Art Basel Miami Beach Week Day Two: The VIP Opening

We head to the SCOPE Art Fair tent around 10AM. In the middle of the night artist Tony Porto arrived from the West Coast after a much delayed flight from San Francisco and after a taxi ride with the planet's only cab driver who didn't have a GPS or a cell phone and drove Porto to a place seven miles away from Ocean Avenue in Miami Beach. In fact Porto (fearing for his life on a potential set up Mafia hit)  had to use his own GPS to re-direct the driver to the right place.

Only in Miami.

We finalize the clean-up and final steps for the VIP Platinum and press opening, and at noon the crowds descend upon the fair.

SCOPE is right on the sands of Miami Beach at 8th street - to its left is Untitled, another tent-on-the-beach art fair, and between these two fairs, a really good crowd packs the fair throughout the day.

The outside wall of the WGS Contemporary (located at H27) is hung with about 50-60 of my drawings on Bisque. It also has a gorgeous view of the Atlantic.

Upon arrival, I notice one of my pieces, the one on the left-most upper corner is missing.  Was it stolen? Did one of the cleaning crew bump into it making it fall and break? Mystery... for posterity's sake, it was the piece below:

She couldn't believe that he proposed to her via a text message
Charcoal on Bisque 2021 by Florencio Lennox Campello
MIA

The crowds are substantial and seem deeply interested in the fair and the art.  I start selling a lot of the Bisque pieces, which are very affordable. A tall, blonde woman asks if the prices are a joke. I explain that one of my goals is to seed the planet with as many Campello works of art as I possibly can. She buys one of the lowest priced ones; her date buys one of the most expensive.

A Russian family comes by, and the very attractive lady buys five of the largest pieces - all portraits of artists: two Kahlos, Warhol, Picasso and Dali. The man with her (husband?) says to her in Russian: "why so many?" She shoots him a furry look and he freezes. They buy $1200 worth of work and pay in cash with shiny, brand new $100 bills.

The Monster Picasso
Charcoal and conte on Bisque by Florencio Lennox Campello, c. 2021
In a private collection in Miami Beach

At 8PM the fair ends - we're all thrashed after being on our feet all day. For dinner we head back to Naked Taco, where I feast on blackened octopus. VIP opening day is over - I've sold about 30 Bisque pieces, so the art spreading has begun.

#wgscontemporary #scopeartfair #scopeart #artbaselmiami2021