offer– a Robert Longo, a newer Cindy Sherman, and two massive Barbara Kruger works. The Kruger at Spruth Magers (“Buy Low Sell High”) pretty much sums it up, and sold yesterday for $275k. Work is selling.
Everyone I saw had the same question– anything blow your socks off? Not really… my socks remained firmly on. But a few things caught my eye, including this sculpture by Jorge Macchi at Galerie Peter Kilchmann (which I also saw recently in London. Those are flashlights and concrete.), a beautiful Ingrid Callame drawing, and a stop-me-in-my-tracks video (which is saying something, I can count the number of videos I’ve fallen in love with in the last 20 years on two fingers) at Magazzino by Romanian-born, Paris-based Mircea Cantor, in which a boy repeatedly stands sharp knives up on a table, then blows them over. Wonderfully poetic, and more than a little scary. Sorry for the still, am trying to find the video online to link.
Jorge Macchi, Illumination, 2012 at Galerie Peter Kilchmann
Ingrid Callame, #349 Drawing, 2011 at James Cohan
Mircea Cantor, Wind Orchestra, 2012 at Magazzino
And in answer to my question yesterday- Yardbird was GREAT and Dune, Mazie, Alasdair Nichol and Kelly Wright from Freeman’s and I had a fun conversation, despite the all-Allman bros playlist. More tk.
Alasdair, Mazie, Kelly, Dune at Yardbird
Dennis Kois is Director, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum