The contemporary art ~ scene ~ through the eyes of world renowned art critic Aaron Asmir @ the Art Institute of Chicago

The contemporary art  ~ scene ~ through the eyes of Dallas Contemporary Board members Lindsey & Patrick Collins.  Follow the young collectors through all of the fairs & of course parties to experience the art & excitement that is Art Basel Miam

As you can see from the images, Art Basel Miami was full of glamorous parties, interesting people, and amazing contemporary art.  The opening party and the Mondrian was elegant and classy ~ a perfect start to an entire  week of culture and art.  Artist Adam King creates site specific installations.  Depicted here with his collage boxes made of mostly found objects and then turned into something beautiful, King assembled the art when he arrived at the fair.  You may remember his work from the window displays @ Frieze.  Gallery owner Pippy Houldworth, based in London, is hard at work during Art Basel Miami.  The Deitch party projects, held at the Raleigh Hotel, was an over the top event ~ celebrities blending in with all of the fashionable art collectors.  Santigold performed for the crowd to top off the night.  Texas was also well represented in Miami.  At the very important satellite fair Pulse an art group called OK Mountain sponsored by the Austin based Art House won the Pulse Prize.   Other texas artists seen were Shaun Horton & Kirk Hayes ~ who sold all of his work brought to the fair.

a review of the contemporary art ~ scene ~ through my eyes

So maybe it was the Miami heat, the flashy parties, or my first time jitters, but it seems as though I was star struck the entire week @ Art Basel.  Take my obsession with finding more and more Michael Jackson sightings.  The first one was obvious, the LaChapelle was pretty easy to sight too, but the last three really took some digging.  Where did I get the conviction to find more? ~ I wish I could answer that question! ~ True they are great works by talented artists, but cruising past a whole row of booths with my “MJ-dar” on high was totally unexplainable.

On the  second day I tried to clean up my act and gain some sea legs so I could reasonably chart the fair.  That all went out the window when I went weak in the knees @ the sight of Val Kilmer running through the crowd surrounded by straggling fans and paparazzi.  Val Kilmer ~ really? That was enough to do it for me?  No offence Val but you were competing for the attention of an ardent contemporary art fan @ her very first Art Basel Miami, the odds should have been against you.  After chasing Val around for several minutes, well, maybe close to an hour I thought I would settle down and look at some serious art.  I started to examine a series of colorful abstract paintings ~ probably painted by a precursor/predecessor to Jean-Michel Basquait – I mused.  Finally some art history education at work ~ What! Sylvester Stallone ~ the actor? No! He paints? I must have felt like Pamela Anderson at Art Basel last year when she showed up to LaChapelle’s opening and forgot her pants.

At this point I began to seriously doubt my taste in art and wondered if I shouldn’t start writing for TMZ ( is it sad I know what that is?) instead of an art blog.  I headed over to the Collectors’ Lounge to eat some cold noodles and browse through my bootlegged iphone pictures of Val Kilmer’s entourage ~ reliving all of the fun.  Thank god I had Dallas Contemporary board members & exhibition coordinator to pick up my slack.  Their much more relevant re-cap is coming up next, so stay tuned for some real art news!