MIA – Day 5: The Last Day

0900 – Up and early again and heading out to Miami Beach. Thank Mr. Garmin for GPS navigation, as Calle Ocho was closed for some sort of event and I just kept driving parallel to it until the GPS found a back way to Miami Beach. It’s very cold at the beach, in the low 30s and everyone is wearing coats and hats. At the door to the café where I stop for coffee and pastries, two old Cuban black men are discussing various Cuban dances and arguing which one is the best one. I listen to their discussion while I drink my coffee. Picking up the machine-gun fire speed of the dialects from Havana and Oriente as they argue back and forth.

1000 – I run into Dr. Fred Ognibene, who is here with the medical convention that is taking place alongside the art fair at the convention center. I leave a couple of passes for Dr. Fred at the “will call.”

1100 – The fair opens and it is pretty quiet, so I walk around and shoot an 11 minute walkthrough video of the art fair. It will be uploaded later.

1530 – A trustee from the Miami Art Museum drops by and we chat a long time about Sandra Ramos’ work. She wants to see more images of the new work that I just received back in DC while I was here. We also discuss some possible museum donations. She also asks me to send her a CD with my own images and CV.

1600 – I sell one of my pieces to a collector who gets very passionate about it.

1645 – Although attendance has not been spectacular, the last two days have been the busiest. Still, sales are slow to come by. My niece and mother come to visit. It is the first time that my mother has visited me in an art fair. She also participates in the Argentinean fingerprint art project.

1700 – A young collector falls in love with two of Michael Janis’ gorgeous scraffito pieces. She asks for a collectors’ discount on two. I give it to her, and then she says that she has to clear it with her husband. She comes back repeatedly and takes photos of the works which she then sends to her husband. He is recalcitrant. To make a long story short, after nearly two hours of texting and negotiating, she gets one of the pieces at a dealer’s discount (she’s a Ft. Lauderdale gallerist).

1900 – Fair ends and I am exhausted and now the real hard work of packing begins.

2400 – I am finished packing and cleaning the walls. The fair is over. Tomorrow the shipper comes by, picks up the work and ships it back North (except for all the Tim Tate’s works, which will be at Art Palm Beach next weekend with Projects Gallery.

0030 – I arrive at Little Havana; the power has been off in my cousin’s side of the street for hours and he has been waiting for me to let me into his walled compound, as the electric gates do not work.

0100 – I get to bed, a flashlight by my side; feh!

MIA Day Five – Rainy Saturday

0800 – I’m awake and out of the Little Havana apartment bright and early as I want to do some visiting before heading out to Miami Beach. It is rainy and cold (in the 40s).

1200 – Fair opens and there is also another fair at the Convention Center which is now open; appears to be some sort of medical expo.

1400 – There seems to be a marked increase in traffic; maybe the bad weather is driving people indoors. I’ve shot a little video of the fair and dropped by to talk to LA gallerist Seth Carmichael. He represents DC-based artist Mark Jenkins (DC’s famous Tape Dude) and will give Mark a solo in his LA gallery in a couple of months. Seth has a well-known Jenkins sculpture in his booth.

1500 – The lady whose husband busted the Ann Plan piece on opening night comes back and buys a Sandra Ramos original collage. You reap what you sow.

1510 – The curator of the Latin American pavilion at the Shanghai Art Fair comes over and invites me to exhibit at the fair.

1605 - A local curator who has been walking around the fair invites me to leave some of my artwork with her for some of her curatorial projects. She is one of the curator's at MIA's "Next Generation" hall and so I agree to leave some drawings with her.

1630 – The woman who put the Tim Tate on hold a few days ago returns with her husband and another couple. They ask a million technical questions. She really wants the piece, but hubby is tough. He then wants to switch video cards between two separate sculptures and offers $5,000 for the piece. I say no. The wife still wants the piece. He then wants to see if he can work directly with Tate. I tell him that Tate can consider a commission. Wife still wants the piece that she wanted. He then mulls back about $5,000. I say no. He says he only wants the glass part and the Digiviewer and not the stand. I tell him that what he does with the piece once he owns it is his business, but that one can never tell what the future holds and that separating the pieces may harm the integrity of the work. I suggest that he can install the work so that only the glass part shows, and give him a couple of ideas on how to do this. He seems to like that aspect. He wants to come over to Washington and see what else Tate has. I tell him that he is welcome to do that, but that I have his latest work here and Tate is preparing for a museum show and doesn’t have that much more work available. Wife still wants the piece. They give me their contact info and promise to come back after they debate it. He mulls about $5,000 and I say no.

1645 – The director of the fair comes back and tells me that I have the best installation in the fair.

