Art Basel and the 2009 MIAMI satellite shows

Next week we head down to Florida for the Miami Basel Art Fair. The fair and satellite shows open as early as December 1 and run as late as December 7, 2009.
Art Basel Miami Beach is the main feature and, of course, is amazing ... held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Art Basel is the most important art show in the United States, combining a selection of more than 250 top galleries and art dealers from around the world with special exhibitions and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design.

We personally thrive on getting all over town with all the other collectors, buyers, on-lookers, artists, students ... soaking in the fresh, established, emerging and out-there art shown at the satellite fairs! We will see what we can see, and report back to you on our finds, likes and dislikes, overview of each fair and reviews of selected artists!

THE 2009 SATELLITE SHOWS INCLUDE:

Aqua Wynwood 12.3 – 12.6
42 NE 25th St.- Wynwood Art District
Aqua features nearly 40 galleries from throughout North America and Europe, with an emphasis on West Coast galleries and emerging artists.

Art Miami 12.3 – 12.6
The Art Miami Pavilion Midtown Blvd. (Northeast 1st Avenue) between Northeast 32nd & 31st Streets
featuring approximately 90 galleries from Europe, Asia and the Americas – with an emphasis on galleries showing mid-career and established artists.

Art Asia 12.2 – 12.6
Soho Studios Miami - 2136 NW 1st Ave.- Wynwood Art District
60 galleries together to showcase paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, video and installations from established and emerging Asian artists.

ARTery Miami 12.2 – 12.6
Soho Studios - 71 NW 36th Street
ARTery is a cultural and visual arts partnership comprised of Soho Studios Miami, a consortium of Florida collectors, international art dealers, publishers, galleries and artists.

Design Miami 12.1 – 12.5
NE 39th Street and 1st Court - Miami Design District
Design Miami presents the best international design galleries exhibiting extraordinary historic and contemporary design.

Femme Art Miami 12.1 – 12.6
Coppertone Building - 7283 Biscayne Blvd.
Femme Art Miami creates a platform for emerging female artists to showcase, promote and sell their art during this important season.

Fountain 12.3 - 12.6
2505 North Miami Ave.
An exhibition of avant garde artwork.

Grafitti Gone Global 12.3 - 12.6
Midtown Miami - 3252 NE 1st Ave., Suite 101
Showing the dexterity of street art around the world. From traditional to experimental graffiti art.

INK Miami 12.2 - 12.6
Suites of Dorchester - 1850 Collins Ave.
Showcasing notable publishers and dealers who exhibit new publications, projects and acquisitions by leading contemporary artists.

NADA Art Fair Miami 12.3 - 12.6
The Deauville Beach Resort - 6701 Collins Ave.
The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) features 88 emerging art galleries from 19 countries as well as performances, lectures, and events.

Pool Art Fair 12.4 - 12.6
Cavalier Hotel - 1320 Ocean Dr.
A meeting ground for outstanding artists, primarily those who do not have yet gallery representation.

PULSE Miami 12.3 - 12.6
Ice Palace - 1400 N Miami Ave.
Presenting leading international galleries and artists showcasing the latest movements in contemporary art designed to serve both seasoned and emerging collectors.

Red Dot Fair 12.2 - 12.6
3011 NE 1st Ave. at NW 31st Street - Wynwood Arts District
More than 50 international, modern contemporary art dealers from around the world showing Paintings, photography, sculpture ...

SCOPE International Contemporary Art Fair 12.2 - 12.6
Soho Studios - 2136 NW 1st Ave. (entrance at 21st Street) - Wynwood Arts District
Miami’s original emerging contemporary art fair, hosting 88 exhibitors from 22 countries.

Sculpt Miami 12.2 - 12.6
46 NW 36 St. - Wynwood Arts District
Combining an international selection of over 30 top sculptors with other exciting cultural events.

Tribal Miami Art Show 12.3 - 12.6
The Catalina Hotel - 1732 Collins Ave. at 18th
An international show of fine antique tribal art.

Verge 12.2 - 12.6
The Catalina Hotel - 1732 Collins Ave.
Thirty exhibitors featuring international, exciting and interesting in new and emerging art.

Zones Art Fair Miami 12.3 - 12.7
Zones Art Space - 47 NE 25th St. - Wynwood Art District
A niche fair/event, including a food-tasting session, talks, cocktails, exhibition, video screenings, music, performance and publications.

SOFA Chicago 2009

Novemeber 6-8
Celebrating its 16th year, SOFA CHICAGO 2009, the Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair, returns to Navy Pier. Presenting works from top international galleries and dealers. Also featuring special exhibits by renowned museums, universities and arts organizations, as well as an extensive lecture series. New this year are SOLO booths at SOFA, featuring works by individual artists outside of the more formal structure of the gallery’s exhibit booth.

