Miami, Day 2 - Through the Looking-glass

Day 2 in Miami. The temperature now creeping into the 70s! (Life is tough.)

For my second day in Miami I decided to go against traffic and visit NADA (The New Art Dealer's Association) and SCOPE and hold off on Miami Basel until today. The buzz around town is that business is, not surprisingly, pretty slow. So in the cyclical nature of things, one wonders whether this is the beginning of the end of the art fair cycle. As far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't be such a bad thing to get people back in the habit of going to galleries where they can see work in greater depth and pay it more than a nanosecond's attention.

The NADA pavilion is definitely the prettiest space in town. You enter past a row of hammocks, there's usually live music playing, and then you enter the domain of the youngest, hippest, most art-schooly dealers from around the world. It's totally mixed media and photography is quite prevalent, but, boy, does most of the photography seem meaningless. If one takes Malcolm Gladwell's maxim that one of the keys to success is 10,000 hours of practice at one's craft, many of the photographers exhibited seem like they've been working at it for about 10 days.

Case in point - as you walk in this is the first artwork that greets you. An installation of photographs by Cheryl Dunn. Is the meaning in the missing picture in the grid?

But my prize for the most meaningless, banal, unimpressive photograph goes to this picture by Adrian Sauer. Can anyone tell me what's interesting about this picture?

Only marginally better were these pictures by Becky Beasley. But I get it - no content is the new content!

In case I'm sounding like a curmudgeon, you must trust me that I'm only showing the more interesting stuff. This picture titled "Blank" by Catrin Andersson.

Better is this by Peter Sutherland.

However, I don't really get these are large photographs of patches by Alan Kane.

Janice Guy, who was recently featured in the Met's “Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960” show. It's doubtful that many people would know this is from a series of self-portraits taken in the late 70s.

I thought this was a funny and well executed idea. Ian Burns took one of those tacky light-boxes you see of flowing waterfalls and inserted a cut out to make it a view of Olafur Eliasson’s "New York City Waterfalls". (I wish Eliasson’s falls had been this sumptuous!)

Last thing seen as I was leaving NADA, a "new" picture by Melanie Schiff. I say "new" because it looks very much like an out-take from pictures I commented on last year, but I remain a big fan of Schiff's (in spite of the very mixed comments her work received when I wrote about it recently.) Click here.

Next stop was SCOPE which I'm pleased to say was unusually well-organized (they're not always) and full of good things. First up as you walk in, a line of mostly new pictures by Matthew Porter from his flying car series.

Another booth features work literally in progress by Russell Young who's been unapologetically working in the Warhol idiom for many years. The point is (I think) that large silkscreens of iconic public figures never fail to engage.

For those interested in lenticular technology, this single piece by Bae Joonsung which I shot from three different angles was technically quite impressive.

And finally, Anna Wintour should be pleased to hear that the word VOGUE was very much in the house. Top, by Fred Herzog. Bottom, by Mickey Smith.

That's the Day 2 report. Next up the big guns of the Miami Basel fair.

Report from Miami - Day 1

Keeping with tradition, I'll begin with the view from my room, not to make anyone envious, but because I always find the light and view so inspiring. Here's looking east ...

... and here's looking west.

O.K.. So much for that. My fair going began with Photo Miami, but first a little preamble. Art fairs, especially in Miami where there are now about 20 satellites to the original Art Miami Basel Fair, are something of a love/hate thing for me. You want to see good work, but much of it is bad. You want to be happy, but many of the people look so sad - in particular the dealers who are sitting in booths where no-one seems to be paying any attention. You want to be inspired and excited by art but the air of commerce hangs heavily.

Nevertheless, I was surprised and pleased to see that at this year's Photo Miami there was much more uniqueness in the offerings. They may not all have been good, but it was better than when you would go to a fair and every booth had the same O. Winston Link, Cartier-Bresson, and Misrach of the Golden Gate Bridge! So here are a selection of the mostly good things that caught my eye.

A nearly life-size Carla Van De Puttelaar at Galerie Esther Woerdehoff. (That's Esther's hand helping to keep the blog family friendly.) I've been a fan of Putelaar's since I first saw her work illustrating a fiction piece in The New Yorker and we've been communicating sporadically. I think she's a terrific photographer and fits nicely into the Dutch contemporary photography tradition, but I'm just not sure that my clientele are interested in buying and hanging up (as opposed to appreciating) her large scale nudes, no matter how beautiful.

