As Art Week races to a close, yesterday I headed downtown across the dreaded, traffic-filled bridge to the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair for my final full day here in Miami. While the fair opened on Tuesday, the busy week of competing events prevented me from getting there until Thursday. Really, it was the thought of sitting in gridlock traffic to cross the bridge that kept me away. As always, this year’s edition did not disappoint. 

Featuring over 150 galleries, nonprofits, and art spaces from across the world, as well as a robust schedule of programming and events, this year’s fair was as exciting and diverse as ever. Known for emerging and mid-level galleries, NADA often presents the best opportunity to discover artists on the rise. The fair is open through Saturday, so for those of you who have also been avoiding the bridge, there’s still time. 

 

Morgan Buck and Ido Radon in ILY2’s booth

 

A highlight of the fair is the presentation from Portland-based gallery ILY2. Known for their experimental approach to exhibitions, ILY2 works with an impressive roster of emerging and mid-career artists. For NADA, the gallery is exhibiting Morgan Buck and Ido Radon. In airbrush paintings with layered imagery and overlapped text sourced from what the artist refers to as “internet trash”, Buck examines facets of contemporary culture and critiques the hierarchy of mediums in the art market. Using a soft focus photorealist technique, Buck reduces his brushstrokes to blur imagery to the point of being barely recognizable. Joining these in the booth are Radon’s mixed media sculptures that consider the various infrastructures and systems that create and control contemporary life. Her work takes an inherently feminist approach to work through themes of autonomy, identity, and alienation. 

 

Julia Jo in Charles Moffett’s booth

 

Another standout booth is Charles Moffett, which brought a selection of works by some of my personal favorite artists, including Julia Jo and Maggie Ellis. In vibrant colors limited to largely monochromatic palettes, such as blues and dark oranges, Jo’s paintings on view are as transfixing as ever. She blends figurative and abstract imagery, creating whirlpools of recognizable shapes that melt away just as you find them, like recalling a memory. Charged with emotion, hints of figures sharing an impassioned kiss seem to hide underneath her swooping lines and sensual brushstrokes. A second glance upends the scene entirely, as if the figures are pushing away from one another. Like watching a seashell in constant battle against the waves, Jo’s paintings are truly captivating. 

 

Maggie Ellis in Charles Moffett’s booth

 

On view along with Jo is a painting by Maggie Ellis, whose figural scenes combine characters in a bizarre dance party set in front of a green vortex. Featuring a confused assortment of people, as well as a half-human, half-pigeon, and a floating shoe and possibly dismembered foot–all having the time of their lives–the work is both unnerving and inviting. That is, if you want to attend a party with cheery Patrick Bateman. A figure in the background apparently about to dive into the vortex offers little clarity, but it really does look fun…As always, Ellis never fails to impress.

 

Leroy Johnson’s work in Margot Samel’s booth

 

New York’s Margot Samel brought a thoughtfully curated note to the fair with a group presentation centered on the concept of home and featuring Leroy Johnson, August Krogan-Roley, and Narcissister. Johnson’s sculptural works considering racial oppression and social injustices were particularly impactful. Made of mixed materials he found in the streets of Philadelphia–scrap metal, wood, cardboard, clay, newspaper–each piece seemed to be a palimpsest of the material culture of a time and place. In his tabletop row house sculptures, for example, Johnson pieced together clippings from comics with bits of wood and cut out photographs, all of which he adorned with painted and drawn details, such as a prominent white picket fence along the exterior. Reflecting Johnson’s interest in shedding light on injustices in his hometown of Philly, the work nods to the city’s neglected infrastructure and the lived experiences of those who had to cope with it, in particular the Black community. 

