Brighter mood as blue-chip art finds buyers at Miami Beach

2 THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009
Fair report
Dutch and Latin American focus at Design Miami
Fewer galleries and patchy opening sales, but a large programme of events brings in the crowds
The fifth edition of Design
Miami opened to packed
crowds despite the fact that
galleries from Copenhagen,
Shanghai, Tokyo, London and
Chicago did not return. The
total dealer roster was sharply
reduced from 24 last year to 14
this (plus three further gallery
presentations in the “Design
On/Site” section), and early
sales were patchy, reflecting
the slower pace of decisionmaking
across the board.
The fair, supported by
HSBC Private Bank (with a
swanky VIP lounge to match),
boasts a large programme of
events, demonstrating the continuing
dynamic character of
this fair despite the downturn.
Visitors on the VIP day included
prominent US interior
designers such as Frank de
Biasi of Miami, New York and
Paris, as well as US furniture
designer Wendell Castle and
French shoemaker Christian
Louboutin. “We have a complete
makeover, from a new
tent to the injection of performance
art,” says Ambra Medda,
fair co-founder and director.
Chelsea dealer Paul
Kasmin, a newcomer to the
fair, is featuring the latest
If you’re looking for glitter, Art
Basel Miami Beach has long
been a reliable destination—
tinsel is part of the city’s flamboyant
history, and during the
Off the shelf: furniture by Arik Levy unveiled in the fair’s HSBC Private Bank VIP lounge
works by Swiss designer
Mattia Bonetti, whose pieces
are owned by celebrities
including Madonna. One of his
patinated bronze and acrylic
Meander coffee tables, 2009,
was snapped up on the opening
night for $40,000 by a US collector.
Meanwhile, Paris dealer
Patrick Seguin is sporting models
of three Jean Prouvé houses.
Among them is his 1948
Ferembal house, which architect
Jean Nouvel has adapted
(2007-09). The price is $8m
and the stand was crammed
with interested parties.
Fair trends: it’s bling, but not as we know it
boom years it was omnipresent
in the fairs in the form of Jeff
Koons, Takashi Murakami and
co. Now, after last year’s chastened,
bookish fair, shiny
The prominence of Dutch
design across the fair reflects
the Netherlands’ reign as a
world-class design centre. The
emphasis ranges from Brad
Pitt’s favourite designer,
Maarten Baas, taking the
Designer of the Year award to
six dealers featuring Dutch
examples. They include Droog,
Moss and Ornamentum, all
New York state; Mitterrand +
Cramer of Geneva;
Priveekollektie Contemporary
Art Design and Vivid Gallery
of the Netherlands. On show at
Moss are works from Baas’s
works have returned to the
floor in force, but instead of
simply being reflective, many
are notably self-reflective, and
self-critical. Often by leading
Clockwise from top right: Kendell Geers, Eurovision, 2007 (the glitter ball); Lee Bul,
Sternbau No. 23, 2009; Tony Cragg, Inclination, 2009; Jim Lambie, Untitled, 2009; Marc
Bijl, Porn, 2009; Monica Bonvicini, Desire, 2006
Creative Link for the Arts and the New Museum are pleased to announce the finalists for the
ORDWAY PRIZE
CURATOR/ARTS WRITER FINALISTS Sabine Breitwieser
Hou Hanru
Hamza Walker
The Ordway Prize recognizes midcareer Curator/Arts Writers and Artists who have made important
contributions to the field of contemporary art. Each winner receives an unrestricted award of
$100,000. The winners will be announced in early 2010.
© All photos: Casey Fatchett
“Where There’s Smoke…”
series, begun in 2004, in which
he takes significant designers’
works and burns them—such
as a Frank Lloyd Wright 1955
Taliesin floor lamp, at $65,000.
In the expensive league is
Studio Job’s 2008 bronze, rosewood
and glass “Farm” series,
with 30 objects, priced at
$350,000 at Vivid (in an edition
of six, with single objects
ranging from $5,000-$20,000).
“Three sets from that edition
have already sold in Europe,”
says Vivid director Aad Krol.
On view at Mitterrand +
younger artists, these suggest a
new form of post-bust bling.
