Celebrity Sighting at Aqua

Neocon Talk Show Host Rachel Maddow at Aqua

Aqua Day One

And the VIP opening at the Aqua Art Fair Miami Beach was last night, and amidst much booze, tropical heat and impossibly slim/tall women in 8 inch heels and tanned muscly guys, some art sales managed to take place.

The opening ended at 11PM, and I left at 11:30 and then it took me over an hour to navigate the first dozen city blocks of Collins Avenue, such was the humanity and carmanity crowding the streets and sidewalks of this unique place.

A well-known collector who has written 39 bestsellers ended up buying my "Desi, Lucy and Fidel" video piece as well as two gorgeous photos by Cuban photographer Cirenaica Moreira. I also sold four other drawings, including two to art gallery owners from Art Miami, many of whom were present last night reporting good sales at Art Miami and Context.

Breaking news!

From the Aqua front office:

As one of our 2012 exhibitors, we wanted you to be one of the first to know that  Aqua is joining the Art Miami LLC umbrella of fairs. The company, which produces not only Art Miami, but Art Hamptons, Art Wynwood and CONTEXT, will take over operations of Aqua after the current, 8th installment, of our fair.

We are thrilled about the future of Aqua and the tremendous opportunity for all of our exhibitors and artists, who will have a much greater exposure, as well as access to a larger art collector base, by being associated with a major international art fair. We're also expecting this announcement to generate quite a bit of buzz about our current show -- below is a copy of the press release, which is going out to all of our media contacts today. In addition, watch out for an exclusive feature about this exciting new development in today's edition of the Miami Herald.

 Art Miami LLC to Acquire Vibrant Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach
Company Now Produces Five of America's Premiere Art Fairs

MIAMI, FL - (Dec 4, 2012) - Art Miami LLC, parent company of Florida's longest running premier contemporary and modern art fair Art Miami, announced today that it will add another gem to its crown, the vibrant Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach, now in its 8th year. Art Miami LLC will take over the operation of the fair at the conclusion of this year's 2012 edition.

"We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to take Aqua Art Miami  to the next level. We look forward to carrying on the great atmosphere and tradition that founders Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park have created for emerging and cutting edge galleries and their artists and collectors over the last eight years. In addition, having a location close to the beach during Miami Art Week will help develop a larger scope of services and programming for all of our participating exhibitors and attendees associated with Art Miami, CONTEXT, and now Aqua Art Miami," said Nick Korniloff, Art Miami, LLC, Fair Director and Partner.

"Dirk and I are thrilled to add our fair to the Art Miami umbrella -- it's great for the future of Aqua," said Jaq Chartier, Aqua's Co-Director. "Exhibitors and their artists will have much greater exposure, as well as access to a larger art collector base, by being associated with a major international art fair."

Over the years, Aqua Art Miami has been recognized for presenting vibrant and noteworthy international art programs with a particular interest in supporting young dealers and galleries with strong emerging and early-mid career artists. This curatorial commitment is complemented by the unique art fair setting of the Aqua Hotel, a classic South Beach establishment with spacious exhibition rooms that open onto a breezy, intimate courtyard. The surroundings have become a favorite gathering spot not only for relaxation during Miami Art Week, but also as a place to exchange and disseminate new contemporary art ideas. And with its close proximity to the main Art Basel fair, Aqua Art Miami has consistently been ranked among the top satellite art events by collectors, artists, curators, critics and the art loving public alike.

This year, Aqua Art Miami's eighth installment will present innovative special programming, which features performance art and installation, plus the collective exchange of ideas by 47 exhibiting galleries from North and South America, as well as Japan. The fair is located at 1530 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, across from the Loews Hotel.

For additional information on both fairs, please visit: www.aquaartmiami.com or www.art-miami.com.

Almost there...

Up and early this morning as with three and a half galleries to fill, it has been exhausting to hang all the artwork at the Aqua Art Fair. Of course, the small half-gallery was the hardest one, as the walls seemed to be made of some new impenetrable material that required a small nuclear device to make a hole in the walls.

The VIP opening is tonight, starting at 7PM, which is when the music starts, the free booze begins to flow (and hopefully some of the artwork) and immensely tall women in 8-inch heels suddenly are everywhere.

