Okay, so I’m really liking Miami Art Week because I’m learning so much about the business of art. Take for instance last night’s yearly party thrown by Jack Shainman Gallery: You could call it a purely shallow affair that effectively markets its gallery and artists as the “cool ones” of New York, but I viewed it as one of the rare instances I felt extroverted, where I could strike up a conversation with museum delegates, colleagues and artists. I viewed it as an event where all kinds of personalities with all sorts of involvement in all corners of the art worlds can let loose and dance and drink with people you can immediately relate to.

Also… Jesse Williams was there (OMG swoon).

So, that was last night. This afternoon I visited Pulse Miami and arriving there was very dramatic, but in a good way. You can see in the video how the entrance is set up. You view the vastness of the ocean before you turn to your right or left to check in. I would describe this fair as a bit uneven. South Tent > North Tent, but that’s just my taste.

The images above are brought to you by the nonprofit Visual Aids, based in New York. They represent HIV positive artists seeking to provoke a continuing dialogue about AIDS using art that is activist in nature. As a whole, the works presented were an indictment against Ronald Reagan’s callous and intentional inaction in the ’80s surrounding the disease—something that should be brought up as much as possible, in my opinion.

I’m also a little more partial to the South Tent because I ran into Paige Wery of The Good Luck Gallery in Chinatown, Los Angeles—a welcome and familiar face. Paige’s gallery represents outsider artists, and reportedly, sales have been great for this year.

One of the more interesting works I saw was at Ryan Lee Gallery from New York. It was a series of photographs by Martin Gutierrez titled Line Ups—a set of seven, valued at $28K. I took to this as my background is in conceptual photography. I’m always interested when male artists take it upon themselves to represent women, and Gutierrez’ photos came across very thoughtful. In each print, there’s at least one live model amid mannequins, all posed somewhat realistically.

North Tent tomorrow; I’ve got another party to jet to.