Since 2003... the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And with over SIX million visitors, F. Lennox Campello's art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area.
As some of you know, I used to do a lot of cartoons while I was in the Navy... some were published in base newspapers, Navy magazines, Stars & Stripes, etc. I gave most of them away over the years... here's another one of the fabled Seaman Schmuckatelli - This one was "Seaman Schmuckatelli... all I said..."
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| Seaman Schmuckatelli... all I said... 1983 Navy cartoon by Lenny Campello |
As much fun as art fairs are during ABMB week, unless you're one of those galleries who hire professional crews to unpack and hang, and then to pack at the end of the day on Sunday, then the last day of the fair is brutal.
For some odd reason, the people who run Scope thought that it was a good idea to end the fair at 8PM on Sunday - rather than the usual 5PM.
More on the end later...
Today artist Tony Porto was an instant social hit because of the snug T-shirt that he was wearing - a big hit! It was as if the T-shirt gave him superhuman powers among the social waves and waves of beautiful people and influencers.
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| Chicago-based artist Tony Porto as a social media superstar at SCOPE Miami Beach 2021 |
You can read his snuggly T-Shirt...
The crowds were once again present on Scope's last day and we were excited to make several good sales, with a few drawings and one painting finding new owners and new walls to hang at!
As the fair closed, the frenzied process of tired gallerists and dealers and their assistants (and the lucky ones with hired crews) begin the process of tearing down exhibits, bubble-wrapping work to be delivered to new owners or shipped back to galleries, or perhaps to the next fair, and figuring out their next step.
Point of order: every art fair, no matter how good, always has a number of dealers that do very well, some that break even, and many who lose money -- every fair.
This year I noticed that Scope had "opened" the fair to individual artists. While I understand that the post-Covidian world and inflation woes often make economic decisions... but a fair which starts as a "galleries only" fair and then (as not enough gallery applications are received) opens the process to individual artists, so that in the end dealers and galleries are mixed with individual artists is an "issue".
With the notable exception of DC's only art fair a few years ago -- (e)merge, which was designed from the start to couple art dealers with unrepresented artists, the mixture of individual artists and art galleries at the same fair seldom succeeds. This is generally due to the spectacular lack of business acumen and selling experience that most artists have (not all), and the disastrous "discounting" orgies that happen on Sundays when artists realize that the fair is almost over and they haven't sold squat.
My heart broke when I noticed that the Turkish gallery across the hall (which had a professional crew do all the work), had unstretched all the huge canvasses that they had exhibited (none sold) and had put several thousand dollars of custom made and gorgeous stretcher bars on the side marked as THRASH.
I walked around the fair finding Miami galleries to see if they wanted them or knew of any artists who could use them... what a waste.
Meanwhile Mike Janis directed the complex re-packing of glass work, while Terry and Tony did the van dance of coming onto the grounds; then the carrying of the packed art and loading back onto the van for the long trek back home.
Another year done.
The spectacular growth industry known as "influencer" is very evident in the 2021 version of Art Basel week. Influencers handing out cards, dressed to be noticed and asking to be photographer, Instagrammed and referenced... as well as the "make sure that you follow me...."
Today's crowds were by far the largest, most eclectic and flowing - not sure how sales are going on. All throughout the fair, people have been admiring and taking hundreds of photographs of Tony Porto & Mike Janis' collaborative work and of Tim Tate's infinity mirror "Gay Batman" piece, and and myriads of gallery cards have been handed out to the "we'll be back" crowd. Seldom does that happen... The fairs are big and overwhelming... You either get the work when you see it, or forget it...
And lots of beautiful people...
The Bisque wall continues to sell well throughout the day and in the early evening a very well-known artist from California approaches me (together with her "team") and acquires "Sleep is the Cousin of Death." The work has to return to the DMV and then be shipped... but hey!
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| Sleep is the Cousin of Death - detail - |
It's Friday! By 11AM we're on duty and people begin to flow to SCOPE. I am always entertained by "art fair people." They are as much an integral and positive and creative part of the art scene in Miami as the art itself.
Here are some that I captured in some cool photos...
I was particularly struck by how this spectacular beauty resembled an Elfin Queen and arranged for a couple of quick poses as she agreed to pose in exchange for a portrait of her as an Elfin Queen.
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| The Day that Supergirl decided to show the world her tattooes Mixed Media Painting on 600 weight paper,36x36 inches, c. 2021 |
In a typical Miami sort of way, today was essentially characterized by a lots of young women as slim as rifles (and just as dangerous), and men of all ages in impossibly tight high-water pants with no socks taking a lot of selfies in front of artwork.
In a previous review of ABMB a decade or so ago, I wrote the below... and little has changed:
Once the VIP pre-opening parties were finished and the elegant crowds, booze and small food ceased to circulate, and tightly-dressed women in lethal-looking six inch heels finished their improbable art fair strolls with plastic wine glasses in their manicured hands, and handsome young men in slim suits and nerdy black glasses used their cell-phones to photograph the artwork, while third generation blue-eyed Cuban-American girls, four or five inches taller and 25 pounds lighter than their political refugee grandmothers, and slim as rifles, finished shooting selfies in front of the artwork...
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| Zanni looking at a Tim Tate piece |
After the fair closed at 8PM, we hustled (pun intended) to dinner, as tonight there are extended hours till 11PM, and ran once again into Akemi Maegawa at the nice Thai restaurant on Washington Street where we all met by chance.
