MIAMI— Just when you thought they’d run out of venues, not to mention the goods to fill them all, the forces behind Miami’s multifarious art fairs have expanded the sprawling scene even further. From December 4 through 9, more than 18 events will open to an avid international crowd. Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) is the mighty anchor for this whirlwind art-viewing Olympics, which will try the stamina of even the most intrepid connoisseurs.

The miles of booths and hotel rooms packed with all manner of eye candy are enough to scramble the senses. “It’s going to be interesting,” says Helen Allen, organizer of the Pulse events in Miami, New York and London. “We were worried last year that there were too many fairs.” But to her pleasant surprise, exhibitors were thrilled at the results. “The competition only seemed to drive collectors even more,” notes Allen, who hopes for more enthusiasm this year.

Two of 2007’s biggest additions are SeaFair, the first touring art show on a custom-designed yacht, and South Florida’s seminal art event, the 18-year-old Art Miami, which pushed back its date a month to coincide with ABMB. “Survival was the main reason,” explains director Ilana Vardy. “Once all the satellite fairs kept coming in droves, they siphoned off more and more of the dealers we were interested in. My top-level galleries said they would not return if we didn’t move.”

SeaFair docks the weekend before the other events open their doors (November 30). But it is “not in competition with Art Basel,” says the floating show’s creator, David Lester, emphasizing that it offers more traditional material. “There is enough cutting-edge contemporary on view elsewhere. We want to provide a more historical perspective.”

Art Basel Miami Beach
There may be an ever-growing constellation of satellite events around town, but the center of the action is still ABMB. “The parallel fairs have not affected us, says outgoing director Sam Keller. “They are a way to generate energy, so I see a lot of positives about them. But we want people to know what is Art Basel and what is not. We are trying not to organize our events in the same areas as the alternative fairs. Many of them don’t have the quality level that we establish for our own show, and I would not want to put the Art Basel umbrella over them.”

Keller and his team have increased the exhibitors roster and added new ancillary events, from the Art Conversations and more intimate Art Salon talks—both of which feature big-name curators, critics, artists and others—to public projects and performances. “We are looking not only to renew the fair but also to strengthen it in the established fields without cloning what we do in Basel,” says Keller. The 200 galleries participating in the main section at the Miami Beach Convention Center this year were selected from a record 850-plus applicants. Among the 27 newcomers are Christian Stein Gallery, of Milan, and Kewenig Galerie, of Cologne and Palma, both specializing in Arte Povera, and modern dealers McKee, Francis Naumann and Michael Rosenfeld, all from New York. Returning names include Milan dealer Massimo De Carlo; L&M and Mary-Anne Martin, both of New York; and Eva Presenhuber, of Zurich.

Twenty of the galleries will also host Art Kabinetts, curated exhibitions inside their booths. This year’s projects include presentations of single artists, such as Jose Bedia, at Miami’s Fredric Snitzer; Chris Burden, at Krinzinger, of Vienna; and David Smith, at Margo Leavin, of Los Angeles. Other Kabinetts feature historical group shows. Kicken Berlin, for instance, has photograms and double exposures from the 1920s by artists including Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray.

The Art Nova sector continues to provide entrée for less-established names, in smaller, more affordable booths where each exhibitor is limited to showing brand-new pieces by only three artists. Galerist, a space in Istanbul, has abstract paintings and sculpture by Haluk Akakce, homoerotic paintings by Taner Ceylan and a mixed-media collaboration between Can Sayinli and Jorgen Evil Ekvoll. Gregor Podnar, of Ljubljana (with a location opening in Berlin this month), represents artists “not from the centers but from places where in the last 15 years there hasn’t been much of an art market.” Podnar’s booth will feature works by Slovenian video artist Tobias Putrih and Swedish artist Alexander Gutke.

When another space at the Convention Center became available, Keller and ABMB curator Simon Lamuniere created Nova spin-off Supernova to include more emerging dealers in the fair. And to keep down the cost of participation for the 20 selected exhibitors, the section provides shared spaces for storage, video screenings and meetings. “It will be like a co-op,” Keller explains. “Usually an art fair is a highly competitive situation. But artists use the collaborative model, and museums present group shows, so we are trying to capture some of that spirit.”

Fairgoers making their way to Supernova from the main hall follow a long printed-foil floor installation by Austrian artist Peter Kogler. Inside they discover nascent in-demand talents from such dealers as Max Wigram, of London, who is showing what he deems “the second or third wave of hip young British artists,” including Barnaby Hosking, Marine Hugonnier, Julian Rosefeldt, Christian Ward and Richard Wathen. Sommer Contemporary Art, of Tel Aviv, is spotlighting new work by three rising Israeli artists: photographs reenacting biblical stories by Adi Nes, large-scale paintings by Ofir Dor and a photographic installation by Rona Yefman that gallery director Irit Mayer-Sommer describes as a cross between “a personal and a fictional photo album.” Ellen de Bruijne Projects, of Amsterdam, has a slide show with interactive audio documenting Maria Pask’s participatory installation from last summer’s Munster Sculpture Project.

The Art Video Lounge is located in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, across the street from the Convention Center, in a pavilion surrounded by sculptures installed amid tropical foliage. For the exhibition inside, Michael Darling, a curator at the Seattle Art Museum, selected regional artists who represent the “real” Pacific Northwest. “On the one hand [the works] acknowledge the natural beauty that surrounds us, but sometimes there’s an underlying sense of violence too,” he says, observing that the landscape depicted in the works “is the complete opposite of Miami—there will be ice skaters and cowboys and forests.” Darling admits to a larger agenda, as well: “Part of my goal is to show that there are artists who aren’t as tapped into distribution networks. It’s the typical plight of artists outside major centers.”

The Art Sound Lounge, also at the Botanical Garden, allows visitors to don headsets and listen to an aural sampling of turntable experiments “from Thomas Edison to Christian Marclay and concrete music from the 1940s and ’50s,” says project organizer David Weinstein, who is the program director at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens. At the beachfront Art Positions, Weinstein is also coordinating the return of P.S. 1’s live radio talk show, as well as a new installation project. He took Keller’s suggestion that he focus on street art and homed in on skateboarding, which moved it “away from graffiti to [focus on] the music and artistic culture,” Weinstein explains. “We thought we should raise the aesthetic to something that was more refined, not just visual noise.” The centerpiece is a ramp where demonstrations will be held, with skateboarding footage and artists’ videos projected nightly.

Among the 20 galleries at Art Positions is first-timer Black Dragon Society, of Los Angeles, which fills its shipping container with a sprawling new mixed-media installation by Gustavo Herrera. Assistant director Cammie Staros describes the effect of Herrera’s combination of oil paint and nontraditional materials like cigarette butts and cardboard as “very colorful and a little bit offensive to some people with a delicate art palate.”

Of course, it can hardly be expected that each of the hundreds of artists on view throughout ABMB will appeal to every taste. But with such a diverse selection, as well as the numerous works at the satellite fairs, all buyers should be able to find something that catches their eye—if it can first capture their attention amid the blur and bustle.

"Still Growing Strong" originally appeared in the November 2007 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2007 Table of Contents.