Pics and updates later.

Miami Art Fairs: VIP Openings Start!

Tonight is the VIP opening of Art Miami, which a lot of people consider to be second in the art fair food chain after the "real" Art Basel fair.

Art Miami is such a draw for key blue chip galleries, that its well-earned number two spot (ahead of Pulse at number three and Scope at barely holding onto number four) has allowed its owners to start yet another, separate fair (Context) to which a lot of the Pulse and worthy Scope galleries have flocked to.

Both Art Miami and Context have their VIP openings tonight... CONNERSMITH and the tiny Curator's Office are the only two DMV area galleries in this blue chip group - a well earned distinction to the hard work of its owners.

So it looks like Scope is about to be shoved down to number five on the food chain, and I wouldn't be surprised if Context gathers more attention (and sales) than Pulse and becomes number three for its Art Miami owners.

VIP tickets are non-transferable, so I did not, I repeat, I did not give my VIP pass to a DMV area artist who may or may not walking around Art Miami and Context tonight pretending to be "F. Lennox Campello"... cough, cough.

I'm exhausted from hanging work for my own presence at the Aqua Art Fair (voted by a HUGE margin as the best art fair for "emerging artists"), so there's no chance that my tired feet will be hanging around the VIP openings tonight, but many DMV area artists will be schmoozing, scarfing up the free food and booze and handing out business cards at the event, such as Tim Tate (who's exhibiting at Art Miami with Ireland's primo gallery Blue Leaf), Judith Peck, Audrey Wilson, my Norfolk dealer Sheila Giolitti and many others.

Talking about hanging artwork, first horror story of the fair: British artist Simon Monk, who is part of my curated "Superheroes and Super Villains" exhibit at Aqua shipped his work from the UK delivery with Monday delivery guaranteed.

When it didn't show up on Monday, I contacted him and a very worried Monk then spent hours and hours on the phone in the UK trying to find out where his shipment was.

Many hours later, he informs me that his

"... wife has literally been on the phone all day trying to get to the bottom of what has happened to my crate.  After battling through obstruction after obstruction she discovered that the crate had never left the UK!  Apparently Fedex thought there was a problem with the paperwork but it turned out they had simple not looked at it properly and admitted that it was all in order.  What I find most frustrating is that they claimed to be 'waiting for information' but had made no attempt to contact me - I genuinely believe that if my wife had not pursued this the crate could have simply sat at Stansted Airport indefinitely - so much for 'next day delivery'. "

Yeah FEDEX... what's up with that?

I told Monk that whenever his work shows up it will be hung!

Miami art fairs: Day -2

The worst part about doing an art fair (other than the brutal costs) are the unloading and packing up process.

The unloading this year was accidentally super easy.

Yesterday morning I was dropping off the gallery intern (the super hardworking and talented Audrey Wilson, whose work we will also be showing as one of the perks of being an intern at Alida Anderson Art Projects). When I say "dropping off" I mean at the Aqua Hotel in Miami Beach, where the art fair will be taking place starting Wednesday for VIPs.

The official unload time starts at 5PM, and yet, someone there was nice enough to say, "Since you are already here, you can go ahead and unload."

And in less than 20 minutes we had unloaded.

Nightmare number one avoided: a long-assed wait to unload among the heavy traffic of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach on Sunday night or Monday morning.

This morning we started hanging, and we're about 50% done.

Afterwards, I headed back to Hollywood Beach for a walk on the boardwalk, some pizza and a pitcher of beer ... cough... cough ice tea with the family.

While I was gone, Little Junes and his mom were exploring the best thing about Florida other than Cuban food...

Aqua on top

Just checked the results of the poll on the Best Emerging Art Fair in Miami, which New American Paintings magazine ran around the elections earlier this month, and (as I suspected) the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach --- where we kicked ass last year and where we're returning to this year in room 116 --- is at the top, by a really wide margin, which is more than I can say about the recent Presidential elections. 

 See you at the fair starting next Wednesday!

Jewish Spiderman will be at Aqua later this week!