1730 – German collector comes by and is really interested in a Tate piece. As I am working with him, the 1630 couple comes back. I’m in the booth by myself and can only work one at a time. The German collector notices that the other couple when they say: “Let’s close the deal.” He tells me that he’ll be back and leaves.

1900 – 90 minutes later I am exhausted after working the most difficult sale in my life with the most difficult man in Boca Raton. They buy a Tim Tate and I believe that they will swap video cards and play their own videos in the sculpture once the piece gets delivered. It is an exhausting exercise which is fueled by a bad economy and the need to at least break even in this fair.

2100 - Saturday is over. Tomorrow is the last day. I head over to Little Havana; it's in the 30s in Miami Beach and raining.

MIA Day Four - The Weekend begins

0800 - I'm up and about as I need to get some new video cables to see if I can make the digital player work and project Tate's videos onto the wall. First I stop by a new bakery and grab three Capresse empanadas for breakfast. Then I drop by a Radio Shack and get a new video cable. Sounds easy, but it actually involved going to two Radio Shacks and one Office Depot before I found the friggin' video cable.

1100 - I arrive at the Convention Center and start fiddling with the video projector. My hunch was right and the video cable was bad. However, I also discovered that the Digiviewer is also bad. I then hunt down a new Digiviewer to replace the bad one. By the time it is noon the damned thing is finally working and the Ophelia video is projecting onto the booth wall.

1200 - 1800 - Yawn. Somewhere in there I sell an Erwin Timmers recycled glass sculpture.

1820 - Someone is interested in buying my Ophelia drawing, but they can't get over the title association with the character.

1915 - A curator from a Central American museum is interested in seeing how she can get some Sandra Ramos and Tim Tates for the museum. She tells me that the museum has no acquisition funds, which makes the issue an usually difficult one. In this case, however, I happen to have two collectors lined up to donate both Tates and Ramos' to museums who want them (hear that museum curators?). We exchange cards. She apologizes by saying that her National museum is privately funded and they don't get any money from their government. I remind her that in the US all museums are privately funded. She looks a little quizzical until I explain that even though some museums are funded by the federal government, the said government gets its funds from private citizens and private companies, and thus, by extension of my logic, all US museums are privately funded as well, with some having the government as a middle man.

2000 - I sell a Ann Plant sculpture, her second sale of the show, which is her first show ever. First sale of the day.

2100 - Day over; they're expecting a really cold rainy day tomorrow... great.

2130 - Dinner at El Chalal again with Frank and Helen. Great seafood as usual and two good Peruvian beers. Then I head back to Little Havana.

2200 - On the drive home I talk to my daughter Elise, who tells me that she just finished doing a song in a CD and will be in DC and NYC soon to do some promotional work on the radio and on TV. All the others in the CD compilation are big names; very impressive! More on that later.

MIA Day Three - Opening Day

0717 - I am up and trying to catch up on work email and returning phone calls.

1030 - I am out of the apartment and heading to the bakery to get food and water for the day. I get a Cuban Pork Sandwich for breakfast and a Medianoche for lunch later plus an assortment of stuffed potatoes, stuffed yucca rolls, pastries and sweets. Enough food for a week actually. I also get some soap, as in my cousin's apartment, which is vacant all the time, there's no shower soap and I've been using some old shampoo to cleanse my body and I am a little tired of smelling like kiwi and watermelon all day.

1100 - Arrive at the Convention Center for the long day of the actual opening.

1400 - Tim Tate video is put on First Right of Refusal till Sunday. I've handed out about 25 cards about his video work today as his work continues to attract people like moths to my booth. The digital video player is still not working and I am contemplating switching the DigiViewer to see if that's the issue.

1430 - Prof. Chawky Frenn swings by and we chat a little. Chawky is an amazing painter; he's looking for representation.

1500 - It's really slow and so I stroll around the fair a little. There are a lot of Argentinean galleries in this fair. They all seem to have German names. One of the gallerinas is the spitting image of actress Tia Leoni.

1630 - A major collector, who last month bought a Sandra Ramos from me at Red Dot comes by to say hello. I discuss with them that I have a couple of donors looking to donate Sandra Ramos' works to museums. They give me the name of a curator at a local museum and tell me to use their names.

1900 - Prof. Chawky Frenn comes by again. He has been trolling the fair looking for potential galleries for his work, which is so politically and homo-erotically charged that it is very difficult for some. He looks a little dejected. We walk over to the Argentinean worldwide art project next to me. They take gold fingerprints of people all over the world and are staffed by several beautiful girls from the Americas. Chawky goes over and does the whole fingerprinting part and then begins to chat the girls. He then meets Carlos Woods, a gallery owner from Guatemala and Chawky shows him the last book published of his work. Minutes later Woods is offering Chawky a solo in Guatemala. Prof. Frenn has accomplished his mission.