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| Tony Porto, Lenny Campello, Akemi Maegawa, and Michael Janis |
Once again, in spite of the fears of the Covidian Age, decent crowds showed up again to the Scope Art Fair in Miami Beach. Today was the day that the fair technically opened to the public - yesterday was the VIP opening.
The brisk sales of the drawings on Bisque continued (they are quite affordable), and by now about half of them are gone.
I rea-arranged them so as to put them all onto one and half panels and thus be able to hang more artwork.
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| This gents has returned 3-4 to consider one work |
The "interest gage", as I would put it, was also noticeably higher, with loads of interested collectors making the rounds, and we also saw some DMV folks, such as Akemi Maegawa and others.
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| Artist Tony Porto holding court |
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| Mark Jenkins artwork at SCOPE Miami Beach 2021 |
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| Nychos artwork at Miris Gallery |
After the fair closed, we headed for Greek food at Poseidon, where we feasted on Greek food... on the way we passed two of most terrifying ATMs on the planet.
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:
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| She couldn't believe that he proposed to her via a text message Charcoal on Bisque 2021 by Florencio Lennox Campello MIA |
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| The Monster Picasso Charcoal and conte on Bisque by Florencio Lennox Campello, c. 2021 In a private collection in Miami Beach |
#wgscontemporary #scopeartfair #scopeart #artbaselmiami2021
3:30AM wakeup for a 4AM Lyft ride to Reagan National Airport is the start of the trek to Miami for the 2021 version of the planet's most important art event as the Art Basel Miami week re-starts after a long 2020 pause from the Covidian monster released upon the world by the Communist Party ruling and abusing the long-suffering people of China.
After an eventless flight, another Lyfter takes me to Miami Beach, the car is driven by Daniel, a recent (three years) Cuban gentleman who relates to me his tortuous escape history from the other place where Communism brutalizes its people. Three years ago he won a "lottery" to visit Nicaragua, as soon as he arrived there he "escaped" to neighboring Honduras, from there to Guatemala and onto Mexico. He relates the horror stories of Mexico and dealing with the corrupt Mexican police. Eventually, he flies to the United States, is granted refugee asylum and three years later, busting his ass with two jobs, is loving life as a free man in the US.
Welcome to Miami.
Mike Janis, the hardworking director of WGS Contemporary, is waiting for me at our AirBnB almost across the street from the SCOPE Art Fair. Somehow Mike (who drove my van from DC to Miami packed to the gills with art) managed to unload all work to the gallery booth - no small feat considering that part of the trek involves a trip across the sand!
Mike has already installed mixed media glass work by Tim Tate as well as his collaborations with Tony Porto. The work in the booth has been curated by Janis to showcase the theme of Superheroes, and it will also hang work by Mexico's great Dulce Pinzon, England's Simon Monk and yours truly.
We begin hanging the remaining work, and one wall goes up quickly.
We get kicked out around 4PM and then head out to find vittles and end up in Janis' fave restaurant hang-out at Naked Taco, where a fabulous waitress brings out fabulous Mexican food and also takes our photo.
After dinner we head back to our apartment. My daughter Elise calls from Gig Harbor and we chat and she can't believe that we're heading back to the roost at 7PM... and we're in Miami Beach.
Parked in front of our rented condo is a gigantic black Esplanade SUV with enormous tires, dark, tinted windows... and a handicapped parking sticker hanging from the rear view mirror... only in Miami Beach does such a sight seem normal.
Has anyone noticed that Benadryl or diphenhydramine is marketed under a dozen different labels and dosages as a sleep aid as a walk down the sleep aid section of your local pharmacy or supermarket clearly shows?
Nearly (not all) of the OTC sleep aids out there in Americaland is essentially a dosage of Benadryl!
Sleep tight America!
At the last Affordable Art Fair in NYC - held last September and documented in this blog, I received a commission to create a work that reflected and incorporated the LGBTQ flag in a mixed media works with embedded electronics.
As I've noted multiple times, clear communications is KEY to a happy commissioning! I sent the client a draft contract and explained all processes... then I sent her some rough sketches for the central figure in the work -- the work was to depict a visitor to a gallery/museum where the center piece rotates digital images sampled online from famous abstract artworks -- a "new" Jackson Pollockish work (created by me, not a copy of a Pollock) was to hang to the left, and a Washington Color School style painting of the LGBTQ flag (a very cool stripe painting by the way...) to the right of the figure, while the center piece rotates images.
I sent her these rough drafts... one of the figures is her, as she expressed interest in possibly "being" in the painting.
She liked the lady all the way to the right (who was her), so then I painted her and sent her this...
She loved it! So we moved on! And here's the finished work, which rotates a famous abstract painting (and some not so famous yet) in the middle embedded digital screen.
About two decades ago, I walked into a Whole Foods supermarket to buy some olives and some Manchego cheese. As I strolled by Whole Foods' fantastic deli, I noticed that in this store they had signs in both English and Spanish.
I almost died laughing when I saw how the Thanksgiving turkey special had been translated! In English, the word "turkey" is the same for the country that spans Europe and the Middle East and for the Thanksgiving bird.
But in Spanish, the word for the country Turkey is Turquia, and the word for the bird is "pavo."
Guess what this store was selling as their Thanksgiving bird? Turquia! What a bunch of turkeys...
Happy Thanksgiving!
