After a weekend filled with art and philanthropy in Palm Beach, we’re officially ready for the parties, fairs, and people-watching of Miami Art Week. Yesterday, Untitled Art and the New Art Dealers Alliance fairs opened to VIPs, and the heavy-hitting Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami/ open today. To kick off my week, rather than dive straight into the fair tents and convention center, I started this year off in the best part of Miami: the city itself. 

The City of Miami Beach is full of vibrant culture, iconic Art Deco hotels, public art, and, of course, the beach. As I made my way to Untitled Art, my first stop was for the unveiling of a project that I was excited not only to see, but also to highlight. Suspended above Española Way is Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasía, a public installation by the Brazilian art collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf). Commissioned as part of The City of Miami Beach’s Art in Public Places Program, the project is the third edition of Elevate Española. 

Celebrating the legacy of drag in Miami Beach, Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia features five large-scale aluminum portraits referencing the local drag royalty who inspire avaf, including the installation’s namesakes Adora, Athena Dion, Fantasia Royale, Tiffany Fantasia, and The Regina Black, among others. Hanging above the street, the installation features a kaleidoscope of colorful imagery, such as figures in drag, some of which appear to be screaming with their mouths wide open and emitting a starburst with the colors of the LGBTQ+ flag. “Our intention is to honor the talented and skilled artists of drag, and support its continued existence in a city that has embraced the community for decades despite legislative resistance. We must defend drag,” said avaf member Eli Sudbrack at the unveiling. As the artist noted, avaf claims space for drag in a bold, public way at a time when Florida’s administration is threatening drag performances, and LGBTQ+ rights are at risk of being taken away.

On site for the celebration, drag performer Tiffany Fantasia, whose likeness is featured in the work, shared their own thoughts, saying, “Without art, the world is boring. Art helps us through struggles, helps us feel joy, helps us understand each other. Drag is a form of art and we must protect and support all art.” I highly recommend adding this to your itinerary this week. Elevate Española can be seen along Española Way between Washington Avenue and Collins Avenue, a short walk from where many events are taking place.

Untitled Art 2023.

UNTITLED ART

Energized by this vital display of activism and resistance, I embarked on my first fair visit of the week with Untitled Art, which opened Tuesday to VIPs and runs through Sunday. With over 160 exhibitors, Untitled returned to a sprawling tent on the sands of Miami Beach in its biggest, most diverse and international presentation to date. Showcasing the sun and sea that so many visitors long for, the fair offers a unique experience with outdoor lounges and glimpses out onto the ocean. The fair is known to feature some of the industry’s most coveted emerging artists, as well as mid- and late-career figures. As always, Untitled brings a strong curatorial vision to Art Week, with this year’s themes centering on “Curating in the Digital Age” and “Gender Equality in the Arts,” which are reflected both in the content of the art and in the makeup of the participants with 60% of artists on view and 35% of exhibitors identifying as female or nonbinary.

Ryan Crotty featured in High Noon Gallery’s booth.

Fitting for the digital theme of the fair is New York’s High Noon Gallery, which is displaying a captivating solo booth of new paintings by rural Nebraska-based artist Ryan Crotty. Made with layers of translucent paint, Crotty creates stunning abstract, color field paintings that appear luminous and vibrating, as if the blurry colors are in motion. Playing with light and color, Crotty masterfully manipulates the surface and creates compositions that recall Rorschach tests, digital art, and mood rings.

Kate McQuillen and Aliza Morell featured in Massey Klein’s booth.

Also apt for the digital art-inspired theme are Kate McQuillen and Aliza Morell, personal favorites whose works are on view in New York-based Massey Klein’s booth. Both artists create paintings that consider various facets of art history while employing visual elements that recall digital art. Similar to Crotty in High Noon’s booth, McQuillen’s abstract paintings seem to pulsate with a digital glow. With a background in printmaking, McQuillen combines various techniques, including using silk screens to apply paint, achieving a flat, matte surface with color gradients that shimmer. Complementing these are Morell’s meticulous paintings of hands floating in space and intertwining plants rendered in crisp colors and set in solid, often dark, backgrounds. Surrealist in their imagery, Morell’s works contain a similar glow and vibration to McQuillen’s. 

Also presenting an impressive colorful, abstract solo booth is Buffalo-based Rivalry Projects, which is showing new paintings and works on paper by Peter Stephens. Using acrylic on custom wood panels, Stephens overlays colorful, meticulous lines that explore physics, cosmology, and patterns of the natural world. With precise, rhythmic designs, each piece seems at once bound by a set of rules and simultaneously embracing chance as straight lines intersect with undulating stripes. Resembling a quilt or plaid pattern from afar, the tight lines pull the eye in different directions the closer and longer one looks, as if seeking order in patches of color and hints of repetition across the surface. 

