At Pulse Miami, above. A rest area provided by Hyperallergic, an excellent daily e-news publication about current art issues and events. I admit that I sat on one of the couches for a few minutes in order to rest my feet.

Friday morning, with sore feet from Thursday afternoon and evening at Context & Miami Art, we (the group from the Golden Conference) faced a full day of art viewing with anticipation, decked out in more comfortable shoes and plenty of band-aids. A small group of us were lucky to be guided by Vicki Siegel, who lives in the area and goes to Art Basel Miami and its’ satellite fairs every year. She worked out a route that made sense geographically and saved us a lot of time. The strategy at each venue was to split up when we got there and meet back at a designated location at a designated time. It worked really well. Many thanks, Vicki! Our first stop was Pulse Miami Beach.

Below are some of the paintings that caught my eye.

Michele Ross, Upend, mixed media

 

Ann Hamilton, Needle in the Time-stack, paperback, wood slices, bookbinders adhesive

 

Tegne Kunbi (no title or media on the label)

 

Edward Burtynsky, Morenci Mine #2, Clifton, AZ, C-Print

 

Joan Snyder, Big Blue Two, oil, acrylic, papier-mache, herbs & seeds on linen

 

Judy Pfaff, Untitled, mixed media collage

 

Diane Samuels, “They left a great, wide wake…”, Ink on handmade paper

This piece is hung on the wall and then partially rolled out on the floor. Every line from Moby Dick (hence the title) is written below each stripe. The writing is so small you can barely make it out even inches away from the piece.

Detail of “They left a great, wide wake…”

 

Spot, 44,000 Lego blocks (and me) A never ending supply of animal crackers in the red dog bowl was part of the installation. I scored a box. And ate it all later for lunch.

The next stop was Art Basel. This is the big one. Jam- packed with people. The atmosphere was pretty frenzied with gallery officials on their phones making deals, sold paintings taken off the walls and being crated right there, with new paintings put up to replace the sold ones. I have no idea how many millions of dollars worth of artwork is sold during this 5-day time period.

Entrance to Art Basel, located in the Miami Convention Center

David Hockney, Three Deck Chairs, acrylic on canvas

 

Eric Fischl, The Disconnect, oil on linen

 

Charles Burchfield, watercolor and gouache on paper

 

Jane Hammond, Dock, acrylic paint on mica over plexiglass with silver, gold, copper and palladium leaf

 

Sean Scully, Yellow Junction, oil on canvas and steel

 

Mary Heilmann, Reds, oil on canvas

 

Camille Henrot, Overlapping Figures, bronze, plaster, wood & bricks

 

Exiting from Art Basel. I had a feeling the couple in black (woman with black hat) were famous…anyone recognize them?

 

A few people resting their feet in the lobby at Art Basel

From Art Basel, we went to Aqua Art, the sister satellite fair to Art Miami and one of the venues located in a classic South Beach hotel. In this case it’s a 2-story place with a central courtyard including fountains and a pool. It was quite a scene—lots of energy, lots of younger people. By the time we got there it was close to 5 pm.

Courtyard looking towards the back. There were 46 galleries located to the right and left and upstairs from the courtyard. 28 cities and 10 countries were represented. Over the 5-day event 10,500 people were in attendance.

 

Entrance to Pele Prints gallery space.

 

Entry sign to Projects Gallery. The artwork above is one of Frank Hyder’s illuminated wall paintings. Hyder is an artist and owner of Projects Gallery which has a permanent location in the Wynwood District of Miami and a temporary space at Aqua Art Miami. And WOW is right.

 

Patti Brady (on my right) and I along with Christina Forster-Ramos (all from the Golden group) had paintings chosen from the Projects Gallery Square Foot exhibit at the permanent gallery location in the Wynwood District to be shown at the Aqua Arts Projects Gallery temporary exhibit. Patti’s painting is just above us, with the scalloped edges. Christina’s painting is to my left—the girl holding the umbrella. And my painting (water scene with dock) is just below. See the red dot by the lower right corner of Christina’s painting? The painting sold. My had a red dot, too, but my jacket is covering it. And shortly after we left Patti’s painting sold, too.

Tomorrow, the rest of the story…