Miami Love

WOW!! Miami was fucking amazing!! I've heard so many stories in the past about how great the Miami Art Fairs are, but until I had the chance to experience them for myself, I had no idea what people were actually talking about, it kinda felt like a myth, but now... I'm here to say that Miami is the Playground for the art world!

Let me start by making a correction, there were actually 24 Fairs, not 18, I had a chance to see about 15 or so. I've ranked the top 10 from best to worst. 

1. Scope

2. Aqua Wynwood

3. Pulse

4. Nada

5. Photo Miami

6. Art Basel

7. Art Miami

8. Zones

9. Bridge

10. Red Dot

Okay, so let me explain. Scope was number 1 because they had the youngest and most experimental work. It was a huge fair that felt ambitious and fresh. Scope had a great range of galleries from all over the world, and the work was engaging (don't get me wrong, there was some real shit there too) but overall the fair had a great energy about it. Aqua was well organized, the art chosen was beautiful, and the presentation was better than any other fair. Pulse had some really great galleries, but the fair was slightly boring and predictable. Nada was a complete snoozer, but the galleries there are some of the best, up and coming... they have some high price art, but so many of the artist shown had sub-par work, and weren't represented well in this format. Photo Miami is next, they put together a sophisticated fair that had great presentation, but it's kinda difficult to weed out what's good from bad. 

All five of those fairs come ahead of Art Basel. Why? Well... Basel is the Monster, the Giant, the Fair that people travel the globe to visit, but One major thing is missing. NEW ART! Walking through Basel feels like walking through a history class. Maybe it's new art to some collectors or the lay audience, but for anyone who keeps up with the current art world, they are not looking at Basel to reveal what's new and hot. Basel felt like a secondary market fair that had art world giants exhibiting their commercial work. Nothing interesting comes from a fair that's simply about who will pay 100,000 dollars for a tiny drawing. The younger fairs reveal what is being made by the next generation. Maybe that's not important, but I am certainly more interested in what will be happening in the future rather than what the old guys have been doing for decades.

And "Art Positions" is a FUCKING JOKE! why the fuck would any respectable gallery pay money to exhibit their hard working artist in a container. This does no justice to the art or artist. This section of Basel is an embarrassment, and should be done away with. It's not hip or cool, or "kinda interesting" it's simply a joke to make an extra buck by the Fair. 

And for "Art Supernova"... when I see a supernova i'll let you know... none in sight yet. All though there was a cool piece that had two fans keeping a cassette tape string floating in air. But the rest was just boring.