Art Basel Miami 2016 Happened

“There are 193 galleries that make up the Galerie sector presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography and video works. Highly competitive, the sector is always a highlight, leading 98% of last year’s exhibitors to reapply.”

How does a gallery get someone to stop and notice them? Spectacle. No one is going to stop at 193 booths. That is just the count of one section. Everyone likes to turn their nose up at spectacle, especially in the art world. We are supposed to be above it all. What is an art fair but a big spectacle that takes over a city for a week? Give it to me and I’ll eat it right up. I want something to tell me to stop walking and come into the booth. I love spectacle!

Blum and Poe (Los Angeles)

Sam Durant, End White Supremacy, 2008, Electric sign with vinyl text 96 x 136 inches, image courtesy of Art Basel Miami 2016

Blum and Poe installation

Henry Taylor, Portrait of Jazz Mitchell, 2014, Acrylic on canvas, 93 3/4 x 60 x 2 1/4 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo

Henry Taylor, Hammons meets a hyena on holiday, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo

The installation with a dirt floor represents settings (or spaces) in which dirt lots, “became playgrounds and gathering spaces for the community. These lots also provided temporary housing, becoming tent cities for the disenfranchised.” Taylor’s solo show at the gallery this past September created spaces to mark,

“the disparity between social classes from one gallery to the next by installing in each space a distinct terrain. An empty, dirt lot beside a lush, grassy lawn inevitably points to the different groups of people who inhabit these spaces. While one space portrays a certain sense of abandon and despair, the other is more about experiencing pleasure and comfort within private property.”

Henry Taylor’s dirt lot is not juxtaposed with any other space (like the lush green lawn of the September 2016 show at Blum and Poe) other than the white cube of the other parts of Blum and Poe’s booth and the massive white cube of the Convention Center. The space becomes a spectacle and loses some of its meaning when taken out of context. But this was an art fair, and it looked cool. I will admit that I was drawn to that spectacle. I was fascinated with the dirt floor. I regret that I missed the show in Los Angeles and was grateful for a taste. It was the work within, though, that stayed with me.

Sam Durant, Landscape Art Sign (Emory Douglas), 2003, Electric sign with plastic letters, 50 x 30 x 9 inches (127 x 76.2 x 22.9 centimeters)

Sam Durant’s light box, Landscape Art Sign is a quote from Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. Durant’s light boxes spoke to the viewers that live in a country that has not significantly changed since the election, but has been laid bare. Durant’s End White Supremacy was a hit with viewers and critics, but why? Do Art Basel Miami visitors, art dealers and collectors truly wish to end white supremacy? Do they have any idea what that would look like? Do they know that it would shake the art world at its foundation and frighten away some big money? It’s a nice thought though.

Meyer Riegger  (Berlin)

Jonathan Monk’s Unmasked Man (Paul behind Paul etc.), is an appropriation of Paul McCarthy’s, Spaghetti Man (1993). In Monk’s sculpture, the unmasked man is the uncanny image of Paul McCartney. The oversized genitalia resemble intestines more than spaghetti to me(but I may be a little twisted), giving the figure a disemboweled appearance as the deadpan face of Paul does not seem to notice anything out of sorts. The work just gives off that creepy feeling that just stays with me. Yes!

Jonathan Monk, Unmasked Man (Paul behind Paul etc), 2016, mixed media, 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 x 32 5/8 in. (120 x 120 x 83 cm), figure: 40 x 22 x 78 cm, mask: 47 x 33 x 22 cm, pedestal: 120 x 120 x 5 cm, Courtesy the artist and Meyer Riegger

Jonathan Monk, Unmasked Man (Paul behind Paul etc), detail, 2016, mixed media, 47 1/8 x 47 1/8 x 32 5/8 in. (120 x 120 x 83 cm), figure: 40 x 22 x 78 cm, mask: 47 x 33 x 22 cm, pedestal: 120 x 120 x 5 cm, photo by MC Stevens

GALLERYSKE (New Delhi) became one of the eight exhibitors to join the Galleries sector for the first time after a showing in the Nova section. Two works that captured my attention played with the signifier ‘rug’.

Shetty’s simulacrum was constructed from wood salvaged from migrant worker housing, chawls, where several workers live, crowded in small rooms.  The sculpture’s antique appearance emphasizes the origin and age of the wood. The ‘rug’ shows seams, weathering and holes. Shetty ‘weaves’ the story of migrant workers into the ‘rug’. The suggestion of an object hidden beneath the ‘rug’ may suggest foul play (my first thought) or something unsaid, something that is “swept under the rug”.

Sudarshan Shetty, Untitled, 2015, Wood, 11 × 72 × 96 in, 27.9 × 183 × 243.8 cm , image courtesy of GALLERYSKE

Tara Kelton’s Magic Carpet is not a ‘rug’ either, but a projection on a Roomba that suggests that it is cleaning something invisible.

Stevenson (Johannesberg) offered a change in scale for images in Zanele Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama series, available in customizable wallpaper.

(Left to right) Zanele Muholi, Bakhambile, Parktown, 2016, vinyl wallpaper, 12 x 7 ft; Zander Blom, 1.817, 2016,oil on linen 82 x 55 cm; Zander Blom, 1.849, 2016, oil on linen, 56 x 42 cm; Zanele Muholi, Kwanale, Parktown, 2016, vinyl wallpaper, 12 x 9 ft, photo by MC Stevens

David Castillo Gallery (Miami)

Sanford Biggers makes the medium his message with work constructed from parts of antique quilts used as signposts along the Underground Railroad. The folds and patterns of the quilts would answer the question, “is this a warning or an invitation?” — layered with painted geometric shapes from many cultural sources, creating a new codex. What messages are being sent, to what audience and how?

Xaviera Simmons worked with photography — and fur-covered furniture. Yes, fur covered furniture, and it was everything! The chair begged me to stroke it and sit on it, but my common sense and David Castillo helped me control myself. I did get a little touch and it felt lovely!

Sanford Biggers, Paket, 2016, Antique Japanese futonji, silk, cotton, assorted textiles, acrylic, gold leaf and polystyrene, 72 x 37 inches; Sanford Biggers, Banneker, 2016, Antique quilt, plywood, gold leaf, 44 x 62 ¼ x 15 inches; Sanford Biggers, Skylark, 2016, Antique quilt, fabric, Plexiglas, spray paint, 29 ½ x 48 inches; Xaviera Simmons, One (Blue Frost), 2016, Fur, Suede, Wood, Color Photograph, Dimensions variable, (each of 2 chairs: 29 x 23 x 23 inches; table: 21 x 34 x 24 inches; photograph: 20 x 30 inches), images courtesy of David Castillo Gallery

At the fair for the first time, Leo Xu Projects (Shanghai) presents an installation of works by aaajiao (b.1984), Cui Jie (b.1984) and Liu Shiyuan  (b.1985), exploring the urban model and dystopian myth of Shanghai.

(installation view), aaajiao, Cui Jie, Liu Shiyuan, image courtesy of Art Basel Miami 2016

Gfwlist (2010-2013) examines the way the state exercises control over the net in China, and how citizens or ‘netizens’ experiences of the World Wide Web are limited by China’s ‘Great Firewall.’ In this piece, a list of the websites blocked by the government is printed out one by one, forming an abstract mass of data in the forms of URL’s spewed out like a never-ending receipt, showing the scale of intervention into the online lives of Chinese people.

aaajiao, Gfwlist, 2013, detail, image courtesy of Art Basel Miami 2016