Next up this large tapestry by Margret Eicher caught my eye. I asked the dealer what it had to do with photography to which he replied "New Media"! Nevertheless, as a student of 18th century British painting, I found the contrast of the Gainsborough on which it's based and Snoop Dog amusing.

Trying to point out some trends, computer imaging was very prevalent. This artificial landscape by German artist Gerhard Mantz was created using 3-D graphics, the next frontier in digital imaging.

Another trend is a kind of Hopper meets contemporary photography look. Here are two interesting pictures by Isabelle Hayeur.

A variation on the theme, but there's lots of cubist/construction looking architectural. This by Hannes Norberg.

And back to pictures of buildings, this by Josef Schulz.

There was very little "classic" photography which made these two photographs by Jurgen Schadeburg stand out all the more. Top, Nelson Mandela. Bottom, Miriam Makeba.

Also, Wolgang Volz - who has been working with Christo documenting his art for decades.

Massimo Vitale always looks good to me. Two of his pictures above.

Tilt/Shift photography doesn't seem to be going away. This uninspiring piece by Frank van der Salm.

Also plenty of deliberately out-of-focus shots. These by Virgilio Ferreira. No comment.

Much more interesting were a series of strange animal pictures by Juan Erlich.

I'm always interested to see if anyone can do anything new or at least interesting with pictures of flowers. It's almost impossible and this is clearly not breaking any new ground aesthetically, but this large piece by Vittorio Gui has good wall presence, as they say.

And finally for Photo Miami, Laurent Guerin, a Canadian photographer I had not heard of before, had a nice group of pictures taken in Japan and showed an interesting eye. He's the new name I would most look out for.

Across the road from Photo Miami was Art Miami where this striking large Michael Thompson greets you.

Bruce Silverstein had the most lovingly curated booth full of goodies. Here a little alcove of vintage prints.

Still looking for flowers? How about these diaphanous images by Bill Beckley?

A Vik Muniz I had not seen before.

And finally, if I had $17,000 burning a hole in my pocket, this is what I would have bought. The first print in a new edition by Ruud van Empel. According to his dealer Stafan Stux, he will be showing more new work at the Stux gallery this coming March.

More from Annie Leibovitz

This also just in - a sneak preview of January's Vanity Fair cover featuring Tina Fey shot by Annie Leibovitz!

When You're Smiling, The Whole World Smiles With You.

Before we get to the art fairs, this just in...! A rare positioning of the planets Venus (top left) and Jupiter (top right) and the crescent moon of the Earth provided a 'smiley' effect when viewed from Asia last night.

Off to Miami

I'm heading to Miami for all the craziness that is Art Week. Stay tuned for posts on all the various fairs, encounters, observations, etc..

On the Edge

I got these pictures from A Cup of Jo, who got it from black eiffel, who got it from Waldo's Post. So they're well on their way to becoming viral.

They're pictures from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, where between September and December you can go to an area called The Devil's Swimming Pool and swim to the edge without being swept over! This is due to a natural rock wall just below the water at the very edge of the pool that you can see in the photographs and that slows the current even at the edge. Still - not for the faint of heart!

Thanksgiving Weekend Video - Michael Jackson

This year's Thanksgiving message and Weekend Video comes courtesy of Michael Jackson, performing here at the 1988 Grammy Awards. Although he was at the peak of his stardom, it's still quite impressive he was given nearly seven minutes - and even more surprising that with four nominations that year he didn't receive one award. Nevertheless. the song has an admirable message, and while it's not clear that Michael followed his own advice, here are the lyrics to the first few verses and chorus of "Man in the Mirror":

I'm gonna make a change, for once in my life.
It's gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference,
Gonna make it right.

As I, turn up the collar on my favorite winter coat
This wind is blowin' my mind.
I see the kids in the street, with not enough to eat
Who am I, to be blind? Pretending not to see their needs
A summer's disregard, a broken bottle top
And a one man's soul
They follow each other on the wind ya' know
'Cause they got nowhere to go.
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change