Art Basel Week: Open to the general public

The Context Art Miami art fair opened to the general public today, as the illuminati and VIP holders had their night last night. I arrived a little early and walked the fair... below are some of my faves so far:

The DMV's uberartist Tim Tate also knocks this technology into new dimensions... below are his works at Context, right next to a Banksy piece!

Rolf Ohst's works with Munich's Galerie Benjamin Eck also stands out, not just because of the artist's spectacular mastery of hyper realism, but also his subject matter of big, beautiful women.

David Kassan's portrait of Raya Kovensky also caught my eye - not just for the gace and elegance of the subject, and the mastery of the artist, but also by the oversized hands. Kassan has legendary skill, which is evident in this work.

Also at Gallert Henoch, I loved Eric Zener's Cradle - one can feel the power of this dive, and the spectacular blue punches the solar plexus of the mind as much as the diver's punch of the water surface.

Ten Contemporary was full of great work, but I was particularly taken by the sculptures of Max Leiva.

I've admired Scott Scheidly for a long time now... and he's really delivered some brilliant new paintings to this fair - with really good price points - As it has been the case for the last couple of years, the Trumpinator is all over the fair, the subject of many artists... but no one does DJT better than Scheidly... note the tiny hands.

The Galician mass murderer and suffocater of the Cuban people also makes an appearance in Scheidly's talented universe in a memorable new depiction of Castro.

More works by this brilliant artist, apparently obsessed by Republican presidents:

This gallery (Art Spoke) also has a series of outstanding and more intimate paintings by Scott Listfield, where an astronaut is the central figure in a series of somewhat unusual settings - The Trumpinator makes an appearance there as well.

I think that Spoke Art should really look at the work of DC area artist F. Lennox Campello - he would really fit in this stable of artists!

When I first saw the below sculpture from far, I thought it was a new work by the DMV's Mark Jenkins...

It wasn't...

I also liked these sculptures being showcased by Paris' Nil Gallery... no labels, so no idea who this artist is... there's a lesson there.

Opening time was getting close and I ran out of time in my walkthrough of Context, but not before I came across this painterly display of talent by Rafel Bestard from Catalonia's Galeria Contrast.

We are next to Miami's Projects Gallery, which is showcasing its "Janis Project", which has been to more cities than I can recall! Some really excellent work by Frank Hyder!

And here's the artist (Frank Hyder) with the "real" Janis... DMV uberartist Michael Janis!

More as time permits over the next few days...