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The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Miami Art Week 2017 Diary: Part 1

Cranio Since its debut 15 years ago, Art Basel Miami Beach has spawned and spread across Miami and Miami Beach, with dozens of new fairs and events in tow. This year, we’re visiting some of these efforts. It can be a bit daunting (and a bit cringey) to navigate at times, but in these diaries, we’re going to take a look at some of the work that, for better or worse, made us pause during walks down those long hallways.


Cranio

Since its debut 15 years ago, Art Basel Miami Beach has spawned and spread across Miami and Miami Beach, with dozens of new fairs and events in tow. This year, we’re visiting some of these efforts. It can be a bit daunting (and a bit cringey) to navigate at times, but in these diaries, we’re going to take a look at some of the work that, for better or worse, made us pause during walks down those long hallways.

Art Miami and Context
The advantage of the Miami fairs, gallerists tell me, is that buyers aren’t afraid to buy larger sculptures. (Unlike fairs in New York, they say, where sculptures from the likes of Seo Young Deok (below) would take up 75-percent of an apartment. That’s only a slight exaggeration.) Maybe that’s why Art Miami seemed packed with them this year. And sculptures were actually some of the most powerful works from this year’s show.


Seo Young Deok


Cranio


Justin Bower


Willy Verginer


Takeshi Haguri


Mat Brown


Matthias Verginer

Scope Miami Beach
Scope’s focus on contemporary art brings in exhibitors like Paradigm Gallery, Jonathan Levine Projects, Antler Gallery, Thinkspace Gallery, and others. With them comes artists you may recognize from the magazine—as well as rising figures in contemporary art. This beachside affair, situated closely to other fairs like Untitled, is one of the week’s can’t-miss efforts.


Okuda


Michael Reeder


Robert Proch


Lars Calmar


James Bullough

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Miami Art Week is back in full force for another year, with 267 galleries and thousands of artists from all over the world descending upon the city's shores. The fair that started it all is Art Basel Miami Beach, which opened its doors to the masses yesterday. In short, the fair is an explosion of Modern to Post-modern to a mixture of everything, from Brancusi and Warhol to contemporary painters like Mark Ryden and Kehinde Wiley.
While Miami Art Week has more art fairs than one could possibly attend in five short days, the event that started it all is Art Basel Miami Beach, colloquially known as the main fair. A major market place for the world's most high-profile artworks, it's the kind of place where snippets of conversations like, "Did you tell him 33 million dollars?" can be overheard while walking through the aisles.
St. Louis-based artist Cayce Zavaglia (whom we profiled on the blog last year) creates painterly portraits using wool thread as her primary medium. Zavaglia's works can be viewed from both sides: one, photorealistic and precise and the other, gestural and abstract. The artist says that this duality speaks to the brave face we present to the world and the vulnerability we experience privately. Her latest portraits will be exhibited with Lyons Wier Gallery during Art Miami, December 2 through 7.
Among the largest fairs during Miami Art Week has always been the extensive Art Miami, which was conjoined with its sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami in Wynwood, and Aqua Art Miami on the other side of the causeway. We first attended Aqua Art Miami, so named for its host, the Aqua Hotel. Since 2005, the fair has filled room after room, and even the hotel's hallways, with works by emerging galleries and mid-career artists. Tampa based gallery CASS Contemporary was among the stand outs this year, with their selection of new works by artists like Oakland based painter and street artist Allison Torneros, better known as Hueman, whimsical drawings with fantastical characters by French artist Amandine Urruty, and ink and gouache paintings by Berlin based Andrea Wan. Take a look at more of our highlights after the jump!

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