Included in nearby New York-based gallery Candice Madey’s booth is a group presentation, including chromogenic photographs by Carrie Schneider, stunning gold leaf portraits by Stacy Lynn Waddell, and wall sculptures by Yi Xin Tong. Made of a variety of materials, including porcelain, resin, fabric, epoxy clay, stainless steel, and pigment, Tong’s semi-abstract pieces consider our relationship with nature and the absurdities of contemporary urban life. Some works feature recognizable objects, such as a hairbrush, and others bear vague similarities to computer screens and video games. 

Miami-based gallery Nina Johnson is presenting a group display of new works, including a wild cast bronze table and set of chairs by Katie Stout. Each chair reveals the face of an animal, including a dog and a lion, which seem to flattened as if their prior three-dimensional forms were smushed. At the gallery’s location a few miles away from the fair, Stout’s work is also on view in new bronze and glass dogs, frogs, and garden creatures.

 

Art for Change at NADA

 

On the nonprofit front, Art for Change is participating as a Cultural Partner to the fair, exhibiting work by some of the many artists it partners with on the production of limited edition and hand-embellished prints. Featuring pieces from their newest collection benefiting the Prospect Park Alliance that reflect on nature as an “eternal inspiration”, the works on view are coveted names in contemporary art, including Marcus Brutus, Kelly Beeman, Jules De Balincourt, and Danielle Orchard. A favorite of mine was De Balincourt’s rich fuchsia road weaving through a lush row of trees that lead to a city in the distance set beneath a deep violet sky–a poetic image of the relationship between the natural and man-made worlds.

 

Rococinco party with Ten Two One Rum and Marni

 

After Dark

No night in Miami would be complete without a few parties, and last night didn’t disappoint. To start, Rococo Art Advisory hosted a unique event at a stunning private home to celebrate Art Week. The evening was part of the New York-based firm’s ongoing series of culinary experiences in which they pair food and drinks with contemporary artists, tapping chefs and mixologists to create pieces inspired by the artists’ practices. Launched in November 2022 by Rococo’s founder Maria Vogel, the series, called Rococinco, has so far brought together creatives and industry leaders from around the world for three prior events. Last night’s edition was in partnership with Marni and Ten to One Rum and explored the art of Anthony Akinbola, Veronica Fernandez, Devin B. Johnson, Marcus Leslie-Singleton, and Gisela McDaniel. Included among the guests were dozens of leading dealers, artists, curators, and writers, a testament to Vogel’s network of friends and colleagues who made time in the busy week to celebrate her business and her birthday. 

Afterwards was the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s annual PAMM Presents Party, a celebration of their latest exhibitions that always draws an impressive crowd eager to drink and dance in the stunning outdoor courtyard. Inside the museum, visitors had a first look at Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, a comprehensive survey spanning thirty years of the multidisciplinary artist’s career. Addressing issues of race, identity, and class in various facets of American society from literature to sports and cinema, the show includes sculptures, paintings, installations, and large-scale wall drawings. 

In addition to Simmons’s exhibition premier, PAMM opened the doors to its ongoing shows, including a presentation highlighting the life of Joan Didion and Marcela Cantuária’s first solo show in the United States. Cantuária’s exhibition, The South American Dream, was particularly powerful. Featuring all newly commissioned works, the show explores political and environmental activism in Latin America through astrology and symbols from tarot in the form of a vibrant installation of paintings. 

 

 

With that, my Miami Art Week comes to an end. As always, it was both a marathon and a sprint full of sunblock, canapes, and tiny glasses of overpriced champagne. The art on view this week was inspiring and touched on some important themes as we enter 2024, in particular what the digital age means for art and curating and where we are in terms of gender equality. Given the current state of the world politically, socially, and environmentally, I am surprised there wasn’t more activism, but then again activism doesn’t always sell. If Miami Art Week is a reflection of the sellable aspects of the broader art market, the current wave seems to tend towards figurative, colorful painting. Or at least that’s what is easiest for exhibitors to ship and display. For those of you who weren’t able to join the commerce and chaos of Miami Art Week, don’t worry, I already have an email from Frieze Los Angeles eagerly waiting in my inbox.