As Miami lies panting in a puddle of its own steaming art juices, we must take the time to single out the heroes that made Art Basel Miami 2012 safe for all to enjoy: the Art Cops. Officers Matt Vis and Tony Campbell of the International Art Police (and also…
Bloggin’ ain’t easy. A common misconception is that bloggers spend their entire day sans pants behind their Macbook pros aggregating culturally relevant blog content to maximize web traffic. Au contraire, mon frères. Sometimes–not often–we have to wear adult clothes and venture out into that scary unknown old folks call “the…
Alejandro Cartagena shot his “Car Poolers” series by waiting for pickup trucks to drive under a highway overpass in Mexico. The resultant photographs, which we saw last week at Kopeikin Gallery’s booth at Miami Project, show fleeting but surprisingly intimate glimpses of laborers in the beds of the trucks, heading…
A lot inside the eminent Scope tent at Art Basel appealed to the “shock factor.” Like that very detailed line diagram of a woman giving a man anal pleasure. Or the massive installation display of dead fetuses strewn about a child’s nursery. Or that “thug fountain” so generously bestowed upon…
Congratulations, reader. If you’re seeing these words, you made it through Art Basel Miami Beach 2012, the event’s biggest, glitziest, and most spectacle-packed edition yet. There were dozens of fairs to check off your list. There were parties galore each night, with free-flowing booze and D-list celebrities in abundance. If…
Celebrities, the ultimate in public commodities, are common fodder for the creative set. Whether it’s a garbage painting of Honey Boo Boo or a velvet recreation of the King, the A list, B list and D list are all over the art world. See also: – Miami Art Museum Receives…
Art has the power to give voice to the voiceless, and few among us have struggled to find a place in society more than Shitman has. Fortunately, Italian artist Laurina Paperina explores the existential plight of her own sociopathic anthropomorphic cartoon feces in her video piece, “Shitman and the End…
Formerly Miami-based photographer Lee Materazzi is back home for Basel, or at least some of her art is. Images from her new series “Finding Myself at Home,” at Quint Contemporary Art’s Miami Project booth, show Materazzi embracing peeled sheets of wallpaper; buried, her legs and head stick out of the…
“JUST SHUT THE F*CK UP!” …Or so insists one of Mel Bochner’s large, mixed media text-based pieces. It’s currently in the home of one of a collector, where its “beautiful muted pinks and yellows look great on a grey slate wall in his living room,” according to Sarah Trujillo-Porter. Her…
It’s early. Everything hurts. The sun is streaming through your bedroom window, the one with the shades you forgot to close last night — or was it already morning; had the sun already risen? — when you stumbled into bed, drunk on free booze and mind-screwed by all the freaks…
As the “theater kid” of Miami’s art fair scene during Art Basel week, NADA Art Fair is known for supporting emerging talent — much of which leans toward the dramatic end of the spectrum.This year’s fair is no exception, with exhibits focused on themes of violence, experimental music, tabloid culture,…
Artists like Trek6, CP1, and Prime have all added to Miami’s street culture landscape with new murals in Wynwood and Midtown. And that’s great and all. But no work of art has been properly feted in this town without popping a few bottles. Especially if they’re beer bottles. And free…
Just as every mighty oak began as an itty bitty acorn, so too did Entourage star and patron saint to bros Adrian Grenier start as just a little boy with dusky stubble and a dream. But it wasn’t only childhood fantasies of inspecting Jeremy Piven’s wig collection that gave Adrian…
A lucky few filled up the half-empty Colony Theater on Lincoln Road for the world premiere of Paris-based street artist Invader’s documentary Art4Space last night and met the mysterious artist/director in the flesh. Jaie Laplante, Executive Director at the Miami International Film Festival, introduced the film by the Paris-based artist who…
When it comes to the tens of thousands of works of art on display at Basel — well, let’s just say that “free” is the last word that comes to mind. After all, there are beaucoup bucks to be made. Regardless of cultural relevance, this week is all about the…
Jarritos, art, Breakfast Tacos at Tiffani’s, and Robert Rodriguez’s Chingon. Can Basel week get any better? Representing the “vibrant and varied” influence Latino culture has played in the United States, Henry Muñoz’s 6,700-square-foot, site-specific interactive art instillation, Mestizo City, opens tonight in Miami’s Design District. But the San Antonio-based CEO…
If you’re a responsible adult with a nine-to-five job, you may have wasted this whole week slaving away for the man instead of guzzling Champagne and eyeing wacky art installations like the rest of this city. Well guess what. It’s Friday, meaning that for Miami’s government employees, bankers, accountants, the…
Randy Polumbo describes his work, Love Stream, like this: “[It] can be a giant kaleidescope, or upon penetrating the interior, a libidinally stimulating reflecting pool,” says the artist.And here we thought it was just an Airstream trailer decorated with pastel-colored glass dildos.Those fortunate enough to have attended Art Public’s opening night…
Once again, with the last semi-chilly gasps of another weird year in this Magic City, we’ve arrived at that peak of cultural extravaganzas, Art Basel. It’s the annual onslaught of the art world’s best and brightest, what The Telegraph called “the Olympic Games of modern artistic commerce. But while we’re…
About fucking time!That’s what we have to say about Art Basel Miami Beach’s organizers finally inviting Spinello Projects to exhibit at the big show. Last year, we got into an argument at the Miami Beach Convention Center with another Miami gallery owner when we told him Art Basel was bullsh*t…
A local firefighter-turned-artist will bring her unique bodypainting style to the Basel scene this week. Shannon Defreitas slathers in-your-face pigments all over the bare bodies of models, who then pose for art photos that seriously pop. You can check her out at The Art Place Wynwoood and a couple other…
“Architecture for Dogs: this is only the start,” world-renowned Japanese designer Kenya Hara, said as part of his introduction to the furriest, friendliest exhibit this side of Art Basel. And from what this reporter’s seen, he’s not kidding. For this project, artists all over the world have taken doggie design…