This is "Look Out Spidermun!" a new acrylic on board by the highly talented and intelligent DMV area artist Jeannette Lilith Herrera. This piece and several others from her work on superheros will be part of the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition at Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week - room 116!

Airborne

The kid is heading to Miami Beach for the Aqua Art Fair - if you are heading South as well and need some passes to the fair, send me a note and come see me in room 116.

Santa and then Reagan

First a visit to Santa...

Then out to Reagan National Airport for the trip down South - I'll be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach - room 116 - and Dr. Anderson will be doing some research with some Hialeah school children for one of her research lines.

WaPo on Ficker

This is a very cool WaPo story on my good friend and uberheckler Robin Ficker... read it here. 

This is the man who brought the art of heckling to an art! (and that's why he's being discussed in an art blog!)... I call his art movement Hecklerism!

Go Robin!

Good bye Big E!

Tomorrow a powerful and storied gray lady of the sea, USS Enterprise (the real one, not the Star Trek one of the future) will retire after multiple decades of service.

Fair winds and following seas!

 

Spiderman will be at Aqua next week

This is "BERNABE MENDEZ from the State of Guerrero works as a professional window cleaner in New York. He sends 500 dollars a month" from the amazing Dulce Pinzon's Superheros series. This piece and several others from that series will be part of the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition at Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week - room 116!

Heading down to Miami Beach

Here's the gallery van all packed up and ready to head South to Miami Beach for the Aqua Art Fair during next week's Art Basel week in Miami.

First of all, I'm glad that someone else is driving that puppy and second, you can't even fit a pin in that van!

As usual, I'll be reporting daily from the fairs; we leave on Saturday!

Wanda Jackson reviews "Under The Influence"

The Sentinel's Wanda Jackson pops in with a nice review of the "Under The Influence" show that I recently curated for Prince George's County. See the review here.

A nice surprise is also coming to some of the selected artists: The county is going to buy several of the works for the PG County Art Collection... names later!

Opportunity for Artists

BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artists 2014
BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for exhibits January - December 2014. You can download the prospectus by clicking the link to the right or go to www.blackrockcenter.org Deadline:  Friday, December 21, 2012 Entry Fee: $35 check or money order made payable to BlackRock Center for the Arts Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in  Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.  Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.     About the Gallery BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of gallery space.  Its high white walls and beautiful windows allows in just the right amount of natural light. We take pride in the outstanding artists we have exhibited over the years, which have been reviewed by Claudia Rousseau, Lenny Campello, and other art critics in the area. Eligibility The Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery. (See Terms for Exhibit for details.) Pedestals are available for three-dimensional work. Selection Process This call will cover exhibits in the Gallery from January to December 2014. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. This season, the jury panel is comprised of Lenny Campello (artist, writer, blogger), Marsha Staiger (artist, Torpedo Factory), and Tim Tate (artist, Washington Glass School). In addition, the panel will have an alternate juror, Krista Bradley (Executive Director of BlackRock).	CLICK HERE FOR PROSPECTUS Send to: BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artist 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD 20874 Questions? Contact: Kim Marshall Gallery Manager kmarshall@blackrockcenter.org All correspondance by e-mail, no phone calls please.

Superman will be at Aqua next week

This is a detail of "Superman" by the very talented NYC artist Carla Goldberg. This brilliant mixed media sculpture will be part of the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition at Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week - room 116!

New gallery's grand opening is this week

Grand Opening of a new art gallery

“Gallery de Fabbio”

Saturday, December 1^st 2012, from 1-8 PM pm at-

10007 Kinross Ave.,

Silver Spring, MD 20901

301. 593. 5507

www.johndefabbiophoto.com

At Aqua next week

This is "Peter Parker" by British artist Simon Monk (oil and alkyd on wood panel), which is one of the artists that I curated into the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition in room 116 of the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week!

"Peter Parker" by Simon Monk

Alexa Meade

DMV area uberartist Alexa Meade has been busy lately... she's been traveling a lot recently for art - painting Gotye in Australia, meetings in Tokyo, presenting her work at the Wired Magazine Conference in London, doing a show in Zurich...

She's now back home and debuting a new body of work this week which she made with friend/performance artist Sheila Vand. You can see it here.