 

Lizzie Gill in Geary’s booth.

Exhibiting an exciting artist on the rise is Geary, whose solo booth features the mixed media work of Lizzie Gill. Reflecting the fair’s theme of “Gender Equality in the Arts,” Gill’s work blends subtle humor and nostalgia to examine domesticity and matriarchy, specifically the onus of inheritance and heirlooms. Pulling images from early 20th century magazines and museum catalogs, Gill uses a transfer method to apply these to her paintings and then sands away the paper pulp. To this, she adds acrylic paint and marble dust emulsion applied in raised lines with a cake piping tool, creating an image that is at once flat and textured depending on the viewpoint. 

 

albertz benda’s booth with works by Sharif Bey (ceramics) and Kevin Brisco Jr. (paintings in background).

Bringing another noteworthy display to Untitled is albertz benda with a group booth of abstract paintings by Lindsey Britton Collins, ceramics by Sharif Bey and Sydnie Jimenez, and stunning figural paintings by Kevin Brisco Jr. Particularly captivating are Bey’s ceramic and mixed-media sculptural works inspired by Oceanic art and African diasporic art. With various symbolic shapes and imagery, such as birds and figures, Bey examines the political and cultural meaning of adornment, questioning concepts of legacy, power, and ornamentation.

Exhibiting for the first time is the New Haven-based artist space and residency program NXTHVN, which is presenting work by two of its alumni, Alyssa Klauer and Anindita Dutta. Both artists critique ideas of femininity and sexuality in their practice, Klauer through paintings that address queerness and girlhood, and Dutta with mixed-media shoe sculptures that reflect on fetishization and agency. The artists blend juxtaposing elements, such as beauty, pain, sadness, and innocence, to speak to broader issues of the female experience. 

NXTHVN is also partnering with Untitled to award the Visiting Artist Prize to an artist on view exploring the fair’s theme of “Gender Equality in the Arts.” The winner will receive a $15,000 stipend and two-month residency as NXTHVN’s 2024 Visiting Artist. The awardee, who will be announced on December 6th, will have a chance to exhibit at the institution’s gallery in the fall and engage with fellows, apprentices and the community in New Haven.

NO VACANCY, MIAMI BEACH

After the fairs, visitors to Miami Art Week can also experience art in their very own hotels through another initiative from The City of Miami Beach entitled No Vacancy, Miami Beach, a juried competition to create site-specific works at twelve of the nearby iconic hotels. Like Elevate Española, the initiative intends to inspire critical discourse and activate Miami Beach beyond the walls of the museums and fairs. Each of the twelve winners of this year’s competition were chosen by representatives from the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Committee and received funds to complete the work. Two projects will also be selected for an additional $35,000 prize. 

Included in the selection is Marco Inzerillo, whose series of color and black-and-white photographs entitled SOBEautiful are on the walls of my own hotel, the Hotel Croydon Miami Beach, which is not-so-coincidentally serving its daily complimentary happy hour drinks as I am writing this report. Inzerillo’s work captures moments of everyday life in Miami Beach, homing in on the diversity, energy, and vibrant culture that fills the community. The Croydon is conveniently located near the fairs and events of the week, making it easy to stop by and see Inzerillo’s work. Another impressive No Vacancy project is Liene Bosquê’s installation, Before Miami Design Preservation League, which is just down the street at the Faena Hotel. Appearing like a silhouette in the lobby, the work is a suspended aluminum curtain that recalls the lost buildings of Miami Beach before the Preservation League protected the Art Deco, Miami Modern, and Mediterranean Revival architecture the city is now famous for. 

Viewing some of the remaining buildings along the iconic Collins Avenue from the rooftop sundeck of the Croydon, it’s hard not to think about how spectacular Miami Beach really is. As visitors for the fairs, we often forget about the rich history and everyday vibrancy that artists like Inzerillo and Bosquê showcase. The more I visit, the more of an effort I make to step outside of the fairs and see public art like Elevate Española and No Vacancy, especially as the whirlwind week begins. 

Live painting at the MoMA PS1 and On party.

AFTER HOURS

As the first full day in Miami came to a close, invited guests headed to SLS Hotel for a celebration with MoMA PS1 and the chic sneaker brand On, complete with drinks, dancing, and an artist painting poolside. After, guests with the coveted invitation to White Cube’s annual Art Basel Miami Beach party headed up Collins to Soho Beach House for the fête. A highlight for many, the event has become known for its well-dressed and star-studded crowds and musical guests. Attendees at this year’s party danced to a special performance of the unique blend of hip-hop, jazz, and afrobeats by the British group Ezra Collective. 

Recovering from White Cube’s party and our first full day here in Miami, Artillery is gearing up for another marathon of events. Stay tuned for our next report with some of the heavy-hitters of the busy week, including Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach. Also, click here for Day 1.