Art Basel Miami Week – Context Art Fair

Miami and Miami Beach are never sleepy towns. But they are never more alive than during the week of Art Basel Miami exhibitions and celebrations. The leading Art Fair Venues – Art Basel at the Convention Center, Context Art Fair, Scope Art Fair, Red Art Fair and more – spring up often under massive tent structures on the beach and across town. Traffic mounts but less as a nightmare than a celebration that something special is happening – something that cannot be seen or experienced anywhere else in the United States and probably not in the world.

Spend the 5 days in Miami from November 29-December 4. Hustle for tickets to 3-4 of the different venues and Art Fairs. At each Fair, saunter up and down the rows, stopping at each gallery to see their exhibition. As you enter each little enclosure, note the name and home town or country of the gallery and marvel what they have gathered and brought to show you.

Marvel at the works. Eight to 10 fairs presenting probably thousands of galleries and hundreds of thousands of paintings, sculptures, and who knows what. And yet amidst all that art, nothing – literally nothing – is normal . . . for after all what really is “normal” for the most cutting edge Art Fairs in the world.

If you want a still life or perhaps a watercolor, no reason to come to Miami. Head instead to an art gallery in your local city. You will not find such routine presentations anywhere in any fair, no matter how many works are presented. You will not find them here. No . . . Art Basel Week in Miami is instead for the imagination, the excitement, the shock, and awe, or at least the marvel.

Of course, beauty abounds. But who knew a massive sneaker adorned in color could be so breathtakingly beautiful? (Sure, even I have my limit of what I accept– I can readily skip viewing a banana tacked to the wall even if some call it art).

If you see something that looks great at the venue at Art Basel week, chances are it will be that much more wondrous at your home. Find what you like and what moves you. Talk to the experts manning the gallery. See if the artist is around. Get a glass of wine to mull it over and then think about the smiles showing your guests the addition to your art collection that came from Art Basel Miami Week.

Buy what you like simply because you like it. But it never hurts if the artists of your favorite pieces happen to be newer artists beginning to secure commissions for which the value can only increase. Discovering new artists on the way up is the foundation of great collections.

But whether you splurge or buy nothing more than sparkling water, savor every minute among the wondrous art.

Keep enjoying.

Michelle