Art Basel Miami: And the Floors Have It

Adriana Varejao

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One of this year's themes at ABMB seems to be flooring—or rather what dealers choose to do with the floor of their booth.

Maybe the germ of this idea came from the choice that galleries were given between the exhibition halls' cheap industrial-grade carpeting or the polished concrete beneath it. (Katherine Chan at David Nolan Gallery pointed out the desirability of the former, "if you're standing here in heels for hours at a time.") But some booths have taken this as the cue for something a little more inventive.

Neugerriemschneider from Berlin has chosen to cover its booth floor with mirrors (and are conducting their business from coordinated mirrored furniture).

Galerie Thomas from Munich spruced up its space with deep ivory carpeting and painted the walls of the Aladdin's cave it has created with a questionable banana yellow. But clearly the ambience is tempting. As we passed through during the Vernissage last night, two of its people were holding a large framed Chagall up to the light for the benefit of a well-heeled couple. Unfortunately, the most they got for their trouble was: "OK, we'll come back later." Here’s hoping for better luck today.

But out of all the dealer/decorators we saw, Lehmann Maupin probably gets the prize for effort. To accompany Adriana Varejao's paintings of tiled swimming pools, the gallery has gone to the trouble of flooring that section of its booth with white ceramic tiles.

Something obviously clicked with it (and not just the stiletto heels on the tiled surface) because every one of Varejao's paintings was snapped up on the first day of the fair—one of the biggest to an important Dallas collector with Texas museum connections.