1930 - A curator from the Miami Art Museum comes by and we discuss Sandra Ramos. I pass to her that I have two collectors in the DC area who are looking to donate several Sandra Ramos' pieces to museums. She leaves me several names at the museum to contact.

2000 - It's all over; heading to Little Havana for the night.

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

Washington Sculptors Group: Sculpture Now 2010 (January 5 until February 12, 2010).Opening Reception - Friday, January 8 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. at Pepco’s Edison Place Gallery (702 Eighth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001). The reception will include an awards presentation of first and second place prizes with top honors being named after long-time WSG member and artist Tom Rooney. Juror’s talk - Saturday, January 9 beginning at 2:00 pm

The exhibition was juried by Ryan Hill, Curatorial Research Associate for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, and artist. Speaking about his selections, Mr. Hill stated that he was "interested in artworks that used non-traditional materials, explored layering and decentered compositions, and reflected our information-driven society."

Artists selected to participate in the exhibition include: Karen Bondarchuk, Leah Frankel, Kerry Furlani, Tom Greaves, Jason Haber, Ray Hau, Leila Holtsman, James Mallos, Bill Moore, Elena Patino, Mike Shaffer, John Simpkins-Camp, Erwin Timmers, Patricia Tinajero, Elizabeth Whiteley, and Alice Yutzy.

MIA Day 2 - Set Up & VIP Night

0245 - I wake up, thinking that I've heard Little Junes crying. Even though I am exhausted, it takes me forever to go back to sleep.

0730 - I wake up half an hour before the alarm. After S-S-S (read yesterday's account to know what that means), I head out to MIA. On the way I stop over at a Cuban deli and buy some Cuban pastries to share with the Hyders. I end up eating my share on the drive to the Miami Beach Convention Center.

0930 - Arrive at MIA. It's $15 to park all day, but the parking lot is directly on the other side of Exhibit Hall A, which is where MIA takes place. It's a long assed walk and during the walk I discover that one should never wear brand new shoes to an art fair. Today I have to hang and prepare my booth, so I'm wearing jeans, but I've brought the suit and tie for later tonight, when the VIPs come. It's gonna be a long day, as the fair ends at 11PM.

0945 - My booth still doesn't have electricity, and I discover that I've forgotten my power drill, so I start hanging seven Tim Tate self contained videos using a screwdriver. I'm concerned because I can't test the videos until I get electricity into the booth. SO I start arranging the other work to be hung. As soon as I am finished, a floor cleaning crew shows up and wants to clean my booth's floor. I remove all the work and wait while they steam clean the cement floor.

1015 - The cement floor is nice and clean, the booth's walls are freshly painted, and the work is all back in, spread out and ready to be hung. But no electricity. I begin to hang all of Tate's metal boxes components of his video work, and unpack Sandra Ramos, Cirenaica Moreira and Marta Maria Perez Bravo's work. A dozen long trips to the Hyder's van to store away the packing detritus follows.

1200 - All the Tate's metal wall boxes are hung, and the cardboard boxes containing the glass and video parts are aligned under them, on the floor, like soldiers itching to join a war. But there's no electricity.

1225 - I hang Michael Janis' heavy-assed "Lovers" in a few minutes, then spend a friggin' hour aligning and hanging his four smaller pieces. But at the end it looks good.

1230 - The sculpture floor stands arrive, and I open the FEDEX shipment box containing Erwin Timmers' two sculptures. When I open the box, they are both broken.

1330 - I've hung Ramos and Moreira, and the electrician arrives! I then hang my own work last.

1400 - I've got electrical power, so I begin the process of testing and then hanging the video components of Tate's seven sculptures.

1640 - Tate is done being tested and hung; it all works fine and even the digital projector has been set and is projecting Ophelia video onto the wall.

1700 - The electrician (a really nice guy) finishes my booth and now I have lights. I am sweaty and my feet are killing me.

1715 - I borrow a ladder and put up artists' names and adjust the lights, managing to cook some hands in the process.

1730 - I head for the bathrooms with a suit and a cordless shaver. I emerge a few minutes later as "Mr. Art Dealer," all clean and slick. The digital video player has ceased to work and 30 minutes of fiddling by me and my neighbor yield zip results. This means that I can't project videos onto the wall; my master plan for attracting moths to the light. Great...

