Day Two

Day two started late (that’s what happens after you are up for 20 hours). I started at Art Basel at noon when it opened. Where to begin? There were so many amazing new pieces, albeit among played-out yet highly regarded works.  I was looking forward to John Bladessari’s ABC Art. A massive piece (with an equally massive six-figure price tag) that was beautifully and playfully executed. Mixografia, an LA-based gallery, dedicated almost all of their space to John’s work as well as other established LA-based artists.  Speaking of LA, I made a stop by Regen Projects, but wished they had brought better pieces – was dying to see Doug Aitken’s “Start Swimming”, one of my favorite of Aitkens.  One of the other major trends was optical illusions with mirrors, holograms and other 3-D tricks played out on both canvases and in sculpture. Iván Navarro’s piece Ocio (below) was very similar to his “Bed” sculpture at the Venice Biennale. London-based White Cube brought the big guns this year with incredible pieces include one of my other favorites- Andres Gursky’s new Dubai photographs. Another London-based gallery had beautiful large portrait and landscape prints by Daisuke Takeya. 

Still at the main space, Mexican-based Jose Davila had a fantastic Donald Judd- inspired piece. I am not sure if it was a pun or an homage to the artists but it was great to see a classic Judd which is historically made with industrial materials made with reclaimed cardboard boxes. I also loved Jonathan Monk's deflated Koon’s-inspired Rabbit as well as a new Mike Kelley that was a bejeweled mess – consumerism at its worst. I also had to stop by Gemini, which has fantastic Bruce Nauman prints I am dying for (none were part of their show this year). They have newly created Frank Gehry sketches in editions of 35 that were all under $2,000 and are on my Christmas list – especially the Beekman Street tower, now rising in lower Manhattan. Excited to hear the gallery has opened a New York outpost in 980 Madison.

We then rushed to Nada, this year all the way up at 67^th and Collins – totally off the beaten path and if I say so myself a goddamn cluster fuck. The hotel could not handle the influx of international hipster madness descending in this predominantly orthodox neighborhood. The show was just ok, there was a great Diet Coke sculpture by Tony Tasset and some fantastic pictures by Joel Ross – both represented by Chicago-based galleries.  It was great to see the Joel Ross photographs, who makes sculptural signs and then photographs them in landscapes where they don’t belong. It was worth the trip to learn about Ross, but the hassle of getting to and parking for the show was a lot to handle.

That night was “classic” Basel parties and what makes Miami known as the party art fair town.  First we stopped by the Pulse VIP party at the Gansevoort, which was not a good crowd and they were only serving Campari free (which taste horrible), so we rolled down beach to the Wolfsonian party.  This was the best move we made all evening. I was struck by Benny Chan’s massive photographs of Los Angeles freeways clogged with traffic in the main space.  These pictures plus the mixed crowd provided for a great way to get the night started, especially when Leslie and the Ly’s took stage. As I said in an earlier post, the best thing about this party was the crowd – it was the most eclectic party of the weekend, with plenty of cute gay boys in attendance. The show was great, but we couldn’t stay as we had friends to meet at the Viceroy party – which was fun but not worth mentioning. Ended up in Little Havana, which is a whole other story of Latin gay culture. Got to bed at 2am. Day 3/final day coming soon and it was a good one, even in the rain!