The overall show this year is much smaller (70 galleries rather than the 100+ of years past) although the show seemed just as grand! Take you time viewing furniture by the late Sam Maloof and ceramic works by Ruth Duckworth - booths featuring art (2D and 3D) by renoun as well as emerging artists ... it was a nice blend of young and old, traditional and contemporary. Glass was still strongest medium, but it was great to see quite a bit of 2D work in there and a lot of fresh new ideas in all mediums. There was certainly a buzz of excitement and surprizingly, with the economy so low, there were a lot of red dots!!! I would say there were more smaller and affordable works this year, compared to the last, but works in all price ranges were available and being purchased.
Nicely done well worth the $15. entry fee!

Cheongju International Craft Biennale

23 September - 1 November 2009

The over all theme for this years show was "Outside the Box" I think they did a teriffic job of showing 'craft' in it's many forms! From a traditional functional craft stage to fine art installations.
There were Four Main Exhibitions to experience
each was curated seperately with a very different feel and angle - all professional and well done!

1 Pressing Matter
This exhibition urges us to consider the crafts not in egotistical isolation, but in vital and continuous connection with each other. Inevitably, modernist themes of substance, subject and meta-narratives will be resurrected, but the purpose is to demonstrate the variety of elements that meet in the work: the energy released from each object by another and diffused among the whole; the diverse perspectives of producer and consumer, youth and maturity, the egalitarian and the elite, the classical and the romantic, the developed and the developing world. Pressing matter is a stimulating array of works, materials and initiatives.
2 Dissolving Views
This exhibition takes us further beyond the concept of craft as contained in the object as product, or fetish, and towards the idea of craft as a living human impulse, seizing the day, something that has momentum. It includes an open space or performance and other time-based events. Traditionally static gallery pieces are stationed amidst and around works conceived in the world of the passing hours and days: the political, social and cultural, in the form of music, dance, theatre, film, poetry and prose. Dissolving views is neither about the object only, nor about motion only; it is about the meetings and interventions between both in which meaning is discovered and affirmed.
3 The river within us, the sea all around us
The title of this project is borrowed from the last of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets,’The Dry Salvages: ‘- for the river is man’s time, the microcosmic rhythm of life, but the sea is the earth’s time, the macrocosmic rhythm of eternity; both are frontiers.’2 The river within us is not another exhibition as such but a conception for a community arts program. As host of the Biennale, the city of Cheongju seeks through this project to integrate artists with its community and to establish a common idea of its history; to embody the corporate tenancy of its culture and past. In this way modern crafts may begin their reinstatement in the lives of the people from which they have vanished. The project therefore takes place within those remembered and actual lives, and is acted out in various public spaces in the city, rather than as a work enshrined in the exhibition space.

4 Unity and Diversity - Canada (guest country)
Canada, hosted this years event with a plenitude of indigenous cultures represented in their display of artifacts by some two hundred artists and craftspeople. The items have been selected by the Canadian Crafts Federation, and the show curated by Dr. Sandra Alfoldy, editor of ‘Neo-Craft: Modernity and the Crafts.’ ‘Unity & Diversity’ is a vital contribution to the contemporary theme of representing cultures, and the fruits of interchange between art, nature and humanity.

There was also a Craft Competition, Craft Fair and Educational and Interactive booths which included potters, flame workers, tea experts ... and we can not forget the performance stage that continuously kept atmosphere going with a beat from the music or dance that was expressing themselves. 'Home Sweet Home' was a fabulous part and different take on things as well - showing viewers how to live with craft / art in your home setting - from contemporary to traditional.

This was a great fair with SO much to see - give yourselves two days at a very fast pace, or more time if you wish to fit in the The Early Printing Museum, Cheongju National Museum and the Cheongju Craft Museum ...

SOFA WEST: Santa Fe

June 11-14, 2009

The first annual SOFA WEST: Santa FE was held at the Santa FE Convention Center located in Santa Fe's historic downtown. The line-up was 40+ top fine craft dealers from all over the world - a selective feature of top artists who work in a variety of media from glass, to metal, wood, ceramic ... and combinations thereof.

SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art) shows are primarily exhibitions of three dimensional art, which entices the viewer to approach the work and consider it from different perspectives. These forms of object art are really crossing borders that one would consider 'craft' - much of the works / galleries / artists were very much contemporary, edgy, fresh and leaned further into the fine art realm than to the traditional works one would come to expect. The exhibition was a nice blend of established and emerging artists - $100, 000. to $100.

Santa Fe was billed as the Boutique version of the well established, and much larger, SOFA Chicago. The community was out in force supporting this great event - overall attendance and feedback far exceeded expectations!