Ask anyone who attended last week’s art fairs in Miami what the experience is like. Before they so much as utter a word, odds are that they will make the face that most of us reserve for expressing how we feel after we’ve eaten Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, it’s that overwhelming! I speak from experience, as this year marked my first trip to Miami to see the art fairs for myself. I called the gallery district in Wynwood my home base and from there made pilgrimages out to three art fairs: Scope, Pulse, and Art Basel. Here are a few of my favorite things I saw/did in list form:
– Stumbling upon any number of the graffiti murals in Wynwood, including the impressive walls that grace Wynwood Walls, with pieces by Os Gemeos and Shepard Fairey
– Interacting with Jennifer Rubell’s food installation Incubation at the Rubell Family Collection, a piece that allowed you to pick up a pot of plain yogurt from a chic all-white yogurt “lab” and then steal a drizzle of honey from a massive fountain-like honey trickle on a white plinth
– The experience of walking into the plush interior of Art Basel and feeling like I had climbed aboard the Porsche of art fairs–the faux garden resting areas and “Art Collectors Lounge” say it all
– The people watching . . .
. . . and of course the art! There was such a fantastic range of work on view that it was hard to choose just one on which to focus, which in turn made the entire experience feel like a veritable feast for the eyes to the point of bacchanalian excess. I loved the experience, of course, but I’m still digesting it all.
Amanda Jiron-Murphy, In-Gallery Interpretation and Public Programs Coordinator