Bucking ConventionBy Sarah Douglas
Published: November 1, 2009
Satellite Fairs
December 3-6 Aqua Wynwood 42 NE 25th St. 4th year Around 50 exhibitors
Art Miami
Design Miami
Ink Miami
New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA)
Photo Miami
Pool Art Fair Miami
Pulse
Red Dot Miami
SCOPE Miami
Verge MIAMI—"What we need right now is a fair that’s more focused and more navigable, one that delivers the best possible platform for galleries and the best experience for visitors," says Marc Spiegler, codirector with Annette Schönholzer of Art Basel Miami Beach. In the seven years that the epic contemporary-art fair has been going strong, the organizers have never rested on their laurels; every year they tweak the formula. But this edition, running December 3 through 6, brings a complete overhaul. "From the moment you walk into the convention center, it will be a totally different Art Basel Miami Beach," says Spiegler. When it acquired a management stake in the Miami Beach Convention Center two years ago, Art Basel gained 20 percent more space. It has now turned the halls into a series of concentric squares. The expansion and revised layout has enabled the fair to bring its Art Positions section inside and to provide the 23 participants — younger galleries showing emerging artists — with proper booths; in the past they’ve exhibited in a clutch of 20 shipping containers parked on the beach a few blocks from the convention center. "Over time Art Positions became seen as just another option among many," Spiegler says, referring to the manifold satellite fairs (see page 24) that have accreted around abmb. "The exhibitors felt they weren’t getting the same audience as those in the convention center." Many people who paid for entry were giving the section a miss. "It was a successful experiment that ran its course," concludes Spiegler. Despite its new more orthodox setting, Art Positions should retain the strong sense of experimentation for which it’s known. "I still approached the section with the kind of specificity it takes to show work in a container," says Philip Martin, of the Los Angeles gallery Cherry and Martin, which is bringing works by Amanda Ross-Ho and Noah Sheldon. The shipping containers, still on the beach, are being put to good use. In conjunction with the nonprofit art-production organization Creative Time, Art Basel has commissioned the Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Pae White — known for transforming mundane spaces into highly sensory environments — to repurpose them as a common area for socializing, performance and lectures. Discontinued from last year’s program is Art Supernova, in which 20 galleries exhibited communally. Some dealers voiced doubts about its effectiveness during its two-year run, and several past participants have now moved to other parts of the fair. Dubai’s Third Line, for instance, has gone to Art Nova, which comprises more than 60 galleries showing only new work, often fresh from the studio. The section has its own aisle this year, rather than ringing the periphery of the hall. Names have changed as well as places, with 12 percent of last year’s participants sitting this one out — among them, David Nolan and Joan Washburn, both from New York; London’s Waddington; and Berlin’s Aurel Scheibler. An equal number of new participants are on board, including New York’s Tony Shafrazi and Edward Tyler Nahem; Faria Fábregas Galeria from Caracas; and Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud, from São Paulo. "There is a paradigm shift going on right now, and contemporary-art galleries are having to reinvent themselves and find new clients," says the New York dealer Leslie Tonkonow, another first-timer. "Fairs are essential in doing this, and this one is among the most important in the world." Tonkonow is showing drawings by gallery stalwart Amy Cutler alongside Conceptual pieces from the 1960s and ’70s by Agnes Denes and Robert Watts. In all, there are around 250 exhibitors, the same as last year. Rather than increasing the number of dealers to fill the additional square footage, the fair is offering larger booths, something Spiegler says many galleries have been demanding. If what he saw at Art Basel in June was any indication, the economy will only strengthen the display in Miami. "People realized that if they’re going to succeed, they have to bring the most convincing material presented in the most convincing way," Spiegler says. "One of the upsides of this economy is that the quality of the fair has risen."
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