Craig RobinsBy Bryant Rousseau
Published: October 18, 2005
There's just so much energy and enthusiasm in the design-dealing community for design.05. They really wanted something like this to happen, and the fair has become a natural catalyst to weave together art and design and showcase both in a new way. For visitors who want to discover what's going on in Miami arts — and design-wise, outside the confines of the fair, what advice do you have in terms of local galleries to check out, neighborhoods to explore, experiences to seek out? The best thing to do is to come to the Miami Design District. With all the exhibits that will be on during Basel, there will be lots to see, including design.05, and everything is within walking distance. The Wynwood [Art District], too, has several interesting galleries. The main thing is to visit the museums: MoCA [the Museum of Contemporary Art], MAM [the Miami Art Museum] and the Wolfsonian. We will also open a large section of our Dacra offices [at 1632 Pennsylvania Ave. in Miami Beach] to do an exhibit, mainly focused on works by John Baldessari and Tuttle from 1960 forward. Speaking of Tuttle and Baldessari, where are your own collection efforts focused today? I continue to be committed to collecting emerging artists, but I have become very concerned about the imbalanced hype and focus emerging artists are receiving at the moment. So I'm putting more effort into rounding off and improving my collection of work by artists such Baldessari and Tuttle. I think they are incredibly important artists and remain undervalued. I'm also committed to collecting several other artists, including Marlene Dumas and Kai Althoff. And I'm beginning to focus more on artists who are of significant historical importance, such as Joseph Beuys. Miami has obviously seen a huge amount of development over the last few years, some of it quite striking architecturally. What are two or three of the buildings that have arisen over the last year or two that visitors should make an extra effort to see? This is a little self-serving, but the most important project is Aqua. That's because it's really the first project to reconcile the rift between New Urbanism and Modernism. With such an extraordinary combination of art, architecture and design, it really is a must-see. On a much different scale, the prototypes that [MoMA's chief curator of architecture and design Terence] Reilly and I have designed for some Mies-ian courtyard houses [i.e. inspired by Mies van Der Rohe] are complete. This is a project dramatically smaller in scale than Aqua, but it is quite extraordinary, and there will be some selected private tours during Basel. But Aqua really can't be missed, with its 10 different architects, 50 structures, the Tuttle, a Kuitca, the Handforth sculpture and several works form my collection. |
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