Art Basel Miami 2014
Arrived at UNTITLED on the beach and headed straight to see Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s new work “Sphere Packing". Rafa explained that the series of 3-D printed spheres were designed to project the musical productions of seventeen composers through a single multi channel device. The sizes of the spheres are relative to how prolific the composer was. From a few feet away you can hear the whisper of music, as you get closer to an individual sphere you can make out a specific composition. The work is both wonderful to look at and marvelous to listen to.
Next stop was the opening of the Institute of Contemporary Art exhibition at the Moore building in the Design District. Irma Braman was holding court and I congratulated her and her husband Norm for their amazing support. It is very exciting that the Bramans have donated the funds to build a new museum along with Craig Robbins donation of the land. It was refreshing that the gift did not entail renaming the institution like they so often do.The evening ended with a sumptuous dinner at Milos hosted by Nicholas Logsdail and his son Alex of the Lisson gallery. Yum!
The VIP opening of the Art Basel the next morning was jammed packed. The Beyeler Foundation in collaboration with the Marina Abramovic Institute featured Sleeping Exercise, an interactive public installation by Marina Abramovic. The installation invited people to lie down on cots, listen to headphones, relax and even nap with no time restriction. What a divine work of art and a great escape from the madness of the art fair.
Over at the new Ian Schrager Edition hotel, David Zwirner hosted a book signing for Jordan Wolfson in the bungalows.
Then I was off to the Bass Museum to attend the opening of One Way: Peter Marino. The show celebrated Peter’s contribution to the world through his art, fashion and architectural designs for the past four decades. The show included his architectural designs, personal collection of contemporary art, new work he had commissioned by other artists as well as his series of cast-bronze boxes.
The highlight of Thursday’s private visits was the Rubell Family collection performance of Jennifer Rubell's 50 Cakes. Mera and Don sat at long tables accompanied by artists all in black tie with individual cakes in front to them. They offered up fork fulls of the scrumptious cakes to the visitors.Then I headed over to NADA’s opening where young galleries featured new and exciting artists. This year, Marlborough Chelsea was included for the first time. Michael Williams’ drawings at Canada, Alyson Shotz at Derek Eller and Brad Troemel at Tomorrow were some of my favorites.Off to the beach...