1800 - The fair starts and I realize I don't have any "merchandise removal passes" which is the piece of paper given when you sell something so that the client can take it with them. Someone points out to me that my front wall is unlit, and I realize that the electrician forgot to install one key light fixture. I rush to the office to see what can be done. Result: That front part of the booth will be dark tonight, but at least I've got plenty of sales exit forms.

1900 - Slow, some family members who live in Miami show up. My cousin Estrellita, a high powered "green" lawyer buys one of my drawings. Even though it is VIP night, unlike other fairs, there's no free booze or food anywhere to be found. I realize that I haven't had a drink of water all day and that my lips are parched. I pay $4 for a bottle of water.

1905 - Prof. Chawky Frenn comes by with a few friends and we chat a little.

2000 - Women in Miami really like to wear those spiky boots, I notice. Because there's no free booze, the crowds are lethargic.

2050 - More work sold: more of my drawings and a cool Ann Plant glass landscape. The client who buys the Plant also buys one of my drawings. And he knows about the WPA Auction and Mera Rubell's part in it (have the Miami papers done a story???). He also asks if I was one of Mera Rubell's "sweet 16." I launch into my Rubell story. I talk him into flying to DC for the WPA Auction after I show him online the piece that Rubell selectd. As usual, the Tate videos attract a lot of attention. I almost sell Janis' "Lovers" but can't close the deal.

2100 - A husband and wife couple who are on the Collectors' Committee for the Miami Art Museum come to check out the Sandra Ramos work - they love one of her collages, but ask for a card and then leave. A while later they return with a local art dealer, who also has a booth at MIA. He gives the piece a good endorsement. Then the husband backs into the pedestal holding one of Ann Plant's sculptures and knocks it down on the floor, where the glass piece shatters into a million pieces. A hush envelops the floor. It looks like the poor old guy is about to have a heart attack. It's a $500 piece (thank God only $500). They apologize; no one offers to pay for the broken artwork. The guy looks really frail and I'm really nice to him because I don't want him to stress out any more. The client who bought the other Plan piece returns and he almost breaks into tears when he sees the demolished piece. "Iwanted that!" he cries to the couple. I wrap it up and give it to him. He now owns two Plants. The museum couple tell me that they're really interested in the Ramos, but then they leave again.

2215 - I notice that a glass of champagne costs the same as a bottle of water. Weird... And my new shoes are killing my feet.

2300 - VIP night over. Tomorrow the show opens to the public. And tomorrow I am bringing food and water. I've never been to an art fair where the exhibitors don't get any refreshments.

2315 - I walk the long-assed walk to the parking lot and drive back to Little Havana. Once I get there I realize that I've forgotten to call my wife and that I've left my suit bag back in the booth with my shaver.

2355 - My new shoes are off my wounded feet and I am heading to bed, but I start to write this post. My cousin has filled the fridge with beer; is he a mensch or what?

2359 - Blog updated with this post. I am exhausted but OK. Tomorrow the show opens to the public at noon. It would be nice to make enough sales on opening day to cover costs.

Wanna go to an opening this Saturday?

Apronology.

It’s defined as “the study of the art of the apron,” and it’s a word that appeals to Virginia-based artist Trudi VanDyke, curator of the upcoming mixed media exhibit “Personal Armor: Artists’ Concepts of Aprons” at BlackRock Center for the Arts.

“I thought that was just a hoot,” said VanDyke, an independent curator, consultant and juror who is also an adjunct professor of art management at George Mason University, a freelance writer on the arts and the former director of both the Ellipse Arts Center in Arlington and Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory. “But I like to work with themes that artists can interpret independently – and I’m always on the lookout for artists whose work I admire, because I want to see how their work might come together in the show.”

In this show, which runs from Wednesday, January 06, 2010 through Friday, January 29, 2010, the work of 31 artists from Maryland, DC, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, South Carolina and Pennsylvania reflect on the common theme of the apron – with intriguing results.

“What does the apron represent?” muses VanDyke. “There are a lot of feminist statements in the work: for some artists it represented how they’d been held back by the apron, the Father Knows Best sort of theme.”

Other artists used the apron to represent their own apron-wearing mothers; VanDyke says even the plight of battered women comes to light in the exhibit. Wood, wire, glass and metal make appearances, along with more unusual media, and the moods run from sentimental to mysterious to whimsical.

VanDyke points out that the Artist Reception will be held on Saturday, January 9, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. She hopes art lovers will gather to learn more about this unusual and interesting show – whether they themselves wear aprons or not.

Personal Armor: Artists’ Concepts of Aprons
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 through Friday, January 29, 2010
BlackRock Center for the Arts
Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Admission is free
Artist Reception Saturday, January 9, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.