Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Miami Art Week 2015: SCOPE Miami Beach Recap

Hi-Fructose readers need no introduction to the plethora of artists and galleries that were featured in this year's installment of SCOPE Miami Beach. Known as the biggest worldwide professional show of modern art, 2015 marked the fair's 15th anniversary. Despite heavy rains and winds that led to water seeping into the fair's signature white tent, attendance was higher than ever- roughly 49,000 attended compared to last year's 45,000 attendees. Take a look at more of our highlights from SCOPE Miami Beach after the jump!


Kazuhiro Tsuji

Hi-Fructose readers need no introduction to the plethora of artists and galleries that were featured in this year’s installment of SCOPE Miami Beach. Known as the biggest worldwide professional show of modern art, 2015 marked the fair’s 15th anniversary. Despite heavy rains and winds that led to water seeping into the fair’s signature white tent, attendance was higher than ever- roughly 49,000 attended compared to last year’s 45,000 attendees.


Sergio Garcia

A visit to the fair was not complete until you took a selfie with Matthew Lapenta’s “Emoji Series” that brought your text messages to life- or Kazuhiro Tsuji’s (HF Vol. 35) latest hyper-realistic bust of the artist Frida Kahlo, featured here, at Copro Gallery’s booth. Not far away, Thinkspace Gallery’s large booth featured a diverse collection of new works from their roster that were on rotation, including solo offerings by artists Kevin Peterson and Alex Yanes. Over at Mirus Gallery’s booth was another 2-person show by artists Felipe Pantone and Adam Friedman, whose futuristic paintings expanded into a 400 sq foot sculptural installation of prism-like cubes and grids.


Adam Friedman

Hailing from the opposite coast in New York, Joseph Gross Gallery rang in its third year at SCOPE Miami Beach with a group show featuring works from Victor Solomon’s “Literally Balling” series of luxurious basketball boards and nets, recently covered here, light box works and color-field painting by Peter Gronquist, and a portrait series by Pop surrealist painter Ron English (HF Vol. 2 and 16) of Star Wars characters like Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers with toothy grins. Also on display was one of Christopher Schulz’s wonderfully weird weaponized-shark sculptures.


Olek

Another gallery from the east coast was the newly opened Rumney Guggenheim, which brought in pieces from Olek, Swoon, Olivia Steele, and AIKO, among others. The artists were also featured in a Pop-up gallery exhibition with Art Bastion gallery, covered here, which is now running through February 6th, 2016. AIKO’s stenciled paintings of young girls, which have been a fixture in Miami’s Wynwood Walls since 2009, were especially vibrant in the light of Olivia Steele’s works that connect thought-provoking messages on industrial traffic signs. Take a look at some more of our photo highlights from SCOPE Miami Beach below.


Victor Solomon


May Snevoll Von Krough


Henrik AA Uldalen


Matthew Lapenta


Li-Hill


Young Chun


Barnabas Bardon


Christopher Schulz


Ron English


Peter Gronquist


Etai Rahmil


Sandra Chevrier


Sandra Chevrier


Adam Friedman


Adam Friedman


Casey Weldon


James Bullough


Gianluca Traina


Nick Gentry


Nick Gentry (detail)


Peter Combe


Peter Combe (detail)


D*Face


Olek


AIKO


Olek and Swoon


Swoon


Joel Kuntz


Alex Podesta


Sean Newport


Sean Newport (detail)


Scott Listfield


Jason Botkin


FILFURY


Tim Okamura


Laurent Chehere

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Students at Salem Visual and Performing Arts Academy in Virginia got a new teacher early this morning. Polish-born street artist Olek (featured in HF Vol. 29) known for her candy-colored crocheted installations, shared her talents with 30 lucky students in a special workshop hosted by Virginia MOCA. "It's nice to be back in high school!", Olek shared in an instagram post. "It was so worth to wake up at 7:15am to meet these amazing young individuals." The workshop was held in anticipation of the artist's free public workshop series as part of the "Turn the Page: Ten Years of Hi-Fructose" exhibition coming to the museum next spring.
"Podrán cortar todas las flores pero nunca detendrán la primavera." (They can cut all the flowers, but never stop the spring.) - Pablo Neruda Olek sends this message of support to the gay community all over the world, especially in South America, with her latest piece. The Polish-born street artist (featured in HF Vol. 29) has just covered Santiago's Obelisk Balmaceda monument with rainbow-colored crochet work. See more after the jump!
While some artists view yarn bombing as purely decorative, Olek (HF Vol. 29) often swathes objects in crochet to draw attention to important socio-political issues. Known for the outspoken messages in her large-scale, colorful work, she was recently invited to create a piece in New Delhi, India for the St+art Delhi street art festival. For her canvas, Olek chose one of the local homeless shelters called “Raine Basera,” which provide people with temporary lodging overnight. With the help of legions of volunteers and donations from Indian fashion labels, Olek beautified the shelter with bright yellow, purple, and red crocheted fabrics that evoke India's famously vibrant textiles. Though it's visually alluring, the piece ultimately imparts a sobering message about the reality of poverty in New Delhi — and many major cities around the world.
French artist Frederique Morrel (Vol 28) breathes new life into old taxidermy. She calls it the animals' revenge, under appreciated as a stuffed head on a wall and reborn as something to be admired. Simultaneously, the dying art of embroidery is made new and contemporary. To Morrel, her sculptures symbolize a reimagining of oppulence, bringing to mind artists Olek and Karley Feaver. Morrel's concept may sound simple: repurposing vintage tapestry that she collects from second-hand shops and covering animals with it, but it's not.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List