Art dealer Anton Kern (D7)
built his booth around this
principle, declaring that “the
idea of reflection, both the mirrored
image as well as the considered
thought” is at the centre
of his presentation this year.
A yet-to-be-titled Jim Lambie
mosaic of shattered mirror
glass and images of eyes seizes
the viewer’s attention only to
disquietingly stare back. (It
sold for £60,000 at the beginning
of the VIP preview.)
Glitter-covered sculptures by
Matthew Monahan reveal
themselves on
inspection to be
bandaged and broken.
“There is the
shining part and
then there is the
rough part, and I
wanted to bring this
out,” Kern says.
Even Thaddaeus
Ropac’s booth
(C10), usually the
domain of sober works
by Anselm Kiefer and
Georg Baselitz, is dominated
by a bright stainless
steel sculpture by
Tony Cragg (who has
just returned to the
Cramer are three works from
Studio Job’s “Industry” series,
including the 2008 Industry—
Table, a laser-cut wood marquetry
table with bomber jets,
gas masks and skeleton
images, for $55,000 (edition of
six). “Clients for that work
range from a Czech telecom
and gas billionaire to financial
figures,” says a Mitterrand +
Cramer spokesman.
Catering to the growing
Latin American visitorship is an
exhibition within the fair,
“Latin America”, together
with New York’s Sebastian
material after years of
not using it). Nearby are
headless metal sculptures
of men by Erwin Wurm, a
metal Richard Deacon, and a
reflective sculpture by Lee Bul.
“I was almost embarrassed
because people have been
telling me: ‘Oh my God, your
booth has a lot of silver this
time, it’s very shiny,’” says
Ropac, who adds that the
theme of the booth is distortion
rather than simply shininess.
“At the moment we have a lot
of sculptors who are working
with silver and grey for many
different reasons.”
Among this new breed
of eye-grabbing art—
which seem set apart from
the Subodh Guptas and
Anish Kapoors—are a
brass-and-coral skull at
Blum & Poe (G2) and a
Robert Indiana-tweaking
metal “Porn” sculpture by
Marc Bijl at Breeder
(H21). At Stephen
Friedman (F18), it is
impossible to miss Kendell
Geers’ giant revolving glitterball,
Eurovision, 2007. David
Altmejd’s hairy creatures are
impaled on mirrored crystalline
spikes at Andrea Rosen
(D9). Many of these works
© Casey Fatchett
+ Barquet, R 20th Century and
Cristina Grajales Inc galleries,
which are all sporting design
from south of the border.
Especially prominent is the
work of Mexican Pedro
Friedeberg. “Five years ago, the
response to Friedeberg was
quiet, now there’s a sudden
rush,” says Sebastian + Barquet
director Nicholas Kilner.
Rock solid furniture from
granite to concrete abounds.
Seoul-based Seomi Gallery,
showing furniture in these
materials as well as ceramics
and wood, scored two sales of
Lee Hun-Chung ceramic
stools, one in white for $5,000
and one in yellow for $6,000.
Large installations are also
for sale. Swarovski has commissioned
US architect Greg
Lynn to develop new work
with its crystals. He has created
four vast sail-like screens, each
costing $100,000, or $350,000
for the set. “I’d want it but the
piece requires a large home,”
says Swarovski creative director
Nadja Swarovski.
Brook S. Mason
were made specially for the
fair, such as Elmgreen &
Dragset’s golden scarecrow
with a garbage pail for a head
at Victoria Miro (F10). Monica
Bonvicini made a new sculpture
for Hetzler gallery (E7)
that consists of a mirrored cube
topped by a smaller, dissolving
cube of wormy, polished chain;
in another work by the artist,
the word “Prozac” is spelled
out in reflective chain.
Bonvicini’s work also dominates
Fontana’s booth (H9),
with her huge sign spelling out
the word “Desire” in mirrored
letters. “It’s playing with the
idea of luxury and trying to
comment on that at the same
time,” says dealer Emi
Fontana. “This is a time when
everything is changing, the
structure of society is changing
and the structure of the art
world is going to change. We
don’t want to be corporate—
we still want to be a territory
for ideas.”
Andrew Goldstein
NEW
235 BOWERY
NEW YORK NY
10002 USA
MUSEUM