Bas Fisher Invitational Celebrates 20 Years of Launching Art Star Careers

When artists Naomi Fisher and Hernan Bas launched their art space Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI) 20 years ago, opportunities for artists were scarce in gritty Miami. Art Basel had only recently descended on our shores, and most of the well-heeled folks clopping around Miami Beach were Versace's celebrity buddies and waify teen models, not art buyers and gallerists.

But like a baby palm tree, BFI put down roots in the sand to grow an artist-led scene. It was flexible enough to withstand the winds of change that have reshaped this subtropical paradise. That endurance has provided Miami artists the space, freedom, connections, and support to elevate their practices and careers.

With Fisher at its helm as curator and director, BFI is taking its landmark 20th anniversary to look back in gratitude and celebrate its two-decade success story with a dance party on Saturday, February 1, at the Miami Beach Bandshell in collaboration with the Rhythm Foundation. To harken back to the time of its establishment, MGMT’s James Richardson will DJ and spin a mix of indie sleaze-meets-Miami sounds with immersive video works by high-profile BFI veterans on display. Recent L.A. transplants Donzii will headline. The all-ages party will kick off a year of fundraising to supplement the great loss BFI and so many other organizations experienced when Governor Ron Desantis vetoed the state's cultural budget in 2024.

BFI's rich backstory runs parallel to the city's evolution over the past two decades. Fresh back home from art school in 1998, Fisher worked at the Rubell Collection alongside artist Bert Rodriguez to digitize its works and host visitors. Their group of friends coalesced to form a grassroots art scene north of downtown. Not long after, she and Bas began to secure shows in New York and international cities.
They shared a studio behind the vintage store M-80 on 39th Street. But in 2004, road construction killed the shop's business. They could no longer afford the rent on their own. Real estate developer and art collector Craig Robins was housing other artists at the Box Gallery in the Design District, so Fisher and Bas approached him with an offer of artwork in exchange for studio space. He agreed to let them use a 4,000-square-foot space in the Buena Vista Building with the caveat that they open for the monthly art walk.

They were both shy about sharing works in progress. They also started to think about why their peers weren't getting the same attention from the art world that they were.

"The conclusion was there were no spaces for solo shows to happen. If you’re just seeing artwork in a group show here and there, you don't know the full potential of an artist,” Fisher says. The plan was to be that space. “We’ll just invite artists who we are inspired and excited by, and they [can] do whatever they want. It proved to be so powerful."

Soon after, they hosted a solo show by Clifton Childree. Over the years, the organization gave many recognizable artists their first solo shows, including Jen Stark, Alejandro Cardenas, and Jessica Dickinson.

Because the two founders were young art stars themselves, they were able to lure collectors, gallerists, foundations, and donors to introduce them to the work of Miami's burgeoning talents. “I look at BFI as this vehicle for — when a door opens for us, how do we keep the door open for as many artists in our community to step through as possible?  [It's] a way to pass on as many opportunities as possible," Fisher says.

Around the time BFI received funding from the first Knight Arts Challenge, Bas moved on and Fisher ran the space with other collaborators; a mix of artists, curators, and gallerists including Jim Drain, Kathryn Marks, Agatha Wara, Cynthia Cruz, Lee Pivnik, Christy Gast, and Katia David Rosenthal.
BFI is intentional about offering a stage to women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, and other marginalized groups the art world so frequently ignores. “There aren’t a lot of ways artists [are] selecting artists to be the ones to get opportunities or funding," Fisher adds. "I’m very concerned that if there isn’t more being done to support artists, to let artists build their own community through their own consensus, that we are going to be a city where we won’t have diverse voices making art.”

The organization played a critical role in demonstrating the potential of the Design District as a global arts destination. It soon also became a cultural anchor in its next home, in the 11th Street area downtown, thanks to the support of the Downtown Development Authority. BFI worked out of the Art House along with Dimensions Variable gallery, artists the TM Sisters, and Turn-Based Press. Now fully nomadic, it has worked on site-specific projects and secured pop-up spaces like Mana Contemporary at 777 International Mall and, through Goldman Properties, a former True Religion jeans store on Miami Beach, which Fisher enjoyed because, she says, “We didn’t want a white cube.” For years, Fisher also secured a project space at Art Basel Miami Beach as part of the fair.

In 2015, BFI was incorporated as a nonprofit and became the first organization in the state to become W.A.G.E.-certified for its practice of fairly paying artist fees in proportion to its budget. “It changed the culture in Miami from the assumption that artists are doing this just because this is what they’re doing…to 'artists are working, and this is labor, and labor deserves compensation,'” Fisher proudly shares.

After the state's cultural budget veto, BFI was forced to postpone its fall 2024 show, "Little Islands," a community center for Black Caribbean femmes to meet and make art led by Sheherazade Thénard, Davvon Branker, and Mariah Roman. The organization helped pay for a website to start the project online before it launched IRL.

BFI is also heavily focused on the Weird Miami bus tours it launched 15 years ago as a way for artists to show Art Baselites and locals what they love about the Magic City. Five Weird Miami tours are planned this year with Coral Morphologic, Lee Pivnik, Patricia Margarita Hernández with Domingo Castillo, Adler Guerrier, and Jessica Gispert. The tours have led to fortuitous connections, like when the Knight Foundation's CEO Alberto Ibargüen was introduced to marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay's project Coral Morphologic, which uses live coral as art, on Christy Gast's tour. The relationship subsequently helped fund the duo's work.

The anniversary is a time to honor this history with the people who made it. Even MGMT's Richardson once participated in a BFI project — the black metal concept band Coral Cross, which performed at the Colony Theater in 2016. When he DJs at the Bandshell party, new projection mapping will immerse guests in the underwater landscapes of Coral Morphologic and dripping rainbows of Jen Stark.

"I just want it to be an incredible moment that celebrates this has been happening for 20 years," Fisher says. "Even with all the ups and downs in Miami, through the real estate crisis, through COVID, through the budget cuts, we are still going."

BFI's 20th Anniversary Celebration. 7 p.m. Saturday, February 1, at Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; basfisherinvitational.com. Tickets cost $45 or $34 for Miami Beach residents via dice.fm.