More images from the Miami fairs

Tim Tate with Texas uber video collector Ardis Bartle and that's Tate's original video Ophelia playing in the background.

Video moves

Yesterday was a good day as the Tim Tate video "I see Myself as an Author," which is a very cool piece with both a micro camera and and audio component, sold to the art dealer who had it on hold since Thursday.

Also sold two cool photographs by Cuban photographer Cirenaica Moreira, whose Miami family had come by earlier to say hello.

"Vive en Cincinnati y ni siquiera me escribe" - (He Lives in Cincinnati But he Doesn't Even Bother to Write)
Signed, Numbered and Titled. Circa 1999. Edition of 15. Printed on 20x16 inches (51x40.5 cm)
And also moved several of my drawings, including a very large St. Sebastian, the largest drawing that I brought to Miami.

And also moved a small recycled glass sculpture from ubergreen artist Erwin Timmers. That piece has become the first work of original art in a new collector of art.

Yesterday it rained a lot. Heavy, powerful Florida rain that thundered on the tent's roof with amazing intensity, trapping visitors inside and slowing down the flow of people to the area.

Sunday is the last day.

Art fair horror story

On Friday a gallery at the fair makes a substantial double sale of two very large paintings to a local collector. He tells them that he's hosting a party on Saturday night and asks if the gallerists can deliver the painting after the fair closes later that night.

They drive to his home, which is clearly the home of someone of considerable financial health. Once there, the gallery's staff volunteers to install the two pieces, which actually becomes quite difficult as the large paintings, installed side by side have little room for maneuvering.

The next day the collector contacts them and let's them know how everyone at the party really liked the work, and was complimenting the home owner on his artistic acumen and taste.

Later this afternoon the collector's neighbor (yes, his neighbor), calls the gallery and informs them that the paintings are being returned as the "energy of the paintings is disturbing the home owner."

Later that day, the neighbor (yes again, the neighbor) shows up at the fair and returns the two works.

The perils of the artworld.

Picture this

Images from the Miami fairs...

Tim Tate with American Style magazine publisher Wendy Rosen.

Wendy will be organizing a new art fair next year right across the street from Art Basel Miami Beach.

Drop me an email if you want info on that new fair.

One at a time...

Today the person who had Sandra Ramos' "El Bote" on hold actually called and purchased the piece, but wanted it unframed so that they could reframe it to their own taste. Of course, "El Bote" is the largest framed piece that I brought down to Miami, and because of interruptions it took me almost two hours to unframe it, roll up the etching, store the big frame in the van and hang some new pieces in the area vacated by the piece.

But a sale is a sale and "El Bote" joins several other works by Sandra Ramos in this couple's collection.

Then we sold a Tim Tate video to a Miami collector. It is the sexy and mesmerizing Ophelia video; one of my favorites.

Tate has also been attracting the attention of the dealers themselves. There's a piece on hold by the owner of a local Miami gallery, and then a well-known video collector who already owns a Tate piece brought Tim's work to the attention of a super New York gallery currently showing at Pulse and that connection happened and hopefully something will come out of it.

Then a British gallery from Art Miami came from across the street - tipped off by Tate's Philadelphia gallery - and she wants to take all unsold Tate pieces with her back to London at the end of the fair. We'll need to seal the arrangements between now and Sunday.

Russian-born Alexey Terenin's work has also been attracting a lot of attention from art dealers, and Mayer Fine Art may have found Terenin a couple of American galleries to show his work. Two Terenin oils sold today as well.

I also sold one of my watercolors from the Cuba series and my Philadelphia gallery (Projects Gallery) also sold another watercolor from the Cuba series.

I also visited Art Miami across the street today, and was very impressed with the level of work at that fair, although I did find a few galleries showing work that was in the awful range, bordering on Artomatic as its detractors see it. More on that later...

Camper Contemporary at Art Basel Miami Beach

They've already been threatened with arrest by overzealous Miami cops; they've already been interviewed by the local press and NPR; they've already driven all the way from MICA and they've already hit a lot of the ABMB side fairs, and certainly the MICA students who are part of Calder Brannock's Camper Contemporary are one of the hits of this year's ABMB extravaganza in Miami.

"Camper Contemporary is a mobile gallery created and curated by Calder Brannock. It is a fully functional art gallery set up inside an altered 1967 Yellowstone camper. Camper Contemporary gallery poses a solution for many problems a gallery faces in the modern art market. It allows the gallerist to showcase work in a clean controlled gallery environment without being tethered to rents or a geographic location. The mobile gallery model allows the gallerist to maintain a physical space where work can be displayed with all the benefits and gravitas of a traditional gallery while easily reaching collectors at art fairs and other large art markets."

Brannock's terrific idea and initiative was funded by the MICA office of Research, which funded the Rinehart graduate school of sculpture's trip to Miami with Camper Contemporary.

See the students' work here.

Dreaming

Red Dot was quite hot for a while today.

Reason for that was that the air conditioning system took a few hours to cool the space down, although I heard that across the street Art Miami's AC system actually died in the afternoon!

We managed to put another Tim Tate on hold and are working on a commission deal for Tate as well. Also have a large Sandra Ramos' piece on hold pending measurements of available wall space.

Also sold the below piece by Michael Janis to a well-known Cuban-American collecting couple who live in one of the spectacular homes on Fisher Island here, as well as a home back in DC. I delivered the piece to their home after Red Dot closed, which meant driving to the ferry point and getting a spectacular view of the Miami skyline in a full moon, arriving at Fisher Island and upon arrival getting escorted by security to their home.

Cubans Dreaming of Liberty. Glass, powdered black glass and metal.
Michael Janis

Inside there was a massive treasure of an art collection, including one of the largest and best Jose Bedia's paintings that I have ever seen, in good company with Miro, Picasso, many Latin American artists and a surprising number of DC area artists, betraying the couple's DC roots. I saw work by DC area artists Yuriko Yamaguchi, Rick Wall, Carol Goldberg and several others whose name escapes me now.

And now Michael Janis' beautiful Cubans Dreaming of Liberty joins this spectacular collection overlooking downtown Miami from the bay.